their power of consecration on Aarons and his Sons but likewise their Papal Monarchy Jurisdiction over other Bishops Ministers and Kings too on Aarons high Priesthood and imaginary Vniversal Supremacy which quite subverts their pretences Aaron the High Priest being inforior to Moses and he greater then Aaron in administration and in instruction and correction of the people though not in consecration wherein they were both equal as Bartholomeus Buxiensis Joannes Thierry and other Canonists in their approved Glosses on Gratian resolve Whereupon to prop up the Popes tottering Supremacy as founded upon Aarons Priestood Pope Anacletus with others of his Successors have bottomed the Popes Soveraign Jurisdiction in Spiritual and Temporal affairs too upon Moses and Aaron joyntly affirming Moses to be a Chief Priest as well as Aaron from Psal 99. 6. Moses and Aaron among HIS PRIESTS Whence they inferr That as Moses and Aaron were the chief among the Priests in the Old Testament So Peter was ordained head of the Apostles and Original of the Apostleship in the New and the Pope as his Successor And as Moses was constituted a God unto Pharoah and judged the people of Israel So the Pope is the God of the Emperor the First Priest the Vicar of Christ the High Priest and the Cardinals assisting him are Priests of the Levitical kinde by whose assistance he Iudgeth all Criminal causes not only Ecclesiastical but likewise Civil and mixt Moses as a Priest being only a Type of the Pope as were Melchisedec and all those that were Kings as well as Priests before the Law given as Alvarus Pelagius and other Pontificians conclude with very great confidence To which I answer 1. That Moses neither before his flight out of Aegypt nor during his absence before his return thither nor whiles he abode there to deliver the Israelites from their bondage nor after their deliverance was ever made or constituted a Priest much less an High Priest by God for ought we read but only Aaron with his sonnes and Levites 2ly Had Moses been an high Priest as well as Aaron as these assert there had then been two high Priests at once and so two Supream heads of the Church not one and so the high Priest could not be a proper Type of Christ the sole high Priest and head of his Church nor of St. Peter or the Pope his pretended Vicar General by divine Right 3ly The Scripture is expresse that Aaron only was the chief Priest not Moses and that there neither was nor ought to be any more high Priests but one at a time Therefore Moses could be no high Priest 4ly Moses in the 99 Psalm and all other Texts where he and Aaron are mentioned is put and named in the first place before Aaron and asserted by Bartholomeus Buxiensis Thierry and other Glossers to be greater then Aaron in two respects in the very Priesthood it self Therefore he not Aaron was the chief high Priest and so all Popes pretences for their Supremacy drawn from Aarons high Priesthood must vanish into smoak The rather because we frequently read in Scripture that Moses not only COMMANDED AARON but likewise stripped him of his garments and girt them on Eleazer his Sonne and successor a little before his death 5ly Psalm 99. doth not evince Moses to be a chief Priest as well as Aaron no more then the rest of the people as is evident by the coherence with verse 5 6. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his foot-stool for he is holy Moses and Aaron among his Priests and Samuel among them that call upon his Name these called upon the Name of the Lord and he heard them this passage relates to Numb 25. 6. when Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation were all weeping and worshipping God together promiscuously intermixed with Phinehas and the other Priests as also in Joel 2. 16 17. So as the sole argument hence is this Moses and Aaron worshipped and called upon the name of the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle mixed promiscuously with the other Priests as Samuel did with the people when they called on Gods name Ergo Moses and by consequence all the people too were high Priests as well as Aaron So that the Popes absolute Soveraign Monarchy as well in Temporal as Civil things being thus grounded on Moses his mistaken Priesthood must needs fall to the ground and be for ever exploded upon the premised considerations and because his Successor no high Priest nor Priest at all enjoyed exercised the Soveraign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as well as Temporal in the Israelites Church and State 2ly I shall demonstrate this Propositions truth by Joshua who succeeded Moses in the Supream Civil Authority to whom the Israelites not only promised the self same obedience in all Spiritual as well as civil things which they yeelded to Moses but he likewise exercised the same Soveraign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as Moses had done as these Ten instances irrefragably prove 1. He commanded the people to sanctify themselves to morrow and commanded directed the Priests when to take up and how to carry and dispose of the Ark of the Covenant and declared the words to the people which God himself immediately spake unto him 2. He circumcised all the uncircumcised Israelites with sharp knives and kept the Passeover formerly omitted by special directions given to him from God not to the Priests 3. By Gods special direction He commanded the Priests to compasse Jericho bearing the Ark round about it seven dayes one after another which they obeyed executed without dispute marching seven times round about it the last day 4. He not the Priests Ordained a publike fast sanctified the people when he discovered Gods wrath against them for Achans taking of the accursed thing against his command and examined punished with stoning to death even that which Popes and Canonists stile Sacriledge appropriated by them to their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Tribunals 5ly He built an Altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal according to the Law of Moses and he not the Priests there writ upon stones a Copy of the Law of Moses and read all the words of the Law of Moses the Blessings and the Curses before all the congregation of Israel with their women little ones and strangers conversant among them there was not a word of all that Moses commanded which he read not unto them and that in presence of the Priests and Levites who there stood on both sides of the Ark and bore it 6ly He and the Princes not Priests descided a case of conscience touching the Oath and Covenant made with the Gibeonites by fraud and circumvention to spare their lives against Gods positive precept and gave sentence against them to be Hewâ—rs of wood and drawers of water for the Altar of the Lord. 7ly The Sunne stood still and the Moon stayed till the
people had avenged themselves of their enemies at his not the Priests prayer to the Lord. 8ly He not the Priests assembled all the Congregation of Israel to Shiloh and there set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation 9ly He by Gods special command with advice of the Heads of the Tribes of the children of Israel appointed and set out the Cities of refuge and the 48 Cities with their Suburbs given to the Priests and Levites out of all the other Tribes Lots 10thly Joshua a little before his death not the Priests assembled all the Tribes of Israel to Sechem and there calling all their Elders Heads Judges Officers who presenting themselves before God he repeated the Histories of Gods great mercies to them from Terah his time till then and commanded them to serve the Lord in sincerity and truth and to put away all the gods which their Fathers had served renewed the Covenant between God and them set them a Statute and an Ordinance in Sechem and wrote all the words thereof in the Book of the Law of God and set up a stone for a witnesse unto them lest they should deny their God And penned the History stiled Joshua During all this time of Moses and Joshua's Governments we find not one syllable of any Ecclesiastical Supream Authority exercised or claimed by the High Priest Priests or Levites severally or joyntly but only by Moses and Joshua themselves in all the forecited particulars Which Popes and Popish Prelates would repute most strange and uncouth should Christian Emperors Kings Princes now exercise the like Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and confine them only to Preaching Administration of the Sacraments reading Masse or Common-Prayers and those other essential Ministerial duties which they delegate for the most part to poor Curates as they do their pretended Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Judicatories to their Vicars Generals Chancellors Officials Commissaries and other such party Officers the more to fleece the people and ease themselves from Trouble or Clamors 3dly After the death of Joshua though the High Priest Priests and Levites were all setled in their possessions and offices in his life yet we read of none of them in all the Book of Judges when the people of Israel were very idolatrous wicked and most needed Ecclesiastical censures to reform them that did ever use the least Ecclesiastical Authority over them Therefore doubtlesse they had none vested in them or else were intollerably negligent and blame-worthy And to put it past Dispute it is no less then four several times specially recorded in that sacred story Judg. 17. 6. c. 18. 1. c. 19. 1. c. 21. 25. IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL Every man did what seemed good in his own eyes First as the chief cause of Micah his making a graven and molten image and setting them up in the house of God and making an Ephod Teraphim and consecrating one of his sons who became a Priest to his Idols and after that in consecrating a Levite to be his Idols Priest 2ly b As the occasion of the Danites plundring and taking away Micahs Idol god and setting up his graven Image in the Tribe of Dan and making Priests unto it all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh 3ly Of a Levites taking to him a Concubine instead of a lawful Wife and the Gibionites ravishing her to death 4ly Of the Benjamites forceable taking away of the Virgins who came up to the feast of the Lord at Shiloth and making them their wives against their will and that by the Israelites advice and concurrence contrary to the curse and oath they had made All properly spiritual and ecclesiastical Crimes belonging rather to Papal and Pontifical then regal Jurisdiction and Coertion as they are now reputed yet all and every of these are recorded to be perpetrated but not corrected in the least because in those days there was no King in Israel Therefore questionless all the supreme Civil Ecclesiastical power to restrain punish these offences was wholly vested in the King not in the high Priest Priests or Levites of which they had then store in Israel And had this supreme spiritual Authority been in them these Texts had been very impertinently inserted and should rather have run in this Dialect In those days there was no high Priests or Priests in Israel nor any Ecclesiastical Court or Judge therefore every one did that which was right in his own eyes If any object that Ely the high Priest judged Israel forty years Judg. 4. 18. and that Samuel next high Priest after him judged Israel all his days till he was old built an Altar unto the Lord at Ramah and when he grew old made his two sons Judges over the people Judg. 7. 15 16 17. c. 8. 1. to 8. Therefore the high Priests had then the soveraign Jurisdiction as Priests I answer The Argument is most absurd for by the like Consequence they may argue Deborah a woman the wife of Lapidoth judged Israel and the Children of Israel came up to her for Judgement and she delivered them out of Sisera his hands who sorely oppressed them with his Chariots and Army Ergo Debora as a woman had then Soveraign Jurisdiction over them 2ly They judged them not as Priests but supreme Magistrates 3ly It seems the chief Ecclesiastical power was not in Ely when he judged Israel but in the Elders of Israel by their sending for and fetching the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto them in the Camp to save them from the enemies against Ely his Will 4ly He was very remiss and indulgent to inflicting no civil nor ecclesiastical punishment upon his sons though sons of Belial whose wickednesse was great before the Lord both in lying with the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and forceably taking away from those that sacrificed to the Lord the flesh of the Sacrifices of those that came to offer how much when they pleased without burning the fat presently so that they made men abhor the offerings of the Lord His Sons presumed thus impudently to abuse the people because their father judged Israel who only gave them a mild Reprehension when he heard of their evil reports from all the people Which miscarriages of his sons in their Priest-hood and himself in his Judicature sharply reproved by a man of God were most severely punished of God by their slaughter and untimely deaths the ruine of their families and loss of the Priest-hood the taking of the Ark of God by the Philistines and slaughter of thirty thousand footmen in one day This was the Judgement befel the first Priest and his house who took upon him the supreme civil power and magistracy 4ly Though Samuel himself was a just Judge yet his sons were wicked n turning aside after Lucre perverting Judgement in so much that all the Elders of Israel
as the Roman Porters have forged yea the broad gate of hell but one which stands open day and night to let in prisoners who can never return back thence as I may conclude with Iohn Veselius on the one hand Claves Papae Praelatorum non aperiunt Regnum Dei sed abscondunt So I may resolve on the other That they give them no Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction at all over any Churches Christians much lesse over Kings and Emperors for the premised reasons The 4th Commission which Popes and their creatures would appropriate to St. Peter and the Pope is that treble Interrogation and command given by Christ to Peter after his treble denying of him with an Oath John 20. 15 16 17. Jesus said unto Simon Peter Lovest thou me more then these He said Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He saith unto him Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Feed my Sheep From whence Popes and their Janizaries conclude That the Pope is the Universal Vicar Head over all the Church Militant that the whole world is his Diocesse and that he hath an absolute Power not only over all other Bishops Cardinals Priests but over all Christian Kings Emperors Princes not only to feed but to excommunicate depose kill them divide or give their Crowns kingdoms to others To which I answer 1. That the High Priests and Priests in the Old Testament were obliged by their office duty to feed teach and instruct their flocks as well as St. Peter and the Apostles under the New as is largely resolved with much expostulation by God himself against those who neglected it Jer 23. 1 to 16. Ezech 34. 2. to 24. Zech 11. 7. 2 Chron 17. 7 8 9. Neh. 8. 7. c. 7. 15. and other Texts But the High Priests under the Law claimed no such Soveraignty or Jurisdiction over the people much lesse over Moses Joshua Supream temporal Magistrates or their Kings by this their pastoral charge power to feed Gods sheep and flock as I have formerly proved and shall here further illustrate by the example of Aaron the first High Priest who was subject and subordinate to Moses the Israelites first chief Civil Governour being no Priest by birthright nor consecration as some Popish writers would now make him First because Aaron was his elder Brother by 3 years so the only Priest by birthright the high Priest by Moses special consecration who at his death stripped him of his high priests robes and put them on Eleazar his son 2ly Because he never consecrated himself a Priest as he did Aaron and his sons nor was he ever consecrated a Priest by others 3ly Because he never offered burnt offerings or sacrifices nor intermedled with the proper office of the Priests but charged them alone to do it 4ly Because the word Priest in Psal 99. 6. 9. whence they would conclude Moses a Priest signifies as well a Prince as a Priest and therefore cannot conclude him a Priest but Prince among them Now though Aaron was high Priest and Moses his younger brother yet Aaron was subject to his Jurisdiction Power Censure as these 2. Scriptures evidence First Moses particularly reprehended Aaron and the Priests for burning and not eating the sin-offering in the holy place according to their duty and Gods prescription for which Aaron made his Apology to him 2ly By Gods anger against Aaron and smiting his Sister Miriam with Leprosy only for speaking against Moses for marying an Ethiopian woman and using these seditious words against him Hath the Lord only spoken by Moses hath he not also spoken by us in derogation of his Authority 4ly By Aarons confessing of his sinne and craving pardon of him for it in this submissive manner Alas My Lord I beseech thee lay not this sin upon us wherein we have dealt foolishly 5ly By Aarons intercession to Moses for Miriam after God had smitten her with Leprosy and then healed her upon his prayer that she might not be put out of the Camp Which Moses refused to grant shutting her out of the Camp seven dayes ere he restored her Seeing then this Pastoral office of feeding advanced not Aaron above Moses to whom he was high Priest who continued l subject to his Supream Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdiction How Christs command to Peter to feed his Sheep can elevate his pretended Successors above Kings Emperors and all other Bishops no rational Christian can discern 2ly Every Apostle Minister Priest Bishop in and under the Gospel is expresly enjoyned and bound ex officio to feed Christs sheep lambs flock committed to his charge as well as Peter as is evident by this question and demand of God himself Ezech 34. 2. Should not the Shepherds feed the Flocks which infallibly intimates that they should and ought to do it under the Gospel as well as Law by Jer 11. 15. I will give you Pastors after mine own heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding Jer 23. 4. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them both meant of the times of the Gospel by these expresse Gospel Texts Acts 20. 28. where Paul gave this strict charge to all the Elders and Bishops of Ephesus Takeheed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to what end to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Which words Feed the Church of God are certainly as universal as Feed my sheep feed my Lambs 1 Cor 9. 7. Who Feedeth a Flock and eateth not of the milk thereof applied by St. Paul to all Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel who ought to live of the Gospel Yea which is most observable St. Peter himself as if he had purposely foreseen his pretended Successors ambitious Monopoly and claim of Feeding Christs Sheep to himself to erect a new Monarchy tyranny over them by a prophetical Spirit and purposely writ against it for ever refutes their pretences in this memorable passage 1 Pet. 5. 1 to 5. The Elders that are among you I exhort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Compresbyter or Consenior as the Vulgar Jerom Arias Montanus and other Latin Translations render it as your fellow Elder yea fellow-shepherd too not chief Head Pastor Feeder of the Universal Church of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as Lords over or as Domineering and ruling over the Lords heritage but being ensamples to the flock And when the Chief Shepherd acknowledged by Peter himself after Christs Resurrection to be Christ alone not himself shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of glory that fadeth not away Whence St. Peter expresly enjoynes them to feed the flock as Shepherds only not as Kings or Lords
High Priest during Moses his absence in the Mount had at the peoples request made erected a golden calf who committed idolatry with it Moses calls him to a strict account for it to whom he made an excuse with this memorable preface Let not the anger of MY LORD wax hot which stile he likewise gave him Nu. 12 11. Yea Moses not he Pronounced the Judgment and punishment upon the people for this Sin of Idolatry as likewise on him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day the manner of whose punishment he inquired not Aaron and received from God 9ly When the Tables of stone formerly broken were renewed redelivered by God to the people it was alwayes done even after Aarons consecration by the hand mouth ministry of Moses who with his own mouth alwayes spake and delivered Gods Laws Messages to all the Congregation Elders people during all his Government and gave them a special charge of things future and a blessing at his death 10thly God made choice of Moses a Lay-man and Civil Magistrate to be the firâ—â— pâ—â—man and Register of all his sacred Laws and first Five Books of holy Scripture not Aaron or any other Priest And to shew that Kings and Temporal Magistrates were the principal keepers of both Tables God particularly enjoyned when the Israelites came into the Land of Canaan and had set a King over them that the King when he sate upon the Throne of his Kingdom shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites that it may be well with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to â—o them That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel All which particulars laid together relating to and acted by the very first Supream Civil Magistrat that God himself set up over his own peculiar people Church when he first instituted modelled both their Magistrates and Priests with their distinct Offices and powers will infallibly clear the Superiour Jurisdiction of the Supream Civil Magistrate in and over all Ecclesiastical persons and causes by Gods own institution and that the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is united to the Temporal The reason why God reserved the Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Moses the Chief Civil Magistrate and afterwards to Kings when he transferred the Priesthood to Aaron and his Sons and severed it from the Kingship was because it would be inconsistent with Monarchie and the Peace Unitie of the Republike Kingdom Church to erect two distinct Supream Powers independent on unsubordinate to each other in one and the same Body Politick Nation Kingdom united under one Supream Civil Head and a Cause of perpetual Wars Schismes Contentions between these different powers by reason of mens Natural ambition and desire to enlarge their Juriisdictions to the prejudice of each other This we find experimentally verified in the Israelites themselves immediatly upon their division into two independent kings kingdoms of equal power unsubordinate to each other which produced not only perpetual Warres between them all their dayes in their Realms as sacred Story oft records but a more sad division in their Religion Worship Church Jeroboam erecting two Calves and a new idolatrous worship with suitable Priests to promote it and a new place of worship contrary to that prescribed by God himself to keep his Subjects from Gods true worship at Jerusalem and returning to their allegiance and obedience to their rightfull Kings of the seed of David which all his Successors persevered in till their final captivity and utter desolation for their idolatry And it is infallibly evidenced by the manifold sad Divisions Schismes Wars Rebellions in most Christian Empires kingdoms ever since the ambitious Popes of Rome and other Prelates have claimed by a pretended divine independent right and usurped to themselves the Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over all Persons Causes inseparably united by God himself to the Crowns of Christian Emperonrs and Kings As God therefore out of his infinit Wisdom at the very Creation constituted but one natural head over every natural body of Men Beasts Fowls Fishes and creeping living creatures though they consisted of two different substances Soul and Body not two distinct heads the one corporal the other spiritual to govern each body because two Supream headâ— would have destroyed the unity harmony operations of these Creatures in their respective orbes and made a Schisme in their bodies So he at first united the Supream Spiritual and Temporal Jurisdiction over Men at the Creation in one person Adam the first sole Monarch of the World And afterwards when his Church and people multiplyed into such a vast dispersed multitude that one person could not possibly execute or discharge the Kingly and Priestly Offices as at first he conveniently might did whiles all united in one Tribe and Family so that there was an absolute necessity to divide them into several Hands Tribes God did even then reserve the Supream Ecclesiastical Government and Jurisdiction as absolutely necessary for inseparable from the Supream Civil Head and Governor of his people to prevent Schismes Confusions and preserve Unity Tranquillity both in Church and State not transferr it from Moses to Aaron the Church with all its Officers Members being included in branches of the Kingdom Republike not divided from it as a distinct independent spiritual corporation Therefore still to remain under the sole Government and protection of the Supream Politick Head This is most clearly and significantly expressed by Ezechiels uniting the two divided sticks into one rod in one hand typifying the uniting of the two divided Kingdomes of Israel and Iudah into one Kingdom Church PEOPLE under one King and Shepheard Jesus Christ and making them all but ONE in their Government and true Worship of God according to his Statutes Hence it is most apparent that the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers Authorities or Jurisdictions are not thus denominated because they are vested in different persons hands or flow from various fountains or distinct in their natures as the Pontificians and others generally assert and mistake but meerly because they are exercised upon or about different things or objects the persons wherein they originally and supreamly reside and from whence they flow and the very Powers Authorities Jurisdictions themselves in their nature being but one and the same only the objects matters in upon or about which they are exercised various and distinct from whence they have these different Epithites To evidence this truth past all contradiction being the surest Oracle to resolve all future Controversies concerning these Jurisdictions yea keenest axe
by his Supream Ecclesiastical power First built and finished the Temple according to King Davids modell and then commanded all the Elders and Princes of Israel with the Priests and Levites to carry the Ark and place it in the Temple 2ly The King not the Priests or Levites though all present dedicated and consecrated the Temple with a most Divine heavenly from of Prayer answered and approved by God in sending down fire from heaven which consumed the burnt-offerings and sacrifices and filled the House with his glory so that the Priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lords House 3ly He also hallowed the middle of the outward Court by offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings there 4ly He appointed all burnt-offerings to the Lord after a certain rate every day according to the commandement of Moses on the Sabbath and on the New Moons and on the solemn Feasts of unleavened bread of Weeks and of Tabernacles 5ly He assembled all the Priests and Levites to Jerusalem at the Temples Dedication not in their courses But that solemnity ended He as King appointed according to the order of David his Father THE COURSES OF THE PRIESTS TO THEIR SERVICE AND THE LEVITES TO THEIR CHARGES to praise and minister before the Lord as the duty of every day required Porters also by their courses for every gate FOR SO HAD DAVID the man of God COMMANDED And THEY DEPARTED NOT FROM THE COMMANDEMENT OF THE KING VNTO THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES CONCERNING ANY MATTER or concerning the Treasures Here is Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction vested in and exercised by this King in and over all Ecclesiastical persons matters and exact canonical obedience yielded to King Davids and King Solomons Canons not to the High Priests Priests or Levites who had then no power to make or impose such Canons or Injunctions as Popes and Popish Prelates now doe without any Scripture president for their warrant 6ly This King was the inspired penman of three whole Books of Canonical Scripture the Proverbs Solomons Song and Ecclesiastes but no Priest or Levite we read of either in his or his Father Davids reign 7ly He as King thrust out Abiathar FROM BEING PRIEST TO THE LORD banished him from Jerusalem and might have put him to death for his Treason in crowning Adonijah King but saved his life for this reason because he had born the Ark of the Lord God before David his Father and been afflicted with him in all his afflictions and put Zadoc the Priest in his room Here is Regal Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction exercised over the High Priests themselves 6ly King Asa as King First took away the Altars of the strange Gods and the High-places and brake down the Images and cut down the groves through all the Cities of Judah and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of their Fathers and to do the Law and the Commandements and afterward did the like in Benjamin and the cities he had taken from Mount Ephraim 2ly He renewed the Altar of the Lord which was before the porch and gathered all Judah Ephraim Benjamin and others to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices of the spoils they had taken unto God which done He as King made them enter into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great whether man or woman and they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice and with shoutings with trumpets and with cornets and all Judah rejoyced at the Oath for they had sworn with all their heart 3ly He removed Maachah his mother from being Queen because she had made an Idol in a Grove and burned her Idol at the brook Kidron 4ly He brought into the house of the Lord all the things gold silver vessels himself and his Father had dedicated All evidences acts of his Soveraign Spiritual Jurisdiction 4ly King Johoshaphat his Sonne 1. commanded the Levites accompanyed with some Princes to oversesee encourage assist them to go and teach Gods Law to all the people throughout all the Cities of Judah and to carry the Book of the Law with them which they did accordingly 2ly He went out again the second time through the people from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim and brought them back to the Lord God of their Fathers 3ly He appointed not only Temporal Judges City by City through all Judah but likewise Judges Delegates at Jerusalem in cases of appeals between blend and bloud Law and Commandement Statute and Judgements wherein he joyned some of the Levites Priests and chief Fathers of Israel and Amaziah the chief Priest in all matters of and judgements for the Lord as his subordinate Judges receiving their Commissions from him and gave them an Excellent admonition how to judge proceed uprightly 4ly He proclaimed a solemn Fast throughout all Judah to come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord for help against a great host of invading Enemies where he nor the Priests stood in the Congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the House of the Lord before the Court and made a most pertinent effectual Prayer to God which God answered with a miraculous victory causing his enemies to destroy one another without fighting them and giving his Army all the spoil For which victory he commanded them to return to Jerusalem to give publike thanks to God 5ly King Jehoash commanded the Priests to repair all the breaches of the Lords House with the moneys and the dedicated things brought into it and called for and reprehended Jehoiada the High Priest and the other Priests for their negligence in not repairing them as he commanded whereupon they received no more money and repaired the House 6ly King Hezekiah by his Regal power 1. Opened the doors of the House of the Lord which had been shut up by his idolatrous Predecessors and repaired them gathered the Priests and Levites together brought them into the Lords house commanded them to sanctify themselves and then the house by carrying all the filth out of the holy place and cleansing the holy vessels Then made a second exhortation to them and strictly commanded them diligently to discharge their respective duties without ceasing All which they executed according to the Command of the King in the Businesse of the Lord. 2ly He afterwards commanded the Priests to offer burnt sacrifices and the Levites to praise God in the Temple according to the Commandement of David And He set all the services of the House of God in Order Moreover the KING and the Princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and they sang praises with gladnesse 3ly This King taking counsel with his Princes and the Congregation at Jerusalem made a Decree sent forth a solemn Proclamation inviting
havock of the Church and apprehended those that professed Christ whether men or women and haled them to prison persecuting them even to strange Cities and left them in bonds Yet when he was converted and preached Christ himself was apprehended and brought before the Council and Ananias the High Priest who commanded him to be smitten on the face when he began to speak and he was 5. times beaten with rods receiving 40. stripes save one as a penal punishment Yet neither the high Priest nor the Council were the Supream Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical but the Roman Governours Rulers and Caesar Hence the high Priest with the Elders and Council by Tertullus their Orator accused Paul first before Felix the Governor for being a stirrer up of sedition among all the Jewes in the world and ringleader of the sect of the Nazarens before whom Paul made his defence Afterwards he was accused by them before Portius Festus the succeeding Governour who demanded of him Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem and THERE BE JUDGED BEFORE ME not the High Priest or Council of those things whereof he was accused Whereupon Paul doubting his justice made this Appeal to Caesar himself as Supreamest Judge in all Ecclesiastical causes I STAND AT CAESARS JUDGEMENT SEAT WHERE I OUGHT TO BE JUDGED c. No man may deliver me to the Jews I APPEAL UNTO CAESAR Then Festus when he had consulted with the Council answered Hast thou appealed unto Caesar UNTO CAESAR SHALT THOU GO Festus soon after informing King Agrippa that Paul had referred himself to the hearing and Judgement of Augustus heard him again the second time before King Agrippa who resolved This man might have been set at liberty had he not appealed unto Caesar to whose Tribunal he was thereupon sent a prisoner to Rome to Caesar himself as the Soveraign Judge as well in Religious as Civil causes persons though a Pagan Moreover Saint Paul having cast a spirit of divination out of a Damsel at Philippi the chief City of that part of Macedonia it is specially recorded When her Masters saw that the hope of their Gains was gon they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the market-place unto the Rulers and brought them to the Magistrates saying These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our City and teach customes which are not lawfull for us to receive neither to observe being Romans And the multitude rose up together against them and the Magistrates rent off their cloathes and commanded to beat them And when they had laid many stripes upon them they cast them into prison charging the Jaylor to keep them safely who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the flocks But the next morning upon Pauls message the Magistrates released and brought them out of prison themselves In fine our Saviour foretold his Apostles They shall lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into Prisons being brought before KINGS RULERS for my name sake for a testimony against them compared with Christs prohibition to his Disciples The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so and with the forecited Texts are a most clear convincing Evidence that although the Jewish high Priests and Priests usurped rather a Temporal then Ecclesiastical power to fetch the Apostles before and scourge them in their Synagogues to apprehend them by their Officers Souldiers drag and cast men and women into prison for preaching and professing Christ and that not severally by themselves but in a mixt Councel of Elders Scribes and Pharises who were no Priests sitting advising and voting with them Yet the Supream power in matters of Doctrine and Religion even amongst the Jews during our Saviours abode with them and after his Ascension continued in the Roman Deputies Kings Emperors and chief Civil Magistrates alone as they did by divine institution in Moses Joshua David Solomon and other their own forementioned Kings and Supream Temporal Governours As for the Jewish Supream Court generally stiled their Sanhedrim consisting of 71. persons of the Elders Heads and Princes of Israel as the Jewish Rabbins and those who write of the Jewish Courts collect from Numb 11. 16. where they hold it was first erected and conceive it was like our Parliaments having conusance of all highest affairs I confesse I could never yet be satisfied by any Text of Scripture or solid Antiquity 1. That this Court of 71. or Sanhedrim was a setled standing Court sitting usually at Jerusalem and that during the Judges Kings and inter-regnums too till Herod put it down 2ly That the high Priests or any Levites were antiently Members of it which Godwin and others utterly deny 3ly That they intermedled with any Ecclesiastical causes as Supream Judges of them as some alleadge they did in the case of the Prophet Jeremiah where when the malicious Priests Prophets and all the people pronounced him I conceive only by way of accusation as in the case of Christ before Pilate when they cryed out Let him be crucified not vote or Judgement to be worthy of death the Princes of Judah who heard tydings thereof came up from the Kings house and sate down in the Porch of the house of the Lord and when they had heard Jeremiah his Apology and their clamours adjudged voted the contrary that he was not worthy to die and saved his life which proves the Princes only not the Priests or Prophets to be Judges paramount even in Ecclesiastical causes persons not the Priests in their imaginary Consistory Church Council 4ly It is granted by Sigonius Dr. Field most Jewish Rabbies Antiquaries that the Princes of Judah and Israel before the Babilonish captivity sat Chief Presidents in this high Court as they do in our Parliaments and that nothing was there passed but by their assents thereto till the high Priest after that restitution by usurpation not right sat Chief therein Therefore if we admit any such Soveraign standing Court erected and continuing so long as some pretend to erect such a Presbytery in themselves having conusance of Ecclesiastical persons or causes as well as Temporal or a kind of Ecclesiastical Consistory stiled a Council which some would difference from it though I hold them both one and the same erected devised by their Elders Princes Priests after their return from the Babilonish captivity it will no wayes enervate but ratifie my second Proposition That the Soveraign Ecclesiastical Authority in the Israelitish Church of God under the Law remained alwayes setled by Divine and Natural Right in their Kings and chief Civil Magistrates Princes Councils not in their High Priest Priests or Levites separated or conjoyned and that the Civil and Ecclesiastical power are but one and the same in nature distinguished only by the Civil or Ecclesiastical