us and the Sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross vanquish both the Devil Death and Hell to the end that as many as believed in him might not perish but have life everlasting And therefore knowing Faith to be the Means of so unspeakable a Benefit he vouchsafed not only to be our Priest but our heavenly Prophet labouring by Preaching and Miracles to beget Faith in the Hearts of his Hearers that Satan being expel'd thence he himself with his Father might abide and make their Mansion in them To the performance of which most admirable work how our Saviour Christ being equal with his Father became a Servant for our sakes as it was the will of God whereunto of his own accord he conform'd himself and what a poor Estate he held whilst he was upon the Earth how he was born in Poverty lived in Poverty and died in Poverty how maliciously and scornfully he was oftentimes entreated how as when he spake the truth his Enemies said he blasphemed So when he cast out Devils they told him that he cast them out by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils how in the whole course of his Life he was so far from being a temporal King or having possession of any Regal State as he had not so much as an House of his own to rest his head in but was glad to lodge now with one man and then with another as the Occasions and Times served and how in the end he was content to satisfie the Malice of his Enemies by submitting himself for our sakes unto the Death of the Cross it were a needless labour for us to pursue the Evangelists have so plainly set down all these particulars and many more besides to that purpose Likewise it shall be sufficient for us sparingly to recount how our Saviour Christ was not only content to preach and work Miracles himself for the conversion o◠those that heard him but did to the same end as well before his Passion as after authorize likewise his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples to preach and work strange Miracles and furthermore ordain a Succession of the Ministry for the encreasing of this his Kingdom unto the end of the World himself never forsaking his Church and Ministers but still assisting them in that their spiritual Charge which he had committed unto them For although that he himself by his Death and Passion hath vanquished Satan and ruleth in the Hearts of the Faithful yet by reason of our Infirmities and Weakness of Faith and through the Malice of the Devil who never ceaseth like a roaring Lyon to seek whom he may devour this spiritual Kingdom of Christ is but now begun in us and upheld in us by the most merciful hand of our Saviour Christ through the operation of the Holy Ghost and by the labour of the Ministry But in the end through the Virtue of Christ's Passion shall be brought to pass that which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be unto God who hath given us victory thrô our Lord Jesus Christ And again Death Hell and the Devil shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone In the mean while and during the time of this our Pilgrimage we are for the continuance of Christ's dwelling in our Hearts to follow the Counsel and Direction of the Holy Ghost That in no sort we give any place to the Devil but that we resist him with all the force we are able for in so doing he will fly from us And for our better Resistance that we might be able to stand against the Assaults of Satan we have a notable and compleat armour appointed us by the said Holy Spirit which is agreeable to the Nature of the Enemies we have to fight with For saith the holy Apostle we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers and against worldly governors the princes of darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses which are in the high places And thus we have a brief and short Idea of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ Whereof when the Apostles after they were replenished with the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost had full understanding and notice they never dreamed for ought that appeareth to the contrary in the Scriptures of any Worldly preheminence or Principalities who should sit here and who should sit there but contented themselves with the same estate and condition of life that their Master had led before them remembring how he had described the same unto them when he first sent them to preach amongst the Jews Behold saith he unto them I send you as sheep in the midst of Wolves Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and will scourge you in the Synagogues And ye shall be brought to the Governours and Kings for my sake in witness to them and the Gentiles And ye shall be hated of all Men for my sake When they persecute you in this City flee into another the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more them of his Houshold Whosoever will be a perfect Disciple shall be as his Master Verily Verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament and the World shall rejoice The time shall come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service And as Christ did thus foretel them so it came to pass For no sooner did they begin to Preach the Gospel after the Ascension of Christ but they were whipped scourged cast into Prison bound with Chains and most cruelly entreated St. Paul doth testify somewhat hereof when writing in the name both of himself and of the rest of the Apostles and Ministers he saith thus In all things we approve our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in prisons in tumults in labours by watchings by fastings by long sufferings by dishonour by evil report as Deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet known as dying and behold we live Besides that which he speaketh of his own particular condition doth argue the estate and condition of his Fellows though one would have thought that little more could have been added to the barbarous Cruelty last mentioned to have been Executed upon them For comparing himself and his pains with certain false Brethren that were crept into the Church amongst the Apostles and sought for their own commendation to impair the credit of this our Apostle he writeth in this manner They are Ministers of Christ I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in Prison more plenteously Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one I was thrice beaten
of his said Chamber and brought thither again the Vessels of the House of God with the Meat-offerings and Incense CAN. XXIX IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Almighty God kept not his promise to the Iews made in his name by the Prophet Jeremy as touching their deliverance by Cyrus out of their Captivity because they were not restor'd to any such perfect liberty and Government as they had before or that the said Kings of Persia continuing still by God's appointment a supream Authority over the Jews so restor'd might by them for any cause or under any colour have been defrauded of their Tributes or resisted by force of Arms or otherwise impeach'd either in their States or Persons or that Zorobabel and Nehemiah were not lawful Princes over the Jews because they were placed in that Government without the Peoples Election or that they the said Princes by dealing in Cases Ecclesiastical as is aforesaid did take more upon them than by God's appointment appertain'd to their charge or that the Priests both high and low had not grievously sinned if they had not submitted themselves in the said Ecclesiastical Causes to the direction of those their civil Governours he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXX THE High-Priest as before we have said in that mild and temperate Government which God himself had Ordained was the second Person in the Kingdom Whereupon the same after the Captivity being turn'd as it were into a Dukedom and for ought that appeareth the Princes after Nehemiah's time growing poor by reason of their payments to those Kings to whom they were Tributary and receiving small assistance or countenance from them because they were still jealous of them whereas the Priests it seemeth being freed from all-Tributes and Impositions grew rich and were no way suspected it came to pass the sins of the people so requiring that the High-Priest did easily oversway both their Princes and their People and thereby attained very great Authority in that Principality Only they stood in awe for the time of the Kings of Persia to whose Obedience they were bound by an Oath when they were made High-Priests but otherwise for ought we find they had no great regard of any other Authority which so advanced the dignity of the Priesthood as afterward the practices of the High-Priest's Children to succeed their Father in that high dignity grew as troublesome to the People as was their servitude to the Persians For Jesus the younger Brother of John the second High-Priest after Eliasib mentioned by Nehemiah procured by corruption the favour of the chief Governour of the Persians in those Countries adjoining for his assistance to deprive his Brother that he himself might enjoy the High-Priesthood whereof his elder Brother having some notice did kill him in the Temple which the said Governour took in so evil part as he spoiled the said Temple being as he said profaned with Blood and laid an exceeding great Tribute in that respect upon the People to indure for seven Years But John the High-Priest continued in his place After whose Death his two Sons Jaddus and Manasses fell at great variance the younger to make himself strong against his elder Brother Married contrary to the Law of God with a Daughter of Sanballat another Chief Ruler in Samaria under the King of Persia For which offence Jaddus notwithstanding the Authority of Sanballat remov'd him from the dignity of Priesthood and thereupon he the said Manasses procured by Sanballat's means a Temple to be built in Mount Garizin near Samaria in form and magnificence like to that in Hierusalem where he flourished and whither all the lewd persons of Judah had daily recourse Upon which occasion much trouble arose afterwards betwixt the Samaritans and the Jews The said Jaddus lived till the Monarchy of the Grecians began who when Alexander having overthrown Darius the King of the Persians sent unto him that he should assist him in his Wars and become Tributary to the Macedonians as he had been to the Persians return'd for his Answer that he might not yield thereunto because he had taken an Oath for his true Allegiance to Darius which he might not lawfully violate whilst Darius lived being by flight escaped when his Army was discomfited We have here cited and shall hereafter cite some things out of the Books of the Maccabees and other ancient Historiographers of purpose to continue the manner of the Government of the Jews in what case they stood from time to time after the days of Nehemiah not meaning thereby to attribute any Canonical Authority unto them nor to establish any point of Doctrine out of them but only to proportion and measure the regiment and actions of that people by the rules and analogy of the holy Scriptures CAN. XXX IF any Man therefore shall affirm contrary to the grounds and truths of the said holy Scriptures either that albeit Kings of Persia had authorized some succeeding Princes as they did Zorobabel and Nehemiah and whether they did so or no is not certain yet the High Priests might afterward have lawfully born the sway that they did and not been subject unto them as their Predecessors had been to Zorobabel and Nehemiah or that if Nehemiah continued alive in that Government till Jaddus's time as it is probable he did he might not lawfully being authorized as before though he were old have reform'd any abuse in the Priests both high and low or that they were not bound in Conscience to have obey'd him therein or that the Jews might lawfully have rebelled for any cause against the Persians during their Government over them or that Jaddus the High-Priest did amiss in binding his Allegiance to King Darius by an Oath or that he had not sinned if he had refused being thereunto required so to have sworn or that having so sworn he might lawfully have born Arms himself against Darius or have sollicited others whether Aliens or Jews thereunto he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXI ALexander by God's Providence having vanquished the Persians the Jews amongst many other Nations became his Subjects He dealt favourably with them released them of some Payments granted them liberty to live according to their own Laws and left their Government in every point as he found it their Duties ordinary Tributes and some of their Royal Prerogatives always reserved to the Macedonians as they had been before to the Persians but this their tolerable Estate endured not long For upon Alexander's death his chief Captains conspiring together made such a scambling Division of the Empire amongst themselves as they could every one almost notwithstanding seeking how he might suppress the rest and attain the whole alone to himself So as thereupon the Jews were as free from the Macedonians as any other of their bordering Neighbours none of the said Captains having any lawful Interest or Title to Judah But that which turned to the benefit of some
others brought a great detriment for want of Ability unto them for one of the said Captains having gotten to himself a very strong Kingdom in Syria and another of them in Egypt the Jews dweling betwixt them both were miserably on every side vexed by them Sometimes the Egyptians by Oppression and Force brought them under their Subjection and imposed great Tributes upon them and sometimes the Syrians growing mightier than the Egyptians did likewise very greatly afflict them especially in the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes whose Invasion and Government was most unjust and Tyrannical He shed innocent Blood on every side of the Sanctuary spoiled the Temple erecting in it the Abomination of the Gentiles and caused it to be named the Temple of Jupiter Olympius The Books of the Law by his Commandment were cut in pieces and burnt and they with whom they were found were put to death A general Commandment was by him published that they should offer no more Sacrifices nor circumcise their Children nor execute any other parts of their own Law in the Service of God but wholly to conform themselves therein to the manner of the Gentiles Whereupon the People by heaps forsook the Lord and offered Sacrifices to Idols and such as refused so to do chusing rather to obey God than Man were most cruelly slain and murthered by thousands until Mattathias moved with the monstrous Cruelty and Tyranny of the said Antiochus made open Resistance the Government of that Tyrant being not then either generally received by submission or setled by continuance It is not pertinent to our purpose to intermeddle with sundry Questions which might here arise Only we observe that Mattathias undertook that charge that he commended the same afterwards to his Sons and that it continued in them and their Posterity until both they and their whole Countrey were vanquished by the Romans CAN. XXXI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Jews generally both Priests and People were not the Subjects of Alexander after his Authority was setled amongst them as they had been before the Subjects of the Kings of Babylon and Persia or that they might lawfully have born Arms against him or that they were not all bound to pray for the long life and prosperity both of Alexander and his Empire as they had been bound before to pray for the life and prosperity of the other said Kings and their Kingdoms whilst they lived under their subjection or consequently that they might lawfully upon any occasion whatsoever have offered violence and destruction either to their Persons or to their Kingdoms for the long continuance and prosperity whereof they were bound to pray or that after the Jews were delivered from their servitude under the Kings of Syria and the Government over them was settled in Mattathias's Posterity it was lawful for the People upon any occasion to have rebelled against them or to have offered violence to their persons He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXII THE afflictions which the Jews endured whilst the Government of the Grecians lasted were much the more grievous unto them by reason of the great disorders which were then amongst their Priests For whereas they should have been a stay and a comfort unto them in their greater miseries their negligence one way and their ambition another way in striving about the High Priesthood did so distract them into parts taking as that thereby great effusion of blood did oftentimes ensue shortly after Jaddus's time this was the general report which for their Wickedness was given out of them The Priests were now no more diligent about the Altar but despised the Temple and regarded not the Sacrifices They did not set by the honour of their Fathers but liked of the glory of the Gentiles most of all The Temple was full of dissoluteness and gluttony of the Gentiles which dallied with Harlots and had to do with Women within the circuit of holy places and brought in such things as were not lawful The Altar also was full of such things as were abominable and forbidden by the Law and two or three of the High Priests applauded thereunto Simon the High-Priest leaving three Sons behind him Onias Jason and Menelaus was not long dead but Jason for three hundred and sixty Talents of Silver procured such assistance of Antiochus King of Syria as he thrust his elder Brother Onias out of the High-Priesthood and not long after had the same measure repay'd unto him again by his younger Brother Menelaus who upon some cunning information and for six hundred and sixty Talents got the place himself Whereupon Jason assembled Forces drove Menelaus into a Castle slew the Citizens without Mercy and in the end being repulsed died abroad as an exile Menelaus afterward caused his Eldest Brother Onias to be Murder'd because he blamed him for stealing certain Vessels of Gold out of the Temple Next Menelaus succeeded Alcimus whereas Onias the Son of Onias before-mentioned should in right have had that dignity Of all which four Persons eminent in their time these things are left for Records unto Posterity Jason to get Antiochus's good will for the High-Priesthood promised him besides his great Bribe to set up a School of Gentilism likewise to build a Brothel-House by the Temple and that the People of Hierusalem should be named Antiochians after the Kings Name He drew his Kinsmen to the Custom of the Gentiles and sent to Tyrus three hundred Drachms of Silver for a Sacrifice to Hercules Menelaus also took the like course or rather a worse for besides that he conform'd himself wholly in effect to the manners of the Grecians it is further thus written of him Antiochus went into the most holy Temple having Menelaus that Traytor to the Laws and to his own Country to be his Guide He thrust himself into the Kings Army against Judas Maccabaeus and the City of Hierusalem hoping thereupon to have attain'd that Government But Lysias the King's Lieutenant crossed his purpose therein and inform'd the King that he the said Menelaus had been the cause of all the mischiefs which had ensued the Wars with the Jews as being the Man who perswaded his Father Antiochus Epiphanes to compel them to forsake the Laws of their Fathers adding thereunto that whilst Menelaus lived the Jews would never be quiet Whereupon the King commanding him to be put to Death he was smother'd in Ashes because he had committed many sins by the Altar whose fire and ashes were holy Alcimus the High-Priest next succeeding was no sooner in his place but he took upon him to be the Captain of all the ungodly Men of Israel and solicited King Demetrius to make War against Judas Maccabaeus complaining that he had killed all the King's Friends The King thus instigated sent an Army against Hierusalem with one Bacchides and Alcimus who pretending that they came in Peace and being thereupon trusted
sort to be distinguished as God himself is not divided although the three Persons in Trinity are rightly held to be indeed distinguished and yet all the said actions and proprieties of the two Natures of Christ distinguished as we have expressed they are are notwithstanding very truly to be affirm'd of his sacred Person The reason whereof hath been before touched and it is this because seeing that both the Natures are joined together in the Person of the Son by an Hypostatical and consequently a true and essential Union so as Christ is thereby both true God in regard of his Divine Nature and true Man in respect of his humane Nature Whatsoever is the Propriety of the Divine Nature and of the humane Nature the same is wholly and altogether in Christ and is necessarily therefore to be affirmed of him both essentially and properly In respect whereof we say that Christ was dead and that he could not die that he is both finite and infinite eternal and temporal in every place and yet circumscribed in one place For of necessity whatsoever are the Properties of the humane Nature the same are truly and properly to be affirmed de vero homine and whatsoever are the Proprieties of the Divine Nature the same are likewise to be affirmed de vero Deo Christ being out of all Controversie amongst the Children of God verus homo verus Deus And thus we have after a sort both briefly and truly set down the Force and Efficacy of the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures of Christ being distinguished but no ways confounded as the same together with the true Doctrine of all other necessary Articles concerning the Blessed Trinity doth by the Scriptures most truly expounded in the Creeds above-mentioned many ways very notably appear To this purpose much more might have here been added by us if our Course considered we had thought it necessary Only we have thought it fit furthermore to profess and make it thereby known to all Men that there are some other Creeds made by other Councils and particular Bishops like to Athanasius and other worthy Persons as Irenaeus's Creed Tertullian's Creed as we may so term it Damasus's Creed the Creed ascribed to St. Ambrose and to St. Augustine Te Deum laudamus c. the Creed of the first Council of Toledo St. Jerome's Creed the Creed ascribed to Leo which was approved by the Council of Chalcedon and the Creed of the sixth Council of Constantinople against the Monothelites holding that in Christ both God and Man there was but One Will all of them tending to the setting forth the Orthodoxal and true Doctrine of One God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity not confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance and of One Christ true God and true Man not confounding his Natures nor dividing his Person Which Creeds we do receive embrace and reverence in such sorts as they have been received embraced and reverenced hitherto by all the particular Churches of the Christian World in as much as they agree both with the Scriptures with the Apostles Creed with the four Creeds mentioned of the four first general Councils and with the Athanasian Creed which contain in them that Faith which was then and so still ought to be accounted the true Catholick Faith nothing in effect being contained in all the Creeds before by us specified which may not be deduced by necessary consequence out of the said Athanasian Creed and the Conclusion of which Creed is in these words expressed This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe faithfully he cannot be saved To which Conclusion that in sense is very consonant wherewith Damasus doth end his Creed in these words Read these things believe them retain them to this Faith submit thy Soul and thou shalt obtain Life and Reward from Christ In which Creeds containing the Catholick Faith in those days or in any of the rest we have thought it good here to remember that there is not any one Article to warrant or prove those new Articles which were coined long after the making of any of the said Creeds by the Bishops of Rome and are added to the Nicene Creed by Pius IV. in the professing of the Roman Faith especially that New Article of the Pope's Supremacy which is still so stifly maintained and urged upon many under pain of the loss of their Souls viz. that it is altogether necessary for them if they will be saved to be obedient to the Bishop of Rome Which New Article being but an extravagant Conclusion made by a very strange Man and built upon as strange Collections out of the Scriptures We leave it for a novelty unto all the Articles of the ancient Catholick Faith and will now address our selves to prosecute the same course and points in the New Testament which we held in the Old CAP. II. IT is a certain rule in Divinity that Grace doth not destroy Nature The Doctrine of the Seed of the Woman that was foretold should break the Serpents head did not abolish the Moral Law The Ceremonies in the Old Testament which shadowed and signified the mercies of God in Christ had no power to extinguish the Laws first imprinted in mens hearts and afterward ingraven in Tables of stone by the Finger of God The Prophets foretelling the coming of Christ and the merits of his Passion did likewise reprove all sins and offences committed against the Ten Commandments Christ testifieth of himself that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fullfil them By his Death he hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law but not from the obedience of it And St. Paul saith that the Apostles did not make the Law of none effect through Faith but they did thereby establish the Law For that Faith doth only apprehend Christ truly to Salvation which worketh by Charity that is which purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and bringeth forth by the Spirit Obedience to the Precepts and Laws of God It hath been shewed by us at large in the former Book that although the Son of God having made the World did by his mighty Power and divine Providence retain as it were in his own hands the general Rule and Government of it yet for a more visible benefit and comfort to Mankind he did divide and distribute the same into divers Countries Principalities and Kingdoms and ordaining civil Magistracy did not only appoint Soveraign Princes and Kings as his Deputies and Lieutenants upon Earth to rule and govern under him such Countries and Kingdoms as he had allotted unto them but did likewise tie Mankind by one of the Moral Laws ingraven in their hearts that they should honour them serve them and be obedient unto them Which particular Commandment was no more abolished by the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ than were all the rest Nay it was in truth of such force and publick note as that our
hence as having all other Kings and Princes here in the World as Vassals in that respect and subject unto it He doth greatly Erre CAP. IV. The sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ in working our Salvation whilst he lived upon the Earth conformed himself wholly and his obedience unto the Ecclesiastical Government and Laws of the Church then in force inveighed not with any bitterness against the High-Priests though they were his Enemies and in many points faulty but had ever a great respect of them in regard of their Authority made no new Laws when he expounded the old erected no particular Congregations or Churches apart from the Congregations and particular Churches of the Jews but did together with his Apostles and Disciples join with the Church of the Jews in their publick worship and service of God omitting no one circumstance Ceremony or duty undertaken voluntarily by him which he did not very throughly perform even with the loss of his Life AS our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World did no way disturb the civil state but upon every fit occasion did submit himself unto it So may it be truly said of him concerning the State Ecclesiastical formerly by God himself established and remaining still among the Jews though in a very corrupt manner that he did in every thing thereunto by the Law of God appertaining conform himself unto it while it lasted I say while it lasted because upon his Death there was a great alteration According to the Ecclesiastical Laws then whilst he lived in force he was first Circumcised and so made himself subject to the fullfilling of the whole Law Then as the Law did likewise require he was brought by his Mother to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and to have an Oblation suitable to their poor Estate of a pair of Turtle-Doves or two Pigeons offered to God with the price of Redemption for him in that he was a Manchild and the first-born There were no kind of solemn Feasts appointed by the Law which he honoured not with his presence according to the Law Nay he was pleased to be present at the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple which was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus and his Brethren as well to teach all Posterity by his Example what godly Magistrates may ordain in such kind of Causes as also how things so ordain'd ought to be observed And as he was Circumcised so did he celebrate and observe the chief Feasts of the Passover omitting nothing which either on the behalf of the Jews or for our sakes he had undertaken to perform And although the Priests in those days were very far out of square and that our Saviour Christ had very just cause in that respect to have reprov'd them sharply as other Prophets had often dealt with their Predecessors yet he did so much regard them by reason of their Authority unless he should otherwise have seem'd to have contemned both them and it as he did rather choose to let them understand their offences by Parables than by any rough reprehension still upholding them in their credits and authority as by the Law of God in that behalf it was provided When amongst many other his wonderful great Miracles he had healed certain Lepers he bad them go show themselves to their Priests because they were appointed Judges by the Law to discern the curing of that Disease before the Parties though indeed healed of it might intermingle themselves with the rest of the People and did further require them to offer for their cleansing those things which Moses had commanded in testimonium illis that is that so the said Priests might plainly see both that he was a Keeper of the Law and also that he had healed them and so be driven to repent them of their incredulity or at the least prevented thereby from slandering either him as a Breaker of the Law or that which he had done for them as if he had not throughly healed them Neither is it any way repugnant hereunto that when our Saviour Christ found chopping and changing by buying and selling in the Temple he made a Scourge of small Cords and drave them thence with the Sheep Oxen Doves and Money-Bags forbidding them to make his Fathers House an House of Merchandise For he did not thereby in any sort prejudice the Authority of the Priests who should chiefly have prevented such gross abuses and traffick in the Temple as if he had done the same either as a chief Priest or a Temporal King according to some Mens fond imaginations by any Pontifical or Regal Authority but his fact therein howsoever it might shew the negligence of the said Priests did only proceed from his Divine Zeal as he was a Prophet and could not endure such an abominable profanation of God's House many Prophets before him having done matters very lawfully of greater moment through the like divine and extraordinary Zeal in them without any impeachment of any Power either Regal or Pontifical Howbeit that our Saviour Christ was oftentimes very vehement against the Scribes and Pharisees it is plain and manifest when joining them both together he termed them serpents the Generation of Vipers and denounceth against them in one Chapter eight Woes concluding thus How should you escape the damnation of Hell The reason that these Curses and hard censures were jointly laid upon them was because they themselves were joined together in all kinds of Impiety and Malice against Christ and were neither of them especially the Pharisees any Plants of God's Plantation For whilst not only the High-Priests were still in Faction and Fury one against another as well for the getting as the keeping that high preferment and that many of the inferiour Priests were either siding amongst themselves for one Party or other or else more idle and negligent in discharging of their duties than they ought to have been these two Sects thrust themselves into the Church and through their Hypocrisy so prevail'd with the People in short time as the Priests afterward either could not or would not be rid of them because on the one side they thought it in vain to strive with them they were so backed and on the other side they found them so diligent in discharging of those duties which did appertain to themselves and withal so careful to uphold the state and authority of the Priesthood By means whereof they grew very shortly into so great estimation that as one writeth of the Pharisees whatsoever did appertain to publick and solemn Prayers and to the worship of God it was done according to their interpretations and as they prescribed And the Scribes being likewise Doctors and Expounders of the Law and concurring still with the interpretations and prescriptions of the Pharisees came not by that policy in their credits and reputation had of them far short behind them The distinction between them may
well be exprest by comparing the Pharisees unto the Divines amongst our Adversaries who take upon them to search out more throughly the mysteries of the Scriptures and the Scribes to their Canonists who in respect of their said Divines are but Novices in God's word and Applauders to the Pope's Decrees as the Scribes were being compar'd to the Pharisees in that they held it for a principal part of their office to uphold and maintain as much as they could the Traditions of the Pharisees and did only take upon them to deal with the bark and literal sense of Moses's Law leaving the more profound knowledge and mystical Interpretation of them unto the said Pharisees But the Issue of the labours of both these Hypocritical Sects was such as being blinded with their own devices they became to be the speciallest Enemies that Christ found upon the Earth and opposed themselves most against him And yet notwithstanding because he found them in so great Authority and perceived how the knowledge of the Law which ought to have been received from the lips of the Priests did then depend upon the lips of the Scribes and Pharisees he did neither blame them for it nor impugn the said Authority Insomuch as the multitude being many ways factious and though very ignorant were become great Questionists touching the Points of the Law he referred them with a very good Caution to the Scribes and Pharisees to be instructed by them saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe and do that observe and do but after their works do not for they say and do not Whereby it appeareth how respectful our Saviour Christ was for the free passage and observation of Moses's Law in that he was content that the Scribes and Pharisees notwithstanding he knew their Hypocrisie and Corruption and how they had come by that Authority which they then enjoyed should yet instruct the People under them so as the People did beware of their wicked Conversation and approved no resolutions that they might receive from them which were not first proved unto them out of the Laws of Moses and were fit to proceed from his Seat Touching which last point of Moses's Law and how nothing ought to have been taught out of Moses's Seat but that which Moses by the direction of the Holy Ghost had prescribed for as much as our Saviour Christ did well see and understand how the Scribes and Pharisees had by their false Interpretations and Glosses perverted and corrupted the true sense and meaning of divers of Moses's Laws he was greatly moved therewith and did take great pains to refute the said false glosses and interpretations and to restore to the Laws mention'd their true sense and original meaning Wherein although by his strict Exposition of those Laws he might seem to some not well advis'd to have so extended and enlarged the meaning of them as if he had thereby prescribed some new points or laws of greater perfection than were originally contain'd in the true meaning of the old yet we cannot find how either the said points may otherwise be termed new than as Gold first purified and fined after it hath either in time grown rusty or been by false mixtures cunningly corrupted may be called new gold when it is again purged from the said false mixtures and refin'd Or how the observation of them can bring with it to Men any greater perfection in the New Testament than God himself did expect of his Servants in the Old Testament by their observing of the said Laws so expounded by Christ in their ancient sense and meaning which they first had when by his appointment Moses did give them unto them For if in proper Speech he had made any new Laws coming only to fullfil the old as himself in a true sense affirmed the Jews might have had some good colour to have blamed him in that during the continuance of their Ecclesiastical Government if any new Laws had been then to have been made touching the worship of God the Authority in that behalf was limited by God himself unto their own Church-Governours Again considering that the Son of God in taking our nature upon him did so make himself of no reputation as being of his own goodness towards Mankind a Servant to his Father he became to do his will obedient unto the death even the death of the Cross It cannot well be imagined by any that have any true understanding of the Scriptures that the Son of God having so debased himself as is aforesaid did ever think in that his so admirable humiliation of any Rules or new Laws of greater perfection than he had before required and prescribed unto his true Servants and Children as he was God in Majesty and Glory without any such Exinanition as the Apostle speaketh of The obedience and duty which Almighty God ever did or ever will require of his Servants was and is always to proceed as well from their hearts as from any other external actions Insomuch as if it fell out as it may at sometimes that they cannot perform their said duties in respect of some impediments that will hold them from Christ In that Case be it riches they are to leave them their Eyes their Hands or their Feet they are to cut them off Nay be it their Blood their Hearts and Lives they are rather than to forsake their God and his Christ to yield them all in this World with what ignominy soever to the end they may receive them again with glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Than which great obedience and perfection what can be imagin'd greater Or who is there in the World that truly professeth Religion who in that Case is exempted from it Certainly we think none of what Estate and Condition soever they be but do rather hold that as they who shall yield up their Lives under pretence of any extraordinary perfection saving in the Case above-expressed are far from that which they make shew of but are rather to be accounted desperate so are they in our Judgments to be reckoned Men of very extraordinary humours and most ignorant Persons if not such counterfeit Hypocrites as were the Scribes and Pharisees in professing extraordinary austerity of Life that they might be the better esteem'd amongst Men who shall without any necessity either pull out their Eyes or cut off their Feet and Hands or forsake their Riches and Worldly Estates as blessings of God not compatible but repugnant to that perfection which God doth require at any Man's hands It is not our purpose to prosecute all those particulars mention'd in the Evangelists wherein our Saviour Christ shew'd his Obedience there being in effect nothing that he did which was not either figur'd in the Law or foretold by the Prophets that he should perform The time of his Incarnation with the manner of it his Entertainment in the World his diligence in Preaching his whipping blows and
Death of Christ to repair to their Priests and Sanhedrims if either they meant to be truly instructed in the Laws or to have such manner of Offences lawfully punished by those kind of Censures that Christ in the said place speaketh of But what should we insist so much upon this point to prove that all the Jews that either believed in Christ or did reject him were bound before the Passion of our Saviour Christ to be obedient to the Ecclesiastical Governours established by God himself in that visible Church considering how careful our Saviour Christ was upon every occasion offered for the preservation of their Authority whilst it was to endure and with what Humility he did submit himself unto it For being sent for by them he was content at that time to go unto them and to be examined by them when he had found them many ways before to be his mortal Enemies and knew how at that present they were plotting to take away his Life by corrupting of Judas to betray him into their hands and by suborning of false Witnesses to accuse him as also how after they had examined him they would use him most despitefully and scornfully spit in his Face and buffet him beat him with Rods carry him bound as a Malefactour and deliver him to Pilate the Civil Magistrate Likewise how they themselves would be his Accusers how they would practise with the People to prefer Barabbas's liberty being a Murtherer before his and to cry out with them to Pilate Let him be crucified Let him be crucified Crucify him Crucify him their Outrage and Fury being so bent against him as that they themselves would have put him to death if by the Laws of the Romans whereunto they were then subject they might have been permitted so to have done CAN. III. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived upon the Earth was not obedient to the State Ecclesiastical as he was to the Temporal or that all Christians by his Example are not bound to be as well obedient to their Church-Governours as they are to their civil Magistrates or that Christian Kings have not now as full Authority to appoint some Festival Days of publick thanksgiving to God in remembrance of some great and extraordinary mercies of his shew'd unto them upon those days as Judas Maccabaeus had to ordain the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple to be yearly celebrated or that where any such Festival Days are appointed the Subjects of every such King ought not by Christ's Example in celebrating the said Feast to observe and keep them or that all the true Members of the Church are not taught by Christ's Example in his observing of the Ceremonial Law being then in force that they likewise are bound to observe all such Constitutions and Ceremonies as for Order and Decency are with all due Cautions established in any particular Church by the chief Governours of it until it shall please them the said Governours to abrogate them or that all Christians are not bound by Christ's Example to refrain all bitterness of Calumniation and Detraction and to deal temperately and mildly with their Ecclesiastical Governours in respect of their Authority that it be not brought into contempt though they find some imperfections either in their Persons or in their Proceedings as he our said blessed Saviour in the same respect dealt with the Priests of the Jews though they had many ways transgressed and were his mortal Enemies or that Christ by whipping Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple did either impeach the Authority of the Priests or practise therein any Pontifical or Temporal Power as if he had been a temporal King or did the same by any other Authority than as he was a Prophet or that Christians are not now as strongly bound in doubts of Religion to repair unto the chief Ministers and Ecclesiastical Governours although they are not always tied to do as they do as were the Jews in such like Cases bound to repair to them that sate in Moses's Seat or that every true Christian when for the said Cause he repaireth to the chief Ministers and Governours of the Church to be resolv'd by them is any further now bound to depend upon such their Resolutions than they are able to shew them unto him out of the Word of God or than the Jews were bound to believe the Scribes and Pharisees though they sat in Moses's Chair when they taught them any thing which was not agreeable to that which Moses had commanded or that Christ's Example in condemning the false Interpretations and Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and in restoring to the Law the true sense and original meaning of it hath not ever since warranted learned and godly Men when they found the Scriptures perverted by those that govern the Church of purpose to make their own gain thereof and to maintain their great Vsurpations to free the same by searching the said Scriptures from all such false Interpretations and Glosses and to make plain as much as in them did lie the true sense and meaning of them or that our Saviour Christ when he purged divers parts of the Law from the gross and erroneous Expositions of the Scribes and Pharisees did give any other sense and meaning of them or infer upon it any new Rules of greater perfection either as he was Man or as he was a Prophet than they had and contained originally when he first gave them to the Israelites as he was God or that it is not an erroneous and fond conceit like unto that of the Sectaries among the Jews especially of the Pharisees for any sort of Persons no way able to perform their duties to God in such manner and sort as they ought once so much as to imagine that by the observation of their own rules they are able to attain to greater perfection than by the observation of God's rules or that it is not as vain and fond an imagination as the former for any Christian Man to think that the enjoying of such Possessions and Riches as God hath blessed him with is repugnant to that perfection which God hath required at his hands or that the same are otherwise incompatible with the said perfection than in such cases only when either they must leave their Worldly Estates or Christ their Saviour or that our Saviour Christ by laying of some grounds for the future estate of the Church after his Passion did thereby erect any new Churches apart from that Church which was to continue until his Death or that the Example of Christ and his Apostles in holding Society and Communion with the Jews in the outward worship and service of God doth not condemn all such Sectaries as do separate themselves from the Churches of Christ whereof they were once Members the same being true Churches by lawful Authority established under pretence of they
Shadows Sacrifices and whatsoever else was typical in the true Worship of God and Priesthood of Aaron were truly fulfilled and had their several Accomplishments according to the Natures of them Yet we are further to understand that as from the beginning there was a Church so there was ever a Ministry the Essential parts of whose Office howsoever otherwise it was burdened with Ceremonies did consist in these three Duties viz. 1. Preaching of the Word 2. Administration of Sacraments and 3. Authority of Ecclesiastical Government and that none of all the said Figures Shadows and Sacrifices or any other Ceremony of the Levitical Law had any such relation to any of the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry as if either they the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry had only been ordain'd for their continuance until the coming of Christ or that the accomplishment or fulfilling of the said Ceremonies had in any sort prejudiced or impeached the Continuance of them or any of them So as the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry were in no sort abolished by the Death of Christ but only translated from the Priesthood under the Law to the Ministry of the New Testament Where in the judgment of all Learned Men opposite in divers points one to another they do or ought for ever to remain to the same End and Purpose for the which they were first ordain'd Now concerning the two first Essential Parts of this our Ministry or Priesthood of the New Testament there are no Difficulties worthy the insisting upon how they are to be used Only the third Essential Part of it as touching the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment is very much controverted and diversly expounded extended and applied For some Men relying upon one Extremity do affirm That it was in the Apostles time radically inherent only in St. Peter and so by a certain consequence afterwards in his supposed Vicar the Bishop of Rome to be derived from St. Peter first to the rest of the Apostles and other Ministers while he lived and then after his Death in a fit proportion to all Bishops Pastors and Ministers to the end of the World from the Bishops of Rome and that St. Peter during his time and every one of his Vicars the Bishops of Rome successively then did and still do occupy and enjoy the like Power and Authority over all the Churches in the World that Aaron had in the Church established amongst the Jews There are also another sort of Persons that run as far to another extremity and do challenge the said Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Regiment to appertain to a new Form of Church-Government by Presbyteries to be placed in every particular Parish Which Presbyteries as divers of them say are so many compleat and perfect Churches no one of them having any dependency upon any other Church So as the Pastor in every such Presbytery representing after a sort Aaron the High Priest there would be by this project if it were admitted as many Aarons in every Christian Kingdom as there are particular Parishes And the Authors of both these so different and extream conceits are all of them most resolute and peremptory that they are able to deduce and prove them out of the Form of Church-Government which was established by God himself in the Old Testament Howbeit notwithstanding all their vaunts and shews of Learning by perverting the Scriptures Councils and ancient Fathers the Mean betwixt both the said extreams is the truth and to be embraced viz. That the administration of the said Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment under Christian Kings and supream Magistrates doth especially belong by the Institution of Christ and of his Apostles unto Arch-Bishops and Bishops This Mean bearing the true Pourtraicture and infallible Lineaments of God's own Ordinance above-mentioned and containing in it divers Degrees of Priests agreeable to the very order and light of Nature some superiour to rule and some inferiour to be ruled as in all other Societies and civil States it hath been ever accustomed So as we are bold to say and are able to justify it That as our Saviour Christ as he is God had formerly ordain'd in his National Church amongst the Jews Priests and Levites of an inferiour Order to teach them in every City and Synagogue and over them Priests of a superiour degree termed Principes Sacerdotum and lastly above them all one Aaron with Moses to rule and direct them So he no ways purposing by his Passion more to abrogate or prejudice this Form of Church-Government ordain'd by himself than he did thereby the temporal Government of Kings and Sovereign Princes did by the direction of the Holy Ghost and Ministry of his Apostles ordain in the New Testament that there should be in every National Church some Ministers of an inferiour degree to instruct his People in every particular Parochial Church or Congregation and over them Bishops of a superiour degree to have a care and inspection over many such Parochial Churches or Congregations for the better ordering as well of the Ministers as of the People within the limits of their Jurisdiction And lastly above them all Archbishops and in some especial places Patriarchs who were first themselves with the advice of some other Bishops and when Kings and Sovereign Princes became Christians then with their especial aid and assistance to oversee and direct for the better Peace and Government of every such National Church all the Bishops and the rest of the particular Churches therein established And for some proof hereof We will conclude this Chapter with the testimony of one of no mean account and desert Who when Archbishops and Bishops did most obstinately oppose themselves as being the Pope's Vassals to the Reformation of the Church was the principal Deviser of the said Presbyteries though not in such a manner as some have since with too much bitterness urged whereof out of all Question he would never have dream'd if the said Bishops had not been so obstinate as they were for the maintenance of such Idolatry and Superstition as were no longer to be tolerated That every Province had amongst their Bishops one Archbishop that also in the Nicene Council Patriarchs were appointed who were in Order and Degree above Archbishops that did appertain to the preservation of Discipline And a little after speaking of the said Form of Government so framed although he shewed some dislike of the word Hierarchia yet saith he Si omisso Vocabulo rem intueamur reperiemus Veteres Episcopos non aliam regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ quam Dominus verbo suo praescripsit CAN. V. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ was not the Head of the Church from the beginning of it or that all the particular Churches in the World are otherwise to be termed One Church than as he himself is the Head of
it and as all the particular Kingdoms in the World are called but one Kingdom as he is the Only King and Monarch of it or that our Saviour Christ hath not appointed under him several Ecclesiastical Governours to rule and direct the said particular Churches as he hath appointed several Kings and Sovereign Princes to rule and govern their several Kingdoms or that by his Death he did not abolish the Ceremonial Law and the Levitical Priesthood so far forth as it was Typical and had the Execution of the said Ceremonial Law annexed unto it or that he did any more abrogate by his Death Passion Resurrection and Ascension the Power and Authority of Church-Government than either he did the other two Essential parts of the said Priesthood or Ministry or the Power and Authority of Kings and Sovereign Princes or that he did more appoint any one chief Bishop to rule all the particular Churches which should be planted throughout all Kingdoms than he did appoint any one King to rule and govern all the particular Kingdoms in the World or that it was more reasonable or necessary as hereafter it shall be further shewed to have one Bishop to govern all the Churches in the World than it was to have one King to govern all the Kingdoms in the World or that it was more necessary or convenient to have every Parish with their Presbyteries absolute Churches independent upon any but Christ himself than that every such Parish should be an absolute Temporal Kingdom independent of any Earthly King or Sovereign Magistrate or that the Government of every National Church under Christian Kings and Sovereign Princes by Archbishops and Bishops is not more suitable and correspondent to the Government of the National Church of the Jews under their Soveraign Princes and Kings than is either the Government of one over all the Churches of the World or the setling of the Form of that National Church-Government in every particular Church He doth greatly Erre CAP. VII The Sum of the Chapter following That the Form of Church-Government which was ordained by Christ in the New Testament did consist upon divers degrees of Ministers one above another Apostles in Preeminence and Authority superiour to the Evangelists and the Evangelists superiour to Pastors and Doctours And that the Apostles knowing themselves to be mortal did in their own Days by the Direction of the Holy Ghost as the numbers of Christians grew establish the said form of Government in other Persons appointing several Ministers in sundry Cities and over them Bishops as also over such Bishops certain worthy Persons such as Titus was who were afterward termed Arch-Bishops to whom they did commit so much of their Apostolical Authority as they held then necessary and was to be continued for the Government of the Church WE had in our former Book the Scriptures at large containing the Histories and Doctrine both of the Law and the Gospel after the manner that was then prescribed from the time of the Creation until the days of the Prophet Malachy that is for above 3500. years Whereupon we did ground the particular Points by us therein handled concerning the Government as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal And for the Supply of the other years following till the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ we observed some things to the same purpose out of the Apocryphal Books second to the Scriptures and to be preferr'd before all other Writers of those times But now forasmuch as the New Testament is but in effect a more ample Declaration the Old shewing withal how the same was most throughly fulfilled by our Saviour Christ without the impeachment of any kind of Government by himself ordain'd as before we have exprest and because the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles do only contain the Acts and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ and his Apostles with the Form and Use both of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government during the time whilst they lived here upon the Earth St. John who lived the longest of them all dying about sixty six Years after Christ's Passion although the Holy Ghost did judge the said Books and Writings sufficient for the Church and all that profess Christianity to teach and direct them in those things which should appertain either to their Temporal or Ecclesiastical Government or should be necessary unto their Salvation Yet for the said Reasons we were induced for the upholding of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government in the New Testament to insist so much as we have done upon the Precedents and Platforms of both those kinds of Governments established in the Old Testament albeit we want no sufficient Testimonies in the New to ratify and confirm as well the one as the other First therefore we do verily think That if our Saviour Christ or his Apostles had meant to have erected in the Churches amongst the Gentiles any other Form of Ecclesiastical Government than God himself had set up amongst the Jew they would have done it assuredly in very solemn manner that all the World might have taken publick notice of it considering with what Majesty and Authority the said Form was erected at God's Commandment by his Servant Moses But in that they well knew how the Form of the Old Ecclesiastical Government in substance was still to continue and to be in time establish'd in every National Kingdom and Soveraign Principality amongst Christians as soon as they should become for number sufficient Bodies and ample Churches to receive the same as before the like opportunity it was not established amongst the Israelites they did in the mean while and as the time did serve them attempt the erecting of it in such sort and by such fit and convenient Degrees as by the direction of the Holy Ghost they held it most expedient without intermission till such time as the work was in effect accomplished It hath been before touched how our Saviour Christ here upon Earth did not only chuse to himself for the business he had in hand twelve Apostles who were then design'd in time to come to be the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all Christians with some Resemblance as it hath been ever held of the twelve Sons of Jacob who had been in their days the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all the Israelites But likewise he took unto him over and besides his said Apostles 70 or as some read 72 Disciples to be in the same manner his Assistants in imitation of Moses when he chose 70. Elders to be helpers unto him for the better Government of the People committed to his charge None of these either Apostles or Disciples had then any other Duties committed to them but only of Preaching and Baptizing for the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment they might not then intermeddle with because it did appertain to the Priests and Courts of the Jews But afterward that want and some other defects in them were throughly supplied when our Saviour Christ upon his Resurrection and a little