particular Congregations Ministers and People in one City and in the Towns that did belong unto it but likewise over all the Churches in certain whole Provinces and Countries as unto Timothy all that were in Asia the less and unto Titus all that were planted throughout the Island of Crete And this sort of Bishops who had so large Jurisdictions over the Bishops themselves in particular Cities were afterward called Archbishops Over whom in like manner as likewise over all the rest Bishops and Ministers and particular Churches the Apostles themselves as the chief Fathers and Patriarchs of all Churches had whilst they lived the chief preheminence and oversight to direct and over-rule all as they knew it to be most convenient and behoofull for the Church communicating notwithstanding unto the said Bishops and Archbishops now their Substitutes but in time to be their Successors as full Authority in their absence with the limitations mention'd for the ordering of Ministers for the use of the Keys and for the further Government of all the Churches committed to their charges by the good advice and counsel of the inferiour sort of Priests or Ministers under them when Causes so required as if they the Apostles themselves had been present or could have always lived to have performed those duties in their own Persons their Patriarchal Authority for Government not ceasing or dying with them Of this Authority of Ordination and Government given to Bishops by the holy Apostle St. Paul he himself hath left to all Posterity most clear and evident Testimonies where writing to two of his said Bishops Timothy and Titus he describeth very particularly the Essential parts of their duties and Episcopal Office in manner and sort following For this cause I left thee at Crete that thou shouldst continue to redress the things that remain and shouldst Ordain Priests or Elders in every City as I appointed thee Lay hands hastily on no Man neither be Partaker of other Mens Sins Let them first be proved then let them minister if they be found blameless Against a Presbyter or Priest receive no accusation but under two or three Witnesses Them that sin rebuke openly that the rest may fear I pray thee to abide at Ephesus to command some that they teach no strange Doctrine neither that they give heed to Fables and Genealogies which are endless and do breed Questions rather than godly Edification which is by Faith They would be Doctors of the Law and yet understand not what they speak neither whereof they affirm There are many disobedient and vain Talkers and Deceivers of Minds whose Mouths must be stopped which subvert whole Houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake Stay foolish questions and contentions reject him that is an Heretick after one or two warnings These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority See that no Man despise thee What things thou hast heard of me the same deliver to faithful Men which shall be able to teach others also Put them in remembrance and protest before the Lord that they strive not about words which is to no profit but to the perverting of the Hearers Stay profane and vain bablings for they shall encrease unto more ungodliness Put away all foolish and unlearned Questions knowing that they engender strife I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one to another and do nothing partially Divers other particulars might be hereunto added were it not that these are sufficient for our purpose to show as well what Power was given to the said Timothy and Titus two Apostolical Bishops newly designed unto their Episcopal Functions as also what Authority the Apostle himself had whilst he lived both of prescribing rules unto them and also of exacting the due observation of them He retaining still in his own hands as full power and ample Jurisdiction over them as they the said Bishops had received from him over the rest of the Ministry within their several charges And thus we see how by degrees the Apostles did settle the Government of the Church amongst the Gentiles converted to Christ most suitable and agreeing with the Platform ordain'd by God himself amongst the Jews Ministers are placed in particular Congregations as Priests or Levites were in their Synagogues Four and twenty Priests termed Principes Sacerdotum had in that Kingdom the charge over the rest of the Priests and amongst Christians one sort of Priests named Bishops or Arch-Bishops as their Jurisdictions were extended had the oversight of the rest of the Ministry or Priesthood Lastly as over all the Priests of what sort soever and over the rest of all the Jews Aaron had the chief preeminence so had the Apostles over all the Bishops and Priests and over the rest of all Christians There was only this want to the full accomplishment of such a Church-Government as was settled amongst the Jews that during the Apostles times and for a long season afterward it wanted Christian Magistrates to supply the rooms of Moses King David King Solomon and of the rest of their worthy Successors There is no mention in the Scriptures of the particular success that the rest of the Apostles had in planting of Churches throughout all Africa and Asia the great and a great part of Europe but we doubt not but that they followed that same course in those parts nearer or better known to us they proceeding within their limits as St. Paul did within his And moreover we have sufficient warrant by the said Practice of our Apostles to judge that if all the Kings and Soveraign Princes of the World would have received the Gospel whilst the Apostles lived they would have setled this Platform of Church-Government under them in every such Kingdom and Sovereign Principality that as the three Essential parts of the Priesthood under the Law were translated to the Ministry or Priesthood in the New Testament so the external shew or practice of them might have been in effect the same under Christian Princes that it was under the godly Kings and Princes of Judah Christians of particular Congregations to be directed by their immediate Pastors Pastors to be ruled by their Bishops Bishops to be advised by their Archbishops and the Archbishops with all the rest both of the Clergy and Laity to be ruled and governed by their godly Kings and Sovereign Princes CAN. VI. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Platform of Church-Government in the New Testament may not lawfully be deduced from that Form of Church-Government which was in the Old or that because the Apostles did not once for all and at one time but by degrees erect such a like form of Ecclesiastical Government as was amongst the Jews therefore it is not to be supposed that they
meant at all to erect it or that their expectation of fit opportunity to establish that kind of Government in the Churches of the Gentiles being converted to Christ hath any more force to discredit it than had the want of it for many years amongst the Jews to blemish the dignity of it when it was there established or that the Apostles had no further Authority of Church-Government committed unto them after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ than they had before his Passion or that there was not as great necessity of sundry degrees in the Ministry whilst the Apostles lived one to rule another to be ruled for the establishing and government of the Church as there was whilst the Priesthood of Aaron endured or that Christ himself did not after a sort approve of divers degrees of Ministers some to have preheminence over others in that having chosen to himself twelve Apostles he did also elect 70. Disciples who were neither superiour nor equal to the Apostles and were therefore their inferiours or that he did not very expresly after his Ascension appoint divers Orders and degrees of Ministers who had power and preheminence one over another Apostles over the Prophets and Evangelists and the Evangelists over Pastors and Doctors or that the Authority of Preaching of Administration of the Sacraments and of Ecclesiastical Government given to the Apostles was not to be communicated by the Apostles unto others as there should be good opportunity in that behalf or that because there were some personal Prerogatives belonging to the Apostles which they could not communicate unto others therefore they had not power to communicate to some Ministers as well their Authority of Government over other Ministers as their Authority to preach and administer the Sacraments or that in the Authority of Government so to be communicated unto others by the Apostles there are not included certain degrees to be in the Ministry some to rule and some to be ruled or that it was not lawful for the Apostles to choose unto themselves Coadjutors and to make them Ministers of the Word and Sacraments though they tied them for a space to no certain place more than they themselves and the Evangelists were limited or tied but kept them in their own Company as if they had been in a manner their Fellows and employ'd them in Apostolical Embassages as there were occasions or that the Apostles might not lawfully ordain a second Order of Ministers by Imposition of their hands to Preach and administer the Sacraments and to tie them to particular Churches and Congregations there to execute those their duties or that the Ministers of that second degree and Order so tied unto their particular Charges had any power committed unto them either at all to make Ministers or to pronounce the Sentence of Excommunication against any of their Congregation but by the direction of the Apostles when they had given the Sentence during all the time that the Apostles kept in their own hands the said two points of Ecclesiastical Authority or that it was not expedient for the Apostles to retain in their own hands the Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Government for a time and whilst they were able to execute the same in their own Persons or by their Coadjutors as they should direct them and not to communicate the same either to any their said Coadjutors or other Persons of the Ministry until they themselves had good experience and tryal of them and that the particular Churches also in every City found the want of such Men so authorized to reside amongst them or that when the said Ministers placed in divers particular Churches in sundry Cities fell at variance amongst themselves which of them should be most prevalent amongst the People and drew their Followers into divers Sects and Schisms it was not high time for the Apostles seeing by reason of their great affairs and business otherwise they could not attend those particular brawls and inconveniencies to appoint some worthy Persons in every City to have the rule government and direction of them or that when such Men were to be placed in such Cities the Apostles did not make especial choice of them out of the number of their said Coadjutors and likewise out of the rest of the Ministry to execute those Episcopal duties which did appertain to their Callings or that when they had so design'd and chosen them to be Bishops they did not communicate unto them as well their Apostolical Authority of Ordaining of Ministers and power of the Keys as of Preaching and Administring the Sacraments or that it was not the meaning of the Apostle St. Paul that such Persons as Timothy and Titus were ought to be made Bishops in such Cities and Countries as were that Province of Ephesus and Kingdom of Crete to have the like Authority and Power given them in their several Cities with their Suburbs Diocess or Province that was committed to Timothy and Titus for the ruling of those Ministers and Churches under them or that the Authority given by the Apostle St. Paul or by any other of the Apostles to Timothy and Titus and such like other Bishops or Archbishops did any more diminish the Power and Authority which the Apostles had in their own hands before they appointed any such Bishops and Archbishops to rule and govern them all than their giving Power and Authority of Preaching and Administring the Sacraments did impeach their own Authority so to do He doth greatly Erre CAP. VIII The Sum of the Chapter following That the Churches and godly Fathers that were immediately after the Apostles times and all the Ancient Fathers since did account the Form of Church-Government established by the Apostles of Priests and Ministers for more particular Charges of Bishops superiour to the said Priests and of arch-Arch-Bishops to have the care and oversight of the said Bishops and Churches committed unto them not to have been ordain'd for their times only but to be continued to the End of the World the same reasons exacting the continuance of it which moved the Apostles by the Direction of the Holy Ghost first to erect it WE have pursued the Form of Ecclesiastical Government so far forth as it is expressed in the Scriptures and as it was put in practice during the Apostles times For the further proof whereof we have thought it expedient briefly to observe what the primitive Church Ancient Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Histories have in their Writings testified and said of this matter as whether they held that Timothy and Titus were Bishops in the Apostles times and had Authority over the Churches and Ministry committed to their Charge and whether that Form of Church-Government in the Apostles times wherein were divers Degrees of Ministers one sort to direct and rule viz. Bishops and the other to be directed and ruled was only necessary for the first plantation of the Churches but not so afterward when the Churches were planted as if it
had been a lawful Form of Government whilst the Apostles lived but upon their Deaths it became presently to be unlawful It is very apparent and cannot be denied That in many Greek Copies of the New Testament Timothy and Titus are termed Bishops in the Directions or Subscriptions of two Epistles which St. Paul did write unto them These are the words of the said Directions The second Epistle written from Rome unto Timotheus the first Bishop elected of the Church of Ephesus And again To Titus elect the first Bishop of the Cretians written from Nicopolis in Macedonia Moreover agreeable to the said Subscriptions the ancient Fathers generally having no doubt upon their due searching the Scriptures fully considered of the Form of Ecclesiastical Government whilst the Apostles lived do with one consent whensoever they expound the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and Titus or have Occasion to speak of the Authority of those two Persons very resolutely affirm That they were by the Apostles made Bishops And the same also they do testifie of St. James the Apostle himself called the Lord's Brother that he was made by the rest of the Apostles his Colleagues Bishop of Hierusalem and so also of the Seven Angels of the Churches in Asia that they were so many Bishops of the Apostles Ordination Besides the said ancient Fathers did very well know that when St. Paul said to Timothy I charge thee in the sight of God and before Jesus Christ that thou keep this Commandment without spot and unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ that it was impossible for Timothy to observe those things till the coming of Christ he being to die long before and that therefore the Precepts and Rules which St. Paul had given unto him to observe in his Episcopal Government did equally appertain as well to Bishops his Successors as to himself and were to be executed by them successively after his Death unto the Worlds End as carefully and diligently as he himself whilst he lived had put them in Practice One of the said Fathers doth write as followeth With great Vigilancy and Providence doth the Apostle give Precepts to the Ruler of the Church for in his Person doth the safety of the People consist He is not so circumspect as fearing Timothy's care but for his Successors that after Timothy's Example they should observe the Ordination of the Church and begin themselves to keep that Form which they were to deliver to those that came after them Again it is evident by the Ecclesiastical Histories that not only St. James Timothy and Titus were made Bishops by the Apostles but that likewise Peter himself was Bishop of Antioch so termed because of his long stay there and that the Apostles likewise made Evodius Bishop of Antioch after St. Peter and St. Mark Bishop of Alexandria and Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna and that St. John returning from Patmos to Ephesus went to the Churches round about and made Bishops in those places where they were wanting and also that divers others of the Apostles Coadjutors besides Timothy and Titus were made by them Bishops and did govern the Cities and Provinces where they were placed according to the same rules that were prescribed to Timothy and Titus as Dionysius the Areopagite was the first Bishop of Athens Caius the first Bishop of Thessalonica Archippus the first Bishop of the Colossians and we doubt not but many more by diligent reading may be found that were in the Apostles times made Bishops Furthermore it is apparent by the testimonies of all Antiquity Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories that all the Churches in Christendom that were planted and govern'd by the Apostles and by such their Coadjutors Apostolical Persons as unto whom the Apostles had to that end fully communicated their Apostolical Authority did think that after the Death either of any of the Apostles which ruled amongst them or of any other the said Bishops ordained by them it was the meaning of the Holy Ghost testified sufficiently by the practice of the Apostles that the same Order and Form of Ecclesiastical Government should continue in the Church for ever And therefore upon the death of any of them either Apostles or Bishops they the said Churches did always supply their places with others the most worthy and eminent Persons amongst them who with the like Power and Authority that their Predecessors had did ever succeed them Insomuch as in every City and Episcopal See where there were divers Priests and Ministers of the Word and Sacraments and but one Bishop only the Catalogues of the Names not of their Priests but of their Bishops were very carefully kept from time to time together with the Names of the Apostles or Apostolical Persons the Bishops their Predecessors from whom they derived their Succession Of which Succession of Bishops whilst the Succession of Truth continued with it the ancient Fathers made great account and use when any false Teachers did broach new Doctrine as if they had received the same from the Apostles choaking them with this that they were not able to shew any Apostolical Church that ever taught as they did Upon such an occasion Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons within 75. years or thereabout after St. John's Death doth write in this sort Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successores eorum usque ad nos qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab his deliratur And so likewise not long after him Tertullian to oppress some who as it seemeth drew Companies after them saith thus Edant Origines Ecclesiarum suarum Evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per Successiones ab initio decurrentem ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis aut Apostolicis viris qui tamen cum Apostolis perseveraverit habuerit autorem Antecessorem Hoc enim modo Ecclesiae Catholicae sensus suos deferunt And St. Augustin Radix Christianae Societatis per sedes Apostolorum Successores Episcoporum certâ per Orbem propagatione diffunditur Again forasmuch as it was thought by our Saviour Christ the best means for the building and continuing of his Church in the Apostles times to ordain sundry degrees of Ministers in Dignity and Authority one over another when such a kind of preheminence might have been thought not so necessary because the Apostles by working of Miracles might otherwise as it is probable have procured to themselves sufficient Authority How can it with any reason be imagined but that Christ much more did mean to have the same still to be continued after the Apostles days when the gifts of doing Miracles were to cease and when Mens Zeal was like to grow more cold than it was at the first It savoureth assuredly We know of what Faction Indiscretion or Affection for any Man either to think that Form of Church-Government to be unfit for our times
that was held necessary for the Apostles times or that Order so much commended amongst all Men and is most properly termed Parium dispariumque rerum sua cuique loca tribuens Dispositio should be necessary to build the Church but unfit to preserve it or that the same Artisans that are most meet to build this or that House are not the fittest both to keep the same in good Reparations and likewise to build other Houses when there is cause No Man can doubt who is of any reading but that when the Apostles died there were many defects in many Churches and that likewise there were a number of places in the World where the Apostles had never been and where there were no Churches planted or established Whereupon it followeth of necessity that if the said Form of Government in the Apostles days was then necessary for the planting and ordering of Churches that the same did continue to be as necessary afterward for the supplying of such defects as were left in some Churches and for the planting and ordering of other Churches in those places that had not received the Gospel whilst the Apostles lived And to this purpose it doth much avail that for ought we can find there can no one Nation or Country be named since the Apostles days neither in times of Persecution nor since but when it first received the Faith of Christ it had thereupon both Bishops and Archbishops placed in it for the Government of the Churches that were there planted imitating therein for their more certain direction the Government of the Churches that were erected by the Apostles and had been deduced from them agreeable in substance with the Form of Ecclesiastical Government that was once amongst God's own People the Jews Which was no new conceit amongst the ancient Fathers as it may appear by the words of one of them Who saith in effect that Bishops Priests and Deacons may challenge now that Authority in the Church which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites had in times past and that the Apostles in establishing of their Government in the New Testament had respect to that which was in the Old for as much as concern'd the Essential parts of that Priesthood Moreover the Primitive Churches presently after the Apostles times finding in the New Testament no one person to have been ordain'd a Priest or Minister of the Gospel mediately by Men but either by Imposition of the Apostles hands or of their hands to whom they gave Authority in that behalf as unto Timothy and Titus and such other Bishops as they were and knowing that the Church of Christ should never be left destitute of Priests and Bishops for the work of the Ministry they durst not presume upon their own heads to devise a new form of making of Ministers nor to commit that Authority unto any other after their own Fancies but held it their bounden duty to leave the same where they found it viz. in the hands of Timothy and Titus and consequently of other Bishops their Successors Whereupon it followeth very necessarily that none of the Primitive Churches or ancient Fathers did ever so much as once dream that the Authority given by St. Paul to Timothy and to Titus and to the rest who were then made Bishops as well for the ordering of Priests as for the further order and government of the Church did determine by the death of the Apostles Considering that presently after as long as they were in being and lived and ever since till very lately it was held by them altogether unlawful for any to ordain a Priest or Minister of the Word except he were himself a Bishop and no one approved Example for the space of above 1500. years can be shewed for ought we find to the contrary It is true that one Coluthus being himself but a Priest would needs take upon him to make Priests in spleen against his own Bishop the Bishop of Alexandria with whom he was then fallen at variance and that the like attempt was made by one Maximus supposing himself to have been a Bishop where he was indeed but a Priest as it was decided by the first Council of Constantinople Howbeit such their Ordinations were accounted void and utterly condemn'd as unlawful they themselves not escaping such just reproof as so great a Novelty and presumption did deserve We acknowledge that for the great dignity of the Action of Ordination it was decreed by another Council That Priests should lay their hands with the Bishop upon him that was to be made Priest but they had not thereby any Power of Ordination but only did it to testifie their consent thereunto and likewise to concur in the blessing of him neither might they ever in that sort impose their hands upon any without their Bishops Again the said Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers finding how the Apostles by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost had ordained Bishops Timothy Titus and such like for the ordering and appeasing of such Quarrels and Contentions as arise amongst the Ministers and People for want of some amongst them of Authority to govern them they might thereby have been confirmed more and more in their Judgments if at any time they had doubted of it concerning the necessity of that Apostolical Form of Government that it was for ever to continue to the end the Schisms and contentious Persons might be still by the same means suppressed that they were whilst the Apostles lived For they ever observed what the want of Bishops would work in the Church and how the contempt of them and disobedience to their directions was always a chief cause of Sects and Schisms Which made them easily to discern that if the Apostles had not provided for the continuance of their Apostolical Authority in Bishops who were to succeed them in the Government of the Church but had left an equality in the Clergy that every one might have proceeded in his own particular Church after his own Fashion there would have been nothing in the Church but Disorder Scandals Sects Schisms and all manner of Confusion One of the ancient Fathers perceiving in his time what Pride and Contempt certain unstaid and contentious Persons shewed toward their Archbishops did lay it upon them as a property of Hereticks and feared not to compare them to the Devils These are his words Quilibet haereticus c. loquens cum Pontifice nec eum vocat Pontificem nec Archiepiscopum nec Religiosissimum nec Sanctum sed quid Reverentia tua nomina illi adducit communia ejus negans autoritatem Diabolus hoc tum fecit in Deo Ero similis Altissimo Non Deo sed Altissimo And another Father long before the days of the former did accordingly observe that Hereticks and Schismaticks did usually spring from no other Fountain but his Quod Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur nec unus in Ecclesia ad tempus Sacerdos ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur
that the Priest of God meaning every such Bishop as he himself was in his own Diocess was not obey'd nor one Priest in the Church acknowledg'd for the time to be Judge in Christ's stead And again Vnde Schismata Haereses abortae sunt oriuntur nisi dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest superbâ quorundam praesumptione contemnitur Whence have Schisms and Heresies sprung up and do spring but whilst the Bishop which is one and ruleth the Church is by the proud Presumption of certain men despis'd A third Father also though at some times he had a sharp tooth against Bishops as they carried themselves in his time doth confess nevertheless That when Schisms first began Bishops were ordain'd Vt Schismatum semina tollerentur and in another Place in Remedium Schismatis ne unusquisque ad se trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet Also where the same Father doth write against the Luciferians and undertaketh the defence of Bishops in a right point untruly by them impugn'd he speaketh of their Authority within their several Diocesses after this sort Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet Cui si non exors quaedam ab hominibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes that is The safety of the Church doth consist in the dignity of the chief Priest unto whom if an extraordinary and eminent Power from other men be not yielded there will be as many Schisms in Churches as there are Priests Lastly it is to be observed that in the Apostles times the Roman Empire had wrought a great confusion in all the Kingdoms and Countries about it whilst in the greediness of Honour in that state they had subdued their Neighbour Kings and Princes and turn'd their Kingdoms and Principalities into Provinces and Consulships and divers other such like Forms of Regiment leaving the same to the Government of their own Substitutes to whom they gave sundry and different titles Which course held by that state caused the Apostles in their planting of Churches when they could not perform that which otherwise they would have done to frame their proceeding as near unto it as they could In the chief Cities which had been Heads of so many Kingdoms and were still the Seat then of the principal Roman Officers principal Persons were placed who were Bishops and more than Bishops as St. James at Jerusalem although Jerusalem notwithstanding it was honoured with the name and title of the See of St. James was not the Metropolitan Seat or Archbishoprick of that Province but Caesarea whose Right is saved in the giving that honour to Jerusalem in the first Nicene Council St. Peter first in Antioch and then in Rome and St. Mark in Alexandria who remain'd in those places as was then most behooveful for those Churches as so many principal Archbishops Patriarchs to rule and direct all the Bishops Priests and Christians in Palestine Syria Italy and Egypt And in other Cities also and Countries not so famous then as the said four there were appointed according to the largeness of their Extents in some Bishops to govern the Ministers which were in such Cities and in some others such as Timothy and Titus were who as we have shewed in the former Chapter had the oversight committed unto them as well of Bishops as of the rest of the Churches within their limits All which particulars so put in practice by the Apostles were very well know to the Primitive Churches and ancient godly Fathers that lived the first 300. years after Christ and gave them full assurance that they might lawfully pursue in those days that Form of Church-Government which the Apostles themselves had erected the state and condition of the times remaining still one and the same that it was when the Apostles lived Whereupon by their Example they did not only continue the Succession of Bishops and Archbishops in those places where the Apostles had setled them supplying other Churches either not throughly setled or not at all planted when the Apostles died as before hath been mention'd with the like Church-Governours but did likewise preserve and uphold in those parts of the World where Christianity did then chiefly flourish the Succession of Patriarchal Archbishops in the above-mention'd four most principal Cities Jerusalem Antioch Rome and Alexandria Insomuch as it is commonly held that this Apostolical Order was thus distributed and setled by the Fathers of the Primitive Church long before the Council of Nice and that then in that holy Assembly it was only but so acknowledged and continued idque ad Disciplinae conservationem as a very worthy Man hath observed The consideration of all which particular points concerning the placing of Archbishops and Bishops in the Territories of the Romans according to the Dignities and chief honours of the Cities and Countries where they were placed doth very throughly perswade us that as we observed in the former Chapter if all the said Kingdoms and Sovereign Principalities then in subjection to the Roman Empire had been freed of that servitude and governed by their own Kings and Princes as they had been before the Apostles though the said Kings and Princes had refused to receive the Gospel would notwithstanding as much as in them lay have setled in every one of them for the Government of the Church there the like Form that God himself did erect amongst the Jews and that they themselves did establish in their time in the like Heathenish places as is aforesaid that is in every such Kingdom Ministers in particular Churches or Congregations Bishops over Ministers and Archbishops to oversee and direct them all And assuredly if when Christian Kings and Sovereign Princes did free themselves from the Yoke of the Empire they had either known or regarded the Ordinance of the Holy Ghost for the Government of the Churches within their Kingdoms and Principalities they would have been as careful to have deliver'd their Churches from the bondage of the Bishop of Rome as they were their Kingdoms from subjection to the Empire For all that is commonly alledged to the contrary is but the fume of presumptuous Brains The chief Archbishops either in France or Spain have as full Power and Authority under their Sovereigns as the Bishops of Rome had in times past over Italy under their Emperour and by the Institution of Christ they ought to depend no more upon the See of Rome than they do now one upon the other or than the Archbishops of England under their most worthy Sovereign do depend upon any of them as it will hereafter more plainly we hope appear by that which we have to say of that infinite Authority which the Pope doth vainly challenge to himself CAN. VII AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Subscriptions or Directions of the second Epistle of St. Paul to
Timothy of of his Epistle to Titus though they are found in the ancient Copies of the Greek Testament are of no Credit or Authority or that such an Impeachment and Discredit laid upon them is not very prejudicial to the Books and Writings of the Holy Ghost or that it is not great presumption for Men in these days to take upon them to know better Whether Timothy and Titus were Bishops than the Churches and godly Fathers did which were planted and lived either in the Apostle's times or presently after them except they have some especial Revelations from God or that whilst Men do labour to bring into discredit the ancient Fathers and Primitive Churches they do not derogate from themselves such credit as they hunt after and as much as in them lieth bring many parts of Religion into a wonderful uncertainty or that it is probable or was possible for Timothy to have observ'd those Rules that St. Paul gave him unto the coming of Christ except as the Fathers expound some of them he meant to have them first observed by himself and other Bishops in that Age and that afterward they should so likewise be observed by all Bishops for ever or that the ancient Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories when they Record it to all Posterity that these Men and those Men were made by the Apostles Bishops of such and such places are not to be held to be of more credit than any other Historiographers or Writers or that when the ancient Fathers did collect out of the Scriptures and practice of the Apostles the continuance for ever of that Form of Church-Government which was then in use they were not so throughly illuminated with the Holy Ghost as divers Men of late have been or that it was an idle course held by the Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers to keep the Catalogues of their Bishops or to ground Arguments in some Cases upon their Succession in that they were able to deduce their beginnings either from the Apostles or from some Apostolical Persons or that the Form of Government used in the Apostle's times for the planting and ordering of Churches was not in many respects as necessary to be continued in the Church afterward especially considering that many Churches were not left fully ordered nor in some places were at all planted when the Apostles died or that true and perfect Order grounded upon the very Laws of Nature and Reason and established by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles times was not fit for the Churches of God afterward to embrace and observe or that any Church since the Apostles time till of late years when it received the Gospel had not likewise Archbishops and Bishops for the Government of it or that divers of the ancient Fathers did not hold and that very truly for ought that appeareth to the contrary that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in establishing the Form of Church-Government amongst the Gentiles had an especial respect to that Form which God had setled amongst the Jews and did no way purpose to abrogate or abolish it or that any since the Apostles times till of late days was ever held to be a lawful Minister of the Word and Sacraments who was not Ordain'd Priest or Minister by the Imposition of the hands of some Bishop or that it is with any probability to be imagin'd that all the Churches of Christ and ancient Fathers from the beginning would ever have held it for an Apostolical Rule That none but Bishops had any Authority to make Priests had they not thought and judged that the same Authority had been derived unto them the said Bishops from the same Apostolical Ordination that was committed unto Timothy and Titus their Predecessors or that the Apostles and all the ancient Fathers were deceived when they judged the Authority of Bishops necessary at all times for the suppressing of Schisms and that without Bishops there would be in the Churches as many Sects as Ministers or that when Men find themselves in regard of their disobedience to their Bishops so fully and notably described and censured by all the ancient Fathers for Schismaticks and contentious Persons they have not just cause to fear their own Estates if they continue in such their willfulness and obstinacy or that the Church-Government by us above treated of is truly to be said to savour of Judaism more than the observation by godly Kings and Princes of the Equity of the Iudicial Law given to the Jews may truly be said to savour thereof or that it doth proceed from any other than the wicked Spirit for any sort of Men what godly shew soever they can pretend to seek to discredit as much as in them lieth that Form of Church-Government which was established by the Apostles and left by them to continue in the Church to the end of the World under Archbishops and Bishops such as were Timothy and Titus and some others then called to those Offices by the said Apostles and ever since held by the Primitive Churches and all the ancient Fathers to be Apostolical Functions or to term the same or any part of it to be Anti-Christian He doth greatly Erre CAP. IX The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ upon his Ascension into Heaven did not commit the Temporal Government of the whole World unto St. Peter That the Apostles and whole Ministry did succeed Christ not as he was a Person immortal and glorious after his Resurrection but as he was a Mortal Man here upon the Earth before his Passion That Christ left neither to St. Peter nor to the Bishops of Rome nor to any other Archbishops or Bishops any temporal Possessions all that since any of them have gotten being bestowed upon them by Emperours Kings and Princes and other their good Benefactors And that the Imagination of St. Peter's Temporal Sovereignty is very idle the same being never known unto himself for ought that appeareth and argueth great Ignorance of the true nature of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ for the erecting whereof the spiritual working of the Holy Ghost with the Apostles and the rest of the Ministry of the Gospel was and is only necessary IT hath been shewed by us before that our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension became actually in the State of the Heir of all things Governour of all the World and King of kings even as he was Man his divine Nature working more gloriously in his Humanity than formerly it had done Howbeit although we also made it plain that notwithstanding the said Glory Power Rule Dominion and Majesty wherewith Christ is really possest sitting in Heaven at the right hand of his Father he made no alteration in the Form and manner of Temporal Government but left the whole World to be ruled by Kings and Soveraign Princes under him as it had been before himself retaining still in his own hands the Scepter and chiefest Ensigns of Royal and highest Majesty to direct and
before his Ascension enlarging their Commission did commit unto his Apostles the Administration of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and shortly after furnished not only them but the said Disciples also according to their several Functions most abundantly with all such Gifts and Heavenly Graces as were necessary for them in those great Affairs which were imposed upon them Whereby we find already two compleat Degrees of Ecclesiastical Ministers ordained by Christ himself immediately viz. His 12. Apostles and his 70. Disciples the one in Dignity and Authority above the other the Disciples in that respect being termed Secondary Apostles and were the same as 't is most probably held who were afterward called Evangelists We will not intermeddle with the Prophets in those times of whom the Scriptures make mention because divers of them were no Ministers of the Word and Sacraments of whom only we have here taken upon us to intreat leaving in like manner the said 70. Disciples or Evangelists as before they had been assistants unto Christ so now to be directed by his Apostles Touching whose blessed calling it is to be observed that the end of it was not that they should only for their own times by Preaching the Word Administring the Sacraments and likewise by their Authority of Ecclesiastical Regiment draw many to the embracing of the Gospel and afterward to rule and order them as that they might not easily be drawn again from it but were in like sort to provide for a Succession in their Ministry of fit Persons sufficiently Authorized by them to undertake that charge and as well to yield some further assistance unto them whilst they themselves lived as afterward also both to continue the same in their own Persons unto their lives end and in like manner to ordain by the Authority of the Apostles given unto them other Ministers to succeed themselves that so the said Apostolical Authority being derived in that sort from one to another there might never be any want of Pastors and Teachers for the work of the Ministry and for the Edification of the Body of Christ unto the end of the World This being the duty of the said Apostles and that it may be evident what it was which they did communicate unto the Ministry it is to be observed that some things in the Apostles were essential and perpetual and was the substance of their Ministry containing the three Essential Parts before mentioned of Preaching administring the Sacraments and of Ecclesiastical Government and that some were but personal and temporary granted unto them for the better strengthning and approving of the said Ministry with all the Parts of it there being then many Difficulties and Impediments which did many ways hinder the first Preaching and Plantation of the Gospel In the number of the said personal or temporary Gifts or Prerogatives these may be accounted the Chief 1. That they were called immediately by Chirst himself to lay the Foundation of Christian Faith among the Gentiles 2. That their Commission to that purpose was not limited to any Place or Country 3. That they had power through Imposition of their hands to give the Holy Ghost by visible Signs 4. That they were directed in the performance of their Office by the especial Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and lastly That their Doctrine which they deliver'd in Writing was to be a Canon and Rule to all Churches for ever All which personal Prerogatives although they did then appertain and were then adherent to the Essence of the Apostolick Function and were necessary at the first for the establishing of the Gospel yet it is plain that they did not contain in them any of the said Essential Parts of the Ministry and likewise that they could not be communicated by the Apostles unto any others So as either the Apostles for the Propagation and Continuance of the Eccelesiastical Ministry did communicate to others the said three Essential Parts of it viz. Power to Preach to Administer the Sacraments and Authority of Government wherein must be Degrees some to direct and some to be directed or else they died all with them which were a very wicked and an idle conceit the Apostles having Power to communicate them all alike as by their Proceedings it will appear At the first they themselves with the Evangelists and so many of the Prophets as were Ministers of the Word and Sacraments after they had converted many to the Faith did execute in their own Persons agreeably to their several Callings all those Ecclesiastical Functions as were afterward of necessity and in due time to be distinguished and setled in some others Whereby it came to pass that the Church in Jerusalem during that time had no other Deacons Priests nor Bishops but the Apostles the Evangelists and the said Prophets But afterwards the Harvest growing great as to disburthen themselves of some charge they Ordained Deacons So their own Company Apostles Disciples or Evangelists and Prophets coming short of that number of Labourers which the said Harvest required they did for their future aid chuse unto themselves by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost certain other new Disciples and Scholars such as they found meet for that work and after some good experience had of them made them by the Imposition of their hands Priests and Ministers of the Gospel but did not for a time tie them to any particular places as having design'd them to be their Fellow-Labourers and Coadjutors These Men the Apostles had commonly in their Company and did not employ their Pains and diligent Preaching for the speedier Propagation of the Gospel which was their first and most Principal Care but likewise did use to send them hither and thither their Occasions so requiring to the Churches already planted as their Messengers and Legates sufficiently authorized for the dispatching of such Affairs as were committed unto them Of this number were Timothy Titus Marcus Epaphroditus Sylvanus Andronicus and divers others who in respect of such their Apostolical Employments and because also the Apostles did oftentimes commend them greatly and join'd their Names with their own in the beginnings of sundry their Epistles to divers Churches were Men of great Reputation and Authority amongst all Christians in those days and had the name it self of Apostles given unto them as formerly it hath been observ'd of the 70. Disciples And these were the Persons who were afterward when they were tied to the oversight of divers particular Churches or Congregations termed Bishops as it will afterward appear Now because these Apostolical Persons were still to attend upon the Apostles and their Designments as is above mentioned and for that the number of Christians every where did still encrease the Apostles held it necessary to ordain by imposition of their hands a second degree of Ministers who were thereupon still to remain in the particular Churches or Congregations that were already planted in divers Cities for in those
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
CAN. XXXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that during the continuance of the Old Testament the Merits of Christ's Death actually to come were not sufficient to save all true Believers or that there was then no Catholick Church or that at any time there was any other Rock but Jesus Christ the blessed Seed upon whom the Catholick Church was then built or that many of the Gentiles were not always for ought that is known to the contrary true Members of the Catholick Church or that Christ himself was not the sole Head or Monarch all that while of the whole Catholick Church or that the said Catholick Church after the Members of it were dispersed into all the places of the World was otherwise visible than per partes or that Noah did appoint any Man to be the visible Head of the said Catholick Church or that the High-Priest among the Jews had any more Authority over the Catholick Church of God than King David had over the Vniversal Kingdom of God or that the said High-Priest had not greatly sinn'd if he had taken upon him or usurped any such infinite Authority He doth greatly Erre Placet eis The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have passed with one Consent both the Convocation-Houses and so are approved R. Cant. The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have been diligently read and deliberately examin'd and thereupon have likewise passed with one Consent in the Convocation-House of the Province of York Jo. Bristol praeses Convocat Eborac LIB II. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended course through the Old Testament and until the Destruction of Jerusalem we over-slipped and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said course as we find the true Grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our entrance into which course we confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange Impediments and mighty Stumbling-blocks which through long Practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successours For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit Project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better ordered polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successours We can see no Authentical Ground nor sufficient Warrant in those Writings which ought to be the true Rule of every Christian Man's Conscience as not being there to be found for any Apostolical Priest or Bishop either to pretend that all the particular Churches in the World are under his Government or to tell the Subjects of any Christian King opposite in some points unto him That they are no longer bound to obey him their said King but until they shall be able by force of Arms or by some secret Practice to subdue him or to challenge to himself an Absolute and Universal Authority and Power over all Kings and Kingdoms in the World to bestow them in some cases under pretence of Religion when he shall think the same to be most available for the strengthning and upholding of such his pretended Universal Power and Dominion To the Proof whereof before we address our selves because the same doth much depend upon the admirable Humiliation of the Son of God in taking our Nature upon him and performing the Work of our Salvation in such a manner as he did We have thought it our Duties lest otherwise we might be mistaken either through Weakness Simplicity or Malice first briefly to observe notwithstanding our Saviour's said Humiliation the most wonderful Dignity Preheminency and Royalty of his Person It is many ways apparent that the mean Estate and Condition of our Saviour Christ here upon Earth was one especial Motive both to the Jews and Gentiles why in their carnal Judgments he was to the one sort a Scandal and to the other a Scorn as if he had been a Man out of his Wits and preached he knew not what In which respect partly not only the People of the Jews the Priests of all sorts the Scribes and Pharisees with the rest of their Hypocritical Orders but likewise the civil Governours as well Romans as Jews did utterly despise him hate him deride him beat him and put him to death Since which time sundry sorts of Hereticks have stumbled at the same stone labouring by all the means they could to impeach and dishonour the Person of Christ in regard of the mean shew of his humane Nature notwithstanding the many Arguments which they might have found in the Scriptures had not their Hearts been hardned of his Divinity On the other side we are not ignorant how the Bishop of Rome and his Adherents supposing it would too much impeach their Credits and worldly Reputations if they should be too much pressed to deduce the principal strength of their Estates and Callings from the said mean Condition of our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in this World do thereupon attribute sundry Virtues Powers and Branches of Authority unto his humane Nature which do not in Truth belong properly unto it but are rather appertaining to his Person being both God and Man as hoping thereby to get some fair Pretences and Colours for the upholding of their usurped Greatness and pretended uncontroulable Sovereignty For the avoiding therefore of these Extremities and because such as deny the Pope's Supremacy are most falsly charged by sundry passionate and inconsiderate Persons to be Men that believe no one Article of the Christian Faith We have thought it meet to make it known to all the Christian World how detestable to the Church of England all such false Doctrine is as doth any way not only impeach the Sacred Person of our Saviour
but for evil therefore he doth not simply command Obedience to Ethnick Princes c. 3. The like manner of writing St. Paul used in exhorting Servants to honour their Lords etiam infideles though they were Infidels for the Reasons by him there mentioned 4. By those Monitions meaning the said Commandments of the Apostle concerning Obedience of Subjects to their Princes and of Servants to their Masters just Dominion is not founded in the Persons of Ethnicks nam Paulus qui hec dicit non erat summus Pontifex for Paul who said so was not the chief Bishop c. 5. Furthermore in that time of the Primitive Church the Church could not de facto punish Infidels and transfer their Kingdoms c. Thus far this audacious and unlearned Canonist the very citation of whose Words we hold sufficient to refute them although he alledgeth for himself to support them very grave Authors the Distinctions forsooth the Gloss Hostiensis Praepositus adding that some other Canonists do concur with him Only we will oppose against him and all his Fellows to shew their Follies by a proof of this Nature the Testimony of the Pope's chief Champion the only Jesuit without Comparison now a principal Cardinal who maintaineth in express Terms That Infidel Princes are true and supream Princes of their Kingdoms and writeth thus against the said Assertion of the Canonist directly saying God doth approve the Kingdoms of the Gentiles in both the Testaments Thou art King of kings and the God of Heaven hath given thee thy Kingdom and Empire c. Restore those things unto Caesar that are Caesar's Note that he saith not Give but Restore those things that are Caesar's that is those things which in right are owing unto him And Give unto all Men that which is due unto them Tribute to whom you owe Tribute and Custom to whom you owe Custom Et jubet ibidem etiam propter Conscientiam obedire Principibus Ethnicis At certè non tenemur in Conscientiâ obedire illi qui non est verus Princeps that is and we are commanded in the same place even for Conscience to obey Princes that are Ethnicks but assuredly we are not bound in Conscience to obey him who is no true lawful or right Prince Hitherto the Cardinal We would not have cited this Man's testimony thus at large were not All that he hath said therein throughly supported by all the Learned Men as we suppose of his Society and sufficient to refel the Vanity of the Canonists and their Fellows in that folly For if we should insist herein upon the Authority of Men all the ancient Fathers do fully concur with us that through the whole course of the Scriptures Obedience was and is as well prescribed in the Old Testament to Ethnick Princes as unto the Kings of Judah and so likewise in the New Testament as well to Infidel Princes as Christian the Precepts of the Apostles in that behalf being general and so to be applied as well to the one sort as to the other in that they hold their Kingdoms of Christ equally as is aforesaid and therefore ought to be equally obeyed by their Subjects with that general Caution which was ever understood viz. in those things which they commanded them and were not repugnant to the Commandments of God And therefore the Judgments of the ancient Fathers being in this sort only remember'd by us we will not much insist upon them but give that honour which is due especially in a matter so apparent unto the sole Authority of the Holy Apostles who writing by the direction of the Holy Ghost those things which Christ himself before had taught them do give unto all Christians and Subjects to what manner of Kings soever these Precepts following Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God for the Powers that be are Ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Judgment For Princes are not to be feared for good works but for evil Wilt thou then be without fear Do well So shalt thou have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God for thy Wealth But if thou do evil fear for he beareth not the Sword for nought for he is the Minister of God to take Vengeance of him that doth evil Wherefore ye must be subject not because of wrath only but also for Conscience sake For this cause ye pay also Tribute for they are God's Ministers applying themselves for the same thing In which words of the Apostle in saying that Princes have their Power from God and that he is God's Minister there is no repugnancy to that which we have abovesaid concerning the great honour and dignity of the humanity of our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension to prove that Kings do hold their Kingdoms under Christ as he is Man the Lamb of God and Heir of all the World For we were very careful to have it still remembred that all the said Power and Dignity which he hath as he is Man doth proceed from his Divinity and likewise that by reason of the real Union of the two Natures in our Saviour Christ that which doth properly belong to the one nature may very truly be affirmed of the other So as it may in that respect be very well said and truly that all Kings and Princes receive their Authority from Christ as he is Man and likewise that they receive their Authority from Christ as he is God and that they are the Ministers of Christ being Man and the Ministers of God without any limitation But it is plain that the said words of the Apostle do very throughly refute the vanity mentioned of the Canonists and their new Companions in that by the said words it appeareth very manifestly That Kings do not otherwise hold their Kingdoms of the humanity of Christ than they did before of his divine nature They have their Authority saith the Apostle from God and they are God's Ministers And there is nothing written either by St. Paul or by any other of the Apostles which swerveth in any point from this Doctrine where they write of the obedience due unto all Kings and Soveraign Princes whose testimonies in that behalf we are as we promised a little further to pursue I exhort saith St. Paul that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all Men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty And again Put them that is both old and young and all sorts of Persons that are purged to be a peculiar People unto Christ in remembrance that they be subject to the Principalities and Powers and that they be obedient and ready to every good work Also St. Peter saith to the same effect Submit
Shadows Sacrifices and whatsoever else was typical in the true Worship of God and Priesthood of Aaron were truly fulfilled and had their several Accomplishments according to the Natures of them Yet we are further to understand that as from the beginning there was a Church so there was ever a Ministry the Essential parts of whose Office howsoever otherwise it was burdened with Ceremonies did consist in these three Duties viz. 1. Preaching of the Word 2. Administration of Sacraments and 3. Authority of Ecclesiastical Government and that none of all the said Figures Shadows and Sacrifices or any other Ceremony of the Levitical Law had any such relation to any of the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry as if either they the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry had only been ordain'd for their continuance until the coming of Christ or that the accomplishment or fulfilling of the said Ceremonies had in any sort prejudiced or impeached the Continuance of them or any of them So as the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry were in no sort abolished by the Death of Christ but only translated from the Priesthood under the Law to the Ministry of the New Testament Where in the judgment of all Learned Men opposite in divers points one to another they do or ought for ever to remain to the same End and Purpose for the which they were first ordain'd Now concerning the two first Essential Parts of this our Ministry or Priesthood of the New Testament there are no Difficulties worthy the insisting upon how they are to be used Only the third Essential Part of it as touching the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment is very much controverted and diversly expounded extended and applied For some Men relying upon one Extremity do affirm That it was in the Apostles time radically inherent only in St. Peter and so by a certain consequence afterwards in his supposed Vicar the Bishop of Rome to be derived from St. Peter first to the rest of the Apostles and other Ministers while he lived and then after his Death in a fit proportion to all Bishops Pastors and Ministers to the end of the World from the Bishops of Rome and that St. Peter during his time and every one of his Vicars the Bishops of Rome successively then did and still do occupy and enjoy the like Power and Authority over all the Churches in the World that Aaron had in the Church established amongst the Jews There are also another sort of Persons that run as far to another extremity and do challenge the said Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Regiment to appertain to a new Form of Church-Government by Presbyteries to be placed in every particular Parish Which Presbyteries as divers of them say are so many compleat and perfect Churches no one of them having any dependency upon any other Church So as the Pastor in every such Presbytery representing after a sort Aaron the High Priest there would be by this project if it were admitted as many Aarons in every Christian Kingdom as there are particular Parishes And the Authors of both these so different and extream conceits are all of them most resolute and peremptory that they are able to deduce and prove them out of the Form of Church-Government which was established by God himself in the Old Testament Howbeit notwithstanding all their vaunts and shews of Learning by perverting the Scriptures Councils and ancient Fathers the Mean betwixt both the said extreams is the truth and to be embraced viz. That the administration of the said Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment under Christian Kings and supream Magistrates doth especially belong by the Institution of Christ and of his Apostles unto Arch-Bishops and Bishops This Mean bearing the true Pourtraicture and infallible Lineaments of God's own Ordinance above-mentioned and containing in it divers Degrees of Priests agreeable to the very order and light of Nature some superiour to rule and some inferiour to be ruled as in all other Societies and civil States it hath been ever accustomed So as we are bold to say and are able to justify it That as our Saviour Christ as he is God had formerly ordain'd in his National Church amongst the Jews Priests and Levites of an inferiour Order to teach them in every City and Synagogue and over them Priests of a superiour degree termed Principes Sacerdotum and lastly above them all one Aaron with Moses to rule and direct them So he no ways purposing by his Passion more to abrogate or prejudice this Form of Church-Government ordain'd by himself than he did thereby the temporal Government of Kings and Sovereign Princes did by the direction of the Holy Ghost and Ministry of his Apostles ordain in the New Testament that there should be in every National Church some Ministers of an inferiour degree to instruct his People in every particular Parochial Church or Congregation and over them Bishops of a superiour degree to have a care and inspection over many such Parochial Churches or Congregations for the better ordering as well of the Ministers as of the People within the limits of their Jurisdiction And lastly above them all Archbishops and in some especial places Patriarchs who were first themselves with the advice of some other Bishops and when Kings and Sovereign Princes became Christians then with their especial aid and assistance to oversee and direct for the better Peace and Government of every such National Church all the Bishops and the rest of the particular Churches therein established And for some proof hereof We will conclude this Chapter with the testimony of one of no mean account and desert Who when Archbishops and Bishops did most obstinately oppose themselves as being the Pope's Vassals to the Reformation of the Church was the principal Deviser of the said Presbyteries though not in such a manner as some have since with too much bitterness urged whereof out of all Question he would never have dream'd if the said Bishops had not been so obstinate as they were for the maintenance of such Idolatry and Superstition as were no longer to be tolerated That every Province had amongst their Bishops one Archbishop that also in the Nicene Council Patriarchs were appointed who were in Order and Degree above Archbishops that did appertain to the preservation of Discipline And a little after speaking of the said Form of Government so framed although he shewed some dislike of the word Hierarchia yet saith he Si omisso Vocabulo rem intueamur reperiemus Veteres Episcopos non aliam regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ quam Dominus verbo suo praescripsit CAN. V. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ was not the Head of the Church from the beginning of it or that all the particular Churches in the World are otherwise to be termed One Church than as he himself is the Head of
it and as all the particular Kingdoms in the World are called but one Kingdom as he is the Only King and Monarch of it or that our Saviour Christ hath not appointed under him several Ecclesiastical Governours to rule and direct the said particular Churches as he hath appointed several Kings and Sovereign Princes to rule and govern their several Kingdoms or that by his Death he did not abolish the Ceremonial Law and the Levitical Priesthood so far forth as it was Typical and had the Execution of the said Ceremonial Law annexed unto it or that he did any more abrogate by his Death Passion Resurrection and Ascension the Power and Authority of Church-Government than either he did the other two Essential parts of the said Priesthood or Ministry or the Power and Authority of Kings and Sovereign Princes or that he did more appoint any one chief Bishop to rule all the particular Churches which should be planted throughout all Kingdoms than he did appoint any one King to rule and govern all the particular Kingdoms in the World or that it was more reasonable or necessary as hereafter it shall be further shewed to have one Bishop to govern all the Churches in the World than it was to have one King to govern all the Kingdoms in the World or that it was more necessary or convenient to have every Parish with their Presbyteries absolute Churches independent upon any but Christ himself than that every such Parish should be an absolute Temporal Kingdom independent of any Earthly King or Sovereign Magistrate or that the Government of every National Church under Christian Kings and Sovereign Princes by Archbishops and Bishops is not more suitable and correspondent to the Government of the National Church of the Jews under their Soveraign Princes and Kings than is either the Government of one over all the Churches of the World or the setling of the Form of that National Church-Government in every particular Church He doth greatly Erre CAP. VII The Sum of the Chapter following That the Form of Church-Government which was ordained by Christ in the New Testament did consist upon divers degrees of Ministers one above another Apostles in Preeminence and Authority superiour to the Evangelists and the Evangelists superiour to Pastors and Doctours And that the Apostles knowing themselves to be mortal did in their own Days by the Direction of the Holy Ghost as the numbers of Christians grew establish the said form of Government in other Persons appointing several Ministers in sundry Cities and over them Bishops as also over such Bishops certain worthy Persons such as Titus was who were afterward termed arch-Arch-Bishops to whom they did commit so much of their Apostolical Authority as they held then necessary and was to be continued for the Government of the Church WE had in our former Book the Scriptures at large containing the Histories and Doctrine both of the Law and the Gospel after the manner that was then prescribed from the time of the Creation until the days of the Prophet Malachy that is for above 3500. years Whereupon we did ground the particular Points by us therein handled concerning the Government as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal And for the Supply of the other years following till the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ we observed some things to the same purpose out of the Apocryphal Books second to the Scriptures and to be preferr'd before all other Writers of those times But now forasmuch as the New Testament is but in effect a more ample Declaration the Old shewing withal how the same was most throughly fulfilled by our Saviour Christ without the impeachment of any kind of Government by himself ordain'd as before we have exprest and because the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles do only contain the Acts and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ and his Apostles with the Form and Use both of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government during the time whilst they lived here upon the Earth St. John who lived the longest of them all dying about sixty six Years after Christ's Passion although the Holy Ghost did judge the said Books and Writings sufficient for the Church and all that profess Christianity to teach and direct them in those things which should appertain either to their Temporal or Ecclesiastical Government or should be necessary unto their Salvation Yet for the said Reasons we were induced for the upholding of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government in the New Testament to insist so much as we have done upon the Precedents and Platforms of both those kinds of Governments established in the Old Testament albeit we want no sufficient Testimonies in the New to ratify and confirm as well the one as the other First therefore we do verily think That if our Saviour Christ or his Apostles had meant to have erected in the Churches amongst the Gentiles any other Form of Ecclesiastical Government than God himself had set up amongst the Jew they would have done it assuredly in very solemn manner that all the World might have taken publick notice of it considering with what Majesty and Authority the said Form was erected at God's Commandment by his Servant Moses But in that they well knew how the Form of the Old Ecclesiastical Government in substance was still to continue and to be in time establish'd in every National Kingdom and Soveraign Principality amongst Christians as soon as they should become for number sufficient Bodies and ample Churches to receive the same as before the like opportunity it was not established amongst the Israelites they did in the mean while and as the time did serve them attempt the erecting of it in such sort and by such fit and convenient Degrees as by the direction of the Holy Ghost they held it most expedient without intermission till such time as the work was in effect accomplished It hath been before touched how our Saviour Christ here upon Earth did not only chuse to himself for the business he had in hand twelve Apostles who were then design'd in time to come to be the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all Christians with some Resemblance as it hath been ever held of the twelve Sons of Jacob who had been in their days the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all the Israelites But likewise he took unto him over and besides his said Apostles 70 or as some read 72 Disciples to be in the same manner his Assistants in imitation of Moses when he chose 70. Elders to be helpers unto him for the better Government of the People committed to his charge None of these either Apostles or Disciples had then any other Duties committed to them but only of Preaching and Baptizing for the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment they might not then intermeddle with because it did appertain to the Priests and Courts of the Jews But afterward that want and some other defects in them were throughly supplied when our Saviour Christ upon his Resurrection and a little
populous places Churches were first setled whilst the Apostles Evangelists and Prophets that were Ministers with their Coadjutors were travelling from place to place as the Holy Ghost did direct them to plant and order other Churches in other Cities elsewhere as God should bless their labours The office of this second degree of Ministers was by Preaching and Administring the Sacraments to confirm and encrease to their utmost ability the number of Christians in those Cities where they kept their residence and likewise in the absence of the Apostles by their common and joint counsel to advise and direct every particular Congregation and Member of it as well as they could when any difficulties did occur Besides it appertained unto them by Preaching of the Gospel and of the Law and upon Conference with such as were Penitent to bind and loose Mens Sins and to keep back from receiving the holy Communion such as were notorious and obstinate Offenders until either willingly by their perswasion or afterwards by the Apostles further Chastisements they were brought to Repentance Only they wanted Power and Authority of Ordination to make Ministers and of the Apostolical Keys to Excommunicate For the Apostles had reserv'd in their own hands those two Prerogatives and were themselves during those first times now spoken of by us not so far from the said Cities Churches and Ministers but that they well might and did throughly supply all their wants whatsoever and also set an order in all matters of difficulty when they fell out amongst them concerning either Doctrine or Discipline sometimes themselves in their own Persons and sometimes by their Letters or Messengers as the importance of those Causes did require In these times it may well be granted that there was no need of any other Bishops but the Apostles and likewise that then their Churches or particular Congregations in every City were advised and directed touching points of Religion in manner and form aforesaid by the common and joint advice of their Priests or Ministers In which respect the same Persons who then were named Priests or Ministers were also in a general sense called Bishops Howbeit this course dured not long either concerning their said common direction or their names of Bishops so attributed unto them but was shortly after order'd far otherwise by a common Decree of the Apostles to be observ'd in all such Cities where particular Churches were planted or as one speaketh in toto Orbe throughout the World For the number of Christians growing daily in every City throughout those Provinces and Countries where the Apostles Evangelists Prophets with their Coadjutors first travelled to plant the Christian Faith it was still more and more necessary that they should be distinguished into more Congregations than they were before and that also the number of their said Ministers that were to be resident amongst them should be accordingly encreased By reason of which encrease as well of Christians and particular Congregations as of their said Ministers as also for that now it began to come to pass that neither the Apostles nor the Evangelists nor their Coadjutors and Messengers could be always so ready and at hand or present with them as before they had been many Questions Dissentions and Quarrels fell out amongst them both Ministers and particular Congregations mentioned as by the places quoted in the Margent it is evident the People being as apt through affection and private respects to adhere to one Man more than to another as sundry of their Ministers then were prompt for their own glory to entertain all Comers and to embrace every occasion that might procure them many Followers not sparing to oppose themselves in their Pride against the very Apostles and to charge them with ambitious seeking of preheminence above their Brethren Ministers as if they had meant to tyrannize and domineer over all Churches Insomuch as St. John complain'd in his time of such Insolencies and St. Paul was driven to purge himself but yet in such sort as he stood upon the Justification of his Apostolical Authority I grant saith he That they are Ministers of Christ but withal he addeth these words I am more protesting that although he was more than they were yet he sought to have no Dominion over the Faith of any The places quoted in the Margent deserve due consideration and many other to the same purpose might be added unto them Now forasmuch as the Apostles did well understand the said Oppositions Dissentions and Emulations and that the People had as well Experience what Equality wrought amongst their Ministers in every place whilst each Man would be a Director as he list himself and accordingly broach his own Fancies without Controulment or sparing of any that stood in his way as also how themselves the people were distracted and led to the embracing of Divers Sects and Schisms they the said Apostles having now no such leisure and opportunity as that they could themselves every where appease these Quarrels did find it necessary to settle another Course for the redress of them by others For whereas before the Apostles held it convenient when they first planted Ministers in every City to detain still in their own hand the Power of Ordination and the authority of the Keys of Ecclesiastical Government because they themselves for that time with the Evangelists and others their Coadjutors were sufficient to oversee and rule them Now for the Reasons above-mentioned they did commit those their said two Prerogatives containing in them all Episcopal Power and Authority unto such of their said Coadjutors as upon sufficient tryal of their Abilities and Diligence they knew to be meet Men both whilst they themselves lived to be their Substitutes and after their deaths to be their Succcessors both for the Continuance of the work of Christ for the further building of his Church and likewise for the perpetual Government of it And in this manner the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments who had the charge but of one particular Church or Congregation and were of an inferiour Degree were distinguished from the first and superiour sort of Ministers termed most of them before The Apostles Coadjutors and now and from thenceforth called Bishops Unto which sort of worthy and selected Coadjutors and unto some others also of especial Desert so advanced to the Titles and Offices of Bishops the Apostles did commit the charge and oversight of all the particular Congregations Ministers and Christian people that dwelt in one City and in the Towns and Villages thereunto appertaining And such were the Angels of the seven Churches in Asia who were then the Bishops of those Cities with their several Territories and so in all times and ages that since have succeeded have ever been reputed And unto some others the most principal and chief men of the said Number the Apostles did likewise give Authority not only over the
dispose them all according to his divine pleasure Yet the Parasitical and sottish Crew of Romish Canonists with the new Sectaries their Companions will assuredly moil and repine thereat telling us by the Pen of one of their Fellows the veriest Idiot we think amongst them That all Power Dominion and Worldly Principality was left by Christ after his Ascension unto St. Peter That two times are to be considered in Christ the one before his Passion when propter humilitatem he refused to judge that is to shew himself a Temporal Magistrate the other after his Resurrection and then he said All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth That Christ after his Resurrection gave his Power to St. Peter and made him his Vicar and that ex potestate Domini the Power of his Vicar is to be measured And to advance that Power as highly as he can supposing that what he can say thereof doth belong to St. Peter he quoteth a number of places out of the Scriptures concerning the Dignity Honour Royalty and Majesty attributed to our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension by reason of the Unition so oft before by us mentioned and doth conclude That cessantibus rationibus humilitatis necessitatis atque paupertatis that the reasons of his former humility necessity and poverty ceasing Christ did shew himself to be the Lord of all ut ascensurus ad Patrem eandem potestatem Petro relinqueret And moreover he is peremptory that Peter did exercise this temporal Power in suâ propriâ naturâ temporaliter in the proper nature of it temporally for it is said in the Acts c. 5. that he condemn'd Ananias and Sapphira pro crimine facti ad panam civiliter for the crime of a fact to a punishment civilly Now if Peter were so great a Temporal Monarch whilst he lived what must we think of his Vicar the Pope and how royal is the Estate of all Archbishops and Bishops that have any dependency upon him For as the especial Jesuit and Cardinal an Enemy to the Canonists in this point doth infer Si Papa est Dominus totius orbis Christiani supremus ergo singuli Episcopi sunt principes temporales in oppidis suo Episcopatui subjectis If the Pope be Lord of all the Christian World then it followeth that all particular Bishops are temporal Princes in the Cities and Towns subject to their Bishopricks To the manifestation of all which the said Canonist his so absurd and gross assertions before we proceed any further We hold it not unfit for the reasons elsewhere specified by us when we shewed that Christ was no temporal Lord nor had any temporal Dominion after the manner of other Kings First to hear the Cardinal how he shaketh the very ground-work and foundation of all these Vanities For whereas his Opposites would make St. Peter and consequently the Pope his Successor to derive such their infinite Power and temporal Authority from Christ after his Resurrection as he was then a Man immortal and glorious having cast off his former infirmities and mortality The Cardinal is resolute to the contrary and doth reason in this sort Christus ut homo dum in terris vixit non accepit nec voluit ullum temporale Dominium Summus autem Pontifex Christi Vicarius est Christum nobis repraesentat qualis erat dum hic inter homines viveret Igitur summus Pontifex ut Christi Vicarius atque adeo ut summus Pontifex est nullum habet temporale Dominium Christ as he was Man and lived upon the Earth neither did nor would receive any temporal Dominion But the Pope is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us in that Estate and Condition that he lived in here amongst Men therefore the Pope as Christ's Vicar and so as he is the highest Bishop hath no temporal Dominion And again Dicimus Papam habere illud Officium quod habuit Christus dum in terris inter homines humano more viveret Neque enim Pontifici possumus tribuere officia quae habuit Christus ut Deus vel ut homo immortalis gloriosus sed solum ea quae habuit ut homo mortalis We say that the Pope hath that Office that Christ had when he lived in the Earth amongst Men after the manner of Men for we cannot ascribe unto him those Offices which Christ hath as he is God or as he is Man immortal and glorious but only those which he had as a mortal Man Neither doth he stay here but goeth on forward saying Add that the Pope hath not all that Power which Christ had as a mortal Man For He because he was God and Man had a certain Power which is called a Power of Excellency by the which he govern'd both faithful Men and Insidels but the Pope hath only committed unto him his Sheep that is such Persons as are faithful Again Christ had Power to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which things the Pope cannot do Also Christ might absolve Men from their Sins without the Sacraments which the Pope cannot Nay the Cardinal was so far from believing that all Power and Worldly Principality was left by Christ unto St. Peter and so unto his Successors as he confesseth in effect that neither St. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome nor any of his Successors can challenge so much as a rural Farm or any other kind of temporal Possessions which have not been given unto them by the Emperours and other Temporal Princes And lest such gifts might be held by any to be unlawful he to prove the contrary alledgeth that they were godly Princes who so endowed the Church of Rome These are his words Qui donaverunt Episcopo Romano aliisque Episcopis Principatus temporales pii homines fuerunt eâ de causâ praecipuè à totâ Ecclesiâ commendati sunt ut patet de Constantino Carolo magno Ludovico ejus silio qui inde Pius appellatus est They who gave to the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops temporal Principalities were godly Men and for that cause especially were commended by the whole Church as appeareth ofConstantine Charles the Great and Lewis his Son who in that respect was called Lewis the Godly Again That the Pope holdeth in right that Principality which he hath may easily be perceived quia dono Principum habuit because he had it by the gift of Princes Of which gifts he saith the Authentical Instruments remain still in Rome adding nevertheless that if they had been lost abunde sufficeret praescriptio octingentorum annorum that a prescription of 800. years were abundantly sufficient to prove the Pope's right And unto these words of Bernard Forma Apostolica haec est interdicitur Dominatio indicitur Ministratio he answereth that Bernard doth speak of the Bishop of Rome secundum id quod habet ex Christi institutione Also
Gregory the First denouncing a Curse against that Bishop qui jubet alicui Agro more fiscali Titulum imprimi who doth challenge to hold any Possessions as an absolute Temporal Prince in right of his Church the Cardinal doth answer That it is not to be marvelled that Gregory would not have Bishops nor the prefects of the Patrimony of the Church of Rome to use More fiscali in recovering the Possessions of the Church For saith he Nondum habuerat Ecclesia politicum principatum sed possidebat Bona temporalia ad eum modum quo privati homines possident Itaque aequum erat ut Agros quos suos esse censebat Ecclesia si forte ab aliis occuparentur in Judicio legitimo eos repeteret non autem More fiscali propriâ sibi Autoritate vendicaret that is for as yet meaning when Gregorylived which was 600. years after Christ the Church had no political Principality but did possess her temporal goods in the same manner whereby other private Citizens possessed theirs And therefore it was agreeable to Equity that if perhaps the Possessions which the Church supposed to be hers were occupied by other men she was to require them Judicio legitimo in a temporal Court of the Prince of whom the same were held and might not challenge them to her self by her own proper Authority More fiscali as Sovereign Princes do when their right is detained from them Lastly the Cardinal is so far driven by a worthy Man and some others of our side who held it unlawful for the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops to be absolute Worldly Princes whosoever do bestow that Soveraignty upon them the same being directly against Christ's words Vos autem non sic and for many other reasons as he flieth to the times of the Maccabees when the Ordinances of God as touching the High-Priesthood were utterly neglected and nothing in effect left in the Church but Pride Presumption Blood and Confusion as we have declar'd in our first Book cap. 32. and would gladly thereby uphold the Pope's Regalities These are his words Although perhaps it were absolutely better that Bishops should deal with Spiritual matters and Kings with temporal Yet in respect of the malice of times experience doth cry that some temporal Principalities were not only profitable but also of necessity and by the singular Providence of God given to the Bishop ofRome and to other Bishops For if in Germany the Bishops had not been Princes none had continued to this day in their Seats As therefore in the Old Testament the High-Priests were for a long time without temporal Authority or Empire yet in the latter times Religion could not have continued and been defended except the High-Priest had been King that is in the time of the Maccabees So we see it hath faln out to the Church that she which in her first times had no need of temporal Principality to defend her Majesty doth now seem necessarily to have need of it As though he should have said Now that the Church of Rome hath in her Pride and Presumption determined still to Tyrannize over all Kings Priests Kingdoms and Churches contrary to the rules and prescription of our Saviour Christ and of his blessed Apostles the Popes must needs be temporal Kings Thus far we have followed the Cardinal who is bold to affirm That neither St. Peter nor the Popes his pretended Successors nor any other of the Apostles nor of their Successors Archbishops or Bishops nor any other Minister nor all the Ministers in the World if they were together do succeed Christ as he was after his Resurrection or Ascension a Man immortal and glorious but only as he was a mortal Man and lived here in that Estate upon the Earth without the enjoying of any temporal Kingdom or Regal Possessions contenting himself to be only a Spiritual King and to have in this World a Spiritual Kingdom that is his Church so termed because he ruleth only in those Mens hearts which are true Members of it the Gospel also being named Evangelium Regni because it containeth the Doctrine of our Messiah and Spiritual King and how he doth establish his Spiritual Kingdom in and amongst Men. Of which Spiritual Kingdom some little further consideration and how our Saviour Christ obtained it and then did and still doth govern it will make the folly of those Men more apparent which cannot apprehend the Excellency of it except it have joined with it all Worldly Principalities and Authority None is ignorant that hath any sense of Christianity how all Men by nature were the Children of wrath and how before they embraced Christ by Faith they walked according to the course of this World and after the Prince that ruleth in the air even the Spirit that still worketh in the Children of Disobedience Which wicked Spirit being termed the Spirit of darkness all his Subjects and Servants and whatsoever they take in hand are called the Children and works of darkness From whose Service had not our Saviour Christ delivered us and by subduing and vanquishing this wicked Prince taken actually the possession of our hearts where the Devil before raigned we had been still in the state of wrath and damnation Whereas now through Grace and by Faith Christ dwelling in our hearts we are no more darkness but light in the Lord nor are to hold any longer fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness or of the flesh but are bound being replenished with God's holy Spirit to bring forth the fruits and operations of the same To this vanquishment of Satan by our Saviour Christ these Scriptures following have relation If I by the Finger of God do cast out Devils doubtless the Kingdom of God is come unto you When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace the things which he possesseth are in Peace but when a stronger than he cometh upon him and overcometh him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth the spoils Again Now is the Judgment of this World now shall the Prince of this World be cast out And again We cease not to pray for you c. That you might walk worthy of the Lord c. Giving thanks to God the Father c. Who hath deliver'd us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have Redemption through his Blood Again Christ putting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us c. He took it out of the way and fastned it upon the Cross and hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers and hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them in himself And lastly He that committeth Sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose appeared the Son of God that he might loose the works of the Devil Now our Saviour Christ did by fullfilling the Law for
fault What the Cardinal's Friends will say of his perverting the Apostle's meaning with so desperate an Exposition we are uncertain but of this we are sure that the Estate of that Church must needs be very miserable that cannot be upheld without so apparent injury done to the Holy Ghost Which observation we thought fit to make in this place because he once having past the bounds of all Modesty or rather Piety is grown to that presumption and hardness of heart against the truth as that he dareth to ground another of his Reasons to prove that the Pope hath Authority indirectly to depose Kings and Princes upon these words spoken to St. Peter Pasce oves meas Feed my Sheep Touching which words because we have a fitter place to entreat we will here be silent and address our selves to his fourth Reason as idle and as false as any of the rest These are his words When Kings and Princes come to the Church that they may be made Christians they are received cum pacto expresso vel tacito with a condition expressed or implied without any mention made of it that they do submit their Scepters unto Christ and do promise that they will keep and defend the Faith of Christ Etiam sub poenâ Regni perdendi even under pain of losing their Kingdoms Therefore when they become Hereticks or do hinder Religion they may be judged by the Church and also deposed from their Principality and there shall be no injury done unto them if they be deposed For answer whereof first we say That in all the Forms of Baptisms which hitherto have been published we cannot learn that there was ever any such express Covenant as the Cardinal here mentioneth required of any King when he came to be Christned Baptism is the Entrance ordain'd by Christ into the Church which is his spiritual Kingdom and agreeably to the nature of that Kingdom all who are thereby to enter into it of what Calling or Condition sover they are as well poor as rich private Persons as Princes are according to the Rules of Baptism practised in all the particular Churches in the World for ought that is known to the contrary either themselves in their own Persons or if they be Infants by their Sureties to profess their belief in Christ and to Promise that they will forsake the Devil and all his Works the vain Pomp and Glory of the World with all covetous desires of the same and carnal desires of the Flesh and that they do constantly believe God's holy word and that they will keep his Commandments The willful breach of any of which points and perseverance in it without Repentance doth indeed deprive every Christian Man of what Calling soever he be from the interest he had by his said profession and promise when he was Baptized to the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ in this Life that is from being a true and lively Member of the Church and mystical Body of Christ and from the Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come But that any Man by the breach of any Promise made when he was Baptized should lose that which he gain'd not by his Baptism or that the Church did never receive any King or Prince to Baptism but either upon condition in express terms or by implication made either by himself or by his Godfathers that he would submit his Scepter unto Christ that is unto the Bishop of Rome as the Cardinal's drift sheweth his meaning to be and promise to keep and defend the Faith of Christ under pain of the loss of his Kingdom is certainly a Doctrine of Devils and was never heard of in the Church of Christ for many hundred years but is utterly repugnant to the Analogy of Scripture and to the true nature of Christian Baptism These secret intentions for as we have said there was never any Form of Baptism that contain'd any such express contract as the Cardinal speaketh of Mental Reservations and hidden Compacts such as Men were never taught in the Primitive Church nor ever dream'd of or suspected to be thrust into one of the holy Sacraments may well become the Impostors of Rome but are altogether contrary to the meaning of Christ and of his holy Apostles In whose days he that believed was baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost without any such jugling or snares laid to hazard and entangle Mens temporal Estates There is nothing in the Gospel whereof Men ought to be ashamed or which will not abide the touchstone of truth if it be compared with the rest of the Scriptures or that doth not promote the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ it being called in that respect Evangelium Regni the Gospel of the Kingdom Now whether this underhand bargaining be suitable or no with the sincerity of the Holy Ghost or whether if it had been known in the Primitive Church that all Men who would submit themselves to the Doctrine of the Gospel and be baptized did thereby bind themselves to be subject and at the Commandment of the Bishop of Rome for the time being under pain to lose all their Worldly Estates the knowledge thereof would not rather have hinder'd than either promoted or further'd the good success of the Gospel no Man is so simple but he may easily discern it Assuredly the Grecians who did so long oppose themselves against the Authority which the Bishops of Rome did challenge over all Churches were ignorant of this mystical point of Baptism and so were all the Churches in the World for many Ages or else there would not have been so great stirs in the World about the continual Usurpations and Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome as are many ways testified by sundry Ecclesiastical Histories But we insist too long upon this so ridiculous and impudent a fiction and therefore will come to the Cardinal 's principal reason of the Pope's said indirect temporal Authority to toss Kings and Kingdoms up and down as he list The Ecclesiastical Commonwealth saith he must be perfect and sufficient of her self in order to her own end for such are all Commonwealths that are well instituted and therefore she ought to have all necessary Power to the obtaining of her own end But the Power of using and disposing of temporal things is necessary to the Spiritual End because otherwise Evil Princes might without punishment nourish Hereticks and overthrow Religion and therefore the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth hath this Power Hitherto the Cardinal The substance of whose Argument is that the Church of Christ cannot attain to her Spiritual End except the Bishop of Rome have Authority to dispose of temporal Kingdoms and to punish Kings by deposing them from their Crowns if he hold it expedient For the refutation of which vain and false Assertion there are very many most direct and apparent Arguments We will only touch some few of them Our Saviour Christ in his days and the Apostles in their times and the Primitive
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
great temporal Power in the Pope over Princes as without the which the Church of Christ could not attain her Spiritual End had been known to the Apostles and Ancient Fathers they would not have been as careful and zealous to have preached and divulged the same unto all Posterity as now the Bishops of Rome and their Adherents are or that we ought not rather to believe that the Bishops of Rome and their Adherents through their forsaking the love of the Truth are given over by God unto those strong Illusions that they should believe lies and maintain them as stifly as though they were true than once to conceive that the holy Apostles and ancient Fathers were either ignorant of this supposed temporal Authority to Depose Kings and Princes for the end so often mentioned or thought it fit to dissemble it or to write of it so darkly as for many Hundred years it could not be understood or that God hath not wonderfully blinded the hearts and understandings both of the Popes and all their Adherents in this particular matter amongst many others in that the nature of the Church and Spiritual Kingdom of Christ considered they dare presume to maintain it so confidently that the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ cannot attain to her Spiritual End without the Bishop of Rome his Temporal Authority indirectly in some Cases to Depose Kings and Soveraign Princes or that the true Spiritual End of the Church consisting in this that the Devil being banished out of the hearts of all her true Members Christ may retain his Possession of them through their Faith and diligence to repel Satan who daily laboureth to regain to himself his own Possession it is not more than a kind of phrensy to hold and maintain that any temporal Authority managed by the Pope or by his Commandment against Kings and Princes hath any force or power to work or procure this Spiritual End either by expelling or repelling of Satan or to nourish Faith or to continue the reigning of Christ in any Mens hearts or that it is not an impious and a profane assertion for any Man to defend that the Weapons and Armour of this Spiritual Warfare undertaken by Christ and his Apostles and by all godly Bishops and true Priests and Ministers of the Gospel are not sufficient of themselves to procure to the Church her Spiritual End without the Pope's carnal Weapons or temporal Authority to Depose Kings when to him with the assistance of his Cardinals it shall seem expedient He doth greatly Erre CAP. XI The Sum of the Chapter following That there is no more necessity of one visible Head of the Catholick Church than of one visible Monarch over all the World IN the 35 th and 36 th Chapters of our first Book We have shewed at large that our Saviour Christ the Son of God having created the World and taken upon him to be the Redeemer of Mankind after their transgression through Adam's Fall did not only as he was the Son of God govern all the World the same being in that respect but one Universal Kingdom and appoint several Kings and Sovereign Princes as his Substitutes to rule the same under him in their several Countries and Kingdoms leaving no one Emperour or temporal Monarch to govern them all but likewise as he was the blessed Lamb slain from the beginning of the World he did for his own Glory and our endless Comfort erect for himself in this World a Spiritual Kingdom called his Church consisting of such Men dispersed throughout the World as did profess his name and being himself the only Head and Governour of it in which respect it is rightly to be termed but One Catholick Church did appoint no one Priest over the whole Catholick Church but several Priests and Ecclesiastical Ministers to rule and govern the particular Churches in every Province Country and Nation And in such manner and form as our Saviour Christ did rule and govern his Universal Kingdom and Catholick Church before his Incarnation So doth he still rule and govern the same notwithstanding any of those vain pretences and ridiculous Usurpations which the Bishops of Rome or any of their Adherents are able to alledge and maintain to the contrary In the Gloss of one of the Books of the Canon-Law not long since Printed and approved by Gregory the Thirteenth a Glossographer and now an Authentical Canonist doth write in this sort Dicò quod potestas Spiritualis debet dominari omni creaturae humanae I say that the Spiritual Power ought to domineer over every humane Creature And why saith he so Forsooth Per rationes quas Hostiensis inducit in summa for certain causes and reasons which Hostiensis another Canonist doth alledge in his sum But he stayeth not there he hath another motive which he setteth down thus Item quia Christus c. Also because Jesus Christ the Son of God when he was in the World and also from everlasting was the natural Lord and by the natural Law he might have given Sentences against the Emperour and any other whatsoever of Deposition and damnation and any other Sentences Vtpote in personas quas creaverat donis naturalibus gratuitis dotaverat etiam conservabat As against Persons whom he had created and endowed with natural and free gifts and also whom he did preserve eadem ratione Vicarius ejus potest and by one and the same reason saith he his Vicar may so do What would Pope Gregory by his Canonists make Men to believe that all Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are Persons of the Pope's Creation or that he doth bestow on them freely any gifts or benefits of Nature or that their preservation doth depend upon his good favour and Providence But the idle Canonist his Wit doth serve him no better than to make in effect this fond Collection Christ the Creator of all things doth govern rule dispose and preserve all his own Creatures therefore the Pope must likewise govern rule dispose and preserve them all though he created none of them And why must he so do he wanteth not a very substantial reason that moved him so to collect which followeth in his own words Nam non videretur Dominus discretus fuisse ut cum Reverentià ejus loquar nisi unicum post se talem Vicarium reliquisset qui haec omnia posset Fuit autem iste Vicarius ejus Petrus Et idem dicendum est de Successoribus Petri cùm eadem absurditas sequeretur si post mortem Petri humanam naturam à se creatam sine regimine unius personae reliquisset For Christ should not have been thought a Person of sufficient discretion that with his Reverence I may so speak except he had left behind him one such Vicar who might do all these things And this his Vicar was Peter And the same is to be said of the Successors of Peter seeing the same absurdity must follow if after Peter's Death he
had left Mankind created by himself without the regiment of one Person And Mr. Harding one of our own Countrymen doth wholly concur with this profound Canonist saving that he dealeth more civilly with Christ in using the word Providence instead of the Canonist's Discretion Thus he writeth Except we should wickedly grant that God's Providence doth lack to his Church reason may soon induce us to believe that to one Man the chief and highest of all Bishops the Successor of Peter the Rule and Government of the Church by God hath been deferred And he further doth express his opinion to this effect That if God had not ordain'd such a Monarchical Church-Government he should have brought in amongst his faithful People that unruly confusion and destruction of all Commonwealths so much abhorred of Princes which the Grecians call an Anarchy which is a state for lack of order in Governours without any Government at all That our Saviour Christ is the sole Governour Head and Archbishop of his Catholick Church as he is the only Governour Ruler and Monarch over all the World and that his Discretion and Divine Providence is no more to be blemished or impeached by the Cavils of any Impostors in that he hath appointed no one Priest Archbishop or Pope to be his Vicar-General over the whole Catholick Church than for that he hath not assigned any one King Emperour or Monarch to rule the whole World under him this is the point that here we purpose to make good taking it in this place for granted that there was never any one Man in the World to whom our Saviour Christ did commit the Government of it after the time that it was Peopled and throughly inhabited that is from Noah's Flood at the least hitherto They that labour to prove that the Bishop of Rome is Head of the Universal Church and that Christ should have shewed little Discretion or Providence if he had not so ordain'd it do insist very much upon the grounds of natural reason and philosophy telling us out of Plato Aristotle Plutarch Isocrates Stobaeus Hesiodus Euripides Homer Herodotus and divers others That of all the kinds of Government that are the Monarchical Government is the best That in a great Host consisting of Souldiers of divers Nations and Countries and perhaps of many Soveraign Princes and Kings there must be one General to govern them all That all things naturally have a propension and aptness to Monarchical Government That Bees of every Hive have their King That in every Flock of Sheep there is a principal Ram That in every Herd of Cattel hath a Leader That Cranes do not fly promiscuously and in heaps but have one whom they do all very orderly follow That amongst Coelestial Spheres there is but one Primum Mobile That in the number of the lights of the World one is greater than the rest That there is a certain Principality in the Elements That the Fountain is but one from whence divers times there flow sundry Streams That into one Sea all Rivers do run and return That the thing which is most one is less easily divided That it is rather one which is simply one than a multitude conspiring in one And that for these and many other like reasons seeing the Monarchical Government is best and that we may be sure that Christ would have his Church governed by the best manner of Government except we should think him to have dealt absurdly as a Person void both of good Discretion and Providence It followeth therefore that Christ committed the Government of it unto one first to St. Peter and then to his Successor the Bishop of Rome for the time being If this one Jesuit and his Fellows would upon the said Philosophical premises have concluded thus That it therefore had followed that Christ himself doth not only retain in his own hands the sole Government of his Catholick Church as he is the only Redeemer of it but likewise the sole Government of the whole World as he is the Creator of it the Conclusion had been true although the premises had not enforced it But how stifly soever they meant to insist upon the said Conclusion without any regard of truth so they may blear the Eyes of the simpler sort with such their vain Illusions We may be bold as we hope resolutely to defend and maintain it that the said natural reasons are of as great strength to prove That there ought of necessity to be one temporal Monarch over all the World as one Ecclesiastical Monarch over the whole Catholick Church although in very deed they are far too feeble and weak to prove either the one or the other For who knoweth not that when the Philosophers did write in commendation of the Monarchical Government they only had Relation to particular Nations and Countries endeavouring to prove that it was better for them severally to be ruled by that Form of Government which is called Monarchical than by any of the rest Aristocratical Democratical or any other And it was so far from their meaning to have their said reasons wrested to prove that one mortal Man ought to have the Government of the Catholick Church the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ as they never dreamed for ought that appeareth that one Man in their Judgment was fit or able to take upon him the Temporal Government of the whole World To which purpose a principal Lawyer amongst our Adversaries doth write in this sort Naturâ ipsâ institutum non est quòd universus Orbis uni Principi subditus sit It is not ordain'd by nature that the whole World should be subject to one Prince If then it be an idle vanity for any Man to go about by natural reason to prove that one Man ought to be the temporal Monarch of all the World which nature her self did never intend it is then certainly a kind of madness or phrenzy to rely upon such proofs for the Popes spiritual Authority over the whole Catholick Church neither of them both being comprehensible or subject to the apprehensions of nature Again these Patrons for the Pope and his Primacy over the whole Catholick Church have not only such Arguments as we have heard drawn from natural reason but some likewise deduced from sundry similitudes and those out of the Scriptures upon which they rely with some more confidence as reason is they should saying that God made all Mankind ex uno Adamo of one Adam to signify thereby that he would have all Men to depend ab uno of one but the Old Testament was a figure of the new and that therefore as there was but one High-Priest amongst the Jews to govern that one Church so now there must be but one Pope to govern all the Churches in the World that Aaron was not only a figure of Christ but likewise of St. Peter that the Church is compared to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Fold
to an House to a Ship and that therefore she must have but one Captain one humane Head one King one Pastor one Housholder and one Pilot that although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless that although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself but being absent doth usually appoint another under him who is called his Vice-Roy that every Diocess and Province hath her Bishops and Archbishops to govern the particular Churches under them within their several Charges and that therefore there must be one Bishop of the whole Catholick Church to rule and govern them all Lastly That as there is but one God one Faith and one Baptism so there must be in the Catholick Church but one chief Bishop and Judge upon whom all Men ought to depend Many more are the reasons grounded upon divers other similitudes which our Adversaries have heaped up together to uphold the Pope's Authority all of them being as vain and frivolous as the former For it is certain and manifest that as the Catholick Church is resembled in the Scriptures to an Host well ordered to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock of Sheep to an House and to a Ship so Christ only is intended thereby to be her only General her only Head her only King her only Shepherd her only Housholder and her only Pilot. Neither can any other thing be inforced from the words mentioned of one Faith and one Baptism but that as we are only justified through a lively Faith in Christ so there is but one Baptism ordain'd whereby we have our first entrance into his Spiritual Kingdom and are made particular Members of his Catholick Church Besides in the like sense that the Catholick Church is resembled to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock to an House to a Ship so may the Universal Kingdom of Christ over the whole World as he is the Creator of it be resembled to them all and the aforesaid Titles respectively attributed unto him The whole World is an Host under him well order'd and he is the General of it The whole World is but as one Body whereof he is the Head being the Life of all Men from whom as from their Head they have their Sense Understanding and Motion The whole Universal World is but his Kingdom and he is the King of it ruling and disposing it as seemeth best to his divine Wisdom The whole World is with him but one Flock and he is the Shepherd of it all Men in it being the Sheep of his Pasture to whom he giveth food and sustentation in due season Also he ordereth all the affairs in the World as a good Housholder doth order and direct all the businesses and troubles appertaining to his Family Likewife the whole World may aptly be compared to a Ship in that the State of all Mankind living in it is subject as a Ship on the Sea unto all manner of contrary Winds Tempests and Storms of which Ship were not Christ as he is the Creator of the World the only Pilot the World could not subsist And as the Catholick Church is resembled to a Fold which containeth in it all that believe in Christ so may the universal Kingdom of Christ over all the World be compared unto a Fold in that it containeth in it all Mankind generally his Heavenly Care and Providence evermore protecting them Moreover as there is but one Catholick Church one Head or Spiritual Ruler of it Christ our Redeemer one Christian Faith one Baptism one Gospel one Truth one and the self-same Form or Nature of all the several Theological Virtues and one Inheritance which are all of them to be taught embraced and expected by all that are true Members of the Catholick Church So there is but one Universal Kingdom in all the World the Creator of it being the sole Emperour and Governour of it one moral Faith one Nature of Truth to be observed amongst all one rule and nature of Justice one moral Law one nature of Equity one Kind Form or Nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual which are to be put in practice as occasion requireth in this one Empire by as many as expect from Christ their Emperour any happy success in their Worldly affairs But as all these Unities in the temporal Monarchy of Christ are no sufficient grounds to warrant this assertion that there ought to be one temporal King or Emperour under Christ to govern the whole World so the aforesaid Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Unities are not able to establish or uphold this Inference That one Pope must of necessity have the Government under Christ of the whole Catholick Church Also from the authority of Scripture that God made all Mankind of one Adam to signify that he would have all Men to depend upon one why may it not as well be collected that he meant that all the Men in the World should depend upon one Emperour for causes Temporal as upon one Pope in Causes Ecclesiastical Likewise it is a very absurd conceit that our Jesuit maintaineth when he saith That although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself and when he is absent appoint his Vice-Roy Of likelyhood this Fellow would perswade us that Christ is sometimes absent from his Church to the end that the Pope may be his grand Deputy For otherwise by his own Example Christ may govern the Catholick Church without the Pope as the King ruling himself in his own Kingdom needeth no Vice-Roy That Christ is never absent from his Church but doth by his Power Grace and Virtue of the Holy Ghost still defend and protect it It is plain by his own words where he saith Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World It is true that he told his Apostles that he was to depart from them meaning that they must be deprived of his Corporal presence but did he signify unto them that for their comfort he would leave St. Peter in his place and after him the Bishops of Rome St. Peter's Successors to govern his Church to the end of the World No such matter These are our Saviour Christ's words It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you Again When he is come which is the Spirit of truth he will lead you into all truth Again I will pray to my Father and he
shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth Again The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things And again I will not leave you comfortless but I will come unto you Which he doth continually when he upholdeth his Church daily against Satan and all that do malign it So as we may far more rightly and safely term the Holy Ghost to be Christ's Vicar-General over all the Catholick Church than we may ascribe that title to the Pope the Holy Ghost being ever present and ready not only to defend the Church generally but to aid and comfort every particular Member of it wheresoever they are dispersed upon the face of the Earth which we suppose the Pope is not able to perform We have before laboured to make it manifest that our Saviour Christ is the Creator of the World and the Governour of it that he hath redeemed and sanctified unto himself his Church whereof he is the sole Monarch that he hath neither appointed any one Emperour under him to govern the whole World nor any one Priest or Archbishop to rule the whole Catholick Church that as in respect of Christ the Creator all the World is but one Kingdom whereof he is the only King so in respect of Christ our Redeemer all that believe in his name wheresoever they are dispersed are but one Catholick Church and that the said one Catholick Church is not otherwise visible in this World than is the said one Universal Kingdom of Christ the Creator of it viz. by the several and distinct parts of them as by this or that National Church by this or that temporal Kingdom For our Saviour Christ having made the external Government of his Catholick Church suitable to the Government of his Universal Monarchy over all the World hath by the Institution of the Holy Ghost order'd to be placed in every Kingdom as before in another place we have observed Archbishops Bishops and inferiour Ministers to govern the particular Churches therein planted Priests Ministers in every particular Parish and over them Bishops within their several Diocesses as likewise Archbishops to have the Inspection and charge over all the rest according to the Platform ordain'd in substance by himself in the Old Testament as he hath in like manner appointed Kings and Sovereign Princes with their inferiour Magistrates of divers sorts to rule and govern his People under him in every Kingdom Country and Sovereign Principality some of their said inferiour Magistrates having Authority from their Soveraigns in particular Parishes some in Hundreds some in Shires or Countries and some in Governments of larger extents there being amongst them all divers degrees of Persons one over another and their Kings and Soveraign Princes excelling them all in Power and Authority as the Persons appointed by God to rule and direct all their Subjects of what calling soever in the right use of the Authority and Magistracy which they have committed unto them And we cannot but wonder as well at our said Jesuit where he saith That although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless as likewise at our Countryman Harding who saith as is above-noted that if God had not deferred to one Man that is to Peter and his Successors the Rule and Government of the Church he should have brought amongst his faithful People that unruly Confusion which is called an Anarchy For were these their vain conceits and imaginations true then would it by the same reason follow that albeit there be but one and proper Monarch over all the World which is Christ that created it yet the same hath need of one visible Monarch or otherwise Emperours and all other Kings Princes and civil Magistrates were needless or otherwise Christ should have left amongst his People throughout the World that unruly confusion and destruction of all Common-wealths so much abhorred of Princes which the Grecians call an Anarchy which is a state for lack of order in Governours without any Government at all The fondness of which two consequents do so plainly argue the folly and falshood of the two former as we need no other refutation of them For if all Christian Kingdoms and Soveraign Princes would banish the Pope with his Usurped Authority as the Monarchy of Britany hath done and retain under them the Apostolical Form of Church-Government by Archbishops and Bishops with other degrees of Ministers as before we have divers times specified they should find the Churches in their several Dominions as well governed by them the said Archbishops and Bishops without one Pope to rule the whole Catholick Church as they have experience of the sufficiency of their own Regal and Soveraign Form of Government in their several Kingdoms and Countries notwithstanding there be no one Monarch over all the World to command or direct them And for an Example not to be controlled to make this good that here we affirm we leave unto them God 's own Form both of Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government established by himself amongst his own people the Jews Nay why should we doubt but that Kings and Soveraign Princes notwithstanding the Mists and Darkness wherewith the Bishops of Rome have daily sought to dim their Eyes have had long since a Glimpse of this Light and Truth About 400. and some odd Years since in the latter end of the Reign of Henry the second and in the days of Richard the first both of them Kings of England first Baldwin and then Hubertus being Archbishops of Canterbury there was a mighty Controversy betwixt them and the Bishops of Rome about the erecting of a new Cathedral Church in Lambeth the said Kings and Archbishops having a resolution utterly to banish out of this Kingdom the Popes Authority if the Monks of Canterbury in their Allegation to Pope Celestine against the said Cathedral Church did inform him truly These are their Words as they are recorded by Reginaldus one of the said Monks as it seemeth then living who hath written a whole Book of that matter In tantum enim jam opus processit quod ibi ordinatur Decanus Praepositus plusquam quadraginta Canonici de Bonis Cantuariensis Ecclesiae fundati genere nobiles divitiis affluentes cognati Regum Pontificum Quidam ipsi Regi adhaerent quidam Fisci negotia administrantes familiares Episcopis iisdem confoederati Adversuss tantos tales quid poterit Ecclesia Cantuariensis Certè timendum est non solùm Cantuariensis Ecclesiae sed quod Deus avertat ne hujus rei occasione sedis Apostolicae Autoritati in partibus Anglicanis derogetur Quùm enim fundaretur Canonica illa vox erat omnium sententia singulorum ut ibi essent
Episcopi quasi Cardinales Archiepiscopus sederet quasi Papa ibi omnis Appellatio subsisteret querela Hoc quidem Rex Henricus machinabatur approbant quamplures Episcopi hâc de causâ ut dictum est ut possent de sub jugo sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae colla excutere Now the building of the said Church is so forward that there is ordain'd there a Dean a Provost and more than 40. Canons founded of the Goods of the Church of Canterbury by birth Noblemen abounding in Wealth Allies of the King and of the Bishops Some of them do adhere to the King some have Offices in the Exchequer all of them familiar Friends to the Bishops and of a Confederacy with them Against such and so great Persons what is the Church of Canterbury able to do Certainly it is to be feared not only that the Church of Canterbury shall hereby be overthrown but that upon this occasion the Authority of the Apostolical See which God forbid shall in England be greatly diminish'd und prejudiced For when this Canonry or Cathedral Church was founded it was the common fame and the opinion of every Man that it was founded to this end that Bishops should be there as it were Cardinals and that the Archbishop should sit amongst them as Pope and that there all Appeals and complaints should be determined This assuredly was plotted by King Henry and the same very many Bishops do allow for this cause or end that so they might deliver their Necks from under the Yoke of the Holy Church of Rome Again after the Death of Celestin the Fourth the Cardinals being at so great a Dissention amongst themselves as that they could not agree for the space of a Year and nine Months who should succeed him both the Emperour and the French were greatly moved and offended therewith The Emperour finding his advice unto them to hasten their Choice to be despised and scorned and how dishonestly some of them had broken their Promises and Oaths unto him made in that behalf he gathered a great Host and dealt sharply with them And from France they received a Message that if they continued to dally as they did in prolonging the choice of a new Pope they would utterly leave Rome and choose to themselves a Pope of their own to govern the Churches on this side the Alps. Hereof Matthew Paris writeth thus Per idem tempus miserunt Franci solennes Nuncios ad Curiam Romanam significantes persuadendo praecisè efficaciter ut ipsi Cardinales Papam ritè eligentes Vniversali Ecclesiae solatium Pastorale maturiùs providerent vel ipsi Franci propter negligentiam eorum de sibi eligendo providendo summo Pontifice citra Montes cui obedire tenerentur quantocyùs contrectarent About that time the State of France did send their solemn Messengers to the Court of Rome signifying unto them and perswading them precisely and effectually that either the Cardinals should more speedily provide for the Vniversal Church her Pastoral Comfort by their due choice of a new Pope or else they themselves the French because of their negligence would forthwith fall into deliberation of choosing and providing for themselves a Pope on this side the Mountains whom they might be bound to obey Thus the said History Whereby as also by the former words of the Monks of Canterbury it is very evident that both England and France was long since in deliberation to have abandon'd the Authority of the Bishops of Rome out of both those Kingdoms as finding no necessity of the Universal overswaying power of the Roman Papacy and that the Churches within their several Countries and Territories might receive as great benefit and comfort by the Ecclesiastical Government of their own Archbishops in every respect as ever they had done from the Bishops of Rome For as it may truly be said not of one King to govern all the World but of every particular King in his own Kingdom so may it be truly affirmed not of one Pope to govern the whole Catholick Church but of every Archbishop in any National Church and Province to rule and direct the same that under the Government of one viz. of Kings for temporal Causes and of Archbishops for Ecclesiastical Causes there is the best order the greatest strength the most stability for continuance and the easiest manner and form of ruling We have spoken hitherto of the Government of the Church especially as it was in the Apostles times and afterward for the space of 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Enemies unto it Whereby we do infer that if the particular Churches setled then almost in every Country and Nation throughout the World had so good success when there were no Christian Magistrates nor had any assistance of the temporal Sword for the strengthning of their Ecclesiastical Government but only Ministers to teach and direct their Parishioners in the ways of Godliness and Bishops over them in every Diocess to oversee and rule as well the Ministers as the several People committed to their charge that they taught no new Doctrine or ran into Schisms and Archbishops over them all in every National Church and Province for the moderating and appeasing of such oppositions and dissentions as might otherwise have risen amongst the Bishops and so consequently have wrought great distraction betwixt their Diocesan Churches how much more then are the said particular Churches like to flourish and prosper under such a Form of Ecclesiastical Government wherein the Christian Magistrate is become to be as the chief Member of the Church so the chief Governour of it to keep as well the said Archbishops within their bounds and limits as all the rest of the Clergy and Christians Bishops Ministers and Parishioners that every one in their several places may execute and discharge their distinct Offices and Duties which are committed unto them We shall have fit occasion hereafter to speak of the Authority of Christian Princes in Causes Ecclesiastical here we do only still prosecute the Government of the Church when temporal Kings and Princes were her great and mortal Enemies and the Folly if not the obstinacy of our Adversaries who either see it not or will not acknowledge it that peace and quietness may as well be preserved in all the Churches in the World by Archbishops and Bishops without one Pope to govern them all as by Kings and Sovereign Princes in all the Kingdoms and temporal Governments in the World without one temporal Monarch to rule and oversway them For our Adversaries shall never be able to prove that it may be ascribed as we have before said more to any want of discretion and due Providence in our Saviour Christ that he hath not appointed the Pope to govern the Catholick Church than that he hath not assigned the Government of the whole World to one King or Emperour Rather it is to be attributed to their audacious temerity and presumption that will either enforce
our Saviour Christ to be contented with that Form of Government in his Church which they think good to assign unto him and so make him to divide stakes as the Phrase is with the Bishops of Rome or else to be reputed amongst them for a Person of little Discretion and Providence and to have dealt absurdly in ordering and setling the external Government of his Church as he had ordered and setled the external Government of his Universal Kingdom over all the Kings and Princes in the World Which profane wicked and blasphemous proceedings with Christ will no doubt in short time receive a heavy Judgment in that although the Man of sin hath long wrought in a mystery and taken upon him for his time and so every one of his Successors during their Lives to sit in the Temple of God vaunting that the said Temple or Spiritual Kingdom of Christ is wholly at his Command yet now he beginneth to be revealed and disclosed to be that Impostor that by the assistance of Satan hath with power and signs and lying wonders in all deceiveableness and unrighteousness long abused the Christian World and is consequently to be consumed by our Saviour Christ with the Spirit of his mouth In the mean while and till this work be throughly effected we are not to censure Christ either for his Discretion or Divine Providence but indeed to admire and magnify them both considering that by his Government both of the Universal World as he is the Son of God and of his Catholick Church as he is the Redeemer of it in such manner and form as we have before expressed by several Kings and Priests within their Kingdoms Provinces and Diocesses he hath left unto them certain general rules and motives which being diligently observed do tend to the universal good and preservation both of the one and the other though they have no assistance therein from the Bishops of Rome For as it is an apt and good reason to perswade all Kings and Kingdoms to live quietly with their Neighbour Princes and Nations and to be at a firm League and Friendship with them because they have all but one Heavenly King are Members and Subjects of one Universal Kingdom have or ought to have but one moral Faith one rule of Justice one square for Equity one nature of Truth one moral Law one Kind Form and nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual one natural Instinct to know God and to worship him and one Form and Rule of mutual love and affection So the particular Churches dispersed over the World when they had small Comfort from the civil Magistrate held themselves bound to have a special care one over another that matters of Religion might proceed by one rule with mutual Agreement and Uniformity for avoiding of Schisms in that they well knew they had all but one Redeemer and Saviour one Heavenly Spiritual King or Archbishop were all of them Members of one mystical Body whereof Christ was the Head had all of them but one Faith one Baptism one Spiritual Food one Hope one Bond of Charity one Redemption and one Everlasting Inheritance in the Life to come Which were such Arguments of mutual Consociation in those days as when any great matters of importance did fall out in any one Country through the willfulness and obstinacy of Hereticks and crafty Seducers of the People which perhaps were countenanced with some of strength and greater power than could easily be withstood their Neighbour Churches adjoining did sometimes assist them by their Letters with the best counsel they could give them and sometimes did send some especial Learned Men unto them for the better suppressing of those Evils and sometimes when occasions fell out thereunto moving sundry Archbishops and Bishops of several Countries with other learned Priests and Persons of principal note did as they might for fear of danger meet together and upon due and mature deliberation did so order and determine of matters as thereby Heresies and Contentions were still suppressed and the Churches in those Countries received great comfort and quietness And if in those troublesome times the peace of the Church were thus preserved how much more now under Christian Magistrates may it be strengthned upheld and maintain'd without the Pope not only within their several Kingdoms but likewise throughout in effect all these Western Parts of the World if Christian Kings and Soveraign Princes would agree together for a general Council to the end that all those Heresies Errours Impostures and Presumptions wherewith the Church of Christ hath been long and is now miserably shaken and disturbed might be at the last utterly suppressed and extinguished Many other means might here be alledged to shew how the state of Christian Religion is to be upheld and maintained without any assistance from the Bishop of Rome But our purpose being in this place to resemble and compare the government of the Catholick Church with the Universal Government of the Son of God over the whole World We hold it sufficient to observe That every National Church may as well subsist of her self without one Universal Bishop as every KIngdom may do without one general Monarch Nevertheless we acknowledge that in this particular Tractate we have been very tedious and it may be thought perhaps by some that our pains therein is altogether superfluous because many of our Adversaries do in effect acknowledge that there is the like necessity of one Emperour to govern all the World as there is of one Pope to have the oversight and ordering of the whole Catholick Church Indeed upon the sifting of the usurped Authority of the Bishops of Rome our Adversaries finding that by their Arguments to bolster up his said Authority the Erection of one Man to govern the World in temporal Causes is as necessarily to be inforced as of one Pope to govern the whole Church in Ecclesiastical Causes they are grown to this most admirable Insolency and most high presumption as that they dare affirm and do take upon them without all modesty to maintain it That the Pope is both the Monarch of the Catholick Church and the Emperour of all the World Which mystery of theirs is thus managed and by piece-meal unfolded after this sort viz. That to ease the Pope lest he might be oppressed with multitude of affairs if he should take upon him in his own Person to govern the whole World as he doth direct the especial affairs of the Catholick Church they do assign unto him Power and Authority to create and delegate under him as his Feudatary or Vassal this one supposed Emperour to whom they say he may commit the special Execution of his temporal Sword to be drawn and put up at his direction and commandment And for this one base Emperour over all the World many are now as busy as others are to maintain the Pope's Supremacy over the whole Catholick Church Now to prove that the Pope hath
Universal Dominion over all the World temporaelitèr temporally and likewise sufficient Power to institute and appoint one Emperour under him as his Substitute to rule the whole World they use this Argument Summus Pontifex instituit ac confirmat Imperatorem sed Imperator habet Dominium universale temporaliter in toto Mundo Ergo Papa habet hoc idem Dominium temporaliter The Bishop of Rome doth ordain and confirm the Emperour but the Emperour hath universal Dominion temporally in the whole World therefore the Pope hath the very same temporal Dominion And about ten years since one Andrew Hoy the Greek Professor at Doway made an Oration De novae apud Europeos Monarchiae pro tempore utilitate taking upon him to prove that the King of Spain was the fittest Person of all the Kings and Princes in Europe to be advanced unto this great Monarchy But what should we trouble our selves with this point The King of Spain we suppose will greatly scorn to be the Pope's Vassal and the Emperour that now is or that shall succeed him hereafter as likewise all the Kings and Princes in the World may see most evidently how grosly and shamefully they are abused and how notably they neglect the greatness of their own Callings especially they who have been heretofore or shall be hereafter Emperours in that they do intermeddle any thing at all with the Pope or receive from him either their Confirmation or Coronation in that thereby he presumeth most ridiculously and without any shew of truth to challenge them for his Servants and Vassals It hath been before shewed by the Judgment of the Cardinalized Jesuit That the Bishops of Rome have no temporal Possessions at all but such as they have received from the Emperour and other Kings and Soveraign Princes In consideration whereof seeing that now they insult so notably over them all both Princes Kings and Emperours being so far from acknowledging themselves to be the Emperour's Subjects or to hold their said Possessions either of him or of any King that bestowed them upon them We do verily think that the said Princes Kings and Emperours who have been so beneficial to the said Bishops shall never shew themselves to be of that Princely Magnanimity and Prowess which their high places do require nor free their Sceptres from the thraldom and base subjection to their usurped Authority until either they take from them what before they gave them or bring them to a more dutiful acknowledgment of their Duties unto them And what we say of the Popes we likewise do hold concerning all the Clergy besides in Europe or elsewhere that if they shall either withdraw themselves from their subjection unto their temporal Soveraigns under whom they live or deny to hold the Possessions of their several Churches of their said Soveraigns or to do them Homage for the same they may lawfully in our Judgments not only resume the said Possessions into their own hands but likewise proceed against them as Rebels and Traytors according to the Form of their several Laws But this is a Digression For in the beginning of this Chapter we undertook to deal with those only who though they maintain the Popes general Supremacy over the Catholick Church yet they deny upon many weighty reasons that God did ever ordain any one Emperour to govern all the World But how long they will deny it we know not in that the principal Jesuit himself writeth thus Vtrum expediret omnes Provincias Mundi c. Whether it were expedient that all the Provinces in the World should be govern'd by one chief King in things Politick although the same be not necessary it may be a Question Mihi tamen omnino expedire videtur si possit eò perveniri sine injustitiâ bellicis cladibus Yet it seemeth to me expedient if such a Monarchical Government over all the World might be gotten without Injustice and such Calamities and Miseries as usually follow War What this Jesuit doth encline unto it is hereby evident But in that he confesseth that such a Monarchical civil Government is not necessary that is enough for our purpose because hereby it likewise followeth as before we have shewed that the Government of the Pope over the whole Church is in every respect as little necessary CAN. X. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures or that can be truly grounded upon natural Reason or Philosophy That our Saviour Christ should have shewed himself to have had no discretion except he had left one chief Bishop to have govern'd all the Churches in the World or that except he appointed one to the said end he should as a Person void of Providence have left his Faithful People in a miserable confusion and without any Government at all or that any of all the Arguments that may be deduced from Philosophy and natural Reason to prove that one Man ought to have the Government of the whole Catholick Church in spiritual Causes are not as forcible to prove that one King or Emperour ought to have the Rule and Government over the whole World in Causes temporal or that any of the Philosophers ever meant to have their reasons alledged by them to prove that in every particular Country the Monarchical Form of Temporal Government was the best to be extended to prove that there ought to be either one Bishop over all the Catholick Church whereof they had no knowledge or one Emperour over all the World or that because all Men have their beginning from Adam it doth not as well follow that there ought to be one Emperour to govern all the World as one Bishop over the whole Catholick Church or that Aaron was any more a Figure of St. Peter and his Successors that they severally in their times should govern the whole Church than King David was of Augustus the Emperour and his Successors that they severally in their times should have committed unto them the Government of the whole World or that the resemblances in the Scriptures of the Church unto an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Fold to an House to a Ship may not fitly be applied as well to the Vniversal Kingdom of Christ over all the World as unto the Church and so consequently as well to our Saviour Christ as he is the Governour of the whole World that he is the General of that Host the Head of that Body the King of that Kingdom the Shepherd of that Flock the Housholder of that Family and the Pilot of that Ship as may these Titles be ascribed unto him as he is the only Archbishop of the whole Church viz. That he is the only General of this Host the only Head of this Body the only King of this Kingdom the only Shepherd of this Flock the only Housholder of this Family and the only Pilot of this Ship or that the said Vnities concerning the
Vniversal Kingdom of Christ are not of as great validity to prove that there ought to be one temporal King under him to govern his Vniversal Kingdom over all the World as are the other Vnities touching the Church to prove that there must be one Bishop under him to govern all the particular Churches in the World or that because Kings when they have occasion to be absent from their Kingdoms do commonly appoint some Vice-Roy to Rule their People until their return it thereupon followeth that Christ supplying his corporal absence from his Spiritual Kingdom the Church by the comfortable presence of the Holy Ghost was of necessity to leave one carnal Man to be his Vicar-General over his said Spiritual Kingdom or that seeing our Saviour Christ held it expedient for his Catholick Church that he should deprive her of his corporal presence that she might be ruled by the Holy Ghost it is not to be thought great presumption for any Man to tell us that his corporal presence is necessary for the Government of the said Catholick Church as if he meant to put the Holy Ghost out of Possession or that either the said one Vniversal Kingdom of Christ the King and Creator of it is otherwise visible upon the Earth than by the particular Kingdoms and several kinds of Governments in it and perhaps in a sort and by Representation when some Neighbour Kings either in Person or by their Ambassadours may be met together for the good of their several Kingdoms or that the said one Catholick Church of Christ as he is the chief Bishop over all is otherwise visible on the Earth than by the several and particular Churches in it and sometimes by general and free Councils lawfully assembled or that it is a better consequent that if the Catholick Church have no visible Head all other Bishops Doctors Pastors and Ministers are needless than if one should say because there is no one King to govern all the World therefore there is no use of Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes or civil Magistrates or that it doth more follow that Christ should have left his Faithful People in a confused Anarchy except he had left St. Peter and his Successors to govern the whole Church than it doth that the whole World hath been left by him in a Confusion without any Government in it in that he hath not left one Vniversal Emperour or that the intolerable Pride of the Bishop of Rome for the time still being through the advancement of himself by many sleights stratagems and false Miracles over the Catholick Church the Temple of God as if he were God himself doth not argue him plainly to be the Man of Sin mentioned by the Apostle or that every National Church planted according to the Apostle's Platform may not by the means which Christ hath ordained as well subsist of it self without one Vniversal Bishop as every Kingdom may do under the Government of their several Kings without one general Monarch He doth greatly Erre The End of the Second Book LIB III. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended Course through the Old Testament and until the destruction of Jerusalem we overslipt and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said Course as we find the true grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our Entrance into which Course We confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange impediments and mighty stumbling blocks which through long practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successors For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better order'd polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successors We can see no sufficient Warrant or probable reason why the Bishop of Rome should take upon him as he doth so eminent and supream Authority over all the Kingdoms and Churches in the World to rule them direct them bestow them and chop and change them under pretence of Religion as he from time to time shall think fit Sure we are if the Scriptures may retain their ancient Authority and continue to be true Rulers and principal Directors to all Apostolical Bishops that in them there will not be found any shadows or steps of those so high and lofty conceits To the proof whereof before we address our selves We have thought it very expedient for the carriage of our course more perspicuously and clearly to make it apparent by what degrees and practices the Bishops of Rome have proceeded in aspiring to that Soveraignty and Greatness which now they have attained Placet eis John Overall Prolocutor CAP. II. AS it was said long since Religion brought forth Riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother So may it very truly be said in these days The Empire begat the Papacy and the Son hath devoured his Father For as we suppose by the Effects no sooner did the Bishops of Rome even in the first times of Persecution get any rest and courage but they began to think with themselves That they were as able to govern all the Churches in the Empire as the Emperours themselves were to govern all the Kingdoms and Nations then subject unto them and that Rome was as fit a Seat for such a Bishop as it was for so great an Emperour Some Seeds of this Ambition began to sprout there when Victor presumed to threaten the Greek Churches concerning the Feast of Easter although Irenaeus then living did greatly dislike it and the Bishops of Asia little regarding him in that behalf said They nothing cared for such his threats And it was not we suppose an idle conceit of one who writing
an abstract of the Bishops of Rome and comparing those that were before Victor with those that followed saith thus In his Papis abundat Spiritus in posterioribus malesuaeda Caro The Spirit abounded in the former Popes but in those that succeeded him the seducing Flesh Some more Light whereof as also of the said undermining Ambition brake out little above 50. Years after Victor in Cornelius the 22 th Bishop of Rome Who notwithstanding the great trouble he had at home with his Fellow-Counter-Pope Novatianus could find such leisure under pretence of Importunity and threatnings as to entertain a complaint against St. Cyprian which was preferr'd unto him by one Felicissimus a Priest sent to Rome from Fortunatus an Usurping and Schismatical Bishop whom together with Felicissimus St. Cyprian with other African Bishops had lawfully excommunicated for sundry their lewd and ungodly actions With which injurious course St. Cyprian being made acquainted and somewhat moved he writ to Cornelius an Epistle wherein he justifieth his Proceedings and disliketh those of his Adversaries First because there was a Decree amongst them and that also Equal and Just That every Man's Cause should be there heard where the fault was committed Secondly For that a Portion of the Flock was committed to several Bishops which every one of them was to rule and govern being to yield an account of his actions to God Whereupon he inferreth thus saying It doth not become those over whom we bear rule to run gadding about nor by their crafty and deceitful rashness to break the united Concord of Bishops but there to plead their Cause where they may have both accusers and witness of their Crime Unless saith he the Authority of the Bishops of Africk doth seem unto a few desperate and outcast Persons to be less than the Authority of other Bishops It appeareth furthermore that for the better Government of the Churches in those times of Persecution it was thought fit that there should be 4. Patriarchs who were to take upon them the Inspection and especial charge of all the Bishops Priests and Churches that were severally assigned unto them In which distribution the Bishops of Rome got the first place it being then thought convenient to seat their chief Bishops in the principal Cities of the Romans and to grant unto them Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical much resembling the Prerogatives which those Cities had in Causes Temporal Of all the Eastern Lieutenantships that of Syria was the Chief and therefore Antioch being the Principal City of that Province was made also the Seat of one of the said Patriarchs Afterward likewise Alexandria exceeding much in honour the City of Antioch another Patriarch was there placed who according to the Dignity of that City had the precedency of the Patriarch of Antioch Whereby we judge that the Patriarch or Bishop of Rome had the first place amongst the rest of the Patriarchs because Rome was then the chiefest City in the World and the Seat of the Empire Which point is yet more manifest by these words of the Council of Chalcedon Sedi Veteris Romae Patres meritò dedêrunt Primatum quòd illa Civitas aliis imperaret Howbeit this Primacy or Precedency notwithstanding the Bishop of that See before the Council of Nice confirm'd by Constantine the Emperour was little more respected than any other of the Patriarchs as a principal Person afterward of that Rank testifieth saying Ante Concilium Nicaenum ad Romanam Ecclesiam parvus habebatur respectus Before the Council of Nice there was little respect born to the Church of Rome Although we doubt not by the premises but that the Bishops thereof endeavour'd what they could to equal the Primacy of that Patriarchship to the honour and dignity of that Imperial City as by their subsequent practices it will more plainly appear Placet eis John Overall CAP. III. COnstantine the Emperour having received the Gospel did in his Zeal greatly advance the Dignity of the Bishops of Rome by endowing of that Bishoprick with great Honour and temporal Possessions Besides whether it grew from the Cunning of those Bishops and their especial Instruments or through the Zeal of the People or by both those Means it is apparent that within some 47. Years after Constantine's Death that Bishoprick was grown to so great Wealth as when it was void many Troubles Garboiles and Contentions arose for the obtaining of it After the Death of Liberius the second Bishop after Constantine such were the Tumults in Rome betwixt Damasus and Vrsinus in striving for that Place as there were found in the Church of Sicininus slain on both sides in one day 137. Persons and great Labour was taken before the People could be appeas'd Whereat saith the Writer of that History I do not marvel and that Men should be desirous of that Preferment considering that when they have got it they may ever afterward be secure they are so enriched with the Oblations of Matrons they ride abroad in their Coaches so curiously attir'd and in their Diet are so delicate and profuse Vt eorum Convivia Regales superent Mensas as their Feasts exceed the Fare of Kings Insomuch as a desperate Heathen Man was accustomed in scorn to Damasus after he had gotten the Victory against his Adversary to cast out these Words Facite me Romanae Vrbis Episcopum ero protinus Christianus make me Bishop of Rome and I will presently become a Christian Which alluring Plenty and Delicacy being added to the Primacy of that Place and to the aspiring Humours of those Bishops their Ambition began to shew it self daily more and more Insomuch as they hardly endured that any of the other Patriarchs should have any extraordinary Reputation being ever most jealous of their own The Fathers of the Greek Church met together in the General Council at Constantinople about 40. Years after the Death of Constantine finding themselves grieved of likelyhood with the Proceedings of the Bishops of Rome and that the Bishops of Constantinople were not so much regarded in Rome as they ought to have been Constantinople being then the chief Seat of the Empire did define with one Consent That as Causes did arise in any Province the same should be determined in the Council of the same Province And furthermore they made this Canon Constantinopolitanae Civitatis Episcopum habere oportet Primatûs honorem post Romanum Pontificem proptereà quòd sit Nova Roma With these Proceedings the Bishops of Rome were afterwards as one noteth much discontented as fearing we suppose lest by these Beginnings New Rome might in time more prejudice old Rome than they could well brook or endure But that all Causes should be tried in the Provinces where they did arise it was no marvel though they disliked it Therefore to meet with that Inconvenience as they might after some distance of time one Apiarius being excommunicated in Africk and thereupon appealing to Rome Zosimus the
Bishop there did very readily embrace his Cause and without hearing of the other side pronounced him innocent and so absolved him Which Fact of his was afterward approved by Boniface the first and Caelestinus the first pretending as it seemeth that as in all Civil Causes for these Western parts there lay Appeals to the City of Rome so in all Ecclesiastical Causes when Men received as they thought Injury under any of the Patriarchs or other Bishops they might if they would appeal to the Bishop of that See And to justifie that their ambitious Challenge they forged a Canon of the Council of Nice as it was directly proved in the African Council holden at Hippo about the Year 423. Whereupon the Bishops of the said Council in which number St. Augustin was one perceiving what the Bishops of Rome meant by that sleight viz. that if once they might obtain a Power to receive Appeals from all the Churches within the Empire they would shortly after grow to challenge some Universal Authority over all the said Churches did to prevent the same make two Decrees That if any Clergyman would appeal from their Bishops they should not appeal but to the African Councils or to the Primates of their Province adding this Penalty That if any did appeal to the transmarine Parts à nullo intra Africam in Communionem suscipiatur And their second Decree is thus set down by Gratian Primae sedis Episcopus non appelletur Princeps Sacerdotum vel summus Sacerdos aut aliquid hujusmodi Sed tantù primae sedis Episcopus Vniversalis autem nec etiam Romanus Pontifex appelletur It is strange to consider how the Bishops of Rome were vexed with this Council and how from time to time they sought to discredit it as also what Shifts and Devices their late Proctors have found out to the same Purpose but all in vain For the Truth of that whole Action is so manifest as it cannot be suppressed by any such Shifts or Practices whatsoever Placet eis John Overall CAP. IV. ALthough the said Council of Africk troubled the Bishops of Rome as is abovementioned Yet shortly after some other new Occasions happen'd which stung them more sharply For about the Year 451. when the City of Constantinople was grown to be in very great Honour it seem'd good to the Fathers of the Greek Church and others assembled in the General Council holden at Chalcedon to make this Canon following The ancient Fathers did justly grant Priviledges to the Throne of Old Rome because that City bare then the chief sway and with the same Reason 150. godly Bishops being moved did grant equal Priviledges to the Throne of New Rome rightly judging that the City of Constantinople which was then honoured with the Empire and Senate should enjoy equal Priviledges with Old Rome and that in matters Ecclesiastical she ought to be extolled and magnified as well as Rome being the next after her Against this Canon Pope Leo stormed exceedingly and the whole Council it self in respect of the said Canon is of later Years sought to be discredited But the great and main quarrel betwixt New Rome and Old Rome began about the Year 586. when John the Patriarch of Constantinople not contenting himself to have equal Priviledges with the Bishops of Rome would needs be accounted the Vniversal Bishop Which Challenge did the rather move the Bishops of Rome because they found that Mauricius the Emperour inclined greatly to his desire Whereupon Pelagius the second and after him Gregorius the first as fearing the Issue that might ensue of that Contention to the great prejudice of the Church of Rome they blew successively both of them a hasty Retreat and pretended very earnestly that it was utterly unlawful for any Bishop to seek so great an Authority over all other Bishops and Churches And first Pelagius opposing himself against the said John Patriarch of Constantinople wrote thus to certain Bishops Let none of the Patriarchs ever use this so prophane a word For if the chief Patriarch be called Vniversal the name of the other Patriarchs is derogated from them but far be it from the mind of every faithful Man so much as to have a Will to challenge that to himself whereby he may seem in any respect how little soever to diminish the honour of the rest of his Brethren But Gregory in this point exceedeth He telleth Mauricius the Emperour and others in sundry of his Epistles That it is against the Statutes of the Gospel for any Man to take upon him to be called Vniversal Bishop That no Bishop of Rome did ever admit of that name of singularity and profane Title That John his endeavour therein was an Argument that the times of Antichrist drew near That the King of Pride was at hand and that an Army of Priests was prepared for him and thus he concludeth I considently affirm that whosoever calleth himself Vniversal Bishop or desireth so to be called he doth in his Pride make way for Antichrist After Gregory succeeded Sabinianus who had so hard a conceit of Gregory his Predecessor that he was purposed to have burnt his Books rather as we suppose because he had written so much against the Title of Universal Bishop than for either of the Conjectures which Platina mentioneth But the Issue of the said Contention was this Mauricius the Emperour being slain by Phocas his Servant and Phocas himself having gotten the Empire Boniface the third prevail'd so far with him after much and great Opposition as the Emperour gave Order that the Church of Rome should be called and accounted Caput omnium Ecclesiarum Which another Man of great account amongst them in these days reporteth after this sort The Contention betwixt the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome for the Primacy was again determined by Phocas the Emperour pronouncing out of the old Councils and Fathers that the Church of Rome should be the Head of all Churches For his Again he might well have left it out as also his Phrases of Councils and Fathers and therefore we prefer in this point Platina before him who making neither mention of Councils nor Fathers dealeth more truly and saith That the Church of Constantinople sibi vendicare conabatur that place which Boniface obtained from the Emperour Phocas and that the same was obtained upon these grounds viz. That whereas the Bishop of Constantinople insisted eò loci primam sedem esse debere ubi Imperii Caput esset It is answered by the Bishop of Rome and his Agents that Constantinople was but a Colony deduced out of the City of Rome and therefore that the City of Rome ought still to be accounted Caput Imperii That the Grecians themselves in their Letters termed their Prince the Emperour of the Romans and that the Citizens of Constantinople were called not Grecians but Romans Indeed Platina further saith being peradventure
of our mind that he will omit how the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given to St. Peter and so to the Roman Bishops his Successors and not to the Bishops of Constantinople and we likewise following his Example as a thing impertinent to our purpose will here omit the same Only we do observe that the contention betwixt the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople was de Primatu and that the Bishop of Rome obtain'd that place by Phocas his means which the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself Whereupon we offer to Mens Considerations these two Arguments Whosoever taketh upon him that Primacy or place in the Church which John Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself is the forerunner of Antichrist but the Bishops of Rome do take upon them that Primacy and place Ergo. Again Those Priests which do adhere unto him that taketh upon him that place and Primacy which John the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself are an Host prepared for the King of Pride but all the Priests that do adhere to the Bishop of Rome do adhere unto him that taketh upon him that Primacy and place which John the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself Ergo. But our purpose is not to dispute only this we add that till this time that the Bishop of Rome had prevailed so far with Phocas as is aforementioned his Predecessors notwithstanding their great Authority after Constantine's Reign and favour with the Emperours succeeding they behaved themselves dutifully toward them and acknowledged them to be their Lords and Masters But afterward in short time they left those Phrases and began to call the Emperours their Sons To which alteration a very worthy Man taking exception he is answered by another of many good parts it must be confessed after this sort St. Gregory might call Mauricius his Lord either of Courtesie or of Custom and yet our holy Father Pius the Fourth shall not be bound to do the like in consideration that the Custom hath long since been discontinued Placet eis Jo. Overall CAP. V. ALthough when the Bishops of Rome after much opposition had obtain'd their desires for their Primacy beforementioned they might well enough as we suppose have been contented Yet forasmuch as still they remain'd in greater subjection to the Emperours than they thought was agreeable with their greatness their aspiring mind rested not there but began shortly after to cast about how they might in their places be independent and absolute For the compassing whereof they took hold of every occasion that might serve or be wrested and drawn to that purpose At the first receiving of the Gospel Men are ever for the most part very zealous and great Favourers of the Ministry In the Apostles times they sold their lands and possessions and laid the price of them at the Apostles feet St. Paul was received by the Galatians as an Angel of God yea as Jesus Christ and such was their love toward him that to have done him good they would have plucked out their Eyes and given them unto him When the Emperours of Rome became Christians they did exceed in this behalf especially towards the Bishops of that See bestowing upon them very great riches and ample possessions Of all which zealous Dispositions benefits and favours they ever made above all other Bishops their greatest advantage by imploying the same to the advancement of their greatness Wherein they were furthermore very much helped and further'd by the Authority which the Emperours gave unto them in temporal Causes holding them for their Gravity Learning and Discretion very meet and sit Persons in their own absence from Rome to do them that way very great service Besides if we shall deal sincerely and truly as we hold our selves always bound and more strictly in a cause of this Importance we must needs confess that it hath been the manner of Divines from the Apostles times almost to magnify and extol the worthiness and excellency of their own calling which was a very commendable and necessary course in many the ordinary contempt of the Ministry consider'd and had been so in all of them if they had not therewith depressed too much the Dignity and preheminence of Kings and Princes Comparisons in such Cases were ever worthily held to be odious Bishops and Priests might without any just reprehension have been resembled to Gold to the Sun and to what else is excellent without comparing the highest Magistrates under God in respect of themselves to the Moon to Lead and to some other things of such like base Estimation And we doubt not but that they would have refrain'd from such Comparisons if they could have foreseen how the Bishops of Rome would to the disgrace and dishonour of civil Authority have wrested and perverted them notwithstanding that their Inferences thereupon have ever had more shew and probability than substance and truth except we shall say that the Callings of Schoolmasters and Physicians are in Dignity to be preferr'd before all other Temporal Callings because the end of the one is the instructing of Mens understandings and of the other Health which either are or ought to be both of them in their kinds of greater Estimation than any other things whatsoever We shall not need to trouble our selves with the citing of any Authorities to prove how eagerly the Bishops of Rome especially after Boniface the Third had obtained of Phocas the said Supremacy have pressed the same Comparisons It is so evident both in their own Writings and likewise generally in all their Treatises who from time to time have laboured with all their force and might to advance above all other Authority upon Earth the Soveraignty of that See Placet eis John Overall CAP. VI. ALbeit the former occasions as they were handled and particularly the device last before specified wrought very much in the hearts of the simpler sort to the debasing of the Imperial and Regal Authority in respect of the Spiritual and that it was therefore prosecuted and amplified with all the skill and rhetorick that could be Yet there was another matter which troubled the Bishops of Rome exceedingly and never gave them rest until they had prevailed in it as if without it they had gained little by their Primacy It seemeth that Constantine the Great when he left Rome notwithstanding his especial benefits and favours to the Bishops of that See did in his wisdom think it fit that none should be advanced to that Bishoprick without the Emperour's consent For the better manifestation whereof it is to be observed that whilst the Bishops of Rome were labouring so earnestly for their Supremacy till Phocas's time the City of Rome had been four times surprised by divers barbarous Nations An. 413. by Alaricus the second King of the Goths Innocentius the First being then Bishop An. 457. by Gensericus the Leader of the Vandalls Leo the First being then Bishop An.
had not a place where to lay his head But now they are as we see become Caesars Emperours and Lords of all the World It was long since said by a good Friend of that See Excellentia Romani Imperii extulit Papatum Romani Pontisicis supra alias Ecclesias The Excellency of the Roman Empire did lift up the Papacy above other Churches Which Exaltation and Advancement of those Bishops He might well have added hath been as elsewhere we have said the very Bane and Cankerworm of the Empire it self by their sucking out of it for the strengthning of themselves the Juice and those Vital Spirits whereby formerly the Vigour and Glory of it did subsist and all by Rebellion and Treason under the pretence of Religion and through their false Glosses Applications and violent Inforcements to a wrong Sense of the Sacred Scriptures Wherein altho' they had an especial Faculty yet they could never have so greatly prevail'd as they did against such an Estate as the Empire was nor against so many great Kings and other Princes that were not subject unto it if they had not been upheld in all their said wicked Courses by sundry their Flatterers and Parasites who imitating their Examples in perverting and wresting the Scriptures did take upon them to make good and to justifie whatsoever the said Popes had either done or said were it never so Impious Treacherous or Traiterous as by that which followeth it will plainly appear About the Year 1140 which was upon the point of Fifty eight years after Gregory the Seventh's Death Theologia Scholastica sive Disputatrix The Scholastical or brabling Divinity as One calleth it began to peep into the World when Peter Lombard writ his Books of Distinctions and did not only himself thereby trouble the Truth as Another saith with the Mudd of Questions and Streams of Opinions but also set many men after him on work in writing long Commentaries upon his said Distinctions to the hatching of infinite Oppositions and difficult Perplexities In which number Thomas of Aquine bare the greatest sway who entring into this Course about Forty years after Innocentius the Third's days and finding how Gregory the Seventh Paschal the Second Innocentius the Second Adrian the Fourth Alexander the Third and the said Innocentius the Third with divers other Popes had ruffled with the Emperours and what a hand they had gotten over the Scriptures became the chiefest Champion of a Schoolman that Rome ever had Out of these words Of his fulness we have all received he was able to collect that there is in the Bishop of Rome the Fulness of all Graces Again because Christ whom he maketh Bishop of Rome may be called as He saith A King and a Priest He therefore inferreth it not to be inconvenient that his Successors should be so styled Also we know not how but He hath found it out that when God said to Jeremy I have set thee over Nations and Kingdoms He spoke so unto him In personâ Vicarii Christi In the person of Christ's Vicar Furthermore in that Aristotle saith That the Body hath his Vertue and Operation by the Soul He supposeth it must needs follow that the Jurisdiction of Princes hath her Being Vertue and Operation from St. Peter and his Successors For further Proof whereof as fearing it would be thought insufficient that he had said before he buckleth himself to certain Facts of the Popes and Emperours saying That Constantine did give the Empire to Sylvester that Pope Adrian made Charles the Great Emperour and that likewise Otho the First was created Emperour by Pope Leo But at the last He striketh this Point dead because saith He it is manifest that Pope Zachary deposed the King of France and absolved all his Barons from their Oath of Fidelity that Innocentius the Third took the Empire from Otho the IV th and that Honorius his next Successor dealt in like sort with Frederick the Second And as it were to make up all speaking of the Emperour's Crowns and the Custom as it seemeth then in use He saith That the Emperour did receive a Crown of Gold from the Bishop of Rome and that the Pope deliver'd it to him with his Foot In signum subjectionis suae fidelitatis ad Romanam Ecclesiam Thereby to teach him his Subjection and Loyalty to the Church of Rome But hitherto we have heard this great Schoolman by way of Discourse wherein peradventure he is more remiss and dissolute than when he presseth his Points Logically as the manner is in the Schools We will therefore trace him a little in that Path if first we shall observe that it is his custom when He handleth a Question that doth concern the Church of Rome as soon as He hath propounded it He first proceedeth with his Videtur quòd non and bringeth sometimes both Scriptures and Fathers for the Negative part his purpose still being to encounter them with his Sed contrà est but such or such a Pope holdeth the contrary And then He cometh in first with his Conclusion and secondly with his Dicendum est wherein He so laboureth and bestirreth himself as that always the said Scriptures and Fathers are wrung and enforced to yield to the Pope As for example Having propounded this Question Whether for Apostasie from the Faith a Prince doth lose his Dominion over his Subjects and so consequently if he be Excommunicated there being the same Reason for the one as there is for the other as two great Cardinals do affirm He falleth upon his Videtur saying It seemeth that a Prince for Apostasie from the Faith doth not lose his Dominion over his Subjects but that they are still bound to obey him For St. Ambrose saith That Julian the Emperour though he were an Apostata yet had under him Christian Soldiers to whom when he said Bring forth your Army for Defence of the Commonwealth they obeyed him Therefore for the Apostasie of the Prince their Subjects are not absolved from his Dominion Moreover an Apostata from the Faith is an Infidel but some holy men are found faithfully to have served Infidel-Masters as Joseph did Pharaoh Daniel Nebuchadnezzar and Mardochee Assuerus Therefore for Apostasie from the Faith it is not to be yielded but that such a Prince must be obeyed by his Subjects Sed contra est quod Gregorius septimus dicit But Gregory the Seventh is of a contrary Opinion where he saith We keeping the Statutes of our holy Predecessors do by our Apostolick Authority absolve from their Oath those who are bound to excommunicate persons by Fealty or the Sacrament of an Oath and do by all means prohibit them that they keep not their Fidelity unto them until they come to satisfaction Whereupon Thomas concludeth That all Apostata's are Excommunicated sicut Haeretici As all Hereticks are and that therefore their Subjects are delivered from their Obedience and Oaths of Fidelity unto
Clamour of the Canonists of the Glossographers and of the Schoolmen and Divines that took their part in the Pope's behalf upon whom all their Preferment Credit and Countenance did depend as they would needs by force carry the Bell away though their Opposites each of them were very confident that the common Opinion sway'd with their side more standing for them than were against them We have before briefly touched the chief Grounds and Reasons whereupon the Civil Lawyers divided amongst themselves did insist and therefore that we may not seem partial we thought it fit to hear the Canonists with their Adherents whilst they tell us That all the World is the Pope's at his disposition as well the Emperour as any other the meanest Person whosoever Because 1. that Christ had all Power given him 2. That the Pope blesseth the Emperour 3. That the Bishops of Rome do anoint them 4. That the Church Triumphant hath but one Prince 5. That Innocentius told the King of France that he did not intend to abate his Jurisdiction whereby it is collected that if he had pleased he might have so done 6. That in the Vacancy of the Empire the Pope hath the Government of it 7. That the Pope translated the Empire from the Grecians to the Germans 8. That the Papacy exceedeth the Empire as far as Gold doth Lead or as Men do Beasts 9. That Pope Nicholas saith Christ gave to St. Peter the Key-Carrier of Eternal Life Jura terreni simul coelestis Imperii The Authority both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire 10. That Optimum optima decent but the Monarchical Government is best and so fittest for the Pope 11. That no Man giveth that to another which he hath not himself but the Pope giveth Licence to chuse the Emperour and to govern in Temporal Causes 12. That as the Body is for the Soul so Temporal Government is for the Spiritual 13. That Reason teacheth us when an Office is committed to any that also is thought to be committed without the which it cannot be executed but except the Bishop of Rome may rule all the World he cannot discharge the Office that is committed unto him And 14. lastly to omit infinite such like Collections this Argument is reserved after many other by a great Clerk that it might strike home viz. because it is defined by Boniface the Eighth that No Man can be saved except he be subject to the Bishop of Rome Which Argument is held so strong as it carries with it divers other of little less Force than it self as that St. Peter had a Sword because Christ bad him put up his sword 2. Ecce duo Gladii Behold here are two Swords One Sword must be under another the Temporal under the Spiritual 3. It is not agreeable to the general course of things that they should have all equally their immediate being 4. The Spiritual Power ought to institute the Temporal 5. The Spiritual Man judgeth all things and therefore what Catholick can deny that the Bishop of Rome hath both Swords the One actually the Other habitually to be drawn at his Commandment We have not quoted the several Authors that are Parties unto the Particulars which we have touched in this Chapter because twenty such Margents would not contain them Only we refer our selves in that behalf to these few which we have noted and selected from the rest Unto which Number if we shall add John of Paris Bellarmin and Covarruvias they altogether will furnish a Man with divers sorts of other Authors such as they are who have disputed these Points at large and in that manner as we are driven into a great admiration that any Men of Understanding could be so sottish either to write as they have done or to give any Credit to such ridiculous Janglings or rather indeed that ever Christian Kings and Princes should have endured such Impostors so long to seduce their Subjects and presumptuously to shake and dishonour the Royal Authority given them from God to have bridled such Insolency Placet eis Jo. Overall CAP. XIII NOtwithstanding that the Bishops of Rome especially since Gregory the Seventh's time have ruffled and tyrannized as before we have shewed and that still they have been supported in all their wicked attempts partly by stirring up Subjects to rebel against their Soveraigns and partly by the Canonists School-men Monks Friers Hirelings and Flatterers Yet their Hypocrisy Pride Covetousness and Ambition were never so closely cover'd and cloaked with St. Peter's name and sundry other Flashoods Wringings and Wrestings but that their nakedness in that behalf with all their Deformities were clearly discover'd by the wiser sort and there were always some that spared not as there was occasion for the discharging of their Consciences to speak the truth When the said Gregory did so proudly encounter with the Emperour Henry the Fourth he was Condemn'd for a perjur'd Person and depos'd from his place by a Council held at Worms in the year 1076. by all the Bishops of Germany almost saving those of Saxony who in his Quarrel were become Traytors to the Empire And afterward also in the Year 1080. the said Gregory was more roughly handled in another Council of thirty Bishops at Brixia wherein he was declared to be a perturber of the Christian Empire a sower of Discord a Protector of Perjury a Murtherer a Necromancer one possess'd with a wicked Spirit a Man altogether unworthy of the Papacy and therefore to be deprived and expelled Henry the Fifth with his Council did easily discern the packings both of Paschal the Second and of his Predecessors When he complain'd of their thrusting him into Arms against his Father and how Genitore oppresso his Father being overborn they sought likewise his suppression and overthrow He charged them with great Unthankfulness in that being made rich by the Emperours they were never satisfied but under a Religious pretence of Ecclesiastical liberty desired still more and more and that by shaking off from their shoulders all duties and subjection they did affect the Empire it self and would not cease until they had it ended With this the Emperour's plainness the said Paschal being incens'd made certain unlawful Decrees against the said Emperour which Decrees the Divines of Fraxinum who were accounted the most learned men in all Germany did condemn and reverse as being contrary to the word of God Upon the insolent Speeches of Adrian the Fourth's Messenger one that was present had slain the said Messenger if the Emperour had not staid him And two Archbishops thereupon did write to Rome accusing the Priests there of Pertinacy Pride Covetousness and Faction against the Emperour requiring them to give Adrian their Pope some better Counsel Frederick the Second in one of his Letters to the Princes of Christendom in defence of himself against Gregory the Ninth does likewise most notably describe the ambitious aspiring hearts of the