giuen to Kings and none sorteth better with the intent end of their office which is as Aristotle admonisheth king Alexander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul expresseth it in good English Hee is the Minister of God for thy good Tu regem patremque geras tu consule cunctis You haue heard how the Lord that is annoynted honoureth the Lords annoynted with Supremacie in his Iurisdiction with Maiestie in his Stile and Titles It is our dueties to wish him good lucke with his Honour Peace be within his Wals plenteousnesse within his Palaces for my Brethren Companions sake I will wish him prosperitie yea because of the house of the Lord J will pray for his good Now let vs see the last passage what interest the Apostles and their successors haue in this matter of Supremacie and Titles of Maiestie Our Sauiour takes it from them Positiuely Vos autem non sic You that are Apostles shall haue no such power Our Masters of the Church of Rome drawes it to them crookedly whether will ye beleeue him that was indifferent and without respect of persons or these that are partiall him in the trueth or these in their pride the Sonne of God or the Brethren of the Conclaue Amongst many differences that be betweene them this may be reckoned for one That we beleeue the Sauiour of mankinde vpon his word Jpse dixit is sufficient But the other must attend for no further credit from vs then they can winne by the euidence of their proofes And these are either Blasphemous or Triuiall They now say that wee must conceiue a secret implyed Oath in our Baptisme to yeelde obedience to the Pope A proofe full of horrible blasphemie true Christians will detest to sweare into the Popes wordes and to ioyne him in their Baptisme as a Consort with the three Persons of the holy and vndiuided Trinitie Hearest thou not this O Christ at the right hand of God How the Aduersaries for their owne greatnesse would euacuate and violate thy holy Baptisme The other proofes Feede my sheepe and Vnto thee will I giue the keyes for I reade no more in the writhen Diuine are ouerworne triuiall proofes vnbeseeming the cause which is now made one of the principall Articles of Faith as if none could be faithfull vnlesse he beleeue in the Pope vnfitting the person that alleageth them from whom the world did looke for Oracles and behold nothing but that which euery triobolour Papist can tel As to the former Paul in his farewell tould the Elders of Ephesus that The holy Ghost had made them ouerseers to feed the Church of God Wherein I note two things First the Office of Elders did consist in feeding Secondly that the Church of God which they must feede is of equipollent and of as large compasse as the sheepe of CHRIST Therefore if there bee any force in the words of our Sauiour vnto Peter for feeding his sheepe because they are indefinite There must needs bee the same in these of Paul to the Priests of Ephesus because they are equiualent And so euerie inferior Minister should hould a kinde of Soueraignetie in their places which peraduenture our Aduersaries may intend though it bee not expressed for they conceale many things till opportunitie serue But if the Pope by feeding of Christs sheepe may exercise authoritie ouer Kings be well assured that his inferior Ministers which haue the same power of feeding may and will practise the like vpon you that are Subiects Is it possible that any Subiects should bee in better Condition then their Soueraigne Doe not deceiue your selues my good Brethren friends the seruant is no better then his Master That which is good in the head of the Church against the heads of Kingdomes will alwayes be of validitie in the Members of the Church against the Subiects of kingdomes Therefore beware of them beloued They that dare attempt against the Maiestie and Persons of Kingdomes will much sooner attempt against your lands and liues goods Nothing shall be left vnviolable nothing remaine free in any part of the Common-wealth all must bee at the pleasure and mercie of the Pope his Priests You see how he is not content to sheare but will skin his sheepe so as no man hath cause to be sorie that hee is not of his fould Now looke vpon his Keyes if they bee as powerfull as the feeding of sheepe The keyes of the kingdome of heauen is a perspicuous exposition of the Gospel teaching men what way they may goe to Heauen and how to be saued This Key was not cōmitted to Peter alone but vnto all the rest of the Apostles Hoc dictum Tibi dabo Claves regni Coelorum caeteris quoque commune est Et quae sequuntur velut ad Petrum dicta sunt omnium cōmunia This sentence of Christ Vnto thee will I giue the keyes of the kingdome of Heauen is spoken to the other Apostles too and the wordes that follow which seeme to bee deliuered vnto Peter are common to all the rest Then if wee maruaile that they which are designed to the charge of expounding of the Gospel and opening Heauen vndertake other things by the power of their keyes as Kingdomes and Gouernments of the Earth wee doe it not without the warrant of Scripture Heere is a Patterne that our Sauiour leaueth to his Apostles in my Text Soueraignetie is interdicted and a Ministerie is enioyned them Bernard writ to as great a Pope as Paul the fift Quid vos alienos fines invaditis What doe you meane to enter vpon other mens rights Disce tibi Sarculo opus esse nō Sceptro vt opus Prophetae facias Vnderstand that an Hooke to weede withall is fitter for you then a Scepter to doe the office of a Prophet Esto vt quacunque alia ratione hoc tibi vendices non tamen Apostolico iure By what other right soeuer you can challenge this thing it is certaine you may not doe it by any right deriued from the Apostles Nec illud tibi dare Petrus potuit quod non habuit For that which Peter had not himself he could neuer conuey to the Pope And so hee concludeth I ergo tu tibi vsurpare aude aut dominans Apostolatum aut Apostolicus dominatum Goe too then vsurpe if you dare either a Lord-like Apostleship or an Apostolicall Lordship Planè ab alterutro prohiberis You are cleerely forbidden the one of the two Si vtrumque similiter habere voles vtrumque perdes If you will needes haue them both together you must needes loose them both Well then are not the Keyes sometimes a Cognisance of absolute Authoritie yes verily but that is Dauids Keye not Peters I but CHRIST had that keye too It is true but he did not communicate it to Peter or to any of the Apostles This saith he that hath the keye of Dauid then he had it he hath it still hee
will haue it euer hee will neuer resigne it to any of his Apostles Hee sent them but as his Father sent him into the World that was without any Royaltie or Kingly power But after his Resurrection he saith All power is giuen mee both in Heauen and in Earth and addeth Go therefore vnto his Apostle By that power which was giuen him both in Heauen in Earth he sheweth that hee hath authoritie to send forth his Apostles so he addeth rightly Goe ye therfore But how shall they goe Suerly not with that fulnesse of Power ouer Heauen Earth which hee mentioned instantly before and then was the fittest time to haue giuen it But Goe teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to obserue all things that J haue commaunded you This is their Charter their Commission their Letters Patents and it containeth all the notes and markes of the Church Those things bee within their charge the preaching of the Gospell the administration of the Sacraments the setling not of any one modell but of that discipline that may bring men to the obedience obseruation of CHRIST his Commaundements For planting or transplanting of kingdomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no Title in all their Commission Bellarmine makes much adoe about the translation of the Romane Empire from the Greekes to Charlemaine by the B. of Rome and pleaseth himselfe with coniecture more then his Iudicious Reader with soliditie of reason The verie trueth of that storie is that Charles the great had it not by the authoritie of the Pope but by Conquest and Transaction with Nicephorus the Greeke Emperor when he could hold it no longer But allow the Cardinall that which he cannot proue that Charles obtained the Empire by the Popes authoritie then he may call to minde That the restitution of the Romane Monarchie must be done by Antichrist as it is in the 13. Chap. of the Reuelation But Bellarmine tells vs that the B. of Rome effected the restitution of the Romane Empire therefore Bellarmine makes the Bishop of Rome to be Antichrist which I will not confute You haue heard how CHRIST his Censure doth deiect the Pope from his vsurped Monarchie Vos autem non sic You that be Ministers of the Gospel may not raigne like Kings And some of our Brethren alleage the same words also to dispossesse the Reuerend Bishops of this Church from their Superioritie But they set CHRISTS wordes vpon the tentar-hookes and stretch them too farre His meaning is not to make an equalitie amongst the Ministers but to set a difference betweene Kings the Ministers of the Word that none should inuade the right of Princes vnder the pretence of their Ministerie As for Aequalitie when one aduised Lycurgus to establish it amongst the Lacedaemonians whereby the least meanest might beare like sway and rule with the greatest The wise man answered that he which calleth for that should begin it first at home in his owne house And if all men be carefull to exclude Paritie out of their priuate families if men experienced in Policie and Gouernement will not admit it into the Common-wealth because that cannot bee preserued with equalitie but by authoritie and rule Why are not men as sensible of the House of God as of their own houses why should Aequalitie that is found intollerable in other Societies be obtruded to the Church Because distinctions and inequalitie of Pastors cannot bee proued by Scripture That is not so There were diuers Pastors vnder the Law so I thinke I may call the Priests but they were not equall for there was one High Priest as it were a Transcendent aboue them all But his eminencie was to expresse the Soueraignetie of IESVS CHRIST But then there were Captaines of euerie family of the Leuites and that proues an inequalitie Last of all there were two ioyned with the high Priest which are called Rulers in the House of God in the first Paralip Chap. 24. Vers 5. In the New Testament there was distinction and inequalitie betweene the Apostles themselues or else Paul would neuer haue called Peter Iames Iohn cheife pillars of the Apostles There was distinction inequalitie betweene the twelue Apostles the seuentie Disciples Paulus Appellat seipsum Architectum Wee reade of many Pastors at Ephesus Act. 20. in the Reuelat. John writeth To the Angel of the Church of Ephesus which euicteth necessarily that there was one greater then the rest Par in partem non habet Imperium One equall hath no power ouer another But Paul gaue Timothy authoritie ouer Pastors Therefore he intended ordained an inequalitie no paritie amongst the Pastors of the Church The reasōs of those that call for equalitie in the Ministers of the Church are not made to build vp and they are too weake to pull doune Zeale is good a sweet thing it is to vow your hearts vnto God but euery Sacrifice must be seasoned with Salt least yee goe about to reform the Church with one hand to subuert the state with the other Abraham sayes grauely vnto Lot Let there be no Contentions betweene mee and thee for wee are Brethren That is one reason And it is both good pleasant for Brethren to dwell together Againe The Chananite the Peryzite are yet in the land that is another motiue In which case who knows not that the aduersaries of our doctrin wil sooner be ouercom with vnited thē distracted forces And so we that fight the Lords battels cannot dis-joyne our selues without preuarication bootie Away then with all singularitie and admiring our owne opinions know ye not that it is the Seminary of inward Contention The spirit of the Prophets must be subiect vnto the Prophets Let vs haue but one heart one way that we may fill the Lords House with Garlands of victories that wee may beat our Aduersaries from humane merits and bring them to the diuine mercies from Free-will and the possibilities of Nature to the Grace of God from Traditions to the written Word from Eleuation Adoration Circumgestation Transubstantiation of the Sacrament to the Commemoration of Christs death a sweet fruition thereof by Faith from their Hierarchy visible Monarchy to the Headship of our Lord IESVS CHRIST from superstition to the true worship of God Oh how glorious are these holy triumphes how instantly doe they call vpon vs to combine our selues together that the Conuersion Offering vp of the Papists may be acceptable and sanctified And thus much for Concord to my Brethren of the Ministerie I would not dismiss you of the Laity after this long discourse of contention without som short exhortatiō to peace The very name of Peace is a sweete word but the worke is sweeter I cannot alwayes speak of it but that which I cannot speake of alwayes you
that hee should rule and defend the Kingdome and the people of the Lorde and aboue all things the holy Church And when the Popes eyes were fixed vpon the Bishopricks of England to bring them all spirituall promotions to his owne donation his Holinesse receiued admonition from the same Conqueror that hee should goe against the most auncient Lawes of his kingdome if he did admit or acknowledge the power of any forreiner as the Pope was A.D. 1088 So William Rufus sonne to the Conqueror did strictly forbid Anselm Archbishop of Canterburie and charged all other Bishops to haue no respect to Rome or to the Pope saying J cannot endure any equall in my kingdome so long as J liue A.D. 1114 Henry the first by his Atturney did forbid Anselm returning from Rome to enter his land vnlesse he would faithfully promise to keep all the customs both of William the Conqueror his Father and of William Rufus his brother A.D. 1164 Henrie the second made all the Bishops c. sweare in a generall assembly at Cloredon that these liberties of the Crown amongst which one was That no Archbishop Bishop or any other person should goe out of the Realme without the King his leaue Another did direct Appeales That if any were made they should come from the Archdeacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and if the Archbishop fayled in doing Justice it shall bee lawfull at the last to come vnto the King that by his commaundement the matter may bee ended in the Archbishop his Court So that no person shall presume to appeale further without the King his consent And hee writ letters to all his Shiriffes Lieutenants in England in this manner I commaund you that if any Cleargie man or Lay man in your Countie appeale to the Court of Rome you attach him hold him fast-ward till Our pleasure bee known Henrie the third when it was propounded in Parliament whether one borne before Matrimonie may inherit in like maner as they that are born after And the Bishops intreating the temporall Lords to consent to the affirmatiue because the Canons Decrees of the Church of Rome are so all the Earles and Barons answered with one voyce That they would not haue the Lawes of England changed and so the statute passed with the Lords temporall against the orders of Rome The same King writeth in this wise to the Bishops seuerally to euerie one in his Diocesse Henry the third by the Grace of God to the Reuerend in Christ B. of N. Whereas Wee haue heretofore written vnto you once twise thrise as well by Our priuie Seales as also by Our Letters Patents that you should not exact or collect for the Popes behalfe anie tallage or other helpe of Our Subiectes either of the Cleargie or of the Layetie for that no such tallage or helpe either can or is vsed to bee exacted in Our Realme without the great preiudice of Our Princely dignitie which Wee neither can nor will suffer or sustaine Yet you contemning and vilipending Our Commaundement and contrarie to the Prouision made in Our last Councell at London graunted agreed vpon by Our Prelates Earles and Barons haue that notwithstanding proceeded in collecting the same your taxes and tallages Whereupon Wee doe greatly maruaile are moued especially seeing you are not ashamed to doe contrarie to your owne Decrees whereas you and other Prelates in the said Councell in this did all agree and graunt that no such exactions should bee heereafter vntill the returne of Our and your ambassadors frō the Court of Rome sent thither purposely of Vs and in the name of the whole Realme for the same to prouide for redresse against these oppressions Wherefore Wee straightly will and commaund you that from henceforth you doe not proceede any more in collecting exacting such tallages or helpes as you will enioy Our fauour and such possessions of yours as within this Our kingdome you haue and hold And if you haue alreadie procured or gathered any such thing yet that you suffer it not to bee transported out of Our Realme but cause it to bee kept in safe custody till the return of the said Ambassadors vnder the paine of Our displeasure in doing of the contrarie and also of prouoking Vs to extend Our hand vpon your possessions further thē you will thinke or beleeue Moreouer willing charging you that you participate make knowen this Our Inhibition with your Archdeacōs Officials which We here haue set forth for the liberties of the Cleargie and of the people as knoweth God c. A.D. 1212 When King John had refused the disordered election of Stephen Langton to the Archbishopricke and See of Canterburie Jnnocent the third forced the King to resigne his kingdome and to take it of him againe the said Pope at the yearely rent of 1000. Markes But the Barons the Bishops were so much displeased therewith that in plaine contempt of the Popes keyes curses they did choose them another King and chased King Iohn the Popes fermor in dispite of all his new Landlord could doe A.D. 1291 King Edward the first made a Statute at Carlile that the Pope should exercise no Iurisdiction in England and in his time one bringing an excommunication from Rome against a Subiect of England and the same being brought by complaint before the King and his Councell the fact was adiudged high Treason the offendor had suffred death but by the mediation of the Chauncellor Treasurer the King was content with his banishment Edward the second would not suffer the Peter-penie to bee collected otherwise then had been accustomed A.D. 1360 Edward the third reuiued the Statute of Premunire made by Edward the first Pope Gregorie the eleuenth writ to him that this Law might bee abrogated but preuailed not Shortly after this time Richard fitz Ralfe liued was made Archbishop of Armagh a holy learned man as appeareth by his labours and disputations against the begging Friers A.D. 1413 Henry the fourth made a Law that no Popes Collector thenceforth should leuie any money within the Realme for first fruites of any Ecclesiasticall liuing vnder pain of incurring the Statute of Prouisions or Premunire An. 5. Henr. 5. Act. 17. It was enacted in a Parliament That the Church all estates should enioy all their liberties which were not repealed or repealeable by the common Law meaning the excluding of the Popes forreine power which hath alwayes beene excluded by the common Law A.D. 1428 As King Henry the sixt with Duke Humfrey Lord Protector the rest of the Councell were in the Dukes house in the Parish of S. Bennets by Pauls Wharfe one Richard Candray Procurator in the Kings name behalfe did protest denounce by this publike instrument That whereas the king and all his Progenitors Kings before him of this Realme of England haue beene heretofore possessed time out of minde with speciall priuiledge custom vsed and