Christ but likewise the other two Persons of the Blessed Trinity God the Father and God the Holy Ghost in that the dishonouring of One of them is the dishonouring of them all Three We do therefore for our selves and in the Name of all the rest of the Church of England acknowledge and profess from the bottom of our hearts the Truth of all that is written in the Sacred Scriptures and consequently and in more particular manner whatsoever is written in the same that doth appertain to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity Out of the Doctrine of which Sacred Writings because the Apostles and Churches of God moved thereunto by sundry sorts of Hereticks have long since most faithfully and learnedly deduced into certain Summaries rightly termed Creeds all those Points of true Doctrine which do concern God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and are necessarily to be believed under pain of condemnation We do resolutely embrace and stedfastly believe all and every one the Articles of the Apostles Creed and all and every one the Articles of the other Creeds made by sundry Councils for the further Declaration of the Christian Faith and Apostolick Creed as of the Nicene Creed made by the Council of Nice against Arius who denied the Divinity of the Son of God and of the next Creed made in the first Council of Constantinople ratifying and further declaring the Nicene Creed against Eudoxius the Arian and Macedonius who denied the Holy Ghost to be God and of the Creed made in the first Council of Ephesus against Nestorius who taught that the two Natures in Christ were not united together personally but that the Word which did take our Nature upon him for our Redemption did only assist Christ our Saviour as one Friend may assist another and of the Creed made in the Council of Chalcedon against Eutyches who did confound the two Natures of Christ Against any of which Articles whosoever doth oppose himself and doth willfully continue in such his Opposition we hold and judge them to be worthily subject to all those Censures and Anathematisms which the several Constitutions and Canons of the said Councils have justly laid upon them Also with the same Resolution and Faith before-mentioned we receive and believe all and every one the several Points and Articles of the Athanasian Creed made a little after the Council of Nice against such blasphemous Opinions as in those times were either directly or indirectly published in Corners and spread here and there to the seducing of many According to some Articles of the which Creed that do more nearly concern our Course We stedfastly believe and confess That our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is both God and Man God of the substance of the Father begotten before all Worlds and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane flesh subsisting Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferiour to the Father as touching his Manhood who although he be both God and Man yet he is not two but One Christ One not by Conversion of the Godhead into Flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God One altogether not by Confusion of substance but by Unity of Person In respect of which Personal Union of the two Natures of our Saviour Christ without confusion or mixture of either of them thus described in the said Creed whatsoever is affirmed in the Scriptures as well of the one Nature as of the other the same is also truly to be affirmed de toto Composito that is of his most sacred Person being both God and Man the Essential Properties of them both remaining notwithstanding distinguished For as the said personal or hypostatical Union of the said two Natures doth not make the one Nature to be the other the divine Nature to be the humane Nature or the humane Nature to be the Divine Nature so doth it not make the Essential Proprieties of the one Nature to be the Essential Proprieties of the other Nature but as well the Proprieties and actions as the Natures themselves do remain distinguished though united in one Person both of them concurring together the Deity in working that which appertaineth to the Deity and the Humanity executing those Essential Proprieties and actions which do belong unto the Humanity For Example the Divine Nature appear'd in Christ by Miracles when his humane Nature was subject to many opprobries and injuries In that our Saviour Christ did satisfie 5000. Persons with 5. loaves did give Water of Life to the Woman of Samaria did walk upon the Sea dry-foot did by his Commandment calm the Winds he shewed thereby some effects and works of his Divine Nature because they were as one well saith verbi propria non carnis the Proprieties of the Word and not of the Flesh Again in that Christ brake Bread this was an Office of his humane Nature but in that he multiplied it the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that he cried out Lazarus come forth that was the office of his humane Nature but in that he quickned him and raised him from Death that did belong unto his Divine Nature In that he said Thy sins are forgiven thee that was an office of his humane Nature but in that such sins were indeed remitted the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that our Saviour Christ died the same did proceed from the Flesh but in that by his Death he did expiate our Sins that did proceed from the Spirit In that he was Buried did proceed from the Flesh but in that he did raise himself from the dead that was he Office of his Divinity In that he gave Bread to his Apostles in his last Supper he did it as Man but in that he made them partakers of his blessed Body he did the same as he was God In that now being in Heaven he doth possess that Kingdom in the name and behalf of his Elect that doth appertain to his humane Nature but that he doth now remain with us and dwell in our hearts that is an Office of his Divine Nature In that he maketh Intercession for us that doth belong to his humane Nature but in that he doth justifie us regenerate us work in us both to will and to perform in that he ruleth us and leadeth us in the way of his Commandments all these Offices do appertain unto his Divinity Lastly In that he shall come in the Clouds and say unto one sort of Persons Come ye blessed and unto the other sort Depart ye Cursed he shall do the same according to his humane Nature but in that he shall judge every Man according to his knowledge of all Mens hearts their cogitations desires and works that he shall do as God Nevertheless any thing by us thus affirmed notwithstanding Christ himself is not divided though the Proprieties and actions of his two Natures are in this
others brought a great detriment for want of Ability unto them for one of the said Captains having gotten to himself a very strong Kingdom in Syria and another of them in Egypt the Jews dweling betwixt them both were miserably on every side vexed by them Sometimes the Egyptians by Oppression and Force brought them under their Subjection and imposed great Tributes upon them and sometimes the Syrians growing mightier than the Egyptians did likewise very greatly afflict them especially in the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes whose Invasion and Government was most unjust and Tyrannical He shed innocent Blood on every side of the Sanctuary spoiled the Temple erecting in it the Abomination of the Gentiles and caused it to be named the Temple of Jupiter Olympius The Books of the Law by his Commandment were cut in pieces and burnt and they with whom they were found were put to death A general Commandment was by him published that they should offer no more Sacrifices nor circumcise their Children nor execute any other parts of their own Law in the Service of God but wholly to conform themselves therein to the manner of the Gentiles Whereupon the People by heaps forsook the Lord and offered Sacrifices to Idols and such as refused so to do chusing rather to obey God than Man were most cruelly slain and murthered by thousands until Mattathias moved with the monstrous Cruelty and Tyranny of the said Antiochus made open Resistance the Government of that Tyrant being not then either generally received by submission or setled by continuance It is not pertinent to our purpose to intermeddle with sundry Questions which might here arise Only we observe that Mattathias undertook that charge that he commended the same afterwards to his Sons and that it continued in them and their Posterity until both they and their whole Countrey were vanquished by the Romans CAN. XXXI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Jews generally both Priests and People were not the Subjects of Alexander after his Authority was setled amongst them as they had been before the Subjects of the Kings of Babylon and Persia or that they might lawfully have born Arms against him or that they were not all bound to pray for the long life and prosperity both of Alexander and his Empire as they had been bound before to pray for the life and prosperity of the other said Kings and their Kingdoms whilst they lived under their subjection or consequently that they might lawfully upon any occasion whatsoever have offered violence and destruction either to their Persons or to their Kingdoms for the long continuance and prosperity whereof they were bound to pray or that after the Jews were delivered from their servitude under the Kings of Syria and the Government over them was settled in Mattathias's Posterity it was lawful for the People upon any occasion to have rebelled against them or to have offered violence to their persons He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXII THE afflictions which the Jews endured whilst the Government of the Grecians lasted were much the more grievous unto them by reason of the great disorders which were then amongst their Priests For whereas they should have been a stay and a comfort unto them in their greater miseries their negligence one way and their ambition another way in striving about the High Priesthood did so distract them into parts taking as that thereby great effusion of blood did oftentimes ensue shortly after Jaddus's time this was the general report which for their Wickedness was given out of them The Priests were now no more diligent about the Altar but despised the Temple and regarded not the Sacrifices They did not set by the honour of their Fathers but liked of the glory of the Gentiles most of all The Temple was full of dissoluteness and gluttony of the Gentiles which dallied with Harlots and had to do with Women within the circuit of holy places and brought in such things as were not lawful The Altar also was full of such things as were abominable and forbidden by the Law and two or three of the High Priests applauded thereunto Simon the High-Priest leaving three Sons behind him Onias Jason and Menelaus was not long dead but Jason for three hundred and sixty Talents of Silver procured such assistance of Antiochus King of Syria as he thrust his elder Brother Onias out of the High-Priesthood and not long after had the same measure repay'd unto him again by his younger Brother Menelaus who upon some cunning information and for six hundred and sixty Talents got the place himself Whereupon Jason assembled Forces drove Menelaus into a Castle slew the Citizens without Mercy and in the end being repulsed died abroad as an exile Menelaus afterward caused his Eldest Brother Onias to be Murder'd because he blamed him for stealing certain Vessels of Gold out of the Temple Next Menelaus succeeded Alcimus whereas Onias the Son of Onias before-mentioned should in right have had that dignity Of all which four Persons eminent in their time these things are left for Records unto Posterity Jason to get Antiochus's good will for the High-Priesthood promised him besides his great Bribe to set up a School of Gentilism likewise to build a Brothel-House by the Temple and that the People of Hierusalem should be named Antiochians after the Kings Name He drew his Kinsmen to the Custom of the Gentiles and sent to Tyrus three hundred Drachms of Silver for a Sacrifice to Hercules Menelaus also took the like course or rather a worse for besides that he conform'd himself wholly in effect to the manners of the Grecians it is further thus written of him Antiochus went into the most holy Temple having Menelaus that Traytor to the Laws and to his own Country to be his Guide He thrust himself into the Kings Army against Judas Maccabaeus and the City of Hierusalem hoping thereupon to have attain'd that Government But Lysias the King's Lieutenant crossed his purpose therein and inform'd the King that he the said Menelaus had been the cause of all the mischiefs which had ensued the Wars with the Jews as being the Man who perswaded his Father Antiochus Epiphanes to compel them to forsake the Laws of their Fathers adding thereunto that whilst Menelaus lived the Jews would never be quiet Whereupon the King commanding him to be put to Death he was smother'd in Ashes because he had committed many sins by the Altar whose fire and ashes were holy Alcimus the High-Priest next succeeding was no sooner in his place but he took upon him to be the Captain of all the ungodly Men of Israel and solicited King Demetrius to make War against Judas Maccabaeus complaining that he had killed all the King's Friends The King thus instigated sent an Army against Hierusalem with one Bacchides and Alcimus who pretending that they came in Peace and being thereupon trusted
were inspired by the Holy Ghost did leave this Doctrine so jointly taught to be dispensed with afterward by any Pope his Vicar led by what Spirit is easy to be discern'd being so far different from the Holy Ghost which spake as is aforesaid by the said Apostles or that it is not a most wicked and detestable assertion for any Man to affirm That the Apostles in commanding such obedience to the Ethnick Princes then did not truly mean as their plain words do import but had some mental Reservations whereby the same might be alter'd as occasion should serve or that the Apostles at that time if they had found the Christians of sufficient force for Number Provision and Furniture of Warlike Engines to have deposed those Pagan Princes that were then both Enemies and Persecutors of all that believed in Christ would no doubt have moved and authorized them to have made War against such their Princes and absolved them from performing any longer that Obedience which they as Men temporizing had in their Writings prescribed unto them or that when afterward Christians were grown able for number and strength to have opposed themselves by force against their Emperours being wicked and Persecutors they might lawfully so have done for any thing that is in the New Testament to the contrary or that these and such like Expositions of the meaning of the holy Apostles when they writ so plainly and directly are not very impious and blasphemous as tending not only to the utter discredit of them and their Writings but likewise to the indelible stain and dishonour of the whole Scriptures in that they were written by no other Persons of any greater Authority than were the Apostles nor by the Inspiration and direction of any other Spirit He doth greatly Erre CAP. VI. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not in Effect alter the Form of Ecclesiastical Government amongst the Jews the essential parts of the Priesthood under the Law otherwise than as the said Priesthood was typical and had the Execution of Levitical Ceremonies annexed unto it being instituted and appointed by God to continue not for a time but until the End of the World WE have deduced in our former Book the joint Descent of the State as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal from the Beginning of the World unto the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ Since whose Birth seeing we have found no alteration in the Temporal Government of the World either while Christ lived here upon the Earth or during the time of his Apostles assuredly we shall not find that the alteration which upon Christ's Death fell out in the Church was so great as some have imagined For as our Saviour Christ according unto his Divine Nature having created all the World was the sole Monarch of it and did govern the same visibly by Kings and Soveraign Princes his Vicegerents upon Earth so he in the same Divine Nature being the Son of God and foreseeing the Fall of Man and how thereby all his Posterity should become the Children of Wrath did of his infinite Mercy undertake to be their Redeemer and presently after the Transgression of Adam Eve put that his Office in practice Whereby as he was Agnus occisus ab origine Mundi he not only began the Erection of that one Church selected people and Society of Believers which eversince hath been and so shall continue his blessed Spouse for ever but also took upon him thenceforward and for ever to be the sole Head and Monarch of it ruling and governing the same visibly by such Priests and Ministers under him as in his heavenly Wisdom he thought fit to appoint and as we have more at large expressed in our said former Book Especially when he settled amongst the Jews a more exact and eminent Form of Ecclesiastical Government than before that time he had done In the which his so exact a Form he first did separate the civil Government from the Ecclesiastical as they were both jointly exercised by one Person restraining the Priesthood for a time unto the Tribe of Levi and the civil Government unto temporal Princes and shortly after more particularly unto the Tribe of Judah Concerning the Priesthood thus limited we need to say little because the Order and Subordination of it is so plainly set down in the Scriptures Aaron and his Sons after him by succession had the first Place and were appointed to exercise the Office of Highpriests and under their soveraign Princes and temporal Governours as we have shewed in our said first Book cap. 18. did bear the chief sway in matters appertaining to God Next unto Aaron there were 24. Priests of an inferiour Degree that were termed Principes Sacerdotum that governed the third sort of Priests allotted unto their several Charges and this third sort also had the rest of the Levites at their direction In like manner these Levites neither wanted their chief Rulers to order them according as the said third sort of Priests did command which Rulers were termed Principes Levitarum in number 24. Nor their Assistants the Gabionites otherwise called Nethinaei to help them in the Execution of their baser Offices Of this notable Form of Ecclesiastical Government it may be truly said in our Judgments That the same being of God's own framing it is to be esteem'd the best and most perfect Form of Church-Government that ever was or can be devised and that Form also is best to be approved and upheld which doth most resemble it and cometh nearest unto it We said upon a fit Occasion That by the Death of our Saviour Christ the Church-Government then amongst the Jews was greatly altered and therefore do think it very convenient in this place more fully therein to set down our meaning It is very true that before the Death of Christ the outward Service of God did much consist in Figures Shadows and Sacrifices the Levitical Priesthood itself as it was to Aaron and his Stock and in some other Respects being only a Type of our High Priest Jesus Christ But afterward when by his Passion upon the Cross he had fulfilled All that was signified by the said Figures Shadows and Sacrifices and had likewise not only abolished them but freed the Tribe of Levi of the charge of the Priesthood and removed the High Priesthood as it was typical from the said Priestly Tribe unto the Regal Tribe of Judah the same being now setled in himself our only High Priest according to the Order not of Aaron but of Melchizedech He hath by that his Translation of the Priesthood freed his Church from the Ceremonial Law which contained in it little but Patterns Shadows and Figures of that one Sacrifice offer'd by him upon the Cross which doth sanctifie all the faithful and purge their Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Nevertheless in this so great an alteration although all the said Figures
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
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
us and the Sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross vanquish both the Devil Death and Hell to the end that as many as believed in him might not perish but have life everlasting And therefore knowing Faith to be the Means of so unspeakable a Benefit he vouchsafed not only to be our Priest but our heavenly Prophet labouring by Preaching and Miracles to beget Faith in the Hearts of his Hearers that Satan being expel'd thence he himself with his Father might abide and make their Mansion in them To the performance of which most admirable work how our Saviour Christ being equal with his Father became a Servant for our sakes as it was the will of God whereunto of his own accord he conform'd himself and what a poor Estate he held whilst he was upon the Earth how he was born in Poverty lived in Poverty and died in Poverty how maliciously and scornfully he was oftentimes entreated how as when he spake the truth his Enemies said he blasphemed So when he cast out Devils they told him that he cast them out by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils how in the whole course of his Life he was so far from being a temporal King or having possession of any Regal State as he had not so much as an House of his own to rest his head in but was glad to lodge now with one man and then with another as the Occasions and Times served and how in the end he was content to satisfie the Malice of his Enemies by submitting himself for our sakes unto the Death of the Cross it were a needless labour for us to pursue the Evangelists have so plainly set down all these particulars and many more besides to that purpose Likewise it shall be sufficient for us sparingly to recount how our Saviour Christ was not only content to preach and work Miracles himself for the conversion o◠those that heard him but did to the same end as well before his Passion as after authorize likewise his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples to preach and work strange Miracles and furthermore ordain a Succession of the Ministry for the encreasing of this his Kingdom unto the end of the World himself never forsaking his Church and Ministers but still assisting them in that their spiritual Charge which he had committed unto them For although that he himself by his Death and Passion hath vanquished Satan and ruleth in the Hearts of the Faithful yet by reason of our Infirmities and Weakness of Faith and through the Malice of the Devil who never ceaseth like a roaring Lyon to seek whom he may devour this spiritual Kingdom of Christ is but now begun in us and upheld in us by the most merciful hand of our Saviour Christ through the operation of the Holy Ghost and by the labour of the Ministry But in the end through the Virtue of Christ's Passion shall be brought to pass that which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be unto God who hath given us victory thrô our Lord Jesus Christ And again Death Hell and the Devil shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone In the mean while and during the time of this our Pilgrimage we are for the continuance of Christ's dwelling in our Hearts to follow the Counsel and Direction of the Holy Ghost That in no sort we give any place to the Devil but that we resist him with all the force we are able for in so doing he will fly from us And for our better Resistance that we might be able to stand against the Assaults of Satan we have a notable and compleat armour appointed us by the said Holy Spirit which is agreeable to the Nature of the Enemies we have to fight with For saith the holy Apostle we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers and against worldly governors the princes of darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses which are in the high places And thus we have a brief and short Idea of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ Whereof when the Apostles after they were replenished with the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost had full understanding and notice they never dreamed for ought that appeareth to the contrary in the Scriptures of any Worldly preheminence or Principalities who should sit here and who should sit there but contented themselves with the same estate and condition of life that their Master had led before them remembring how he had described the same unto them when he first sent them to preach amongst the Jews Behold saith he unto them I send you as sheep in the midst of Wolves Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and will scourge you in the Synagogues And ye shall be brought to the Governours and Kings for my sake in witness to them and the Gentiles And ye shall be hated of all Men for my sake When they persecute you in this City flee into another the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more them of his Houshold Whosoever will be a perfect Disciple shall be as his Master Verily Verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament and the World shall rejoice The time shall come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service And as Christ did thus foretel them so it came to pass For no sooner did they begin to Preach the Gospel after the Ascension of Christ but they were whipped scourged cast into Prison bound with Chains and most cruelly entreated St. Paul doth testify somewhat hereof when writing in the name both of himself and of the rest of the Apostles and Ministers he saith thus In all things we approve our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in prisons in tumults in labours by watchings by fastings by long sufferings by dishonour by evil report as Deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet known as dying and behold we live Besides that which he speaketh of his own particular condition doth argue the estate and condition of his Fellows though one would have thought that little more could have been added to the barbarous Cruelty last mentioned to have been Executed upon them For comparing himself and his pains with certain false Brethren that were crept into the Church amongst the Apostles and sought for their own commendation to impair the credit of this our Apostle he writeth in this manner They are Ministers of Christ I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in Prison more plenteously Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one I was thrice beaten
with Rods. I was once stoned I suffered thrice Shipwrack Night and day have I been in the deep Sea In Journying I was often in perils of Water in perils of Robbers in perils of mine own Nation in perils amongst the Gentiles in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false Brethren In weariness and painfulness in watching often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Besides these things which are outward I am cumber'd daily and have the care of all the Churches Much is not written of St. Peter by the Evangelist St. Luke but it is not to be doubted that his Case was as bad as any of his Fellows When he began to Preach he was call'd in question with great eagerness and vehemently threatned Also with some other of the Apostles he was cast into Prison and beaten Likewise when James was killed by Herod's Commandment Peter was again Imprisoned and loaden with Irons and had assuredly in all likelyhood escaped hardly with his Life but that the Angel of the Lord delivered him In a word after many Afflictions Injuries Calamities and Miseries endured by the Apostles whilst they lived in this World they were in the end as well St. Peter as almost all the rest most spitefully and cruelly by the Enemies of Christ and of their own Salvation put to Death During the course of whose lives in so great dangers and manifold distresses out of question they would greatly have marvelled their hard Estates consider'd but especially St. Peter if he had known himself to be the sole Monarch under Christ over all the World and that the Emperour and all other Kings had been at that time his Vassals and that likewise they the rest of the Apostles had been under St. Peter so many Soveraign and Temporal Princes to have commanded and ruled amongst them throughout the whole World Neither do we see any true cause that might have moved St. Peter to have concealed that his so eminent temporal Power and Authority if he had thought it to have been the Ordinance of God or at least if he for modesty would have been silent why the rest of the Apostles should not have published it that the civil and temporal States in those times who knew no such Ordination made by Christ might have been left inexcusable Besides the concealing of a truth of so great importance was an injury offered to all the faithful in those days who had they been truly taught in these Mens conceits ought to have left their Obedience to the Emperour in all temporal Causes and for the dignity of the Gospel to have adher'd unto St. Peter to have been directed in them by him their temporal Monarch The consideration of all which inconveniences and consequents doth perswade us to think that none of the Apostles ever dreamed of any such temporal Soveraignty notwithstanding that they knew well the Scriptures how Christ told them That All Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto him how St. Peter had two Swords and how Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Ghost were stricken suddenly from Heaven with Death Touching the two first of which places the same being notoriously abused and wrested by the Canonists and their Adherents to prove the Popes temporal Monarchy the said Cardinal doth very resolutely reject the Arguments which are thence by them deduced And to the first he answereth Potestatem de quâ hic loquitur Dominus non esse potestatem temporalem ut Regnum terrenorum sed vel tantùm spiritualem ut B. Hieronymus B. Anselmus exponunt qui hunc esse volunt sensum eorum verborum Data est mihi omnis potestas in coelo in terrâ i.e. ut sicut in coelo Rex sum Angelorum ità per fidem regnem in cordibus hominum vel ut addit Theophylactus esse potestatem quandam summam in omnes creaturas non temporalem sed divinam vel divinae simillimam quae non potest communicari homini mortali That the Power whereof the Lord here speaketh is not a temporal Power like the Power of terrene Kings but it is either a spiritual Power as St. Hierom and St. Anselm do expound the said place who will have this to be the sense of those words All Power is given me in Heaven and Earth which is to say that as in Heaven I am King of Angels so by Faith I do reign in the hearts of Men or as Theophylact addeth it is a certain supream Power not temporal but divine or most like to the Divine Power which cannot be communicated to any mortal Man And for the second Argument drawn from St. Peter 's two Swords the same is set down by our said Cardinal in these words Secundò objiciunt Scripturam Luc. 22. Vbi Dominus duos gladios Petro concedit Cùm enim Discipuli dicerent Ecce duo gladii hic Dominus non ait nimis est sed satis est Quare B. Bernardus 4. 4. de Consid Bonifacius octavus in Extravag Vnam sanctam de Majoritate Obedientiâ ex hoc loco deducunt Pontisicem duos gladios ex Christi institutione habere that is Secondly they object the Scriptures Luc. 22. Where the Lord doth grant two Swords to Peter For when the Disciples said Behold here are two Swords the Lord answered not they are too many but they are sufficient Therefore St. Bernard and Boniface the eighth do hence deduce that the Bishop of Rome by Christ's Institution hath two Swords Unto which objection our Cardinal saith thus Respondeo ad Literam nullam fieri mentionem in eo loco Evangelii de gladio spirituali vel temporali Pontificis sed solum Dominum illis verbis monere voluisse Discipulos tempore Passionis suae in iis angustiis metu ipsos futuros fuisse in quibus esse solent qui tunicam vendunt ut emant gladium ut ex Theophylacto aliisque Patribus colligitur I answer that according to the Letter there is no mention made in that place of the Gospel either of the spiritual or temporal Sword of the Bishop of Rome but that Christ meant only in those words to admonish his Disciples how they should be in the time of his Passion in those straights and fear wherein Men are accustomed to be who sell their Coat to buy them a Sword as it is to be collected out of Theophylact and other Fathers And for Bernard and Boniface he saith They did expound the said place mystically and meant not to have their words so far extended as the Objector would have them Which answer it is likely Bernard if he were now alive would take in good part but assuredly if any Cardinal in Bonifacius 's days had made it he would have smarted for it and might perhaps have tried the depth of Tiber. Neither do we suppose that the now Pope will give him any great thanks for it nor
that in all likelyhood he hath received any greater commendation for his plain dealing in answer to another Objection which is grounded upon the Authority of Pope Nicholas Who in an Epistle of his to Michael the Emperour of Constantinople doth write thus Christus B. Petro vitae aeternae clavigero terreni simul coelestis Imperii Jura commisti Christ did commit to St. Peter the Key bearer of Everlasting Lise the right and interest both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire To which saying of Pope Nicholas the Cardinal maketh two answers Ad testimonium Nicolai dico Imprimis illud citari à Gratiano d. 22. Can. Omnes sed non inveniri inter Epistolas Nicolai Papae To the testimony of Pope Nicholas I answer First that the said is cited by Gratian but it is not to be found amongst the Epistles of Pope Nicholas As if he should have said That testimony is forged And the effect of his second Answer is That if any Man shall urge that Testimony of Pope Nicholas in the sense objected they make him directly repugnant to himself in the rest of the said Epistle And concerning the other Argument by our said Canonist alledged of the Death of Ananias and Sapphira the ancient Fathers in the Primitive Church would certainly have scorn'd it if ever they had heard of it Peter knowing by the instinct of the Holy Ghost that Satan had possessed both their hearts and how they lied not to Men but to God did only pronounce that Sentence of Death upon them which the holy Spirit did suggest unto him Wherein although there may appear what force the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God had when it was brandished by St. Peter through the Operation of the Holy Ghost there was assuredly no use of any material and civil Sword for if there had another manner of Form of outward Justice would first have been held before they had been Executed And to conclude this point We do freely profess That the nature of Christ his Spiritual Kingdom being throughly weighed we cannot find to what purpose either St. Peter or any of his Successors should have been made temporal Monarchs over all the Civil Magistrates in the World because all their temporal Forces and Swords joined together had not been able to have vanquished one wicked Spirit of the Air or have open'd the door of any one Man's heart for Christ or the Holy Ghost to have entered and have made their habitation in it CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ hath otherwise committed the World to be governed under him by Kings and Soveraign Princes but so as he himself with his Regal Scepter doth rule and govern them all according to his Divine Pleasure or that it is not a sound Argument that the Bishops of Rome in taking upon them to be temporal Kings have wholly perverted the Institution of Christ in that behalf in that they are driven to justify their facts therein by the Examples of the Maccabees and those times of so great confusion or that our Saviour Christ whilst he was here upon the Earth did not fully content himself to be only a Spiritual King to rule in Mens hearts or that to the end he might erect such a Spiritual Kingdom he did not conquer the Devil Sin Death and Hell and thereby took possession in the hearts of all true Believers or that before our Saviour Christ doth begin to reign in Man's heart he doth not first by the Ministry of his Word beget a lively Faith in it or that whilst he lived here in the World he did not satisfy himself for our sakes with a very mean and poor Estate being in himself most rich because he was God and in his humanity the Heir of all things or that he did not Institute and Ordain a Priesthood or Ministry to continue to the end of the World for the continuance and augmenting of his Spiritual Kingdom or that the Children of God notwithstanding that they are redeemed through Faith by Christ and delivered out of the Iaws of Hell and Satan are not still to take heed and beware of him and to arm themselves accordingly against his Forces or that our Saviour Christ when he told his Apostles and Disciples That the Servant is not above his Lord but that whosoever would be a perfect Disciple should be as his Master did not mean that his Apostles and after them their Successors Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Ministry should hold their Services and Offices under him to do as he did when he was a Mortal Man of poor Estate and subject to many bad Vsages and Injuries or that because our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension when he was become a Man Immortal and Glorious did then enlarge the Commission of his Apostles and ordain'd by them a succession of the Ministry for the government of the Church he did thereby make them any more partakers of his Regal Authority whereof his humane nature was then actually possessed for the state and exercise thereof by reason of the free and unrestrained Operation of his Deity than he made their natural and corruptible Bodies incorrupt and spiritual Bodies or endowed them in this life with any of that Glory Power and Heavenly Estate which they were to enjoy after their Deaths and blessed Resurrection or that the Apostles after Christ's Death not exempting St. Peter did not find their Estates in this World very suitable to their Master's whilst he lived with them all things happening unto them as he had foretold them or that either St. Peter or any of the Apostles or of their Successors either then or since that time could challenge so much as this or that one temporal farm by virtue of their Ecclesiastical Functions more than their Master had or that either they were themselves possessed with as their own before they were called to that Ministration or than was afterward given unto them by godly Emperors Kings and Princes and other devout and religious Persons or that if St. Peter had known himself to have been under Christ the sole temporal Monarch of the World it had not been his duty to have made the same known at least to the Apostles and such as were converted to Christ to the end they might have honour'd him accordingly as his dutiful and loyal Subjects or that it had not in all probability if St. Peter meant to shew himself to be a temporal King by the Deaths of Ananias and Sapphira been much more expedient for the success of the Gospel in those days if he had used such his Regal Authority against those civil Magistrates which were Enemies to Christ and to all that Preached in his name or that it may be rightly imagin'd with our dutiful regard of St. Peter's Sincerity that ever he would have been so earnest with the
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