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
such Lords and Princes and so addeth his Dicendum est Where dallying and shifting with his Distinctions the Answer which he maketh to the Words of St. Ambrose is this at that time the Church being in Her minority had not the power to bridle Princes and that therefore she suffered the Faithful to obey Julian the Apostata in those things Quae nondum erant contra Fidem Which were not then against Faith Vt majus periculum Fidei vitaretur That the greater danger of Faith might be eschewed And the second Objection He more slightly passeth over saying That there is not the like Reason of Infidels and Apostata's And thus this great Schoolman relying upon the Authority of Gregory the Seventh had adventur'd to oppose himself against the Examples alledged out of the Old Testament against the Practice of the Primitive Church and against the Judgment of St. Ambrose not caring how many Thousands by this Rebellious Doctrine might come to Destruction so as the Bishops of Rome might have the World at their commandment We here omit how as Thomas and divers others writ many large Volumes upon Peter Lombard the Master of the Sentences his Distinctions so afterward and especially of later Times Books upon Books have been published upon his the said Thomas's Works all of them pursuing as they come unto it this seditious and trayterous Doctrine so Clerk-like handled by their Master Only we observe this great Schoolman's Conscience how in labouring to shift off the Truth maintain'd by St. Ambrose he could pass over a Lye in Gregory the Seventh where he saith That in absolving of Subjects from their Oath of Obedience and in prohibiting them from performing their Duties and Fidelity towards their Soveraigns He followed the Statutes of his holy Predecessors Being himself the first that ever durst be so desperate As also that he confesseth it was not in St. Ambrose his time contra fidem for Subjects to obey their Soveraigns though they were either Infidels or Excommunicate and likewise how thankfully the Bishops of Rome accepted and approved this Man's Travels so resolutely undertaken on their behalf Vrbanus the Fourth did so admire him as he reputed his Doctrine Veluti coelitus delapsam As to have fallen from Heaven Innocentius so admired both Him and his great Learning Vt ei primum post Canonicam Scripturam locum tribuere non dubitaverat As he doubteth not to give unto Him and to his Works the next place after the Canonical Scriptures And John 22th made him a Saint in the Year 1329 about forty nine years after his Death He was born during the Reign of Henry the Third King of England died about the second Year of King Edward the First and was Canonized a Saint in the time of King Edward the Second so ancient is this Chief Pillar of Popery Placet eis John Overall CAP. XI JVstinian the Emperour about the Year 533. did so contract the Civil Law as he brought it from almost 2000 Books into 50 besides some others which he added of his own Howbeit shortly after it grew out of Use in Italy by reason of the Incursions of sundry barbarous Nations who neglecting the Imperial Laws did practise their own till after almost 600 Years that Lotharius Saxo the Emperour about the Year 1136 did revive again in that Countrey and in other places also the ancient Use and Authority of it Which Course of the Emperour did not much content as it seemeth the Bishops of Rome because it revived the Memory of the ancient Honour and Dignity of the Empire Whereupon very shortly after Eugenius the Third set Gratian in hand to compile a Body of Canon-Law by contracting into one Book the ancient Constitutions Ecclesiastical and Canons of Councils that the State of the Papacy might not in that behalf be inferiour to the Empire Which Work the said Gratian performed and published in the days of Stephen King of England about the Year 1151. terming the same Concordia discordantium Canonum a Concord of disagreeing Canons Of whose great pains therein so by him taken a Learned Man saith thus Gratianus ille Jus Pontificale dilaniavit atque confudit that fellow Gratian did tear in pieces the Pontifical Law and confound it the same being in our Libraries sincere and perfect But this Testimony or any thing else to the contrary that might truly be objected against that Book notwithstanding the Author's chief Purpose being to magnifie and extol the Court of Rome his said Book got we know not how this glorious Title Decretum aureum Divi Gratiani The Golden Decree of S. Gratian and he himself as it appeareth became for the time a Saint for his Pains Indeed he brake the Ice to those that came after him by devising the Method which since hath been pursued for the enlarging and growth of the said Body by some of the Popes themselves Gregory the Ninth about the Year 1236. and in the time of King Henry the Third after sundry Draughts made by Innocentius the Third and others of a second Volume of the Canon-Law caused the same to be perused enlarged and by his Authority to be published and being divided into 5 Books it is Entituled The Decretals of Gregory the Ninth Boniface the Eighth the great Augustus as before we have shewed commanded likewise another Collection to be made of such Constitutions and Decrees as had either been omitted by Gregory or were made afterward by other succeeding Bishops and Councils and this Collection is called Sextus Liber Decretalium the Sixth Book of the Decretals and was set out to the World in the Year 1298. in the Reign of K. Edward the First Clement the Fifth in like manner having bestowed great Travel upon a Fourth Work comprehending 5 Books died before he could finish it but his Successour John the 22th did in the Year 1317. and in the time of King Edward the Second make perfect and publish the same Work of Clement and gave it the Name of The Clementines Afterward also came out another Volume termed The Extravagants because it did not only comprehend certain Decrees of the said John the 22th but likewise sundry other Constitutions made by other Popes both before and after him which flew abroad uncertainly in many Mens hands and were therefore swept up and put together after the Year 1478. into one Bundle called Extravagant Decretals which came to light post sextum after the sixth By which Title the Compiler of this Work would gladly as it seemeth have had it accounted the seventh Book of the Decretals but it never attaining that Credit the same by Sixtus Quintus's Assent is attributed to a Collection of certain other Constitutions made by Peter Matthew of divers Popes from the time of Sixtus the Fourth who died in the Year 1484. To all these Books mentioned there have been lately added Three great Volumes of Decretal Epistles from St. Clement
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
Gregory the First denouncing a Curse against that Bishop qui jubet alicui Agro more fiscali Titulum imprimi who doth challenge to hold any Possessions as an absolute Temporal Prince in right of his Church the Cardinal doth answer That it is not to be marvelled that Gregory would not have Bishops nor the prefects of the Patrimony of the Church of Rome to use More fiscali in recovering the Possessions of the Church For saith he Nondum habuerat Ecclesia politicum principatum sed possidebat Bona temporalia ad eum modum quo privati homines possident Itaque aequum erat ut Agros quos suos esse censebat Ecclesia si forte ab aliis occuparentur in Judicio legitimo eos repeteret non autem More fiscali propriâ sibi Autoritate vendicaret that is for as yet meaning when Gregorylived which was 600. years after Christ the Church had no political Principality but did possess her temporal goods in the same manner whereby other private Citizens possessed theirs And therefore it was agreeable to Equity that if perhaps the Possessions which the Church supposed to be hers were occupied by other men she was to require them Judicio legitimo in a temporal Court of the Prince of whom the same were held and might not challenge them to her self by her own proper Authority More fiscali as Sovereign Princes do when their right is detained from them Lastly the Cardinal is so far driven by a worthy Man and some others of our side who held it unlawful for the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops to be absolute Worldly Princes whosoever do bestow that Soveraignty upon them the same being directly against Christ's words Vos autem non sic and for many other reasons as he flieth to the times of the Maccabees when the Ordinances of God as touching the High-Priesthood were utterly neglected and nothing in effect left in the Church but Pride Presumption Blood and Confusion as we have declar'd in our first Book cap. 32. and would gladly thereby uphold the Pope's Regalities These are his words Although perhaps it were absolutely better that Bishops should deal with Spiritual matters and Kings with temporal Yet in respect of the malice of times experience doth cry that some temporal Principalities were not only profitable but also of necessity and by the singular Providence of God given to the Bishop ofRome and to other Bishops For if in Germany the Bishops had not been Princes none had continued to this day in their Seats As therefore in the Old Testament the High-Priests were for a long time without temporal Authority or Empire yet in the latter times Religion could not have continued and been defended except the High-Priest had been King that is in the time of the Maccabees So we see it hath faln out to the Church that she which in her first times had no need of temporal Principality to defend her Majesty doth now seem necessarily to have need of it As though he should have said Now that the Church of Rome hath in her Pride and Presumption determined still to Tyrannize over all Kings Priests Kingdoms and Churches contrary to the rules and prescription of our Saviour Christ and of his blessed Apostles the Popes must needs be temporal Kings Thus far we have followed the Cardinal who is bold to affirm That neither St. Peter nor the Popes his pretended Successors nor any other of the Apostles nor of their Successors Archbishops or Bishops nor any other Minister nor all the Ministers in the World if they were together do succeed Christ as he was after his Resurrection or Ascension a Man immortal and glorious but only as he was a mortal Man and lived here in that Estate upon the Earth without the enjoying of any temporal Kingdom or Regal Possessions contenting himself to be only a Spiritual King and to have in this World a Spiritual Kingdom that is his Church so termed because he ruleth only in those Mens hearts which are true Members of it the Gospel also being named Evangelium Regni because it containeth the Doctrine of our Messiah and Spiritual King and how he doth establish his Spiritual Kingdom in and amongst Men. Of which Spiritual Kingdom some little further consideration and how our Saviour Christ obtained it and then did and still doth govern it will make the folly of those Men more apparent which cannot apprehend the Excellency of it except it have joined with it all Worldly Principalities and Authority None is ignorant that hath any sense of Christianity how all Men by nature were the Children of wrath and how before they embraced Christ by Faith they walked according to the course of this World and after the Prince that ruleth in the air even the Spirit that still worketh in the Children of Disobedience Which wicked Spirit being termed the Spirit of darkness all his Subjects and Servants and whatsoever they take in hand are called the Children and works of darkness From whose Service had not our Saviour Christ delivered us and by subduing and vanquishing this wicked Prince taken actually the possession of our hearts where the Devil before raigned we had been still in the state of wrath and damnation Whereas now through Grace and by Faith Christ dwelling in our hearts we are no more darkness but light in the Lord nor are to hold any longer fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness or of the flesh but are bound being replenished with God's holy Spirit to bring forth the fruits and operations of the same To this vanquishment of Satan by our Saviour Christ these Scriptures following have relation If I by the Finger of God do cast out Devils doubtless the Kingdom of God is come unto you When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace the things which he possesseth are in Peace but when a stronger than he cometh upon him and overcometh him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth the spoils Again Now is the Judgment of this World now shall the Prince of this World be cast out And again We cease not to pray for you c. That you might walk worthy of the Lord c. Giving thanks to God the Father c. Who hath deliver'd us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have Redemption through his Blood Again Christ putting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us c. He took it out of the way and fastned it upon the Cross and hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers and hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them in himself And lastly He that committeth Sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose appeared the Son of God that he might loose the works of the Devil Now our Saviour Christ did by fullfilling the Law for
us and the Sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross vanquish both the Devil Death and Hell to the end that as many as believed in him might not perish but have life everlasting And therefore knowing Faith to be the Means of so unspeakable a Benefit he vouchsafed not only to be our Priest but our heavenly Prophet labouring by Preaching and Miracles to beget Faith in the Hearts of his Hearers that Satan being expel'd thence he himself with his Father might abide and make their Mansion in them To the performance of which most admirable work how our Saviour Christ being equal with his Father became a Servant for our sakes as it was the will of God whereunto of his own accord he conform'd himself and what a poor Estate he held whilst he was upon the Earth how he was born in Poverty lived in Poverty and died in Poverty how maliciously and scornfully he was oftentimes entreated how as when he spake the truth his Enemies said he blasphemed So when he cast out Devils they told him that he cast them out by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils how in the whole course of his Life he was so far from being a temporal King or having possession of any Regal State as he had not so much as an House of his own to rest his head in but was glad to lodge now with one man and then with another as the Occasions and Times served and how in the end he was content to satisfie the Malice of his Enemies by submitting himself for our sakes unto the Death of the Cross it were a needless labour for us to pursue the Evangelists have so plainly set down all these particulars and many more besides to that purpose Likewise it shall be sufficient for us sparingly to recount how our Saviour Christ was not only content to preach and work Miracles himself for the conversion o◠those that heard him but did to the same end as well before his Passion as after authorize likewise his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples to preach and work strange Miracles and furthermore ordain a Succession of the Ministry for the encreasing of this his Kingdom unto the end of the World himself never forsaking his Church and Ministers but still assisting them in that their spiritual Charge which he had committed unto them For although that he himself by his Death and Passion hath vanquished Satan and ruleth in the Hearts of the Faithful yet by reason of our Infirmities and Weakness of Faith and through the Malice of the Devil who never ceaseth like a roaring Lyon to seek whom he may devour this spiritual Kingdom of Christ is but now begun in us and upheld in us by the most merciful hand of our Saviour Christ through the operation of the Holy Ghost and by the labour of the Ministry But in the end through the Virtue of Christ's Passion shall be brought to pass that which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be unto God who hath given us victory thrô our Lord Jesus Christ And again Death Hell and the Devil shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone In the mean while and during the time of this our Pilgrimage we are for the continuance of Christ's dwelling in our Hearts to follow the Counsel and Direction of the Holy Ghost That in no sort we give any place to the Devil but that we resist him with all the force we are able for in so doing he will fly from us And for our better Resistance that we might be able to stand against the Assaults of Satan we have a notable and compleat armour appointed us by the said Holy Spirit which is agreeable to the Nature of the Enemies we have to fight with For saith the holy Apostle we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers and against worldly governors the princes of darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses which are in the high places And thus we have a brief and short Idea of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ Whereof when the Apostles after they were replenished with the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost had full understanding and notice they never dreamed for ought that appeareth to the contrary in the Scriptures of any Worldly preheminence or Principalities who should sit here and who should sit there but contented themselves with the same estate and condition of life that their Master had led before them remembring how he had described the same unto them when he first sent them to preach amongst the Jews Behold saith he unto them I send you as sheep in the midst of Wolves Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and will scourge you in the Synagogues And ye shall be brought to the Governours and Kings for my sake in witness to them and the Gentiles And ye shall be hated of all Men for my sake When they persecute you in this City flee into another the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more them of his Houshold Whosoever will be a perfect Disciple shall be as his Master Verily Verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament and the World shall rejoice The time shall come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service And as Christ did thus foretel them so it came to pass For no sooner did they begin to Preach the Gospel after the Ascension of Christ but they were whipped scourged cast into Prison bound with Chains and most cruelly entreated St. Paul doth testify somewhat hereof when writing in the name both of himself and of the rest of the Apostles and Ministers he saith thus In all things we approve our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in prisons in tumults in labours by watchings by fastings by long sufferings by dishonour by evil report as Deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet known as dying and behold we live Besides that which he speaketh of his own particular condition doth argue the estate and condition of his Fellows though one would have thought that little more could have been added to the barbarous Cruelty last mentioned to have been Executed upon them For comparing himself and his pains with certain false Brethren that were crept into the Church amongst the Apostles and sought for their own commendation to impair the credit of this our Apostle he writeth in this manner They are Ministers of Christ I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in Prison more plenteously Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one I was thrice beaten