Ecclesiastically and to instruct them in the Mysteries of their Salvation through the blessed Seed of the Woman according to the Doctrine of the Gospel which was from time to time in divers Manners delivered by the Son of God unto them This Priestly Office and Ecclesiastical Authority was yet joyned as before the Flood with the Office of the chief Fathers and civil Governours Noah himself was both a Prince and a Priest he built Altars offered Sacrifices and taught the Church after the Flood 350. Years all that which he had learnt from his Fathers concerning the Creation of the World the Fall of Man and of his Restitution by Christ and generally all that did concern necessarily either civil Societies and Government or Ecclesiastical Assemblies and Authority not omitting the very Ceremonies After Noah the chief Fathers Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob did execute that Office God himself renewing unto them this Promise of Salvation through the blessed Seed and not only confirming the same to Abraham and his Posterity by the Sacrament of Circumcision but likewise teaching and instructing them in that Heavenly Mystery sometimes by his own Voice and sometimes by Visions and divers other ways whereof the Scriptures make more plain mention than they do of the delivery of the same Evangelical Doctrine before the Flood CAN. VII IF any Man shall therefore affirm either that the Priestly Office and Authority Ecclesiastical which Noah had before the Flood was by that Deluge determin'd or that it was by the Election of his Off-spring confer'd again upon him or that Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob were neither Priests nor had any Ecclesiastical Authority until they were chosen thereunto by their Children and Nephews or that the Priesthood and Ecclesiastical Authority were not the Ordinances of God for the governing and instructing of the Church according to the Will and direction of God himself delivered and revealed unto them as is aforesaid he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. VIII AS before the Flood Cain and his Posterity were opposite to the Posterity of Seth and might therefore generally have been called the Church Malignant so fell it out after the Flood in the Generations of Japhet but especially of Cham against the Posterity of Sem in whose Lineage the true worship of God through the blessed Seed was especially continued and not that only but in like manner as the Children of Seth in process of time provok't against them the wrath of God by corrupting their ways and following in their Conversations the Generations of Cain and were in that respect all of them with the rest of Cain's Off-spring justly punisht and drown'd by the Flood saving eight Persons Noah and his Wife Sem Cham and Japhet and their three Wives so did the Posterity not only of Cham and Japhet as well before as after the confusion of Tongues and the death of Noah but likewise the Off-spring of Sem who were called more effectually to the knowledge of the Mysteries of Christ and right service of the true God leave the ways of Noah and Sem and gave just occasion to Almighty God had he not bound himself by his Covenant to the contrary to have drowned them all again Nimrod descended of Cham not contenting himself with the Patriarchal or Regal mild Government ordain'd of God by the Laws of Reason and Nature became a Tyrant and Lord of Confusion and by Histories it is apparent that within few Ages after the Death of Noah's Sons great Barbarism and confusion fell among their Generations through their Pride and dissoluteness in that they thought scorn to be govern'd either Civilly or Ecclesiastically as God himself by Noah had ordain'd or to be ruled otherwise than as they list themselves and touching the Service of God and the Ecclesiastical Authority they mingled with true Religion many false worships and chose Priests among themselves to serve God after their own Fashions or rather they devis'd to themselves many Gods and found out Priests accordingly such as were content to train them up in those kinds of Impiety In Chaldea it self and the places adjacent the Children of Sem were all of them almost grown to be Idolaters insomuch as God himself to keep a remnant more carefully that should through the publick profession of his name be partakers of his Mercies in Christ called Abraham with his Family from the habitation of his Fathers to become a Stranger in the Land of Canaan CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm That the said Posterity of Noah's Children did well in altering either the manner or form of civil Government which God had appointed by bringing in of Tyranny or factious Popularity or of the Ecclesiastical by framing unto themselves a new kind of Priesthood and worship after their own humours or that it was lawful for such as then served God upon any pretence to have imitated their Examples in either of those courses he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. IX IT is apparent in the Scriptures That although God was not pleased that the Issue of Jacob's Children should by the Example of the Sons of Noah grow up to become the heads of so many several Nations but continuing together should make one People and Nation to be ruled and governed by the same Laws and Magistrates yet it seemed good to his Heavenly Wisdom that in so great a People as should descend from Jacob's Children no one Tribe or Family should continue charg'd both with the Civil or Regal and Ecclesiastical Function and therefore Jacob making way to the fulfilling of the will of God herein did take just occasion moved thereunto by the Spirit of God to deprive his eldest Son Reuben of his Interest by Birthright in both those Prerogatives to be disposed afterward by God unto other of his Brethren Now after Jacob's Death the former thereof viz. the Scepter in process of time fell to Judah as Jacob before had Prophesied and the other also viz. the Priesthood was afterwards given to Levi by God's Ordinance CAP. X. AFter Jacob's Death till Moses was sent to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt there is little in the Scriptures touching either the Civil or Ecclesiastical Government It appeareth that Joseph being a great Prince in Aegypt by the King's Authority was whilst he lived chief amongst his Brethren but after his Death through the Tyranny of the Kings of Aegypt which God suffer'd to lie heavily upon them for many Years the civil Authority which any of the Tribes had was very small there was such jealousy of their number which daily encreast above all ordinary expectation as it is not likely that the Kings successively would suffer any great Authority to rest in them howbeit we think they had some either the chief heads of the Tribes generally or of the Tribe of Ephraim and Reuben for it may be Jacob's Prophecy of Reuben's losing the Prerogatives of his
the Disorders and Idolatry in those days were ascribed by the Holy Ghost to the want of Judges Chief Rulers or Kings amongst them who should have reformed those Enormities not only in them but likewise in the Priests themselves if they did not their Duties especially in suppressing of Idolatry as they should have done CAN. XIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Israelites fell not into many Evils and Disorders by being left destitute of a certain chief Governour after Joshua's Death or that when God raised up Iudges to rule and govern them the Peoples consent was necessary thereunto or that the said Iudges being once appointed by God to those places received their Authority in that behalf from the People or that the fact of the Sichemites may lawfully be imitated by any Christian People in so chusing to themselves a King or Iudge according to their own humours or that the want of Kings Princes and Rulers in any Country is not the Mother of disorder and confusion he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XIV IT is manifest in the Scriptures That Moses directed by the Spirit of God did foresee that the time should come when the Israelites being quietly setled in the Land of Canaan should be govern'd by Kings after the manner of other Nations And therefore Almighty God did set down by Moses's Pen the Duty of all Kings and the Rules whereby they ought to govern Jacob also being illuminated by the same holy Spirit did not only foretel that it would come to pass that the Tribe of Judah should bear the Scepter and that the Kingdom or Government of Judah should be held by Succession according to the manner of other Nations but likewise tha the said Scepter or Government should not be taken away from that Tribe until the coming of Christ And it seemeth that the People were not altogether ignorant of this foreseen alteration when finding divers wants and confusions amongst them after the Death of one Judge before God was pleased to appoint them another they first offer'd rashly to Gideon their Prince that his Children and Off-spring should succeed him in that Government And afterward being weary of depending upon God's pleasure and misliking the rule of Samuel's Sons they urged him undutifully and unseasonably that they might have a King to rule over them as other Nations had meaning thereby principally as we suppose that such their Kings might by Succession govern them so as one being dead they might still have another We say that they urged Samuel to this purpose undutifully and unseasonably and that thereupon Saul was appointed to be their King because otherwise if they had expected God's good pleasure and time and contented themselves with his care over them in raising up when he thought meet their Judges to govern them they should have found shortly after that the Prophecy of Jacob should have been fulfilled and that God would have given the Scepter of Judah into the hands of David and of his Posterity according to their desire CAN. XIV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the People of Israel did not grievously sin in being weary of Gods immediate Election and appointment of their chief Governors or that the peoples preposterous hast did any way prejudice the Dignity and Authority of Saul's Regal Power or afterward of the Scepter of Judah or that the People then had in themselves any Authority to set up a King over them for then they would not have been so earnest with Samuel to make them a King or that after David's advancement to that Kingdom he was not as truly call'd thereunto by God himself as Aaron was to the Priesthood or that David's Posterity had not by God's Ordinance as rightful an Interest to succeed him in his said Kingdom as either Aaron's Sons had to succeed him in the Priesthood or Moses Joshua and the rest of the Iudges notwithstanding that God himself did chuse and named them particularly had in their Governments or that the People then had any more Authority to have withstood either David or any of his Posterity from being their King than they had to have expelled either Moses or Joshua or any of the rest of the Iudges whom God by name did appoint to govern them he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XV. IT is manifest in the Scriptures that the Kings in the Old Testament notwithstanding that they had their Kingdoms by Succession were as strictly bound to the observation of God's Laws in their Government as Moses Joshua or any other the Judges or Princes elected named and appointed by God himself They knew well as Jethro said that it was impossible for themselves to hear and decide all the Causes and Controversies that might happen in their Kingdoms and by Moses's Example were not ignorant that they might appoint and have Judges to govern under them not only in every Tribe but generally over all their Kingdom and therefore they did therein accordingly follow the Example of Moses being approved by God himself no ways either diminishing their Regal Authority or purposing to puff up their Subjects with a conceit of any their own Interest in the Government which they had not from or under them but thereby ordering their Kingdoms with such a temperate and Fatherly Moderation as was most agreeable for the Government of God's People CAN. XV. IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Kings in the Old Testament were not bound as strictly to observe the Laws of God in their Governments as were Moses Joshua and the rest of the Iudges or that they had any greater liberty to do what they list than the others had or that they had no Authority by the Example of Moses and of all the rest of their Predecessors in their Princely Government to delegate and appoint such Iudges and Governours under them as the other Princes formerly under them had appointed or that because the said Kings did imitate the said Princes in appointing such Iudges to assist them in the Government of their Kingdoms therefore their Governments were to be judged rather Aristocratical than truly Monarchical he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XVI WHen God first ordained civil Magistrates and gave them Authority his meaning was that the People whom they were to govern should be subject unto them From the beginning of the World till Moses's time whilst the People of God that profess'd his true Worship were governed by that Authority which was Potestas Patria and in a sort Regia their Children and Nephews were bound by the Law of Nature to honour reverence and obey them God having raised up Moses to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt and to govern them afterward as their King or chief Ruler they promised that they would hear him and do those things which he in the Name of God should command them Being in the Wilderness his
own Sister Miriam for using some undutiful speeches against him was strucken by God with an exceeding great Leprosie and so odious was the murmuring of Korab Dathan and Abiram and their Confederates as the Lord caused the Earth to open and to swallow some of them quick and the Fire to consume the rest Joshua succeeding Moses the People professed their Subjection and Obedience unto him saying All that thou hast commanded us we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go as we obeyed Moses in all things so will we obey thee Whosoever shall rebel against thy Commandment and will not obey thy Words in all that thou dost command him let him be put to death During the Reign of all the Judges though the People are noted for many great Enormities yet we do not find that they rebelled or shewed any great disobedience against them whom God had set over them to rule them except the particular murmuring and opposition of the Ephramites against Gideon and Jephtha at their first entrance upon conceit they had been contemned which opposition God punished with a great overthrow of them When the People had Kings according to the manner of other Nations to order and govern them their subjection was rather encreas'd than diminished according to Samuel's description of the King's Claim or manner of ruling which should reign over them To command not only over the Persons of his Subjects but also over their Goods which manner of ruling or dealing by any King without a just cause as it was Tyranny so to deny it when the necessity of the King and State did require it according to the Laws of the Kingdom was a great neglect of preserving the publick good and a high degree of disobedience Besides it is generally agreed upon that Obedience to Kings and civil Magistrates is prescribed to all Subjects in the Fifth Commandment where we are enjoyn'd to honour our Parents Whereby it followeth that subjection of Inferiours unto their Kings and Governours is grounded upon the very Law of Nature and consequently that the Sentences of Death awarded by God himself against such as shewed themselves disobedient and incorrigible to their Parents or cursed them or struck them were likewise due unto those who committed any such Offences against their Kings and Rulers being the Heads and Fathers of their Commonwealths and Kingdoms which is not only apparent by way of consequence but likewise by Example Practice and Precept as where Shimei is judged to die for cursing of David the Lord 's Anointed where David himself appointed by God to succeed King Saul would not be induced by any perswasions to lay violent hands upon his Master the King and where it is said Principi populi tui non maledices and again Ne maledicas Regi in corde tuo to which purpose more might be alledged CAN. XVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm that it was lawful in the Old Testament either for Children or Nephews to have been disobedient to their Fathers being their chief Governours from the Creation till Moses's time or afterward for the Children of Israel either under Moses Joshua the Iudges or their Kings to have been disobedient to them in their lawful Commandments or to have murmured or rebelled against them or that it was in those times more lawful unto Subjects for any cause whatsoever either to curse their Princes Kings or civil Governours or to bear Arms against them or to depose them from their Kingdoms or Principalities or to lay violent hands upon their Persons than it was in the said times lawful upon any occasion for Children either to have cursed their Parents or to have rebelled against them when they did reprove or correct them or to have withdrawn themselves from their subjection saying unto them they being private Men We will be no more your Children or you shall be no more our Fathers or bearing civil Authority over them we will depose you from your Government over us and will be no longer ruled by you or to have offered any violence unto them or to have beaten them and much less to have murthered them He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XVII WHen God appointed Princes Judges and Kings to Reign over his people the manner usually was that they had notice of it thereby to conform themselves to obedience Moses and Aaron acquainted the Israelites with God's pleasure for their deliverance out of Egypt by their service agreeably to his Promise formerly made to Abraham and they chearfully and with great thankfullness submitted themselves to be ruled by them God having appointed Joshua to succeed Moses the same was signified by Moses to the Israelites and they willingly protested their obedience unto him Likewise no sooner did the Lord assign Judges to defend and govern them but presently they followed and obeyed them Upon the people's request Samuel having anointed Saul for their King when the same was made apparent to them either by casting of Lots or by answer from the Lord they shouted when they saw him and said God save the King King David being anointed by Samuel at God's appointment to succeed King Saul and after Saul's Death coming thereupon by God's direction to Hebron the Tribe of Judah presently anointed him again for their King and yielded themselves to be governed by him Seven years after all which time King David had Wars with Ishbosheth Saul's Son the rest of the Tribes came unto David and acknowledged that God had ordained him to be their Governour King David growing old and having appointed by God's direction his Son Solomon to be anointed King in his own Life time when the people knew that Zadok the Priest had so anointed him they forthwith upon the blowing of the Trumpets said all with one Voice God save King Solomon Afterwards also the like course was held upon the Death of every King to make his Successor known to the people Sometimes they were so addicted unto new Kings as they expected no further Circumstance but submitted themselves to their Government and sometimes it was held fit for the young Princes to imitate King David's Example by kind usage and loving words to knit more firmly their Subjects hearts unto them Placet eis CAN. XVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the callings of Moses of Aaron of Joshua of the Iudges of Saul of David of Solomon or of any other of the Kings of Judah elected and named by God himself or coming to their Kingdoms by Succession according as Jacob by the Spirit of Prophecy had foretold did receive any such virtue or strength from the people their said notice presence and applause as that without the same the said callings of God either by Name or by Succession had been insufficient or that if the people had withstood any of them so called by God as is aforesaid they
by the Romans was poysoned by one Maticus hoping thereby that Hircanus the High-Priest might have got a more absolute Authority and have been the chief Governour Alexander the Son of Aristobulus had been before very troublsome and carried many after him to their destruction but Antigonus his Brother did far exceed him who by the help of the Parthians rose up against Herod the Successour of Antipater and taking that Government upon him cut off Hircanus his Uncle's Ears that thereby he might be unable afterward to bear any more to his prejudice the Office of the High-Priest But shortly after he was subdued and put to death and his Father before him was poisoned by Pompey's Followers Howbeit no sooner were these Maccabees thus suppressed but divers other rebellious Persons thrust forward the People into Arms under pretence of their Love they bare to their Countrey and to the ancient Liberties thereof In which their wicked Fury sometimes they were content to follow this Man as their King and sometimes that Man such as were one Simon one Athrogus and Manahemus all of them very lewd and base Companions and at some other time every Rebellious Rout or Company would needs have a King of their own whereby in every corner of that Commonwealth there was a Petty King who still led the People by heaps to the slaughter and perished themselves with them Also there were some amongst them who finding no good success by having of such Kings did run into a contrary course affirming it to be unlawful for the Jews to acknowledge any Man but God himself to be their King and that they ought rather to suffer death than to call any Man Lord. The sum is That notwithstanding any great Distractions Dissention or bloody Combats amongst themselves which were very many and strange their Hearts were so hardened in Rebellion against the Romans and their Governours as they refused either to pay them any more Tribute or to pray for them but standing upon their Walls when they were besieged Caesari Patri ejus maledicebant There was never we think so obstinate and desperate a People for in their greatest extremities and when they saw nothing but imminent Death destruction of the Temple and the extirpation of their whole Nation no reasonable Conditions or Perswasions could move them Titus himself made a notable Oration unto them and commanded Josephus to deliver his Mind at another time more amply if it had been possible to have reclaimed them which Duty so imposed upon him Josephus performed very eloquently He told them that tho' the Romans had dealt sometimes very hardly with them yet their Rebellion was ever the cause of it that albeit Men might lawfully fight in defence of their Countrey when it was invaded by any yet being subdued and a new Government settled amongst them it was not lawful by Rebellion under pretence of Liberty to cast off that Yoke that their Fore-fathers being in Bondage under the Kings of Aegypt and Babylon and divers times in many other distresses did never of themselves by force of Arms seek their Liberty or Deliverance but ever expected the Lord's leisure who always in due time had compassion upon them and that although they were then in the greatest distress that ever People were and could expect nothing but utter Ruine and Desolation yet if then they would submit themselves they might be received to Mercy For saith he the Romans ask but their ordinary Tribute which your Fore-fathers paid unto their Predecessours and if yet they may obtain the same they will neither destroy your City nor touch your Sanctuary but grant unto you freely your Families your Possessions and the Practice of your Sacred Laws But all these Offers they refused Howbeit the compassion of Titus towards them still continuing he again when they saw their Destruction more apparently required the said Josephus to deliver his Mind to the same effect to their chief Captain that he had done before to the People which he accomplished but in the hearing again of the People very throughly and in the end finding them obstinate I my self deserve blame saith he quiâ—â— haec adversus fata suadeo Deique sententiâ condemnatos servare contendo Whereupon shortly after Titus protesting how loth he was thereunto assailed them with all his Forces which slew an infinite number of them burnt the Temple and destroyed the City Since which time they that then escaped and the rest of all the Race of the Jews have been dispersed far and near and lived like a cursed Generation in all Slavery and Servitude So that although we doubt not but that this heavy Judgment of God fell upon them principally for the hardness of their hearts in that they did not only refuse to hear the Voice of our Saviour Christ but likewise most malitiously unjustly and shamefully put him to death yet the immediate and apparent cause of it was their never-before-heard-of-like obstinate Rebellion CAN. XXXIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Aristobulus the Father or either of his two Sons Alexander or Antigonus having all of them submitted themselves to the Government of the Romans did not sin when afterward they rebelled against them or that Maticus did not very wickedly in poisoning of Antipater because he thought thereby the better to strengthen Hircanus in his High-Priesthood or that the People ought not to detest all such seditious Persons as under pretence of Liberty and Religion shall sollicite them to Rebellion or that the Jews were not bound both to have paid their Tribute and to have prayed for Caesar without dissimulation sincerely and truly notwithstanding any pretence of Tyranny which they had willfully drawn upon their own heads or of any cause whatsoever or that such as cursed Caesar their chief Governour did not thereby deserve any corporal punishment which is due to be inflicted upon such Traytors or that the Rebellion against any King absolute Prince or Civil Magistrate for any cause whatsoever is not a sin very detestable in the sight of God and therefore by all that fear the Lord to be eschewed because it ever tendeth to mischief and sometimes to the overthrow of the Kingdom Principality and Country where it is raised He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXIV WE have spoken in the former Chapter of the Rebellion of the Jews against their civil Governours and the success thereof We made no mention either of the Priests or of any of those Sects of Religion which then bare sway amongst them Indeed it is likely that if they had done their Duties the People upon their Repentance might have regained God's Favour and prevented that utter desolation but it happen'd otherwise two factious Persons Judas and Matthias the best learned Men of the Jews and the most skilful Interpreters of the Laws of their Country growing into great favour with the People because of their said skill
it and as all the particular Kingdoms in the World are called but one Kingdom as he is the Only King and Monarch of it or that our Saviour Christ hath not appointed under him several Ecclesiastical Governours to rule and direct the said particular Churches as he hath appointed several Kings and Sovereign Princes to rule and govern their several Kingdoms or that by his Death he did not abolish the Ceremonial Law and the Levitical Priesthood so far forth as it was Typical and had the Execution of the said Ceremonial Law annexed unto it or that he did any more abrogate by his Death Passion Resurrection and Ascension the Power and Authority of Church-Government than either he did the other two Essential parts of the said Priesthood or Ministry or the Power and Authority of Kings and Sovereign Princes or that he did more appoint any one chief Bishop to rule all the particular Churches which should be planted throughout all Kingdoms than he did appoint any one King to rule and govern all the particular Kingdoms in the World or that it was more reasonable or necessary as hereafter it shall be further shewed to have one Bishop to govern all the Churches in the World than it was to have one King to govern all the Kingdoms in the World or that it was more necessary or convenient to have every Parish with their Presbyteries absolute Churches independent upon any but Christ himself than that every such Parish should be an absolute Temporal Kingdom independent of any Earthly King or Sovereign Magistrate or that the Government of every National Church under Christian Kings and Sovereign Princes by Archbishops and Bishops is not more suitable and correspondent to the Government of the National Church of the Jews under their Soveraign Princes and Kings than is either the Government of one over all the Churches of the World or the setling of the Form of that National Church-Government in every particular Church He doth greatly Erre CAP. VII The Sum of the Chapter following That the Form of Church-Government which was ordained by Christ in the New Testament did consist upon divers degrees of Ministers one above another Apostles in Preeminence and Authority superiour to the Evangelists and the Evangelists superiour to Pastors and Doctours And that the Apostles knowing themselves to be mortal did in their own Days by the Direction of the Holy Ghost as the numbers of Christians grew establish the said form of Government in other Persons appointing several Ministers in sundry Cities and over them Bishops as also over such Bishops certain worthy Persons such as Titus was who were afterward termed Arch-Bishops to whom they did commit so much of their Apostolical Authority as they held then necessary and was to be continued for the Government of the Church WE had in our former Book the Scriptures at large containing the Histories and Doctrine both of the Law and the Gospel after the manner that was then prescribed from the time of the Creation until the days of the Prophet Malachy that is for above 3500. years Whereupon we did ground the particular Points by us therein handled concerning the Government as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal And for the Supply of the other years following till the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ we observed some things to the same purpose out of the Apocryphal Books second to the Scriptures and to be preferr'd before all other Writers of those times But now forasmuch as the New Testament is but in effect a more ample Declaration the Old shewing withal how the same was most throughly fulfilled by our Saviour Christ without the impeachment of any kind of Government by himself ordain'd as before we have exprest and because the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles do only contain the Acts and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ and his Apostles with the Form and Use both of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government during the time whilst they lived here upon the Earth St. John who lived the longest of them all dying about sixty six Years after Christ's Passion although the Holy Ghost did judge the said Books and Writings sufficient for the Church and all that profess Christianity to teach and direct them in those things which should appertain either to their Temporal or Ecclesiastical Government or should be necessary unto their Salvation Yet for the said Reasons we were induced for the upholding of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government in the New Testament to insist so much as we have done upon the Precedents and Platforms of both those kinds of Governments established in the Old Testament albeit we want no sufficient Testimonies in the New to ratify and confirm as well the one as the other First therefore we do verily think That if our Saviour Christ or his Apostles had meant to have erected in the Churches amongst the Gentiles any other Form of Ecclesiastical Government than God himself had set up amongst the Jew they would have done it assuredly in very solemn manner that all the World might have taken publick notice of it considering with what Majesty and Authority the said Form was erected at God's Commandment by his Servant Moses But in that they well knew how the Form of the Old Ecclesiastical Government in substance was still to continue and to be in time establish'd in every National Kingdom and Soveraign Principality amongst Christians as soon as they should become for number sufficient Bodies and ample Churches to receive the same as before the like opportunity it was not established amongst the Israelites they did in the mean while and as the time did serve them attempt the erecting of it in such sort and by such fit and convenient Degrees as by the direction of the Holy Ghost they held it most expedient without intermission till such time as the work was in effect accomplished It hath been before touched how our Saviour Christ here upon Earth did not only chuse to himself for the business he had in hand twelve Apostles who were then design'd in time to come to be the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all Christians with some Resemblance as it hath been ever held of the twelve Sons of Jacob who had been in their days the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all the Israelites But likewise he took unto him over and besides his said Apostles 70 or as some read 72 Disciples to be in the same manner his Assistants in imitation of Moses when he chose 70. Elders to be helpers unto him for the better Government of the People committed to his charge None of these either Apostles or Disciples had then any other Duties committed to them but only of Preaching and Baptizing for the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment they might not then intermeddle with because it did appertain to the Priests and Courts of the Jews But afterward that want and some other defects in them were throughly supplied when our Saviour Christ upon his Resurrection and a little
had not thereby sinned and unjustly opposed themselves against God or that the Kingdom of Judah by God's Ordinance going by Succession when one King was dead his Heir was not in Right their King however by some Athaliah he might be hindred from enjoying it or that the people were not bound without any further circumstance upon sufficient notice of their former King's Death to have obey'd his Heir Apparent as their lawful King he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XVIII ALthough we doubt not but that the Priests and Levites in the Old Testament were reckon'd amongst the rest of such as were subject to their Princes Judges and Kings yet we have thought it fit to make the same more apparent by some particulars Aaron the chief Priest and the rest of the Levites after that Aaron was possest of the high Priesthood were at Moses's direction all the time that he lived and when he the said Aaron had in some sort forgotten his duty to Moses in joining with his Sister undutifully against him he found his offence therein and did humbly submit himself in this sort to him Alas my Lord I beseech thee lay not this sin upon us which we have foolishly committed It is likewise manifest in the Book of Joshua that Eleazer who succeeded Aaron with the rest of the Priests and Levites under him dispos'd of themselves and of their service as Joshua their Prince and Governour did command them And how obedient and humble both the Priests and the Levites and the Prophets themselves were to their Kings the Examples of Zadok Jehojadah Azariah Helchiah Nathan and divers others do declare they submitted themselves to their directions and when they came into their presence made Obeysance before them upon their Faces to the ground Likewise having Offices distributed and assigned severally unto them by sundry Kings they executed the same in the service of the Temple accordingly And as while they did their duties they were cherished so upon any notorious offence committed by them they were censur'd and punished Solomon deposed Abiathar from the High Priesthood and placed Zadok in his room And Josiah likewise thrust all the Priests from the Altar of the Lord in Hierusalem who had burnt Incense in the high places Placet eis CAN. XVIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Priests in the Old Testament were not as rightly and properly subjects to the civil Governours as the rest of the people or that when they any ways offended they might not be punished as lawfully by them as any others he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XIX AS we have said of the people that when the Kings of Judah were to succeed one another their Duty was to come together with joy and gladness to receive them for their Kings as sent unto them as from God himself and accordingly to submit themselves unto their Authority and Government so at such times the Priests for the most part besides their general duties as Subjects had some further service to be then by them perform'd the parts of which service are all of them manifest in the advancement of King Solomon to the Royal Throne of his Father King David where the Priests by King David's direction did give thanks to God and prayed for King Solomon they offered the peoples Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for their new King and Zadok the High Priest did himself anoint him Howbeit this their service thus by them perform'd did neither give to King Solomon any Right or Title to succeed his Father nor to themselves any priviledge or exemption from their subjection and Obedience unto him Abiathar the High Priest did anoint Adoniah to have succeeded King David and no Duty of likelyhood was omitted which was to be done in such a solemn action but thereby Adoniah received nothing but a badge of Treason against the King his Father which he carried with him to his Grave and Zadok the High Priest notwithstanding that he had anointed King Solomon was afterward as much subject and as dutiful unto him as he had been before unto his Father King David Nay the greater the services are of any persons to their Soveraigns the greater is and so ought to be their subjection and obedience unto them CAN. XIX IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Adoniah was ever lawfully King of the Israelites because Abiathar the High Priest had anointed him or that King Solomon received from Zadok or from the holy Oyl which he poured upon his Head any Interest to his Fathers Kingly Seat which he had not before by the Ordinance of God and his Fathers appointment or that Abiathar might not justly have been condemn'd for a Traytor in that he anointed Adoniah as is aforesaid the Right of the Kingdom being then in King David and in him by God's appointment to be disposed of and bestow'd upon his younger Son Solomon or that it had not been a traiterous offence in Zadok if being commanded thereupon by King David to anoint King Solomon he should have refused so to have done or that either Zadok or any other Priest who afterward according to their duties anointed the Kings of Judah were thereby more exempted from their subjection and obedience unto them than were the rest of the people by their joy and applause when their Kings were newly advanced to their Kingdoms he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XX. AS it is apparent in the Scriptures that the Israelites generally as well the Priests as the People were equally bound as Subjects personally to honour reverence and obey their Kings So is it there also as manifest that the Authority of their Soveraigns over them did not only extend to civil Causes but in like manner to Causes Ecclesiastical For as it was then the duty of Parents so by the Law of Nature was it of good Kings and Civil Magistrates to bring up their Children and Subjects in the true service and worship of God as having a care committed unto them not only of their Bodies but likewise of their Souls In which respect the chief charge that all Subjects and inferiour Persons of what condition soever should diligently observe the said Law of Nature being the very same in substance that God writing with his own Finger gave unto Moses and stiled by the name of his Ten Commandments was principally imposed upon Kings and civil Rulers They were to provide that their Subjects had no other God but him who made Heaven and Earth that they made to themselves no graven Images nor bow'd down to them nor worship'd them that they did carefully meet at certain times to serve honour and magnifie the Name of God and that they might not be negligent in the observing of the rest of his Commandments And albeit through the sin of our first Parents both Kings and Subjects were become unable so to perform these their Duties of Piety
might then lawfully command and do what they list In the separation of the Priesthood from the Regal Principality the same having been formerly in one Person they were then so by God distinguished as in some things appertaining to the Office of Kings no Priest as he was a Priest had any Authority to intermeddle as in some other things appertaining to the Office of Priests no King as he was a King might lawfully be an Actor both of them having their bounds and limits appointed unto them by God which without Sin they might not exceed And therefore as we greatly blame the High-Priest Vriah for obeying the wicked Command of King Ahaz in building by his direction an Altar in the Temple according to the Form of One that was in Damascus so do we greatly commend the godly Zeal of Azariah the High-Priest and of Eighty other Priests that were with him in withstanding as far as lawfully they might Vzziah King of Judah when in the Pride of his Heart he went into the Temple of the Lord and would have burnt Incense upon the Altar of Incense which none might lawfully do but Priests But it is to be observed that they did not withstand the King by force or Armies but told him that it did not appertain unto him but to the Priests to burn incense unto the Lord and therefore urged him to go forth of the Sanctuary Howbeit the King being angry with them for the same persisted as it appeareth in his former purpose and having Incense in his hand would have burnt it upon the Altar if God himself had not struck him in the Forehead with a Leprosie wherewith being terrified as also with a great Earthquake then happening as some learned Men have written from Amos 1. 1. he was constrained not only to desist from that rashness and to depart hastily out of the Sanctuary but likewise as a Leper to dwell in a house apart according to the Law and Jotham his Son as Viceroy ruled his Father's house and judged the People of the Land Vzziah himself during his life remaining King CAN. XXII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Uriah the High priest was bound to have built the said Altar because King Ahaz did command him or that Azariah and the other Priests did amiss in reproving King Uzziah so plainly or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the King's Person either in hindering him from burning of Incense or in thrusting him out of the Temple or in compelling him to dwell apart in a house as he did though he was a Leper if he had not of himself yielded to the observation of the law in that behalf or that he was deprived of his Kingdom either by the said stroke of God or by his dwelling in a house apart or that any thing which the Priests then did might have been a lawful Warrant to any Priest afterward in the Old Testament either to have deposed by sentence any of their Kings from their Kingdoms for the like offences or to have used Arms or repressed such their unlawful attempts by forcible ways though they had imagined the same might have tended to the preservation of Religion or that either before that time or afterward any Priest did resist by force of Arms or depose any of the Kings either of Israel or of Judah from their Kingdoms though the Kings of Israel all of them and fourteen of the Kings of Judah were open and plain Idolaters he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIII WE have shewed before that King Solomon did lawfully depose Abiathar from the Priesthood and placed Zadok in his room but that any Priests in the Old Testament as likewise we have before declared did ever depose from their Crowns any of their Kings how wicked soever or had any Authority so to do it can never be proved Howbeit one Example of Jehoiada the High-Priest is fit to be considered After the Death of Ahaziah King of Judah his Mother Athaliah finding his Children to be very young killed them all but the youngest and reigned by Usurpation six Years over the Land The said youngest Child whose Name was Joash was secretly conveyed away by his Aunt Jehoshabeth his Father's Sister and the Wife of Jehoiada the High-Priest who kept him so secretly in the Temple as that Athaliah the Usurper could never hear of him Now after the said six Years that Joash the true and natural Heir apparent to the Crown had been so brought up he the said Jehoiada being the King's Uncle and the chief Head or Prince of his Tribe sent through Judah for the Levites and chief Fathers both of Judah and of Benjamin to come unto him to Hierusalem who accordingly repairing thither and being made acquainted by him with the Preservation of their Prince as is aforesaid and that it was the Lord's Will that he should reign over them they altogether by a Covenant acknowledged their Allegiance unto him as unto their lawful King and so disposed of things as presently after he was crowned and anointed which dutiful Office of Subjects being performed they apprehended the Usurper Athaliah and slew her as before it was by the said States resolved In all the process of which Action nothing was done either by Jehoiada the High-Priest or by the rest of the Princes and People of Judah and Benjamin which God himself did not require at their hands Joash their late King's Son being then their only natural Lord and Sovereign although Athaliah kept him for six years from the Possession of his Kingdom CAN. XXIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Athaliah did well in murthering her Son's Children or that Jehoiada and his Wife did amiss in preserving the Life of their King Joash or that Athaliah was not a Tyrannical Vsurper the right Heir of that Kingdom being alive or that it was neither lawful for Jehoiada and the rest of the Princes Levites and People to have yielded their subjection unto their lawful King nor having so done and their King being in Possession of his Crown to have joyned together for the overthrowing of Athaliah the Vsurper or that Jehoiada the High-Priest was not bound as he was a Priest both to inform the Princes and People of the Lord's Promise that Joash should reign over them and likewise to anoint him or that this fact either of the Princes Priests or People was to be held for a lawful warrant for any afterward either Princes Priests or People to have deposed any of the Kings of Judah who by right of Succession came to their Crowns or to have killed them for any respect whatsoever and to have set another in their places according to their own choice or that either this Example of Jehoiada or any thing else in the Old Testament did give then unto the High-Priest any Authority to dispute determine or judge whether the Children of the Kings of Judah should
either be kept from the Crown because their Fathers were Idolaters or being in possession of it should be deposed from it in that respect or in any other respect whatsoever he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIV ALmighty God foreseeing what Defects there would be sometimes in Kings and civil Magistrates and sometimes not only in the inferiour Priests but likewise in the High-Priests themselves did still as occasion required and for the benefit of his Church raise up and send unto them his Prophets Men indued by his holy Spirit with extraordinary Authority Knowledge Zeal and Courage who neither fear'd King nor Priest but told them plainly of their faults denounced the Judgments of God against them for their Sins and executed without respect of Persons such other parts of their duties as God himself immediately gave them in Charge Notwithstanding the Priests stood much upon their Authority and bragged that the Law should not perish from them flattering themselves and the people with lying words as appeareth by the peoples Speeches taught most likely by them The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord This is the Temple of the Lord yet the Prophets told them plainly That they erred that they were covetous receivers of Gifts and false Dealers that they had polluted the Temple of God that the Law should perish from them that God himself had found their wickedness in his own House that Hierusalem should be destroy'd and that they themselves should be carried into Captivity In respect of which their faithful bold and plain dealing according to God's Commandment and particular directions the Priests were for the most part greatly moved and incensed against them Pashur the High-Priest struck the Prophet Jeremy upon the Face and afterward cast him into Prison also his Death was conspir'd amongst the Priests and the rest from time to time were little better treated by them It is true that there were in those times very many false Prophets who pretending that they likewise were sent from God did greatly trouble that Church and State but their falshood and lewdness ought neither to have prejudiced the good Priests nor the true Prophets CAN. XXIV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Priests in the Old Testament from the highest to the lowest were not bound to have obey'd the directions which God himself delivered unto them by his Prophets notwithstanding that now and then some of them were of the Tribe of Levi and consequently in other Causes were subject unto them or that the Examples of the true Prophets were any lawful Warrant either for any false Prophets or for any other person or persons whatsoever to have railed libelled threatned or denounc'd the Iudgments of God against any of the said Priests according to their own malicious humours God himself having never given them any such Warrant or foreknowledge to pronounce of such particular Iudgments to come or that because the High-Priest and the rest of the Priests did amiss in the malicious prosecution of God's true Prophets they might not therefore lawfully take order for the punishment of false Prophets he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXV IT is apparent likewise in the Scriptures that as the godly Prophets in the Old Testament dealt with the Priests so did they in like manner deal with their Kings although otherwise they were their Subjects and owed them as much duty as any other Nathan the Prophet by God's particular direction spared not King David to tell him of his offences No more did Abijah Jeroboam nor Elias King Ahab they denounced God's Judgments boldly against them and accordingly they came to pass Also the Lord being not bound to those Laws which he prescribeth others to observe commanded Jehu a Subject to be anointed King over Israel of purpose to punish the sins of Ahab and Jezabel and accordingly Elizeus the Prophet caused Jehu to be anointed and God's Message to be delivered unto him who presently upon the knowledge of God's will and the submission of the Princes and Captains of Israel unto him as to their lawful King did put in execution the said Message by killing Joram before that time his Soveraign but then his Subject and by destroying and rooting out the whole Posterity Sons Familiars and Priests of Ahab In like manner Samuel a Prophet but the subject of King Saul did not refuse when God directly and in express terms bad him both to tell his Master the King That the Lord had rent the Kingdom of Israel from him and to anoint King David to succeed him We say to succeed him because we think that God's purpose only was to cut off Saul's Posterity from reigning after him and not actually while he lived to deprive him of his Kingdom but principally to provide that David might succeed him Certain it is that David lied not when notwithstanding that he himself was anointed to succeed King Saul yet he call'd him his Master and the Lord 's anointed also he prayed that God would keep him from laying his hands upon King Saul for that he was the Lords anointed Likewise when one of the Captains would have slain King Saul he said destroy him not for who can lay his hands upon the Lord 's anointed and be guiltless Furthermore when the Messenger brought him news of Saul's Death Was 't thou not afraid quoth he to put forth thy hand to destroy the anointed of the Lord and commanding the said Messenger to be kill'd for his offence therein Thy blood saith David be upon thine own head for thine own mouth hath witnessed against thee saying I have slain the Lord's anointed Besides it is manifest that the Tribes of Israel accounted Saul to be their lawful King during his life And also that they construed Samuel's words to be meant only of David's Interest to succeed him after his Death and Samuel himself notwithstanding all that he had done was by God's Commandment left the success thereof to the disposition of his Heavenly Providence and afterward both honoured Saul before the People as his King and likewise continued whilst he lived a dutiful Subject unto him CAN. XXV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Prophets were to blame for dealing so sharply with Kings and Princes being their Soveraigns as though God's express Commandments had not been sufficient to have authorized them so to have dealt or that the Example of God's Prophets in this behalf were a sufficient Warrant for any false Prophets or other lewd Persons to have railed and libelled against their Kings or to have denounced such judgments against them as they in malice either desired or vainly imagined or that any Prophets Priests or other Persons having no direct and express Command from God might lawfully imitate the said facts either of Samuel or of Elizeus in anointing and designing Successors to Kings which otherwise had no
executed that Judgment upon the said King and afterward so vanquished the Moabites and subdued them under the hand of Israel as the whole Land was at rest from the oppression of their Enemies eighty years Besides it is to be observ'd that as God's appointing by Name and Election of Moses Joshua and Saul and after that the Kingdom was held by Succession the very being of the King's Son and the true Heir Apparent after his Father's Death gave unto them all the actual Interest Right and Possession as Possession in those cases is to be expounded of their several Governments to do any act or acts as well before as after any subsequent Formalities and Ceremonies even so the said form of calling the Judges by God himself immediately made them also Judges actually and did give unto them a full and absolute Authority independent upon any but upon him that gave it them to undertake any thing that by God's direction appertain'd to their places Again there is one other Example of Jehu amongst the Kings of Israel which we have before touched like unto this of Ahud wherein it appeareth that he the said Jehu was of a Subject first made the King of Israel before it was lawful for him to have killed Joram As Ahud a Subject was first made the Judge Prince and Ruler of the People before he might have lawfully killed King Eglon. Both which Examples being but in number two throughout the Histories of all the Princes Judges and Kings either of Judah or Israel do make it known unto us That although the Lord both may and is able to overthrow any Kings or Emperours notwithstanding any claim right title or interest which they can challenge to their Countries Kingdoms or Empires yet foreseeing in his Heavenly Wisdom and Divine Providence what mischief private Men under colour of these Examples might otherwise have pretended or attempted against their Soveraigns as being either discontented of themselves or set into some fury by other Malitious Persons he did so order and dispose of all things in the Execution of these such his extraordinary Judgments as that thereby it might plainly appear to any that should not willfully hoodwink himself never to be lawful for any Person whatsoever upon pretence of any Revelation Inspiration or Commandment from his divine Majesty either to touch the Person of his Soveraign or to bear Arms against him except God should first advance the said Person from his private Estate and make him a King or an absolute Prince to succeed his late Master in his Kingdom or Principality CAN. XXVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that any godly or dutiful Subject in the Old Testament did ever by the direction of God's Spirit account this fact of Ahud to be a lawful Warrant for him to have murder'd the Kings under whose subjection he lived for any cause whatsoever though he should have had never so many motions in his heart thereunto or that the High-Priest himself or all the rest of the Priests who then lived join'd together with him could have given Authority to any Person born a Subject to have so dealt with his Soveraign though he had been never so wicked and that such his Death might have availed the Church in their Opinions never so greatly or that either the said High-Priest and all his Consistory of Priests might lawfully have encouraged any who being born Subjects should have pretended in their Zeal toward Religion never so many Illuminations Directions or Commandments from God to have laid violent hands upon their King the Lord 's anointed for their proceeding in that course or that any Person born a Subject and affirming by all the Arguments which Wit or Learning could devise that God had called him to murther the King de facto under whom he lived yea though he should have first procured himself to be proclaimed and anointed King as Adonijah did and should afterward have laid violent hands upon his Master ought therefore to have been believed of any that feared God except which is impossible he should first prove his Credit in so affirming to be equal with the Scriptures and that Men were bound as strictly to believe him in saying that God called and stirred him up to the perpetrating of that fact as we are bound to believe the Holy Ghost by whose Instinct the Scriptures were written when he telleth us that God raised up Ahud for a Saviour to his People He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVIII HItherto in the whole course of that mild and temperate Monarchical Government which it pleased God to establish among his own People the duty of Inferiour Persons and Subjects of all sorts was ever Obedience They neither took upon them to chuse their Governours nor to bear Arms against them Howbeit it happened otherwise amongst some other Nations Nimrod not contenting himself with the portion which by Noah's general direction appertained unto him could never have erected his Tyrannical Government if a number of rebellious and discontented Persons had not cleaved unto him as the factious Sichemites did to Abimelech and made him their King The Romans having Kings rebelled against them and took the Government into their own hands the execution whereof did trouble them exceedingly Sometimes they committed it to many and sometimes to fewer their two Annual Consuls pleased them long but at the last they thought it fit to have a Dictator till in the end Julius Caesar and Augustus reduced their Government again into a Monarchy And as the Romans dealt with their Kings so did the People in some other Countries with their Governours Whereupon divers other kinds of Governments termed according to their Temper Aristocratical Political Tyrannical Oligarchical or Democratical c. were afterwards setled in many places The Inconveniencies of which Forms of Government being found upon many occasions oftentimes to be very great the People have been driven of necessity in sundry Countries to frame them again as near as they could to the Monarchical Government either by electing to themselves Kings upon certain Conditions to reign over them or by appointment of Dukes or Princes to be the Managers of their chief Affairs according as they themselves should direct them Besides as the said rebellious Humours of the People declining from their Obedience did in many Countries alter that temperate and fatherly Government which Noah had prescribed unto his Off-spring and which God himself established afterward amongst his own People so did the ambitious and insatiable dispositions of sundry no less elsewhere impeach the same as by the beginning and progress of the four Monarchies it is most apparent In all which Abberrations from the said mild and temperate Government before specified Almighty God who for the Sins of any Nation or Country altereth their Governments and Governors transferreth setteth up and bestoweth Kingdoms as it seemeth best to his heavenly Wisdom did ever by his Foresight and Providence so
dispose both the Rebellion of Subjects and the Malice and Greediness of encroaching Kings upon their Neighbours as albeit such their attempts of all sorts were in themselves very wicked and detestable in his sight yet he having the skill to bring Light out of Darkness and to use wicked Instruments and Actions for a good purpose did always frame and apply them to execute his own just Judgments When the Sins of a Nation but principally of his own People were of that Nature Height and Ripeness as his Justice could not fitly be put in execution by any other but by the wicked for example in the overthrowing of Hierusalem God's own City in burning of the Temple that was the place of his Glory and carrying his own People into Captivity though never so much by them deserved no godly King could well have been employed but such a One only as the King of Babylon was In respect of which their Imployment such wicked Instruments to execute God's just Judgments are called sometimes his Servants and the Rods of his Wrath or as Attila termed himself the Scourge of God And when having attained their ungodly desires whether ambitious Kings by bringing any Countrey into their subjection or disloyal Subjects by their rebellious rising against their natural Sovereigns they have established any of the said degenerate Forms of Government amongst their People the Authority either so unjustly gotten or wrung by force from the true and lawful Possessor being always God's Authority and therefore receiving no impeachment by the wickedness of those that have it is ever when any such alterations are throughly setled to be reverenced and obeyed and the People of all sorts as well of the Clergy as of the Laity are to be subject unto it not only for fear but also for conscience sake the Israelites in Egypt after Joseph's death being oppressed very tyrannically many ways did never rebel against any of those Kings but submitted themselves to their Authority though their Burthens were very intolerable both in respect of the impossible works imposed upon them and because also they might not offer Sacrifices to the Lord a special part of God's Worship without apparent danger of stoning to death Besides it may not be omitted when God himself sent Moses to deliver them from that Servitude he would not suffer him to carry them thence till Pharaoh their King gave them licence to depart Afterward also when the Jews being brought into subjection to the Kings of Babylon did by the instigation of false Prophets rebel against them they were in that respect greatly condemned by the Prophet Jeremy and in their Captivity which shortly after followed they lived by the direction of the said Prophet in great subjection and Obedience they prayed not only for their Kings and for their Children that they might live long and prosper but likewise for the State of their Government the good success whereof they were bound to seek and regard as well as any other of the King 's dutiful Subjects And thus they lived in Babylon and other places of that Dominion till the King gave them leave to depart notwithstanding in the mean time they endured many Calamities and were destitute for many years of the publick Service and Worship of God which was tyed to the Temple and might not elsewhere be practised or attempted CAN. XXVIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Subjects when they shake off the Yoke of their Obedience to their Sovereigns and set up a Form of Government among themselves after their own humours do not therein very wickedly or that it is lawful for any bordering Kings through Ambition and Malice to invade their Neighbours or that the Providence and Goodness of God in using of Rebellions and Oppressions to execute his Iustice against any King or Countrey doth mitigate or qualifie the Offences of any such Rebels or oppressing Kings or that when any such new Forms of Government begun by Rebellion are after throughly settled the Authority in them is not of God or that any who live within the Territories of such new Governments are not bound to be subject to God's Authority which is there executed but may rebel against the same or that the Jews either in Egypt or Babylon might lawfully for any cause have taken Arms against any of those Kings or have offered any violence to their Persons He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIX ALthough the Jews upon their deliverance out of Captivity and restitution to their own Country received many favours from the Persian Kings and had liberty given them to live in a sort according to their own Laws yet they never recover'd their former Estate but liv'd in great subjection and servitude under them whilst that Monarchy endured The Temple and City of Hierusalem were again built but not with the magnificence which they had before Zorobabel first and then Nehemiah were made successively by the said Kings the Rulers and Governours of the Jews so restored but with divers restraints It was not forgotten what mighty Kings had ruled in Hierusalem and therefore the said Rulers were not permitted to govern any more in that Regal sort They were still subject to the direction of those Kings and paid unto them very large Tribute and Customs insomuch as when the Priests gave publick thanks unto God for his restoring unto them the state which they had they said thus withal unto him as bewailing their condition Behold we are Servants this day in the Land which thou gavest our Fathers it yieldeth much fruit unto the Kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins and they have dominion over our Bodies and over our Cattel at our pleasure and we are in great affliction The extraordinary favour which was shewed to any was principally extended toward the Priests over whom the said Kings had not so jealous an eye as they had over the Princes and the rest of the People Howbeit the same notwithstanding they the said Priests were subject to their own immediate Princes both in Temporal and Ecclesiastical Causes as formerly the Priests had been to the Kings of Judah before the Captivity Their Governours forbad certain who said they were Priests from eating of the most holy things Nehemiah ministred an Oath unto the Priests he reform'd the abuses of the Sabbath and prescrib'd Orders for the better observing thereof He appointed certain of the Priests to oversee the Tithes in the Treasury He commanded the Levites to cleanse themselves and to keep the Gates and to sanctifie the Sabbath Eliasib the High-Priest having defiled the Temple by letting Tobias a Stranger a Chamber in the Court of the House of God where in afore times the Offerings the Incense the Vessels and such other things used in God's Service had been kept Nehemiah the Governour was greatly offended with it and displacing the said Tobias cast forth all his stuff out
of his said Chamber and brought thither again the Vessels of the House of God with the Meat-offerings and Incense CAN. XXIX IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Almighty God kept not his promise to the Iews made in his name by the Prophet Jeremy as touching their deliverance by Cyrus out of their Captivity because they were not restor'd to any such perfect liberty and Government as they had before or that the said Kings of Persia continuing still by God's appointment a supream Authority over the Jews so restor'd might by them for any cause or under any colour have been defrauded of their Tributes or resisted by force of Arms or otherwise impeach'd either in their States or Persons or that Zorobabel and Nehemiah were not lawful Princes over the Jews because they were placed in that Government without the Peoples Election or that they the said Princes by dealing in Cases Ecclesiastical as is aforesaid did take more upon them than by God's appointment appertain'd to their charge or that the Priests both high and low had not grievously sinned if they had not submitted themselves in the said Ecclesiastical Causes to the direction of those their civil Governours he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXX THE High-Priest as before we have said in that mild and temperate Government which God himself had Ordained was the second Person in the Kingdom Whereupon the same after the Captivity being turn'd as it were into a Dukedom and for ought that appeareth the Princes after Nehemiah's time growing poor by reason of their payments to those Kings to whom they were Tributary and receiving small assistance or countenance from them because they were still jealous of them whereas the Priests it seemeth being freed from all-Tributes and Impositions grew rich and were no way suspected it came to pass the sins of the people so requiring that the High-Priest did easily oversway both their Princes and their People and thereby attained very great Authority in that Principality Only they stood in awe for the time of the Kings of Persia to whose Obedience they were bound by an Oath when they were made High-Priests but otherwise for ought we find they had no great regard of any other Authority which so advanced the dignity of the Priesthood as afterward the practices of the High-Priest's Children to succeed their Father in that high dignity grew as troublesome to the People as was their servitude to the Persians For Jesus the younger Brother of John the second High-Priest after Eliasib mentioned by Nehemiah procured by corruption the favour of the chief Governour of the Persians in those Countries adjoining for his assistance to deprive his Brother that he himself might enjoy the High-Priesthood whereof his elder Brother having some notice did kill him in the Temple which the said Governour took in so evil part as he spoiled the said Temple being as he said profaned with Blood and laid an exceeding great Tribute in that respect upon the People to indure for seven Years But John the High-Priest continued in his place After whose Death his two Sons Jaddus and Manasses fell at great variance the younger to make himself strong against his elder Brother Married contrary to the Law of God with a Daughter of Sanballat another Chief Ruler in Samaria under the King of Persia For which offence Jaddus notwithstanding the Authority of Sanballat remov'd him from the dignity of Priesthood and thereupon he the said Manasses procured by Sanballat's means a Temple to be built in Mount Garizin near Samaria in form and magnificence like to that in Hierusalem where he flourished and whither all the lewd persons of Judah had daily recourse Upon which occasion much trouble arose afterwards betwixt the Samaritans and the Jews The said Jaddus lived till the Monarchy of the Grecians began who when Alexander having overthrown Darius the King of the Persians sent unto him that he should assist him in his Wars and become Tributary to the Macedonians as he had been to the Persians return'd for his Answer that he might not yield thereunto because he had taken an Oath for his true Allegiance to Darius which he might not lawfully violate whilst Darius lived being by flight escaped when his Army was discomfited We have here cited and shall hereafter cite some things out of the Books of the Maccabees and other ancient Historiographers of purpose to continue the manner of the Government of the Jews in what case they stood from time to time after the days of Nehemiah not meaning thereby to attribute any Canonical Authority unto them nor to establish any point of Doctrine out of them but only to proportion and measure the regiment and actions of that people by the rules and analogy of the holy Scriptures CAN. XXX IF any Man therefore shall affirm contrary to the grounds and truths of the said holy Scriptures either that albeit Kings of Persia had authorized some succeeding Princes as they did Zorobabel and Nehemiah and whether they did so or no is not certain yet the High Priests might afterward have lawfully born the sway that they did and not been subject unto them as their Predecessors had been to Zorobabel and Nehemiah or that if Nehemiah continued alive in that Government till Jaddus's time as it is probable he did he might not lawfully being authorized as before though he were old have reform'd any abuse in the Priests both high and low or that they were not bound in Conscience to have obey'd him therein or that the Jews might lawfully have rebelled for any cause against the Persians during their Government over them or that Jaddus the High-Priest did amiss in binding his Allegiance to King Darius by an Oath or that he had not sinned if he had refused being thereunto required so to have sworn or that having so sworn he might lawfully have born Arms himself against Darius or have sollicited others whether Aliens or Jews thereunto he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXI ALexander by God's Providence having vanquished the Persians the Jews amongst many other Nations became his Subjects He dealt favourably with them released them of some Payments granted them liberty to live according to their own Laws and left their Government in every point as he found it their Duties ordinary Tributes and some of their Royal Prerogatives always reserved to the Macedonians as they had been before to the Persians but this their tolerable Estate endured not long For upon Alexander's death his chief Captains conspiring together made such a scambling Division of the Empire amongst themselves as they could every one almost notwithstanding seeking how he might suppress the rest and attain the whole alone to himself So as thereupon the Jews were as free from the Macedonians as any other of their bordering Neighbours none of the said Captains having any lawful Interest or Title to Judah But that which turned to the benefit of some
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
well be exprest by comparing the Pharisees unto the Divines amongst our Adversaries who take upon them to search out more throughly the mysteries of the Scriptures and the Scribes to their Canonists who in respect of their said Divines are but Novices in God's word and Applauders to the Pope's Decrees as the Scribes were being compar'd to the Pharisees in that they held it for a principal part of their office to uphold and maintain as much as they could the Traditions of the Pharisees and did only take upon them to deal with the bark and literal sense of Moses's Law leaving the more profound knowledge and mystical Interpretation of them unto the said Pharisees But the Issue of the labours of both these Hypocritical Sects was such as being blinded with their own devices they became to be the speciallest Enemies that Christ found upon the Earth and opposed themselves most against him And yet notwithstanding because he found them in so great Authority and perceived how the knowledge of the Law which ought to have been received from the lips of the Priests did then depend upon the lips of the Scribes and Pharisees he did neither blame them for it nor impugn the said Authority Insomuch as the multitude being many ways factious and though very ignorant were become great Questionists touching the Points of the Law he referred them with a very good Caution to the Scribes and Pharisees to be instructed by them saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe and do that observe and do but after their works do not for they say and do not Whereby it appeareth how respectful our Saviour Christ was for the free passage and observation of Moses's Law in that he was content that the Scribes and Pharisees notwithstanding he knew their Hypocrisie and Corruption and how they had come by that Authority which they then enjoyed should yet instruct the People under them so as the People did beware of their wicked Conversation and approved no resolutions that they might receive from them which were not first proved unto them out of the Laws of Moses and were fit to proceed from his Seat Touching which last point of Moses's Law and how nothing ought to have been taught out of Moses's Seat but that which Moses by the direction of the Holy Ghost had prescribed for as much as our Saviour Christ did well see and understand how the Scribes and Pharisees had by their false Interpretations and Glosses perverted and corrupted the true sense and meaning of divers of Moses's Laws he was greatly moved therewith and did take great pains to refute the said false glosses and interpretations and to restore to the Laws mention'd their true sense and original meaning Wherein although by his strict Exposition of those Laws he might seem to some not well advis'd to have so extended and enlarged the meaning of them as if he had thereby prescribed some new points or laws of greater perfection than were originally contain'd in the true meaning of the old yet we cannot find how either the said points may otherwise be termed new than as Gold first purified and fined after it hath either in time grown rusty or been by false mixtures cunningly corrupted may be called new gold when it is again purged from the said false mixtures and refin'd Or how the observation of them can bring with it to Men any greater perfection in the New Testament than God himself did expect of his Servants in the Old Testament by their observing of the said Laws so expounded by Christ in their ancient sense and meaning which they first had when by his appointment Moses did give them unto them For if in proper Speech he had made any new Laws coming only to fullfil the old as himself in a true sense affirmed the Jews might have had some good colour to have blamed him in that during the continuance of their Ecclesiastical Government if any new Laws had been then to have been made touching the worship of God the Authority in that behalf was limited by God himself unto their own Church-Governours Again considering that the Son of God in taking our nature upon him did so make himself of no reputation as being of his own goodness towards Mankind a Servant to his Father he became to do his will obedient unto the death even the death of the Cross It cannot well be imagined by any that have any true understanding of the Scriptures that the Son of God having so debased himself as is aforesaid did ever think in that his so admirable humiliation of any Rules or new Laws of greater perfection than he had before required and prescribed unto his true Servants and Children as he was God in Majesty and Glory without any such Exinanition as the Apostle speaketh of The obedience and duty which Almighty God ever did or ever will require of his Servants was and is always to proceed as well from their hearts as from any other external actions Insomuch as if it fell out as it may at sometimes that they cannot perform their said duties in respect of some impediments that will hold them from Christ In that Case be it riches they are to leave them their Eyes their Hands or their Feet they are to cut them off Nay be it their Blood their Hearts and Lives they are rather than to forsake their God and his Christ to yield them all in this World with what ignominy soever to the end they may receive them again with glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Than which great obedience and perfection what can be imagin'd greater Or who is there in the World that truly professeth Religion who in that Case is exempted from it Certainly we think none of what Estate and Condition soever they be but do rather hold that as they who shall yield up their Lives under pretence of any extraordinary perfection saving in the Case above-expressed are far from that which they make shew of but are rather to be accounted desperate so are they in our Judgments to be reckoned Men of very extraordinary humours and most ignorant Persons if not such counterfeit Hypocrites as were the Scribes and Pharisees in professing extraordinary austerity of Life that they might be the better esteem'd amongst Men who shall without any necessity either pull out their Eyes or cut off their Feet and Hands or forsake their Riches and Worldly Estates as blessings of God not compatible but repugnant to that perfection which God doth require at any Man's hands It is not our purpose to prosecute all those particulars mention'd in the Evangelists wherein our Saviour Christ shew'd his Obedience there being in effect nothing that he did which was not either figur'd in the Law or foretold by the Prophets that he should perform The time of his Incarnation with the manner of it his Entertainment in the World his diligence in Preaching his whipping blows and
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
Episcopi quasi Cardinales Archiepiscopus sederet quasi Papa ibi omnis Appellatio subsisteret querela Hoc quidem Rex Henricus machinabatur approbant quamplures Episcopi hâc de causâ ut dictum est ut possent de sub jugo sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae colla excutere Now the building of the said Church is so forward that there is ordain'd there a Dean a Provost and more than 40. Canons founded of the Goods of the Church of Canterbury by birth Noblemen abounding in Wealth Allies of the King and of the Bishops Some of them do adhere to the King some have Offices in the Exchequer all of them familiar Friends to the Bishops and of a Confederacy with them Against such and so great Persons what is the Church of Canterbury able to do Certainly it is to be feared not only that the Church of Canterbury shall hereby be overthrown but that upon this occasion the Authority of the Apostolical See which God forbid shall in England be greatly diminish'd und prejudiced For when this Canonry or Cathedral Church was founded it was the common fame and the opinion of every Man that it was founded to this end that Bishops should be there as it were Cardinals and that the Archbishop should sit amongst them as Pope and that there all Appeals and complaints should be determined This assuredly was plotted by King Henry and the same very many Bishops do allow for this cause or end that so they might deliver their Necks from under the Yoke of the Holy Church of Rome Again after the Death of Celestin the Fourth the Cardinals being at so great a Dissention amongst themselves as that they could not agree for the space of a Year and nine Months who should succeed him both the Emperour and the French were greatly moved and offended therewith The Emperour finding his advice unto them to hasten their Choice to be despised and scorned and how dishonestly some of them had broken their Promises and Oaths unto him made in that behalf he gathered a great Host and dealt sharply with them And from France they received a Message that if they continued to dally as they did in prolonging the choice of a new Pope they would utterly leave Rome and choose to themselves a Pope of their own to govern the Churches on this side the Alps. Hereof Matthew Paris writeth thus Per idem tempus miserunt Franci solennes Nuncios ad Curiam Romanam significantes persuadendo praecisè efficaciter ut ipsi Cardinales Papam ritè eligentes Vniversali Ecclesiae solatium Pastorale maturiùs providerent vel ipsi Franci propter negligentiam eorum de sibi eligendo providendo summo Pontifice citra Montes cui obedire tenerentur quantocyùs contrectarent About that time the State of France did send their solemn Messengers to the Court of Rome signifying unto them and perswading them precisely and effectually that either the Cardinals should more speedily provide for the Vniversal Church her Pastoral Comfort by their due choice of a new Pope or else they themselves the French because of their negligence would forthwith fall into deliberation of choosing and providing for themselves a Pope on this side the Mountains whom they might be bound to obey Thus the said History Whereby as also by the former words of the Monks of Canterbury it is very evident that both England and France was long since in deliberation to have abandon'd the Authority of the Bishops of Rome out of both those Kingdoms as finding no necessity of the Universal overswaying power of the Roman Papacy and that the Churches within their several Countries and Territories might receive as great benefit and comfort by the Ecclesiastical Government of their own Archbishops in every respect as ever they had done from the Bishops of Rome For as it may truly be said not of one King to govern all the World but of every particular King in his own Kingdom so may it be truly affirmed not of one Pope to govern the whole Catholick Church but of every Archbishop in any National Church and Province to rule and direct the same that under the Government of one viz. of Kings for temporal Causes and of Archbishops for Ecclesiastical Causes there is the best order the greatest strength the most stability for continuance and the easiest manner and form of ruling We have spoken hitherto of the Government of the Church especially as it was in the Apostles times and afterward for the space of 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Enemies unto it Whereby we do infer that if the particular Churches setled then almost in every Country and Nation throughout the World had so good success when there were no Christian Magistrates nor had any assistance of the temporal Sword for the strengthning of their Ecclesiastical Government but only Ministers to teach and direct their Parishioners in the ways of Godliness and Bishops over them in every Diocess to oversee and rule as well the Ministers as the several People committed to their charge that they taught no new Doctrine or ran into Schisms and Archbishops over them all in every National Church and Province for the moderating and appeasing of such oppositions and dissentions as might otherwise have risen amongst the Bishops and so consequently have wrought great distraction betwixt their Diocesan Churches how much more then are the said particular Churches like to flourish and prosper under such a Form of Ecclesiastical Government wherein the Christian Magistrate is become to be as the chief Member of the Church so the chief Governour of it to keep as well the said Archbishops within their bounds and limits as all the rest of the Clergy and Christians Bishops Ministers and Parishioners that every one in their several places may execute and discharge their distinct Offices and Duties which are committed unto them We shall have fit occasion hereafter to speak of the Authority of Christian Princes in Causes Ecclesiastical here we do only still prosecute the Government of the Church when temporal Kings and Princes were her great and mortal Enemies and the Folly if not the obstinacy of our Adversaries who either see it not or will not acknowledge it that peace and quietness may as well be preserved in all the Churches in the World by Archbishops and Bishops without one Pope to govern them all as by Kings and Sovereign Princes in all the Kingdoms and temporal Governments in the World without one temporal Monarch to rule and oversway them For our Adversaries shall never be able to prove that it may be ascribed as we have before said more to any want of discretion and due Providence in our Saviour Christ that he hath not appointed the Pope to govern the Catholick Church than that he hath not assigned the Government of the whole World to one King or Emperour Rather it is to be attributed to their audacious temerity and presumption that will either enforce