an Unity of Discipline or Coactive Laws full power of Jurisdiction or Independant Judicature is not seated in any one Church or Person Pope or other to whom all other Churches and Persons must vail Bonnet and submit but the same power is in each of those Churches and this they maintain against the Romanists the English Priests and Jesuits who do not only hold this Unity of Independent Judicature to be necessary to the Constitution of the Visible Catholick Church but that of necessity it must be radically in one person to wit the Pope on whom as upon the Head and Fountain the unity of the Holy Catholick visible Church doth depend and for this reason they put his Holiness into the definition of the Holy Catholick Church and contrary to this the Protestant Divines do maintain That the Church of England and all other National Churches have a Discipline of Government and Judicature within themselves Independent of any other Person Church or Power And this is the Drift and Scope both of Bishop Bilson Dr. Jackson and others in their several Treatises § That which P. N. contends for in the Congregational termed also the Independant way is this viz. That those who are called out of the World by the Ministry of the Gospel have power given them by Christ being a competent Number to gather themselves together in his Name and judge their Warrant to be from 18. Mat. And a Church so gathered becomes a Body or Spiritual Corporation and being joyned thus by mutual Assent of each Person have power one over another as in all Fraternities and liberty from Christ to choose their Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in circumstantials for regulating their Affairs And they further say as the Church-Catholick in general so each parcel of it each particular Church hath Christ also for its Head and in such a union with him and such existence in him even as a Church 1 Thes 11. as that if Persons making up this Body be considered distinctly and as incorporated one with another only and not in their relation to Christ also as one with them and chief in the midst of them 18. Mat. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them they are not a compleat Body or Spiritual Politie And upon this account it is they profess their dependency to be upon Christ alone for the government and manage of this his Kingdom and thus being dependent upon Christ their only Law-giver 4. Ja. 12. Who is the wisdom of the Father and best knoweth how to govern his own House they profess themselves Independent in respect to the Authority or Sovereignty of any other Person Church Synod or meer Ecclesiastical Power whatsoever yet notwithstanding they own and submit to Magistrates in Matters and Causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil as an Ordinance of God and so far as God hath given the Civil Magistrate Authority to command and require But finding in the Books of God that there are some things of so misterious and of so Spiritual a Nature and peculiar to holy Worship that Christ hath reserved the sole Menage thereof to be ordered by himself as expressed in his Word and no otherwise Now although the Magistrate may and ought to require of his Subjects due obedience to such duties yet ought he not by any Laws or Statutes that he shall enact in this kind either add alter or diminish any thing Christ hath established either in the substance or necessary circumstance thereof and if he shall so do the Churches are required of the Lord the one Law giver who is able to save and to destroy 4. James 12. not to be subject 2 Colos 20. And it is a sin for them through fear of Man or the like temptation to observe and keep such Statutes and for this they bring 6. Mich. 16. For the Statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the House of Ahab and ye walk in their Councils c. And in this sense only they profess themselves subject to the Civil Magistrates supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs and go no further and in this also reserve to themselves the sole judgment of what matters are thus meerly spiritual and appertaining to the Worship of God So that if the Christian Magistrate shall out of a good intention appoint Ceremonies or such like helps for the stirring up our dull minds and to make the Worship of God more edifying or shall appoint a day to be observed as sacred in the Remembrance of the Birth or Resurrection of Christ or to the Honour of the blessed Virgin or holy Apostles if the Magistrate for better government of the Church establish Arch-bishops Bishops Chancellors c. or any Officers that are not appointed by Christ himself they will by no means submit but choose rather to suffer which they term Passive Obedience Thus far P. N. from his own Mouth and under his own Hand to me verbatim § But those Reverend Authors Bilson and others considering the Civil Magistrate is highly responsable being appointed by the Lord as Custos utriusque tabulae if any matters of impiety in respect of God as well as unrighteousness in respect to Men be permitted or countenanced by him therefore he is to see to it that his People be not seduced into Errors Heresies or hurtful Opinions tending to prophaness and disloyalty And God having trusted him with Authority in these things it must of necessity also belong to him to judge what Crimes fall within his Province and Cognizance and accordingly to apply himself as the Minister of God for incouragement to those that are good and to execute wrath upon them that do evil And not to be looked upon as only a by-stander Impedimenta removere as P. N. would have him or to execute only what the Ecclesiasticks have decreed by their Censures or in their Synodals as some others though the Name of Independent was not then in common use § Others as Mr. John Robinson in his Apology in Justification of the same Tenets endeavours to prove the same averring That by Intendment of the Scriptures speaking definitely of visible Ministerial Churches no other is to be understood ordinarily at least than one Congregation met together in one place in such competent numbers as that they may all hear and understand one another 18. Mat. 17 20. If he neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church for where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them And when you are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 5.4 All that believed were together and had all things common 2. Acts 44. And they were all with one accord in Solomons Porch 5. Acts 12. Then the Twelve called the Multitude of the Disciples unto them c. and the saying pleased the whole Multitude 6. Acts 2 5. When ye come together therefore into
the Members of the holy Church Triumphant or Militant nor yet consists only of them or of men internally though ineffectually called but of them and of others called only vocatione merè externa by vocation meerly external Thus the several societies of Christian men unto every one of which the name of Church is rightfully attributed as the Church of Rome France Spain England and as of old the seven Churches of Asia which certainly hold a nearer resemblance unto National or Provincial Churches than unto the Gathered Congregations for most certainly each of these had certain particular Congregations under them as London hath must be endued with correspondent general properties and powers belonging of right unto them as they are publick Christian Societies And all the powers given by Christ to the Churches Militant or to visible Ministerial Churches are most properly attributed to such Churches and not to those where two or three or some few only in respect of the whole are gathered and such are our Independent Churches here in respect of the Church of England and such like are our several Parishes which more properly and strictly ought to be accounted of as Members or Homogeneal parts of the Church of England than so many several Churches endued with such powers though in common discourses we may allow them the title or appellation of Churches yet in discourses of this nature being disputative they ought to be distinguished § Unto the Attributes or Prerogatives attributed to the Church in the Apostles or Nicene Creed or unto the Promises annexed unto it in the Scriptures the Visible Ministerial Churches have no claim or title save only in reversion or reflection or in expectancy i. e. the Mystical Body of Christ is only instated in the Blessings Prerogatives and Promises made unto the Church yet from this Body or rather from Christ the Head of this Body both Blessings and Powers do immediately and successively like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aarons beard that went down to the skirts of his Garments descend though in different Measures unto the several Members of it as unto National Churches more and greater Powers and unto the several Congregations thereof Blessings and Powers though not in the same measure and fullness and indeed by Analogie and Participation unto all and every one that hath put on Christ by profession Thus we are to conceive of the Catholick Church as of one entire Body made up by the Collection and aggregation of all the faithful unto the unity thereof from which union there ariseth unto every one of them such a relation unto and such a dependance upon the Church Catholick as parts use to have in respect of the whole whereupon it followeth that neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to work as several divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but to teach and to be taught and to do all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned unto the whole and Members of the same Common-wealth or Corporation and therefore the Bishops of the Antient Church though they had the government of particular Congregations only committed unto them yet in regard of this Communion which they had with the universal did usually take to themselves the title of Bishops of the Catholick Church which maketh strongly as well against the new Separatists as the old Donatists who either hold it a thing not much material so they profess the Faith of Christ whether they do it in the Catholick Communion or out of it or else which is worse dote so much upon the perfection of their own Party that they refuse to joyn in fellowship with the rest of the body of Christians as if they themselves were the only people of God and all wisdom must live and die with them and their Generation § To prosecute their own simile of Fraternities or Corporations whereby they claim a power over one another by consent or agreement Be it that every Church exceeds an ordinary Assembly or Multitude in that it is a Society of Men incorporated and every Corporation or Society corporate supposeth an unity more than meerly local between the Members thereof an Union by Laws and Statutes or else they were no more significant than so many men meeting at a Play or Whitsun-Ale quod non est aliquid formatum non est aliquid vere unum that which hath no set form or fashion can have no true real unity for it is the form of every thing which giveth it a distinct entity or unity Hence it is that though all men are mortal yet Corporations consisting of such mortal men are yet accounted immortal because their Laws and Ordinances is the life the soul and spirit of every Corporation or Body Civil every Church in what usual sense soever it be taken is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church And that which differenceth the Church properly so called from a Society or Body meerly Civil is the diversity of Laws and Ordinances and the different manner of union between the Members All this is to fortifie and to make plain their simile and which they will not gainsay Yet withal I shall commit to their consideration that there are no Corporations in England nor in any well governed Commonwealth without a proper Charter from the Crown and Laws of the Kingdom to authorize them to be a Corporation and to make By-laws as they call them or to have power one over another So none of them are independent of the publick Laws of the Kingdom or Nation whereof they are Subjects or have any authority to form or establish themselves by any power of their own but by what is derivative from some other power paramount So also there is no Parish in England nor any Company of Christians that have power of themselves so to confederat or congregat into a Church such a Church as hath all the Powers and Attributes wherewith a National Church is endowed and to meet as an Independent Congregation to make Laws choose Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in circumstantials without authority first obtained from the supreme Powers legislative or without any Supervisors or Superintendents or Laws over them if every particle of the Church hath this power derived unto it from Christ then certainly the same cannot be denied to a whole National Church and whether be more just or equal that a part should govern the whole or the whole the parts judg ye Power to meet to fast and pray to break bread and administer Sacraments which renders them capable of the appellation of a Church cannot reasonably and ordinarily be denied unto them yet this doth no way qualifie them to be Independent The strength and virtue even of the Law of Nations is such that no particular Nation can lawfully prejudice the same by any their several Laws and Ordinances more than a single person by his
Civil Powers we need go no farther than to Geneva Rome and Scotland Hierusalem not Rome is the Mother of us all there was the Church of the Jews most eminent and perspicuous when Christ came From this Metropolis of the Holy Land or Palaestine of which God said more than ever he said of any place saying This is my rest here will I dwell for evermore Here did the Messias begin first to build his Church as foretold by the Prophets by teaching the Doctrines of the Messiah remission of sins his tru worship wherein his Spirit was so prevalent as he was acknowledged to be the tru Messiah and so embraced more eminently by Zacharias Elizabeth and John the Baptist Here according to Luke 2. was Christ presented by the impulse of the holy Spirit in the Temple according to the Mosaic Rite Here just and devout Simeon came by the Spirit into the Temple waiting for the consolation of Israel where he acknowledged the Son of Mary to be the true Messiah and prophesied that he was set for the fal and rising again of many in Israel and having sung his sweet Nunc dimittis blessed and declared him a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel Though the number of the faithful was but smal at first yet it did daily grow and encrease being baptized of John his Forerunner in the Temple at Jerusalem and afterwards teaching in their Synagogues and confirming his Doctrins by his Miracles His Doctrins were not confined to Jerusalem only but from thence were afterwards propagated unto other Cities Towns and Villages as to Bethany John 11.18 about 15 Furlongs from Jerusalem where Martha and Mary Sisters and their Brother Lazarus did inhabit amongst other good Christians famous for borrowing an Ass with its Foal to ride into Jerusalem to Emmaus famous for Christs appearing there after his Resurrection to Bethlem where Christ was born to Jerico where Christ instructed Zaccheus touching the Messiah remission of sins good works c. Luke 19.9 there he restored sight to the blind c. Matth. 20. Mar. 10. Luke 18. the like is tru of Ephrain Bethabara Aenon al Judaea al the Region about and beyond Jordan so in Idumaea Samaria Galilaea Capernaum Bethsaida Corazin Genezareth Magdalo Naim Caena the Region of the Gadarens and Girgasins Caesarea Philippi the Coasts of Tyre and Sydon al Syria that the tru Doctrin was preached and planted in al these and more places in the life time of Christ is manifest by the testimony of the Apostles and Evangelists according as Christ a little before his ascension had told them All which were so many separate or several Churches or Congregations as independent each of other as one Apostle was independent of another and the reason why they should be so is as demonstrable for that all the Apostles were alike insallible Whilst Christ was upon Earth he was the supreme Independent Head of al the Churches and so remains to the end of the World for it was he that chose and made the Body his Church and not the Body him to be their Head so that other Heads besides him there never was never will be Governors and Rulers there are and may be God having given the Body power over it self After his Ascension having given them their Commission viz. Go ye and teach al Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe al things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. 28.19 20. and having filled all the Apostles with the Holy Ghost according to his promise and endued them with tongues they departed and separated and gathered several Congregations or Churches so that the sound went into al the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10.18 According as Christ had told them You shal receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shal be Witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in al Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth Act. 1.8 preaching repentance and remission of sins in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 And thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nations Rev. 5.9 As Palestine had the honour and happiness to have the Saviour of the World to be born in her after a wonderful manner and there first to teach his Doctrins the glad tydings of the Gospel and by his death there to seal eternal salvation to Mankind and there by his miraculous Resurrection to becom the first fruits of them that slept and swallowing up death in victory And after his glorious and joyful Resurrection having led captivity captive he gave gifts unto Men and called some to be his Apostles some c. who after they had chosen Mathias in the place of Judas the Traitor and cloven Tongues like as fire having sate upon each of them and al filled with the Holy Ghost and having preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and thereabouts and done many miracles whereby the Word of God and the number of Disciples daily increasing from 120 unto 3000 and more and more daily accruing the chief Pontiffs and Saduces being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead began to persecute them which seem to be the same year that Christ was crucified viz. Anno Aetatis suae 33. and 18 Tiberii scourging some and killing others which persecution occasioned divers of the Brethren to withdraw themselves into neighbouring places which gave opportunity to the Gospel to be more universally spread throughout Palestine the Apostles yet remaining in Jerusalem Act. 8. who afterwards dispersing themselves also spread the Gospel into al Nations after this sort and manner viz. when a certain number of Brethren being converted and well instructed in the true faith agreed among them themselves to build or hire a Temple Tabernacle or House for their joynt meetings and exercising of their Religion hired a Priest and constituted a Church and as the number encreased so that one Church and Priest being not sufficient for them al those who were most remote did build another and fit themselves with more conveniences And about the end of the first Century or beginning of the second for good order and concord and for civility and respect they did bear to their Bishop or Priest custom began to include his consent also which in process of time soon degenerated into usurpation by the Artifices of the Priests or Bishops of which Rome in process of time taking hold made great use to the abusing of the power of the Brethren and to incroach upon the priviledges of the Body of the Church Al this while the Apostles and their Successors were independent one of the other and so were their several and select gathered Congregations The like may be as truly verified of the several Churches gathered in the
neighbouring Villages and indeed throughout al Palestine The Persecution increasing 19 Tiberii Paul himself being as it were Signiser or Inquisitor Haereticorum great cruelty being used towards the Christians caused the Apostles and some of their Disciples to dispose of themselves into neighbouring Nations whereby the great wisdom and counsel of God was eminent that thereby the propagation of the Gospel became more universally spread yet so that some of the Apostles were always at Jerusalem as the principal Seat of the Church of Christ always ready to confirm and strengthen the Brethren under their Persecutions and though they made often excursions from Jerusalem into other Regions yet they many times returned thither again Paul himself returned thither five times after his conversion from whence he was carried prisoner to Rome where though detained two years a prisoner yet preached the Gospel even then and there All this while no footsteps of any Dependency that any one Church throughout all Palaestine or the Regions round about had of another Communications and Advisoes reciprocal there might be between the gathered Churches far and near but no dependencies obligatory upon one another Soon after Christs ascention the Gospel was preached by the Apostles to al Nations both in Asia Africa and Europe and in the mediteranean Islands as Cyprus Crete Samothracia and in the Aegean Sea Lesbon Chion Samon Trogyllium Pathmos Sicily Melita Though there were thousands of Churches gathered by the Apostles yet there are no footsteps remaining that the Churches gathered by any one Apostle were subject or did depend on any one or more Churches gathered by any other or more Apostles The like I may say after the death of the Apostles that no one Church by what Apostle soever gathered was left subject to any other Church gathered by any other Apostle no nor yet subject to any Church of their own converting and gathering but every Church was to be governed by its own peculiar Body observing Gospel precepts viz. to love one another and to do all things in decency and in order c. How and when the Supremacy of the Clergy came in Histories are ful and plain and would have been yet more ful and plain had but our Holy Fathers Inquisitors been as Innocent as Doves as they were cursedly wise as was that Divelish Serpent that beguiled Eve whilst they have scarce left us a Father or Monument of Antiquity whose very bowels they have not raked out and yet still retain that Hellish and daring Impudence to persevere in that embowelling trade and yet every hedge Priest to boast that All they cannot speak less than all the Fathers are on their side though their very Hearts and Intrals had they not been raked out by such unreasonable and cruel hands would have born witness against them and for us § By all which it appears that the Summ and meaning of the visible Church and of the Government thereof upon Earth lies in a very narrow room and is very plain and obvious to every understanding though Ecclesiastick's of all perswasions have by perverting plain truths and texts rendred them as obscure as they could that they might not appear clear unto poor Laick's And which aggravates the more we find by woful experience that as of old so now they still are very well content and pleased that we should yet be kept on in an amaze and Laberinth and to know no more of Church and Church-Government then what will stand with the grandeur benefit and domination of Ecclesiastick's only and still continuing blinded in extreme ignorance We should have them only in admiration as if Gods and Oracles indeed Bellarmine in his tract against Gerson magnifying the Popes Power above the Skies saith and saith truly that the holy Church is not like the Common-wealth of Venice or of Geneva La christ Santa non è similâ— aâ—la Rep. di Venâ—tia c. p. 318. or of other Cities which confer upon their Dukes that Power which themselves please in regard whereof it must be said that the Common-wealth is above the Prince neither is it like to an earthly Kingdom in which the People transfer their own Authority unto the Monarch and in certain cases may free themselves from Royal Dominion and reduce themselves to the Government of inferior Majestrates as did the Romans when they passed from Dominion Royal to Consular-Government for that the Church of Christ is a most perfect Kingdom and an absolute Monarchy which hath no dependance on the People neither from them had its Original but dependeth only on the Divine Will which Christ sheweth when he saith ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you 15. John 16. Luke 32.33 2. Psal 6. but what strange Blasphemous Conclusions he hath drawn out of these premises and texts which relate only to Christ himself by applying them to his Vicar General I will not in this place concern my self at all The position it self is thus far true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice much less a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood Royal and Kings succeed by Birth nor as some other Kingdomes by Testament which hapily may change the Government because the Church which is Christs Body hath Christ for its perpetual and immortal Head and King who whilst Man in the daies of his flesh first made the Body the Church and not the Body him the Head thereof governed it both visibly and invisibly invisibly by influencing his Body and conferring Gifts and Graces upon men fit for his Body the Church now touching this inward and merely Spiritual Government it is not like unto any Government no Prince Pope or Prelate having any such Government at all but only Christ who knoweth the hearts of all men which are deceitful above all things and can only influence them and can confer Gifts and Graces upon them whereby they are made and may become free Denizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem And because Christ was always to have his Body the Church on earth even unto the end of the world to be composed of visible Men and Members and not of one visible Man the Pope as the same Bellarmine and others would make us believe he hath appointed the Authority which his Body should have after his Ascention with promise that he would be with them unto the end of the world and therefore he set some in the Church as Apostles Prophets Teachers and after that Miracles then Gifts of Healing Helps in Government Diversities of Tongues 1 Cor. 12.28 Some of which as Miracles Diversities of Tongues and Gifts of Healing died and ceased with the Apostles who only were extraordinarily and Infallibly Gifted and inspired as necessary only for the first planting of the Gospel Therefore when Christ Ascended on high he gave Gifts unto Men 68. Psal 18.4 Eph. 8. yet diversly and in divers Measures and according to his Promise John 14.26 Sent the Holy Ghost the Comforter amongst them which should
vel indignos recusandi quod ipsam videmusde divina Authoritate descendere ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur c. whereby it appears that the supream Power of choosing such Priests as are worthy and refusing unworthy doth principally rest in the People And he speaketh of Bishops particularly although in the words alledged he mentioneth Priests and withal it is not only St. Cyprians Epistle but the Epistle of thirty six Bishops and written to the Common People of Leon Asturia and Emerita Vide his 14. Epist of his 3. Lib. such Authorities we may alledge but not mystical and enforced Explications nor yet wrong Conclusions from right Premisses The Faithful Flock of Christ ought to resemble Sheep indeed in humility and innocency yet ought they not to be so sheepish or sottish as to decline the Authority which Christ their great Shepherd hath bestowed on them either of choosing them a Good or of judging a Wicked Shepherd St. Austin proves unanswerably that Doctrines are to be grounded on the Literal Sense of the Scripture and not on any Mystical Interpretation In this equivocating Art of Sophistry Bellarmine hath shewed both in this Subject as in others his great dexterity first to settle with the Reader the Relation which the Holy Church hath towards the Divine Majesty and then to conclude on the Relation towards the Pope such false Sophistry such disingenuity becomes not so great a Prince so great a Scholar as himself but the Parisians no Protestants conclude that God hath called the Church to the Faith and his Worship and that he hath placed Christ over it for an Head for ever who first himself did govern it on Earth in the days of his Flesh but being ascended into Heaven doth rule it with inward influence and assistance invisible unto the end of the World It is true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice or as Geneva which give as much Authority as themselves please to their Dukes and Princes nor a Kingdom which may change the manner of governing it neither invisibly nor visibly because that Christ hath prescribed the manner much less is it such a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood-Royal where the Kings succeed by Birth neither as some other by Testament but as touching the Inward Government and meerly Spiritual it is not like unto any because it hath a perpetual Immortal and Eternal King who only knows the Heart and tries the Reins In the visible Government it hath a Ministry whose Authority was instituted by Christ and independing of the Church but as concerning the Application of this Authority unto this or that Person it is elective or depending of it Wherefore when he alledgeth I am constituted a King by him Our Lord God shall give him a Kingdom Luke 1.32 and 12.32 You chose not me but I have chosen you John 15.16 Thou hast made us to our God a Kingdom All these places and such like others are meant of the Invisible Spiritual and Interior Kingdom where the Pope hath no regiment nor influence at all but Christ is all in all governing by his Spirit and according to the Council of his own Will Thus he having laid down and proposed to use a Proposition or Doctrine quodammodo and in some sense true and having Validity under the Covert of an Universal yet having applied it to wrong Particulars it hath lost its Energy and Effort and its fallacy is discovered A piece of Artifice and Skill that runs through the Veins and Lines of most Popish Writers in the Controversies between us and them and what else is this but to make Lies their refuge and under Falshood to shelter themselves If Popes may now excommunicate as they pretend yet this concludes not that they may excommunicate Princes or Magistrates or whole Common-wealths The Primitives of old did use excommunication very sparingly and moderately and with great prudence and policy and with great respect to the good of the Church And therefore be the Power what or where it will St. Augustine holds an Excommunication against a Multitude though it were for some notorious and manifest sin too sacrilegious pernicious impious and insolent Lib. 3. contra Ep. Permen 23.4.4 c. non potest And Thomas putteth a Question whether any generality may be excommunicated and he answereth himself No and produceth Reasons for the same concluding that the Church appointeth with great Providence that no Community might be excommunicated And all other Divines with one accord determine the same And also Pope Innocent the 4th in the Chap. Rom. saith In Vniversitatem vel Collegium proferri sententiam Excommunicationis penitus prohibere de Sentent excom in 6. We must know that it is of worse consequence and example where â—t is used against Princes than divers other Bodies and Societies in as much as one Prince is of more consequence and power than thousands of other Lay-men We know also that in all Judgments there is a necessity of a Legal Trial to precede Conviction And that great Multitudes may be convented examined sentenced and punished with less disturbance of Peace less violation of Majesty than those that sway the Ball-Imperial Besides if the condemnation of Princes might be upon due Trials without violence yet the execution of the Sentence would produce more monstrous events in them than in private Men for how shall the People honour obey and reverence him in the State as Gods Lieutenant whom they see accursed cut off and abhorred in the Church as the Devils Vassal upon the excommunication of Princes whole Nations have been interdicted witness England Venice and other in the times of several Popes whole States subjected to ruine the Innocent with the Obstinate the Princes with the People all have have been sacrificed to Blood-thirsty-Popish-Priests under pretence of obedience to the Holy Catholick Church In what Code of the Ancient Church can it be found where any such strange kind of punishment was ever instituted as that for the offence of a few many Millions of Souls should be accursed cast out of the Church and in Popish construction damned How can they call that Power Apostolical that punisheth in this manner seeing the Apostolical Power was given for edification and not for destruction And yet so precipitate have some Popes been as to excommunicate whole States and Kingdoms Surely therefore we ought not so tamely to acquiesce on the bare ipse dixit of the Clergy pleading in their own Cause and for themselves only exclusive the Laity Certainly it is too small a security for so great a concern therefore let us a little examine what they urge for this exorbitant Power § If Kings be not this way punishable then they are no other way which is mischievous in the Church Sol. The Jewish Kings were as great and scandalous sinners as Kings-Christian now are yet God assigned no Rulers Spiritual for their Castigation and we must suppose that if it had
there is something in Ordination or appendant to it which they receive from the King First Licence to be Ordained and Liberty to exercise what God hath Authorized them to do viz. to Preach Baptize c. In which Ordination also there is if not an Overt yet a tacite and implyed condition viz. Submission to the Imperative Constitutive Government of the present Church that doth permit them to be Ordained Licence them to Preach Establish them a maintenance c. All which if they expect from the Prince all the reason Imaginable that he should judge and appoint who should be capable of such Liberty and maintenance and appoint the qualifications or else if he should give the same Countenance Liberty and maintenance to Popish Priests or Jews why were he to be blamed if he had no Power nor Command from God to Judg to Licence or Tollerate Suppress or Prohibit Therefore if after Ordination and Admission into the Ministery they refuse to submit to the Established Government of the present National Church the same Authority that permitted them Ordination may for sound and good reasons as Warrantably deny them publick preferments and publick places for the exercise thereof for the Application of the Persons to the Charge is wholly in the Body of the Church and Magistrates Power which is one and the same thing whether you consider Independent or not ndependent Churches And I appeal to all the Congregations Presbyterian and Independent whether they will admit any into their particular Societies that will not submit to their Government Constitutive by consent And do not again Excommunicate those that after their admission do deny submission to their Constitutions I would have no man patient in causa laesae fidei yet it is Pauls Counsel and Practise in things indifferent to become all unto all and to be indifferently minded 1 Cor. 9 2â— Moderation what Wise man but approves in external Rites to fit himself to that Church wherein God shall call or occasion him to Live § I will make no severe reflections on any peccadilloes of any persons of any perswasion but believe that as they are all Heirs of the same Faith and of the same Salvation and all Brethren of Christ so they may all meet in Heaven and therefore will exhort all to Unity and and Peace and Love the last Legacy Christ left to Disciples viz. Love one another and I hope they all have the same Christian Love and Charity each toward other Paul and Barnabas Jarred yet Preached the Gospel and why not you Our love to God is more espetially manifested and signalized by our love to Saints for whom we ought to lay down our lives 1 Joh. 3.16 David a King and a man after Cods own Heart solemnly Protests all my delight is in the Saints on the Earth and in such as excell in Vertue 16 Psal 3. The proximity and near Relation that Saints have with Christ should encourage them whom he hath dignified with his own name and Power to prefer the Saints in love To Saul an Enemy David shewed kindness but his Soul clave to the Soul of Jonathan 1 Sam. 18.13 Gods Precepts and Saints Practise oblige us always to limit the specially of our Love to the Houshold of Faith if ye all have Faith towards God of which I make no question why then live ye not in love one towards another why so dissenting why such animosities each towards other scarce affording a good word one of the other I hope you have not so learned Christ Gods love to his Chosen so impartial that whether Graecian or Barbarian Bond or Free all are one in Christ Jesus Gods favours for Salvation are Extended to all Prince Pesant Prelate Presbyter Independent Conformist Non-Conformist Assenter Dissenter Liturgist or Antiliturgist however different among your selves in point of Discipline nothing in Doctrines fundamental All a like Redeemed by the Blood of Christ Sanctified by his Grace and Providence the ground of all Holy Love is the same in all the Image of God the Loadstone of all gracious Affections Apage imbelles quaerimonias A way then with all Animosities all evil speakings and murmurings one against another as if Ca-sirouna dogs â—â—ch to other Beware also of Partiality in affections towards one another must your Love and Testimonies thereof be limited only to place and outwâ—rd Eminency in our Church and of your own rank and perswasion only must Dissenters tho never so Rich in Faith be scarce vouchsafed your Eugè unless the same moment you give them your Vale meats scarce meet for the Dogs of your Flock To such I say with Paul despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not 1 Cor. 11.22 Be Exhorted therefore without partiality to love each other in good earnest considering that our Love to the Brethren is the best Evidence of our Love towards God and the best Evidence of our Sincerity in loving and surest sign of true Gracious Love when it is Impartial to all tho Dissenting Brethren for if our Love be sincere and without dissimulation it will be impartial and will work no ill to the Brethren and is the very fulfilling of the Law It is not to be denyed but that tho the Body the Catholick Church be one yet it hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the Head 1 Cor. 12.12 whether Prelate Presbyter or Independent whether National or Congregational Churches are all Members of the same Catholick Body and therefore I do deem it very unbrotherlike if not unscholastick to stigmatizey either Conformist or Non-Conformist with the name of Seperatist or Schismatick because they all hold the Truth in Righteousness those names more properly belong to Dogs to evil Workers to the Concision of which we ought to beware and avoid 3 Phil. 2. the Conformist and Non-Conformist the Liturgist and Anti-Liturgist they all serve and Worship God in Truth and in Sincerity and give God thanks and are certainly Members of the same Body and neither ought to Esteem other Seperatist or Schismatick but the stronger to bear the Infirmities of the weaker they differing only in Circumstantials not in Fundamentals or things absolutely necessary St. John 3 Ep. Commendeth to Pious Preachers the Example of Gajus and Demetrius for their peaceable deportments towards the Brethren and their love of the Truth and Rebukes Diotrephes for loving praeheminence among the Brethren and for prating against them with usalicious words unbeseeming both Conformists and Non-conformists and not receiving them nor yet the love of the Truth but forbidding them that would and in as much as in them lyeth casting them out of the Church Take heed and by love serve one another for in this one word Love all the Law is fulfilled for if ye bite and devour one another take heed I say ye be not Consumed one of another 5 Gal. 13.14 15. FINIS I Have now done with our Friends at
to be Anti-Christ Thess 2.2 yet these men with the Quintescence of Sophistry have observed many new Mysteries in the Old and New Testament and plainly see the Pope in all his Pontificalibus in many Texts thereof which we may safely swear the Holy Prophets Evangelists and Apostles never saw nor intended nor possible for any mortal wit to make good As to the Text The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall be rooted out By thee if you will believe the Papists Esa 6â— 12 is now since the Incarnation of Jesus meant the Church of Rome that is in their Dialect the Pope which happily incouraged Pope Julius the Third to stamp his Coynes with this Circumscription Gens quae non servierit tibi peribit Now service in Romish understanding is to be Executioners of the Popes Commands without questioning whether just or unjust Sententia Pastoris sive injusta timenda and according to some tenenda I can easily be perswaded to believe that Papists do understand the true Scope and meaning of that Text and Chapter viz. Isay 60.12 as well as we but I cannot be so easily perswaded that they who draw such wrong Conclusions out of such right Premisses do believe themselves I doubt they rather presume to out-wit us by their Subtilties and Sophistry then convince us by sound reason The whole Scope and purport of that Chapter is only to set forth the Glory of the Church in the abundant Access of the Gentiles and the great and glorious blessings that shall accrew unto them after a short assliction Now if by intendment of the Prophet the Pope is meant by the 12. Verse we shall have brave Popes indeed for then unto them also must necessarily belong all those other glorious Attributes Recorded in the same Chapter for they all are relatives tending and pointing unto one and the same thing and if they belong unto Signior Papa then by the rule of consequences is the glory of the Lord risen upon them and darkness shall cover the Earth and gross darkness the People but the Lord shall arise upon him and his glory shall be seen upon him v. 1 2. and the Gentiles shall come to his light and Kings to the brightness of his rising v. 3. And the Sons of Strangers shall build up his Walls and their Kings shall Minister unto him his Gates shall be open continually they shall noi be shut day nor night that men may bring unto him the forces of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve him shall perish v. 10 11 12. And the Sons also of them that afflicted him shall come and bow unto him and all that despised him shall fall down at the Soles of his Feet to kiss his Feet and they shall call him not the Vicar of Christ but the City of the Lord the Sion of the Holy one of Israel not of Rome v. 14. And God will make him an eternal excellency not a Butcher of Kings and Saints but a joy of many Generations and he shall suck the Milk of the Gentiles and shall suck the Breasts of Kings c. and so to the end of the Chapter Now either all these glorious Consignments must belong peculiarly unto him or not any one of them as every one that hath learnt his Grammer can easily tell And he that is but little versed in Scripture can tell that they belong not to him but unto Christ What is this appropriating unto himself Attributes Divine less than to oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is Worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God 2 Thess 2.4 who I beseech you is more omnipotent Christ the eternal Head and Law-giver of his Body the Church or his Romish Vicar that claims to Interpret and dispence with God's own Laws at his pleasure I wonder if ever such Blasphemies shall be forgiven Now under these borrowed figurative Speeches the Prophet describes the Glory of the Church of the Gentiles and more especially of Christ the Head thereof and doth thereby denote Christ's Spiritual Worship and Service and not the least hint of any Temporal Dominion to be devolved on Nostro Signior Papa so the Texts are admirable and true in their own proper sense and meaning but the Application of them made by the Papists is erroneous nay devillish even from their Father the Devil This misapplication of Texts is the general vein of Fallacy that runs quite thro most Popish Interpreters descanting on Texts of Scripture Now Kings and Kingdoms serve the Church not in that she exerciseth any Temporal Dominion of her self but because God hath given and committed the Sceptre of his Word by which he Rules and Governs unto the Churches Care and Custody So the Homage of bowing and falling down at the Soles of his Feet are honors indeed but not due to the Pope but to their and our Head Christ blessed for ever who is worshipped in the Church not as Papists deem who think they Worship Christ when they kiss his Vicars Pantable with the Cross imbroidered upon it but when they serve and honor him by obeying his voice in the Ministery of his word so the Strangers and Gentiles should willingly submit themselves to yield obedience unto Christ whose Majesty shines in the Doctrine which himself Administers by the Service of men so by Milk and Breasts are meant the Service and Obedience the Gentiles should render unto the Church to nourish her off-spring so all these sigurative expressions must be referred to the Spiritual Estate of the Church that God may be purely worshipped in her that the Ministery of the word may be advanced by all the Sons of the Church unto which the Pope is as much obliged as the meanest of his Vassals by all which it is apparent that there is not one Jota of that Text giving the least Temporal Power to the Pope over Kings and Princes In this saith St. Austin Kings serve God if in their Kingdoms they command that which is good and prohibit that which is evil not in Temporal affairs only but in matters of Religion also Cont. Cresc Lib. 3. c. 5.1 And again Ep. 48. Kings serve Christ in making Laws for Christ so that commanding the People to reverence the word and obey God and the making of strict Laws to keep men in the Faith and Church of Christ that is the true service which Princes owe to Christ and his Sion his Church and which Papists deny them to meddle withall and endeavor to prove that Popes only are Rulers of the Church out of Acts 20.28 take heed therefore unto your selves and unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God And out of Hebr. 13.7.17 Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose faith follow
teach his Body the Church all things and should continue with them unto the end of the World § For soon after his Ascention the Apostles together with the rest of the Body being met together in a great Assembly and after they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and great Grace was upon them all 4. Act. 31.32.33 and accordingly the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal to one the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge to another faith c. and all by the same Spirit 1. Cor. 12.7.8 and all these for the edifying of the Body of Christ 4. Eph. 12 For though the Body be one yet hath it many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the head 1. Cor. 12.12 In the visible Government of the Church Christ appointed and instituted a Priesthood in which likewise it is dissimilar to all temporal Governments which quodam sensuis Independent of the Church though touching the application of the Authority to the Person it is elective and depending of the Body of the Church under this Priesthood is comprehended Bishops and Presbiters now what their Authority and Powers are vide their Commission 28. Mat. 19.20 go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you always unto the end of the world other Powers besides these and laying on of hands especially coercive I know none derived unto them by any text of Scripture These Bishops these Presbiters these Ministers or Pastors are not Lords and Masters as in the Roman Church but are Servants to the Body of the Church For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake 2. Cor. 4.5 and these Authorities are not coercive but are given them to exhort reprove rebuke beseech intreat for Christs sake and by the mercies of God c. 12. Rom. 3. chap. 15.30 1 Thes 4.1 according to the Doctrines Precepts Rules and Commands set down in Scripture which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and which is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfected throughly furnished to all good works 2 Tim. 3.16.17 These and such like only are all the Powers that belong unto the Priesthood by any Law of God and there is no need of any other for what concerns punishment for Sins or the breach of moral Duties or municipal laws the Body hath Power to make laws and ordain punishments for any of its Members § I know that they have a long time hooked in by Head and shoulders a kind of coercive Power Excommunication by usurping to themselves the Power of Excommunication a thing I must confess that hath made a great noise and buzz in the world but in truth a magnificum nihil a meer ignis fatuus there being no such thing in the whole new Testament as now used and that which Pope and Presbiter would have to be it is as much in the Power of the Laicks against them as in them against the Laicks and most truly in the Body of the Church In the Romish Church the Bishop or his Vicar excommunicateth without the advice or participation of any many times also the Register only and that which is most important by Authority deligated a Clark of the first Tonsure deputed Comissary in some slight Cause doth excommunicate a Priest Yea Leo. 10. in the Council of Lateran in the 11. Session by a perpetual constitution of his hath granted faculty to a secular person to excommunicate the very Bishops and that which doth more import Navar saith c. 27 no. 11. that if any man shall obtain an excommunication of some Prelate if the obtainer shall not have an intent that the party be excommunicated he shall not be excommunicated moreover he saith ch 23. num 104. that the excommunication pronounced by the Law it self against him that payeth not a Pension for example sake on the Vigil of the Nativity is not incurred by him that payeth it not no not in many month's and years after if the Creditor thereof would not have it incurred But if on the other side after many Month's or Years he would have it incurred it is reputed to have been incurred from the day of the debt from the Vigil of the Nativity and so is the stile of the Court but the Council of Trent hath now expresly provided otherwise Ses 25. c. 3 forbidding secular Princes that they hinder not Prelates to excommunicate nor command that any excommunication be revoked considering that this is no part of their Office by this you may in little see what a nose of wax is made of excommunication and all this and much more grounded and occasioned from wrong Glosses put upon plain Texts But of this more fully hereafter § Though the Congregational men have not fully modelled out unto us the Platform of their Government and Discipline as the Presbyterians have done yet in general they do affirm Independency and Church-Government that to each gathered Church Christ hath given all Power and Authority requisite unto that Order and Discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe and to execute the same with Commands and Rules as before And negatively that there is not instituted by Christ any person or Church more extensive or Catholick entrusted with Power over other Churches and that each particular Church consists of Officers and Members which Members they call Brethren and the Officers they stile Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons and that there are no stated Synods in a fixed combination of Churches nor any Synods appointed by Christ in any way of sub-ordination to one another nor no one Church to have Power of Censures but of inspection only over other Churches and Members thereof that Counsel and Advice might mutually be communicated That it was so in the days of the Apostles and continued so for some Generations after every Individual gathered Church every Christian Societie as it is natural to all Societies as well Christian as Civil governing it self by its own Laws and Constitutions whithout being obliged to any other superintendency hapily is so manifest that it would not be gainsaid But when the Church became planted and spread its Branches and took root in divers Nations and whole Common-wealths became Christian and Kings and Queens and other Civil Governments became Nursing-Fathers and Mothers of the Church then of necessity for the quiet state of the whole the case came to be altered it being then impossible that every individual Member or Brother of any Christian Kingdom or Common-wealth should personally meet to make Laws
home Friends and good Friends I hope tho of different perswasions having had no greater design than by modest arguing to discover which of those several Doctrines and Practices they would severally obtrude upon us are most true It is all one to me which are the truest Opinions so I could be so happy as to know the right that I might be certain to embrace them and them only Having I say thus done with our Friends at home I am now to parly and combat more particularly with a very strange Generation of Men Men who tho very quick sighted yet will not see will not understand be the Evidence of the truth never so demonstrative What hope can mortal wights have to prevail with them who prevaricate with God himself under pretence of a Spirit Infallible and unerring So that the Popes sence of Scripture must without examinations be submitted unto tho he Interpret and Act contrary to the very plain words and Texts of Scripture and contrary to our very Sences witness their Prayers and Services in an unknown Tongue contrary to the very words whole Scope and design of the fourteenth Chapter of the First of Corinthians Concil Lateranens verum Christi corpu◠Sanguis c witness also their believing and maintaining the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist to be the very Flesh and Blood of Christ's Body contrary to our very Sences and not the Sences of a few but of all the Christian World for 1600 years together and this forsooth must be done under the notion of a Miracle of Transubstantiation by the miraculous omnipotent power of God who yet never revealed that he would Juggle with his People by any Dedalean Jugling Arts and alwayes practised the clean contrary and therefore to believe this to be done by a Miracle is to believe it a Miracle contrary to the very nature of all the Miracles that ever God wrought For the true nature of a Miracle is to make that evident to our very Senses which no reason can Fathom or comprehend and such were all Gods Miracles viz. the standing still of the Sun in Joshua 10.12 13. The going back of the Sun ten Degrees in the Sun-dial of Ahaz Isay 38.8 The dividing of the Water and making them to stand on an heap that they might be a Sanctuary unto Israel and to return again to be a Grave unto Egypt Exod. 15.8 the dry and the wet Fleece Judges 6.37.40 the preserving of the Three Children in the fiery Furnace Daniel 3. so that the fire had no power over their bodies not so much as a hair of their heads singed or their Coats changed or so much as the smell of fire had passed upon them and yet consumed their Persecutors in the sight of them all The delivery of Daniel out of the Lions Den which yet brake all the bones of his accusers in pieces or ever they came to the bottom of the Den Dan. 6. was it ever known that a man born blind was made to see John 9. or that the dead were raised Yet did Christ cure the blind raised the dead caused the dead Stones of the Temple to rend in sunder and put blackness on the face of the Sun at mid-day All these indeed have the true nature of Miracles and were made manifest to the very sences of those Nations where they were wrought and were not otherwise to be made credible But to believe Bread to be Flesh and Wine to be Blood participates more with Hocus Pocus with the Art of Jugling than of doing Miracles What is this but to be bruitish in knowledg they will not understand Is not this to reproach their Maker that when he hath given them eyes and ears and reasonable Souls that they will yet neither see nor hear nor understand Have you not read the four and fortieth of Isay describing the Sottish dotage of Idolatrous Jews He burneth part thereof in the fire with part thereof he eateth flesh he rosteth rost and is satisfied he warmeth himself and the residue thereof he maketh a God even his Graven Image he falleth down to it and worshipeth it and prayeth unto it and saith Deliver me for thou art my God And none considereth in his heart neither is there knowledge or understanding to say I have burnt part thereof in the fire I have baked on the Coals thereof I have roasted flesh and eaten thereof and shall I make the residue thereof an Abomination Shall I fall down to the Stock of a Tree A deceived heart hath turned him aside Praetiosa grandia sonant veri effoeta defendunt Deum loquuntur simulachra Adorant Ambres ad Symachum § Is Romish Infatuation less Semble and fancy to your selves a Papist prostrate before his breaden God At which Hildebrand so strangely angry for that he answers not how the Emperor Henry the Fourth might be destroyed throws him into the fire Benno Vrsperg Math. Paris He knows it to be the Art of the Confectioner the Composition of the Baker Valera 66. sees toucheth tasteth it Bread and Wine cannot be ignorant goes out at the draught yet adores it prayeth unto it saying deliver me for thou art my God so fast glewed are their eyes that they will not see so obdurate are their hearts they will not understand Like may be observed in many other their absurd opinions contrary to sence reason all sound Authority and what not Why thus infatuated Why thus seduced by Antichristian Mystery Why thus given up to strong delusions to Infatuation and besottedness so great as that errors palpable and such as may be felt are entertained for truth And why so stiff and perverse in adhering to them so incorrigible that no perswasion nor affrightment from God or Man can reclaim them from The reason is assigned viz. because they will not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 what hope have I then to perswade or convince whom neither Evidence of Scripture nor demonstration of Sences nor Suffrage of Antientest Fathers nor Consent of most Antient Councils nor blood of Martyrs nor Sword of Magistrates nor discovery of Antichrist nor consumption of his Kingdom or I am perswaded ruine of that Babylon can win from palpablest errors § Though all the wisest and most sober men of the World have ever taught that Kingdoms Cities Companies cannot long continue nor prosper where Religion and Piety are slighted or neglected yet there are some and those no small Fools though great Wits in their own esteem who have so little of the fear of God before their eyes that they think that Princes are so much the more firm and established in their Thrones by how much more ignorant and wicked their Subjects are and Religion vilified and set at naught because say they they are thereby more proper and as it were born to Servitude and the Yoak Patientiores servitutis quos non decet nisi esse servos Plin. Pan. when as the contrary is
to seed his Fock No no Ezekiel shews that their duty is to strengthen the Diseased to heal the Sick to bind up the broken to bring again that which was driven away and to jeek that which was lost this also is consonant to the Doctrine of St. Peter 1. Ep. 2 3. Feed the Flock of Christ taking the oversight thereof not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the Flock Besides it can never be proved by Scripture that Christ's instituting Pastors in the Church did at any time exempt them from obedience to the Church she being the Common Parent of all Christians both Ecclesiastical and Secular and the Practice was so in the purest times as may appear by St. Cyprian Lib. 1. c. 4. Moreover when Christ ascended on high tho he led Captivity Captive and gave gifts unto men yet he did not divest himself of all power of Governing his Body the Church Militant here on Earth devolving it on the Pope but doth still continue to govern it internally and Spiritually by the secret influences and illapses of his Spirit and so will do until time shall be no more And altho the Popes have nothing at all to do with this kind of Government nor as yet in terminis have laid any claim thereunto yet their Illustrissimo Bellarmine hath had such effronted Impudence as to aver that the Pope is able to do all that which is necessary to the Conducting of Souls to Paradise unto which end certainly Divine Inspiration is most necessary and can take away all Impediments which the World or the Devil with all their force or Crast are able to oppose which doth covertly insinuate and attribute the same Spiritual Invisible power to be also in the Pope hoping it will not be seen but it is discovered for without such Insluences and assistances it is very improbable if not altogether impossible to be conducted to Heaven and if Bellarmine's Doctrine be good what need of petitioning Heaven for Graces it is but going to Rome a pleasant Journey where we may have all things necessary for our Journey to Paradise for asking for some merry Pence Romae omnia venalia As to the external Government of his Body and Church Militant here on Earth it consists here of visible men The Church to be Governed by its own Body So Christ himself would that it should be governed by visible men without divesting himself of his Spiritual influences and in order thereunto he appointed Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes 4.8 11 12. Who having in his life-time endowed them with power and commands to teach all Nationis Baptizing c. Matth. 28.19 which is all the Authority that ever Christ gave or bequeathed unto them and which is purely Spiritual without any mixture Temporal and that only as Ministers and Servants not as Lords of his Body which power tho it may be peculiar to the Clergy of the Church as chief Officers and Ministers thereof yet the application of the same Authority to the person is purely elective and depending on the Body hence it follows that the Body or Sheep having chosen their Bishop or Pastor he is now become subject to the Body and not the Body to him which Authority of choosing them a good or of Judging or of censuring a wicked Pastor being given them of Christ their Head and Father they cannot wave or devolve the same without committing great offence against God and if they should yet they cannot wholly divest themselves thereof Besides in disputes among themselves whether the Pope be above a Council very many of the most Learned of them do argue and agree that as the Head or Superior of the Inquisition is not Superior to the whole Congregation of the Inquisition being assembled nor do they admit that the rest of the Body hath no power over the Head especially being such a Head as the Body it self hath constituted They argue the like also from the examples of Kings and Kingdoms of which I shall make this use only that if these be good instances among themselves to prove a Council to be above the Pope it will hold also in minor collective Ecclesiastical Bodies Thus do they abuse all places of Scripture by wresting them from their proper meaning and intendment The Popes claims first modest then Impudent as I have hitherto shewed and therefore the Readers may do well to bear in their memories the Cautions and Observations laid down in the Paraenesis forementioned The pretensions of the Popes were at first modest as I have shewed you in Gregory in respect of that height of Impudence they have now arrived unto They claimed only precedency or Primacy not Supremacy but now their Judgments are Infallible their Jurisdiction Infinite their Empire boundless fetching in and Monopolizing all Churches and Kingdoms All Bishops but their Curates All Kings and Emperors but their Vassals for of the Pope was meant Gens regnum quod non servierit tibi eradicabitur and this Bellarmine Baronius and others of the same Leaven plead for not out of the Decretal Epistles or Constantine's Donations but out of Scripture The first and best Bishops of Rome thought more of their Martyrdom than of an Universal Monarchy expounding Scripture with contentedness according to the natural sence of the Text without racking or torturing it unto wrong ends and purposes But their Successors lost by degrees first conscience then Learning and now at last all Grace and Modesty This their Babel as it now stands was not built in a day but as the itching desires of this or that proud and haughty Pope of enlarging their Fringes and Phylacteries did increase so their claims and pretentions increased therewith At first they claimed a Primacy of Order or at most of Honor not of power among their Brethren only not over them And these contestations were with Bishops not yet with Emperors they medled yet only with the Keyes not with the Swords owning all their power to be meerly and purely Spiritual for the benefit of Souls nothing at all directly or indirectly temporal But when once they had put a Padlock on the Scriptures and Preached Ignorance up to be the Mother of Devotion then the Mystery of Iniquity became quickly advanced to that monstrous height which at this day we see but cannot remedy And the better to set out this Pageant not only some scraps and shadows of old Fathers and Councils but the Scripture it self our Lord Christ and St. Peter are brought upon the Stage and rackt and tortured to do obeysance unto this Monster of Iniquity whereas we may safely swear that there is not one word or Syllable of the Pope or his Power in all the Scripture Old or New but what is due to all Bishops in Common with him save only as he is described