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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	apostle_n	heaven_n	loose_v	2,492	5	10.3143	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95843	The supreme povver of Christian states vindicated against the insolent pretences of Guillielmus Apollonii, or A translation of a book intituled, Grallæ, seu vere puerilis cothurnus sapientiæ, &c. Or, the stilts, or most childish chapin of knowledge upon which William Appolonius of Trever, and minister of the church of Middleburgh boasts, among such as are ignorant, in his patcht rhapsodies, which hee set forth concerning supreame power and jurisdiction in matters of religion. Against the book of the most famous Dr. Nicholaus Vedelius, intituled Of the episcopacy of Constantine the Great.; Grallæ. English.	Vedel, Nicolaus, 1596-1642,	1647 (1647)	Wing V168; Thomason E388_5; ESTC R201503	255,312	305

bragges that this right remaines onely for him as being Peters successor and so commonly his subjects beleeve But this is an impudent lye fit for Antichrist Our Apellonians doe indeed convince the Pope of sacriledge for his bragging thus and yet they themselves are more impudently puffed up with this power of the Keyes For they confesse and in effect prove that they cannot preach infallibly and yet they cry out that he is guilty of sacriledge who doubts of their possessing their Key now Which impudency is farre greater then that of the Pope For he assumes to himselfe the right of opening heaven because he saith that he hath an infallible Key and truly Apostolicall But these will have the same right ascribed to them and yet doe confesse that they are not infallible Although hee bee an Impostor who promiseth to open the Treasure making shew of having that Key which hee hath not yet hee is a more impudent Impostor who cries out that hee will open the Treasure and yet confesseth that either he hath no Key or if he shewes any Key it is so unfit and rusty that it cannot open the Lock For because the moderne preaching Key wants true spirituality which is the infallibility of truth it is to be accounted a dead body or like a Clock which is moved about with wheels But these are set on work by the weight of honour and gain No otherwise can wee think of the Judiciall or Censoriall Key which in the Apostles by reason of their gifts and power was alwayes just and effectuall For they had a most divine certitude of Judicature so that they conferred Heaven upon none nor debarred any from it but by a sure knowledge and revelation so that assuredly Heaven was shut against them whom they bound and whose sins were retained on earth and it was certainly opened to them whom they loosed and pardoned It is sufficiently evident that these gifts and power were in the Apostles All which as most rare and exceeding humane reach were promised to the Apostles under the power of the Keyes which is apparent to all who will not shut their eyes wilfully against the light of truth Whence it is cleare that the Keyes are terminated in the Apostles because those conditions with the gifts which I spoke and which make up the Jurisdiction of the Keyes are ceased with them So with as great right they make the Apostles Office permanent and perpetuall in the Church as the use of these heavenly Keyes So that it is frivolous and ridiculous for Apolonius and the Pope to bragge so much of the power of the Keyes as though hee had power to shut and open heaven to binde and loose on Earth what is bound and loosed in Heaven Whereas hee knowes not whom he shall certainly shut out of heaven or shut in And oftentimes perversly hee looseth and judgeth worthy of heaven whom God bindeth and shutteth out of heaven And contrarily he excludes from heaven whom God thinkes worthy of Heaven so that he who compares the vizard of our moderne Censure and Excommunicacion to that of the Apostles seemes no otherwise to play the foole then the Jewes did who were wont to prate strange things of the sanctity of their Temple and fought for the honour thereof against Titus till they were destroyed And yet they might have known had they not been blind that that was not the old Temple of Solomon because it wanted Urim and Thummim and all the benefites of Divine presence and assistance which made up the particular sanctity of that Temple But there seemes to bee a plainer place Matth. 18.17 Tell the Church and if hee heares not the Church let him bee to thee as a Publican and Heathen In which words they say Christ hath given to the Church Judiciall Ecclesiastick power of excommunication which at this day is in use both amongst the old and new Papists The vanity of this conceit will bee easily seen if wee doe but observe that Christ in these words doth not instruct his Disciples as they were to be the over-seers and Rulers of the Church but onely taught ordinary things which are common to all Christians by the right of fraternity according to that generall Rule given to all by GOD Deuter. 17.19 Thou shalt not hate thy brother but sharply reprove him neither shalt thou suffer any evill in him Which Law CHRIST here sheweth must be kept not onely when a brother shall offend God or others but then also when he wrongs us which brotherly duty Christ will have wisely to bee exercised and with moderation lest this reproofe may seem to proceed from revenge or evill words by which the mind of the injuring brother may bee exasperated hee will have the brothers offence to be covered and not to be divulged but will have the difference to be taken up in private between brother and brother by two other brothers whose admonitions if the offending brother slight Christ permits not that the brother offended shall forsake the brother offending but then will have the brothers offence brought out in publicke that it may be made known to all the Church not to stirre up all odiously against him but that they might save him and that he who could not be brought to concord by the reproofe of one or more brothers may be brought to it by the admonitions of some in the Church or all Which endeavour of the Church being brotherly and charitable if the offending brother goe on to contemne the offended brother is not onely permitted but also commanded to esteem of the other at a Publican and Heathen that is that he shall have no private commerce with him as the Apostle describes and declares this act 1 Cor. 5.9.11 and 2 Thess 3.6.14 For Christ alludes to the custome that then was among the Jewes and of which we have already spoken Hence now it appeares that the old and new Papists have shamefully corrupted this place in turning this brotherly and charitable duty into an authoritative and judiciall Office and very insolently have appropriated the word CHURCH to the Rulers and Over-seers of the Church onely Tell the Church that is saith the Papist tell the Bishop which is truly a foolish interpretation unworthy of refutation Tell the Church that is say our new Papists tell the Rulers of the Church which is an unaccustomed acception of this word For they cannot produce one place out of Scripture in which the word CHURCH is appropriated to the Rulers onely I know the Walachrian Stilt-Walker babbles much every where of the Church representative and that the word Church is given to the Rulers thereof because they represent the Church But because hee learned this not out of Scripture but out of Popish writings the inventors of this I answer him briefly That to him who sayes much and proves nothing of right no priviledge belongs which as it is true in humane things so much more in Divine and sacred matters Whence I now

conclude whereas both the Antecedents and Consequents and the whole context of Christs words doe shew that in this place hee did not institute a judiciall but a brotherly and charitable duty in the Church and that by the name of Church here hee understands all and each member of the Church It is ridiculous that the Walachrian Stilt-Walker with the Papists should be understood here who out of nothing or the ragges of old Popery which at length begot Antichrist hath gone about to erect so glorious and eminent a judiciall Ecclesiastick power to which Kings Princes and all worldly Potentates by divine and speciall right ought to submit themselves He brings elswhere other Reasons for his thunder of excommunication but I will not trouble my self to refell them lest I should mispend good houres whereas the understanding Reader may easily perceive of himself that now the power of the Keyes being taken away with that place Matth. 18. Tell the Church all his Reasons will of themselves fall to the ground There remaines only one main argument one which he spends almost 15. pages of his patched peece his Argument is this Part. 2. pag. 6. The Apostle saith hee writing to the whole Church of Corinth wills and commands that they being all assembled should deliver over to Satan the incestuous man 1 Cor. 5.4 5. Therefore the right and power of excommunicating contumacims sinners belongs to all particular Churches For as in his Assumption he is very liberall so hee supposeth that to deliver over to Satan is nothing else then after his manner to excommunicate Where first observe his fraud in making this Argument For thus he propounds it as if the Apostle had granted to that particular Church power to give over to Satan that Incestuous Corinthian simply Which being granted hee foresaw that this Argument would carry some shew of truth But this Walachrian Impostor deludes his Reader as he useth Because the Apostle doth not simply grant this power to the Church of Corinth for he wills though absent in body yet by the presence and assiance of his power and Spirit the Incestuous man to be delivered to Satan whom already he alone had adiudged to Satan as he himselfe witnesseth These things being cleared thus I will aske of the Stilt-walker What Logick hath taught him so to reason Paul gave power to one Church to excommunicate with the assistance of his Spirit and of his power Ergo Every Church can doe this by it selfe and without Pauls assistance or of his Spirit Here is no sequence and it is all one as if he would say the particular Church of Jerusalem with the assistance of the Apostles prescribed to all other Churches a Law to abstain from blood and things strangled Ergo the Consistory of Middleburgh at this day hath the same power over the other Churches Which consequence I know the Classes of Zealand will not admit yet they would easily grant this if in their Consistory in stead of Apolonius one Paul were president or any other Apostle But saith he the Apostle for this reason reproved the Corinthians that they had not removed the incestuous person And therefore it is plain that it was in their power to have removed that wicked man I answer this cannot be evinced out of that place of Paul because the words import no such matter He reproves them that they were puft up and did not rather mourn● that he that had done this deed might be taken away Which forme of speech is all one as if he that hath been long and dangerously sick should be reproved by the Physitian for being so secure and carelesse in removing his disease For there were many things which the Corinthians might have done of themselves in removing of this great evill They might have signified this offence to Paul by letters and sought his advice and the assistance of his Spirit that that wicked man might be taken away But the Corinthians neglected all this in which respect they were not without cause sayd to be puffed up not to have mourned that he might be taken away who committed this wickednesse But saith Apolonius Paul warnes the Corinthians that they purge out the old leven And in the end of the chapter commands that they would cast out the incestuous person and judge of his ejection Ergo this was an ordinary act and in their power I answer that the Antecedent is not simply true for what the Apostle speakes of leven is not of removing the incestuous person but in these words he doth in generall onely exhort them to a good life as the Text sheweth Secondly Let us grant this that the Apostles words are meant of removing the incestuous person by what Logick again will hee evince that the busines which the Apostle enjoyns to the Corinthians was simply committed to be done by them as an ordinary act altogether in their power The Context shewes no so such thing but quite contrary He grants them power to judge but not without his own judgement hee will have them cast out this party but not without the assistance of his power and spirit because therefore the Corinthians could do many things concerning the outward circumstances of this act which Paul being absent could not doe therefore he himselfe enjoyned this action to them For they might have reproved him verbally and used many Imprecations against him they might have separated themselves from him all which things and perhaps more in exercising of this act did meet together but for the internall vigour of this act they of themselves could not produce or touch for it depended from the power of the Keyes by which Christ promised that should be ratified in heaven whatsoever the Apostles should here on earth determine concerning sinners the truth and effect of which promise because men had then found divers times by experience frō hence it was that this censuring power of the Apostles whether they exercised it alone or with the Church was alwayes and not without cause horrid and terrible not only to them who were to be cōverted but also to the refractory whose blasphemies he might have easily curbed as Paul speakes of Hymenaeus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.20 Surely if the delivering over to Satan had been nothing else then a verball thunder out of the pulpit as at this day refractory men being thus excommunicate would have learned to blas pheme more as may be seen in Julian the Apostate and others after the Apostles departure and in divers at this day But saith the Stilt-walker it is not likely that Paul being absent could deliver over the incestuous man to Satan This is surely ridiculous in so great a Doctor who out of the History of Naaman 3 King 5. might have learned that the men of God furnished with the gift or Miracles did exercise their gifts not only neere at hand but also a farre off for Elisha cured Naaman being farre off from him why then could not Paul do the

for Kings are called Fathers Lords 1 Tim. 5. Paul bids Timothy honour old men because of their gray haires as Fathers so the title of Father is given to Bishops but from hence to infer an absolute dominion and a priviledge to obey no man is childish for if we would contend about this word the King shall be the Bishops Father and the Bishop the Kings Father he shall also be an old mans Father and againe the old man shall be his Father so the one shall not obey but command the other Hence will arise Anarchie wherefore we must againe consider that figurative phrases must not be too much stretched Paul improperly attributes to himselfe the title of Father and yet he had many prerogatives by this title none is properly Father of the Church and of Beleevers but God by whose Word as by seed we are regenerated Paul himselfe confesseth that he is a sower and a planter who will not say that it is improper for a husband-man to be called Father of corne or trees Yet the Apostles had this priviledge because by instinct from God they produced that divinely inspired word which begets alwayes faith He also glorieth in this to the Galathians that he particularly as a Father had first of all converted them and had made them a Church though in this paternall right Paul had many Prerogatives yet we see that in his Government he was farre from pride and imperiousnesse wherefore the Stilt-walker againe imitates the Papists that under this most common right of Father by which he is rather a Paedagogue then a Father of the Church croaks so loud of his imperiall and kingly power that he will have himselfe preferred to all Magistrates for the word which he preacheth is but a strange kind of seed which he casts nor is it infallible as that of Pauls but corrupted and very lying in many things Neither doe we thinke the Stilt-walker so old as that he was the first Founder of the Church of Middleburg so that he wants all the prerogatives by which Paul claimes to himselfe paternall right how ridiculous then is this figurative and personated Father of the Church in making Magistrates but children and his sons whose Father he cannot be but by a very remote reason and in inveighing so eagerly against them that he seditiously moves the people to rob them of their honours and estates and then goeth about to excommunicate them with his censuring key that is to exclude them out of hezven it selfe We did here jest among our selves that these Walachrian Fathers were of the race of those Cats which Philosophers write use to bite and devour their young chite which they bring forth so that the female cats do extreamly hate the male cats or sires of their young chits not suffering them to touch or come neare them If this Wal●chrian be such a monstrous Father he will not wonder if hereafter the Churches as mothers doe abhorre and drive him away as an unnaturall Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He wonderfully swells with the title of Legat for which he quotes 2 Cor. 5.20 which Beza translates we are Embassadours the word in Paul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and properly signifieth we are Presbyters but this our night-bird delighting himselfe in this interpretation of Beza cries out every where that he is Christs Embassadour for although Paul presently place the exercise of this Embassie in Prayers and humble perswasion yet this Walachrian rattle-mouse desiring alwaies to chirp louder in his caves under ground then the howles doe cry at Athens concludes from hence every where that he is invested with this title of Christs Embassadur by an authoritative and powerfull Jurisdiction above all Magistrates For he saith in the place quoted that Magistrates are no where called Christs Embassadours but onely Ministers and Vicars of God In this his device hee varieth much from his owne Calvin who very where honoureth Magistrates with the title of Gods Legats and surely had he well weighed what he wrote he would have seen that more belongs to the Magistrate then to Church-men because they have the title of Vicar which is more then Legat For I searce beleeve that Apollonjus will willingly assume to himselfe the title of Christs Vicar least he should make himselfe too like the Pope of Rome who despising the title of Legate calls himselfe Christs Vicar so that we may laugh at Apollonius his giddinesse who would out of the greater title fasten upon Magistrates the lesser dignity but contrary on Church-men greater honour out of the lesser title But here the Stilt-walker seeks out another mote for he makes a strange distinction between Gods Kingdome and Christs or between Christs Kingdome of mediation and creation making that much more worthy and holy then this whence he collects that he is farre to be preferred to all Magistrates because these are onely Gods Legates but he is Christs Legate as being the Mediator exalted as if he would have something more worthy and holy then God himselfe I confesse I envy not this extortioner of phrases that every novelty may please him onely this I say that this his device is nothing to purpose for Paul in 1 Cor. 15. describing Christs Kingdome as Mediator saith that by right and in recompence of the work of mediation as it were by which he did exceedingly humble himselfe was given to him the chiefe honour as being God and man not onely to fit at the right hand of God the Father but that also by a wonderfull dispensation the Father from that time hath submitted all power and bestowed on Christ the Mediator which he will not lay downe before the end of the world and after judgement will deliver it up to his Father This the Apostle calls a mystery and I confesse I am ignorant of it yet I adore it Hence this assertion of the Walachrian Papist falls to the ground For if Christ after his Ascension alone reigne in heaven earth and under the earth as the Apostle speaks then it must follow that all Kings and Magistrates even Turks and Gentiles belong to Christs Mediatorie Kingdome and that they are the Vicars and Legats of Christ the Mediator for how can they be the Legats of any other Prince when as he alone reignes every where So that of necessity the Walachrian Commentators must hatch some other fiction whose practice I compared elswhere to Swine turning up dunghills Now I adde that to expresse this Impost●r by the picture of a Heg is an Egyptian Hieroglyphick for this is the property of that filthy beast to have cloven feet as the cleane beasts have with which they are alwayes dividing dirt and clay yet never divides or freeth it selfe from filth because naturally it delights in dirt Even so we see the Walachrian hereticks dividing their fooleries with many distinctions like impure hogs parting the dirt with their cloven hoofs and yet they never free themselves from their errors The Walachrian chiefe

Magistrates cannot rule the Church This argument also is made up of divers lies for it is false that the Civill Government is alwayes Monarchicall the Government of our Country is Aristocraticall such also is that of the Venetians Helvetians and others another lye is that the Church-Government is alwayes Aristocraticall because under Heli Samuel Macchabees and others it was Monarchicall yea in the New Testament it was not still Aristocratical but oftentimes Monarchicall For I ask when Christ lived upon the earth and ruled the Church whether the Church-government was not then Monarchicall Doubtlesse it was if ever it was Again when Paul alone was at Antioch and in Syria was not then the government of that Church Monarchicall For who was to be compared with so great an Apostle Lastly when John the Apostle was alone in the world for he lived longest had not then the Church on earth a notable Monarch Surely if such a Doctor at this day could be found in the world he should be as it were the Monarch of the Church and worthy to whom the whole Christian world should rise and give honour Whence the Pope makes no bad consequence in calling himself the head and Monarch of the whole Church and not Kings and Princes because they rise and give honour to him if it be true what he brags that hee is Peters successor and endowed with the gifts of infallibility as well as Peter But because experience teacheth that he wants all Peters gifts chiefly that of infallibility and on the contrary to be nothing els but a monster and load of all vices hence it is that he is a meere Impostor and a mocker of Christianity and Princes are miserably deluded in yeelding so much to so unworthy and wicked a man All then that the Stilt-walker babbles for Oracles are meere lies But this I will add that though Christ and his Apostles were by right Monarchs of the Church yet they still ruled the Church with that moderation that their government seemed rather Aristocraticall then monarchicall so that hence it appeares there is no necessity that he should alwayes rule monarchically who hath the right of Monarchie for he may use it aristocratically If this be true of Ecclesiasticks why should it not also hold in civill Princes that though they be Monarchs yet they may handle Church-matters in an Aristocraticall way as oftentimes Kings do And so the Kingdome of the Church shall not be monarchicall though a Monarch live in it ruling Aristocratically He ascribes much strength to this Ram which he is still shewing as if it had exceeding great Hornes whereas indeed it is a horn-lesse calfe The power formally Ecclesiastick depends immediately from Christ the Mediator the Churches husband who gave Apostles Prophets Teachers par 1. p. 37. and Pastors to his Church but not Magistrates Ephes 4. And hath placed this power in the Church Mat. 18. But Magistrates are not the Church whence he gathers that the Magistrates office is neither requisite nor belonging to the Church and consequently that it appertaineth no wayes to them to use the Churches power He parted this one Argument into divers I have gathered his fooleries together in one bundle that I may fling them downe together First wee must note that this is an old and oftentimes refuted device of his in perswading us that Ecclesiastick power hath for its author Christ the Mediator and Spouse of his Church but not the Civill Power I have shewed before and now will more at large demonstrate that this is a most notorious lye His principall Argument is par 1. p 37 that while Christ lived on the earth he did all Church functions either by himselfe or by his Apostles but did not meddle with the Magistrates office but refused it and prohibited it to his Apostles whence Anabaptist-like he concludes that Magistracie hath neither Christ for its Author not belongs to the Church all which are a meere heape of lyes For first I aske whence learned he that no Function is required for the Church till the end of the world but what Christ must discharge either by himselfe or by his Disciples living upon the earth The Scripture saith no such thing but is the meere fiction of Apollonius otherwise let him tell me when did Christ or his Apostles performe the Precentors part in the Church because Martyr doubts whether in the Apostolicall Church there was any use of publique singing which wee borrowed at best from the Jewish Church many offices ceased in the Churches upon the Apostles departure to supply which Necessity hath gathered together many things mans industry hath found out without any sin or blemish if Antichrist had not corrupted all with multitudes His other lye is that Christ and his Apostles did not here discharge the Magistrates office that Fiction I have already refelled for they used a co-active externall power equivalent to the sword Christ with a whip purged the Temple Mat. 21. John 8. he suffered the judgement concerning the Adulteresse to be referred to him with his word he cast to the ground the Souldiers that came to apprehend him and chiefly when on the day of Palms sitting upon an Asse he rid to Jerusalem in a Princely but humble pompe suffering the acclamations of the People and their garments to be spread in his way Mat. 21. as if he had been a King which is so manifest that Mathew adds Zacharies Prophesie to be fulfilled Behold thy King cometh to thee meeke c. So the Apostles inflicted in the Church corporall punishments as death blindnes c. All which evince that however they despised and avoided the pride and earthly pompe of Civill government yet the office it selfe they discharged in the Church when necessity required But saith he Christ being exalted gave to the Church gifts and offices necessary for it among which the office of the Magistrate is not mentioned whence he concludes that this is not requisite fore difying of the Church I answer among these offices mention is made of Governours 1 Cor. 12. and of Rulers Rom. 12. which Calvin and Aretius on those places shew to have been censures of life and manners supplying the Magistrates office Lastly suppose that in those places no mention is made of Magistracie did he therefore not ordain it Yea Peter did plainly institute this and chiefly Paul Rom. 13. and 1 Tim. 2. as I have at large shewed before neither needs he tell us that Christ himselfe gave these offices by himselfe but Magistracie he commended onely by the Apostles this is but a frivolous cavill for he sent the Apostles onely immediately then the Apostles instituted the other functions and after them Timothy Titus and others whence it appeares that Christ the Mediator being exalted is no lesse the author of Magistracy then of Church offices because that by a most famous Elogy of the same Apostle is ratifyed in the name and authority of Christ exalted by whose government alone

now all things in heaven earth and under the earth are ordained and ruled as I have often shewed He objects that these offices and gifts were given to the Church but not Magistracy I answer that these were given indeed to the Church or in the Church as it is said 1 Cor. 12. but Ephes 4. the Apostle sayth that they were given to men using a generall word so Paul gave and instituted to the whole world the office of Magistracy but under them also to the Church because he makes him to have the charge of every soul except he will say that Churchmen want foules whence it followes that Paul hath also subjected the Church to the Civill powers so that she must be by them defended in good things and punished in evill What wise man then will deny that Christ hath instituted Magistracy and hath not given it to the Church when as he by Paul hath ordained the Magistrate for his alone Legat upon earth to whom alone he will have all soules be subject and therefore Ecclesiasticks also and that for conscience sake by whose sword and authority he will have the Church defended in good things all these are so cleare in this place of Paul and in other Scriptures that by no meanes can they be darkened I know this Divinity doth not please the Stilt-walker who is possessed with papisticall furie that the Magistrates office is not Ecclesiasticall that is necessary for the edification and conservation of the Church yet he rather placeth this office without the Church not within or in it par 1. p. 24. because that phrase is too ambiguous to him and repugnant to Divine right and therefore placeth the Magistrates office onely about the Church or Churchmen so that he speakes no other wayes of Magistrates then Heccius and other Cornuted Asses of Luther who comming to the Conference at Wormes was not presently admitted into the full Assembly where the whole Quire was of holy Church-men but was lead first apart into a private closet which these Cornuted Beasts said was well done and according to Scripture for it is written Without shall be Dogs and Witches Not much more reverently doth this Walachrian prate of godly Magistrates whom every where he fasteneth to the cares of this world as carnall men but elevates the Church and Churchmen above the world even to the Skies but these are meere chimera's the Scripture on the other side doth so extoll Magistracy as a thing perpetuall in the Church and so necessary that it cannot be parted from her and without this shee cannot subsist but must wither no otherwise then corne that wants earth as Calvin speaketh which I will shew hereafter more at large He prates every where that the Church under the Apostles and at other times wanted the civill Magistrate but these are Lyes which I have already refuted and will hereafter refute more and if this impossibility should fall out that the Church were totally destitute of civill government yet it should not cease to be an office in the Church and as it were a part necessary for the constitution thereof for as a body that hath lost a foote remaines yet without that foote but lame being destitute of a necessary part so the Church may consist without Magistracy but not long and that with much difficulty for presently there would arise Anarchy and every one would do as he listed which because Apollonius doth what he can to bring into his City under hope of a new Popery hence arise so many railing devises by which he endeavours to hisse out the Magistrates as meere worldly men that they must not meddle with Church-businesse how ever the matter be because the Church hath often wanted godly Teachers Sacraments and other things requisite for her I might also as well inferre that these belong not to the Church but are accidents circumjacent which were most absurd to the Stilt-walker Perhaps he will object if this were true then Christ had made the Churches power imperfect and lame which must depend from an outward civill power but this is repugnant with Mat. 18. tell the Church where he hath furnished her with full power I answer That all these are Jesuiticall fictions which they have devised for their Hierarchy and which he hath borrowed from them for first I deny when Christ said tell the Church that he understood by these words as if he had armed Church-men being discriminated from Lay-men with full power of exercising Government among themselves excluding the Magistrate For I said before that by the word Church is understood in Scripture any kind of meeting whether meerly Ecclesiastick or Ecclesiastick and Civill yea any tumultnary Assembly called together to determine businesse Act. 19. Act. 15. and oftentimes the whole body of the faithfull in opposition to their Rulers somtimes the body of the Church with their Rulers but never for ought I know the Rulers separate from the body Now here Apollonius must needs goe to consult with the Delphick three-footed stool that he may divine to us what Christ meant here by the Church seeing he did not define it in this place nor do we see it elsewhere explained in Scripture Apollonius doubtlesse with the Papists having a watchfull eye over his merchandise rather understands it of the Church-Rulers for this is all his care that this wonderfull Ecclesiastick power by many windings and turnings being snatched from the body of the Church and chiefly the Magistrate may be setled onely in the Governours as in the Center that is in the Consistory and because Deacons are onely positively Church-men as bellowes in a paire of Organs Elders onely comparatively as the pipes which of themselves sound not hence at last the whole power ends in Preachers superlatively Ecclesiastick as if they were Masters of the musick and so sing and play upon that Ecclesiastick Organ that every pipe shall yeeld no other sound then what pleaseth these Organists Thus the old and new Papists doe play the Philosophers upon this there tell the Church as if Christ had meant tell the Pope or the Clergie or the Preachers of the Gospell but of this never a word in Matthew yea it is contrary for Christ being so understood should have named a Judge who was neither then nor long after in the world What an absurdity had it been for Christ to have said to the godly that you may free your consciences from strife with your brother go to the Consistory or Church-Rulers which were not then nor to be in many years after Whence it is more likely that Christ by the Church meant there a Judge or Arbitrator in controversies indefinitely and as I said elsewhere without any expresse quality that is such a one as they could repaire to whether consisting of Ecclesiasticks and Civill Magistrates as the Sanhedraham was then or onely of Ecclesiasticks as afterwards under the Apostles or of Civill Magistrates as was in the Church after Magistrates became Christians