might then lawfully command and do what they list In the separation of the Priesthood from the Regal Principality the same having been formerly in one Person they were then so by God distinguished as in some things appertaining to the Office of Kings no Priest as he was a Priest had any Authority to intermeddle as in some other things appertaining to the Office of Priests no King as he was a King might lawfully be an Actor both of them having their bounds and limits appointed unto them by God which without Sin they might not exceed And therefore as we greatly blame the High-Priest Vriah for obeying the wicked Command of King Ahaz in building by his direction an Altar in the Temple according to the Form of One that was in Damascus so do we greatly commend the godly Zeal of Azariah the High-Priest and of Eighty other Priests that were with him in withstanding as far as lawfully they might Vzziah King of Judah when in the Pride of his Heart he went into the Temple of the Lord and would have burnt Incense upon the Altar of Incense which none might lawfully do but Priests But it is to be observed that they did not withstand the King by force or Armies but told him that it did not appertain unto him but to the Priests to burn incense unto the Lord and therefore urged him to go forth of the Sanctuary Howbeit the King being angry with them for the same persisted as it appeareth in his former purpose and having Incense in his hand would have burnt it upon the Altar if God himself had not struck him in the Forehead with a Leprosie wherewith being terrified as also with a great Earthquake then happening as some learned Men have written from Amos 1. 1. he was constrained not only to desist from that rashness and to depart hastily out of the Sanctuary but likewise as a Leper to dwell in a house apart according to the Law and Jotham his Son as Viceroy ruled his Father's house and judged the People of the Land Vzziah himself during his life remaining King CAN. XXII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Uriah the High priest was bound to have built the said Altar because King Ahaz did command him or that Azariah and the other Priests did amiss in reproving King Uzziah so plainly or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the King's Person either in hindering him from burning of Incense or in thrusting him out of the Temple or in compelling him to dwell apart in a house as he did though he was a Leper if he had not of himself yielded to the observation of the law in that behalf or that he was deprived of his Kingdom either by the said stroke of God or by his dwelling in a house apart or that any thing which the Priests then did might have been a lawful Warrant to any Priest afterward in the Old Testament either to have deposed by sentence any of their Kings from their Kingdoms for the like offences or to have used Arms or repressed such their unlawful attempts by forcible ways though they had imagined the same might have tended to the preservation of Religion or that either before that time or afterward any Priest did resist by force of Arms or depose any of the Kings either of Israel or of Judah from their Kingdoms though the Kings of Israel all of them and fourteen of the Kings of Judah were open and plain Idolaters he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIII WE have shewed before that King Solomon did lawfully depose Abiathar from the Priesthood and placed Zadok in his room but that any Priests in the Old Testament as likewise we have before declared did ever depose from their Crowns any of their Kings how wicked soever or had any Authority so to do it can never be proved Howbeit one Example of Jehoiada the High-Priest is fit to be considered After the Death of Ahaziah King of Judah his Mother Athaliah finding his Children to be very young killed them all but the youngest and reigned by Usurpation six Years over the Land The said youngest Child whose Name was Joash was secretly conveyed away by his Aunt Jehoshabeth his Father's Sister and the Wife of Jehoiada the High-Priest who kept him so secretly in the Temple as that Athaliah the Usurper could never hear of him Now after the said six Years that Joash the true and natural Heir apparent to the Crown had been so brought up he the said Jehoiada being the King's Uncle and the chief Head or Prince of his Tribe sent through Judah for the Levites and chief Fathers both of Judah and of Benjamin to come unto him to Hierusalem who accordingly repairing thither and being made acquainted by him with the Preservation of their Prince as is aforesaid and that it was the Lord's Will that he should reign over them they altogether by a Covenant acknowledged their Allegiance unto him as unto their lawful King and so disposed of things as presently after he was crowned and anointed which dutiful Office of Subjects being performed they apprehended the Usurper Athaliah and slew her as before it was by the said States resolved In all the process of which Action nothing was done either by Jehoiada the High-Priest or by the rest of the Princes and People of Judah and Benjamin which God himself did not require at their hands Joash their late King's Son being then their only natural Lord and Sovereign although Athaliah kept him for six years from the Possession of his Kingdom CAN. XXIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Athaliah did well in murthering her Son's Children or that Jehoiada and his Wife did amiss in preserving the Life of their King Joash or that Athaliah was not a Tyrannical Vsurper the right Heir of that Kingdom being alive or that it was neither lawful for Jehoiada and the rest of the Princes Levites and People to have yielded their subjection unto their lawful King nor having so done and their King being in Possession of his Crown to have joyned together for the overthrowing of Athaliah the Vsurper or that Jehoiada the High-Priest was not bound as he was a Priest both to inform the Princes and People of the Lord's Promise that Joash should reign over them and likewise to anoint him or that this fact either of the Princes Priests or People was to be held for a lawful warrant for any afterward either Princes Priests or People to have deposed any of the Kings of Judah who by right of Succession came to their Crowns or to have killed them for any respect whatsoever and to have set another in their places according to their own choice or that either this Example of Jehoiada or any thing else in the Old Testament did give then unto the High-Priest any Authority to dispute determine or judge whether the Children of the Kings of Judah should
either be kept from the Crown because their Fathers were Idolaters or being in possession of it should be deposed from it in that respect or in any other respect whatsoever he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIV ALmighty God foreseeing what Defects there would be sometimes in Kings and civil Magistrates and sometimes not only in the inferiour Priests but likewise in the High-Priests themselves did still as occasion required and for the benefit of his Church raise up and send unto them his Prophets Men indued by his holy Spirit with extraordinary Authority Knowledge Zeal and Courage who neither fear'd King nor Priest but told them plainly of their faults denounced the Judgments of God against them for their Sins and executed without respect of Persons such other parts of their duties as God himself immediately gave them in Charge Notwithstanding the Priests stood much upon their Authority and bragged that the Law should not perish from them flattering themselves and the people with lying words as appeareth by the peoples Speeches taught most likely by them The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord This is the Temple of the Lord yet the Prophets told them plainly That they erred that they were covetous receivers of Gifts and false Dealers that they had polluted the Temple of God that the Law should perish from them that God himself had found their wickedness in his own House that Hierusalem should be destroy'd and that they themselves should be carried into Captivity In respect of which their faithful bold and plain dealing according to God's Commandment and particular directions the Priests were for the most part greatly moved and incensed against them Pashur the High-Priest struck the Prophet Jeremy upon the Face and afterward cast him into Prison also his Death was conspir'd amongst the Priests and the rest from time to time were little better treated by them It is true that there were in those times very many false Prophets who pretending that they likewise were sent from God did greatly trouble that Church and State but their falshood and lewdness ought neither to have prejudiced the good Priests nor the true Prophets CAN. XXIV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Priests in the Old Testament from the highest to the lowest were not bound to have obey'd the directions which God himself delivered unto them by his Prophets notwithstanding that now and then some of them were of the Tribe of Levi and consequently in other Causes were subject unto them or that the Examples of the true Prophets were any lawful Warrant either for any false Prophets or for any other person or persons whatsoever to have railed libelled threatned or denounc'd the Iudgments of God against any of the said Priests according to their own malicious humours God himself having never given them any such Warrant or foreknowledge to pronounce of such particular Iudgments to come or that because the High-Priest and the rest of the Priests did amiss in the malicious prosecution of God's true Prophets they might not therefore lawfully take order for the punishment of false Prophets he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXV IT is apparent likewise in the Scriptures that as the godly Prophets in the Old Testament dealt with the Priests so did they in like manner deal with their Kings although otherwise they were their Subjects and owed them as much duty as any other Nathan the Prophet by God's particular direction spared not King David to tell him of his offences No more did Abijah Jeroboam nor Elias King Ahab they denounced God's Judgments boldly against them and accordingly they came to pass Also the Lord being not bound to those Laws which he prescribeth others to observe commanded Jehu a Subject to be anointed King over Israel of purpose to punish the sins of Ahab and Jezabel and accordingly Elizeus the Prophet caused Jehu to be anointed and God's Message to be delivered unto him who presently upon the knowledge of God's will and the submission of the Princes and Captains of Israel unto him as to their lawful King did put in execution the said Message by killing Joram before that time his Soveraign but then his Subject and by destroying and rooting out the whole Posterity Sons Familiars and Priests of Ahab In like manner Samuel a Prophet but the subject of King Saul did not refuse when God directly and in express terms bad him both to tell his Master the King That the Lord had rent the Kingdom of Israel from him and to anoint King David to succeed him We say to succeed him because we think that God's purpose only was to cut off Saul's Posterity from reigning after him and not actually while he lived to deprive him of his Kingdom but principally to provide that David might succeed him Certain it is that David lied not when notwithstanding that he himself was anointed to succeed King Saul yet he call'd him his Master and the Lord 's anointed also he prayed that God would keep him from laying his hands upon King Saul for that he was the Lords anointed Likewise when one of the Captains would have slain King Saul he said destroy him not for who can lay his hands upon the Lord 's anointed and be guiltless Furthermore when the Messenger brought him news of Saul's Death Was 't thou not afraid quoth he to put forth thy hand to destroy the anointed of the Lord and commanding the said Messenger to be kill'd for his offence therein Thy blood saith David be upon thine own head for thine own mouth hath witnessed against thee saying I have slain the Lord's anointed Besides it is manifest that the Tribes of Israel accounted Saul to be their lawful King during his life And also that they construed Samuel's words to be meant only of David's Interest to succeed him after his Death and Samuel himself notwithstanding all that he had done was by God's Commandment left the success thereof to the disposition of his Heavenly Providence and afterward both honoured Saul before the People as his King and likewise continued whilst he lived a dutiful Subject unto him CAN. XXV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Prophets were to blame for dealing so sharply with Kings and Princes being their Soveraigns as though God's express Commandments had not been sufficient to have authorized them so to have dealt or that the Example of God's Prophets in this behalf were a sufficient Warrant for any false Prophets or other lewd Persons to have railed and libelled against their Kings or to have denounced such judgments against them as they in malice either desired or vainly imagined or that any Prophets Priests or other Persons having no direct and express Command from God might lawfully imitate the said facts either of Samuel or of Elizeus in anointing and designing Successors to Kings which otherwise had no
just interest title and claim to their Kingdoms or that it is lawful for any Captain or Subject high or low whosoever to bear Arms against their Sovereign or to lay violent hands upon his Sacred Person by the Example of Jehu notwithstanding that any Prophet or Priest should incite them thereunto by Vnction or any other means whatsoever except first that it might plainly appear that there are now any such Prophets sent extraordinarily from God himself with sufficient and special Authority in that behalf and that every such Captain and Subject so incited might be assured that God himself had in express Words and by Name required and commanded him so to do He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVI FUrthermore that nothing may be omitted concerning the Authority and Dignity of God's Prophets in the Old Testament the Words of the Lord to Jeremy in that behalf are with due care and diligence to be observed Behold saith the Lord I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms that thou mayst pluck up and root out and destroy and throw down and build and plant Now for as much as it doth not appear in the Scriptures that the Prophet Jeremy did at any time as a Warriour and great Emperour dispose of Nations and Kingdoms or plucked up rooted out destroyed or threw down Kings or that he built or chose or set up Kings in the places of those that he had deposed or thrown down the ancient Writers do deliver the true sense and meaning of the said words when they expound them in sort and effect as followeth I have set thee over Nations and Kingdoms that is I have imposed upon thee the Office of prophesying not only against the people and Kingdom of Judah but likewise against the Nations and Empires viz. the Ammonites the Moabites the Egyptians and the Babylonians c. That thou mayst pluck up root out destroy and throw down that is that thou mayst pronounce that wicked Nations shall be pulled or carried away out of their own Provinces and that thou mayst prophesie that they shall be destroyed or killed and dispersed in divers places or consumed That thou mayst build and plant that is that thou mayst declare that both the Jews and other Nations shall after a just and due Castigation be repaired and restored to their own proper Countries So that the Prophet Jeremy and the rest of the Prophets in like manner although they were chosen of God to denounce to wicked Persons Countries Kingdoms and Nations his deserved Judgments for their Sins yet were they neither the Workers nor the Authors of those Judgments Noah denounced the Flood but it cannot therefore be truly affirmed that Noah drowned the World Daniel denounced Nebuchadnezzar's fall but it was not Daniel that took his heart and understanding from him nor that made him to eat Grass like an Ox. Samuel denounced the Judgments of God against King Saul but Samuel did not thrust him out of his Kingdom And even so although the Prophet Jeremy denounced the Bondage of Babylon and many other Judgments of God against the said Nations yet it cannot be either truly said that Jeremy delivered the whole Kingdom of Judah into Captivity or that he overthrew or destroyed any of the rest only he prophesied as God did command him and left the Executions of such Judgments to the Times and Persons which the Lord had designed and appointed for that purpose CAN. XXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm that the Prophet Jeremy had any Authority to depose Kings from their Kingdoms for any cause whatsoever and to bestow them upon others as he thought fit or that albeit the said words were spoken by the Lord to Jeremy and that he being otherwise an inferiour Priest had no Authority literally so to cast down and set up Kings yet the High-priests Men of greater Power and Dignity might then have used Kings in that manner and sort according to their Deserts the benefit and preservation of the Church so requiring or that any of the High priests as deriving their Authority either from the said words spoken to Jeremy or from any thing else that is written in the Scriptures either might or ever did take upon them to give this Neighbour Kingdom to one Man and that remoter Kingdom to another Man or to depose any of their own Kings either of Judah or of Israel from their Kingdoms though many of them as elsewhere we have said were exceeding great Idolaters and sundry ways stained with lamentable blots he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVII THE History of Jehu before-mention'd doth put us in mind what is written of Ahud one of the Judges of Israel We have elsewhere shew'd that from Joshua's Death to the time of Saul God himself when his People were opprest by their bordering Neighbours did still raise up unto them Governours and Leaders called Judges without respect either of any Tribe more one than another or of the dignity of any Person or of the Peoples pleasure choice and consent first required but simply according to his own choice and wisdom In which number the said Ahud was one the manner of whose entrance into that charge we could not our course consider'd pretermit with silence The Israelites had been eighteen years in subjection to the Moabites as they had been a little before eight years to the Aramites They knew that it was not lawful for them of themselves and by their own Authority to take Arms against the Kings whose Subjects they were though indeed they were Tyrants and therefore they cried unto the Lord for succour Who in compassion of their servitude and miseries appointed Othoniel to deliver them from the Aramites and afterward Ahud from the Moabites In the choice of which two Judges it is to be observ'd that the Scriptures do tell us that God raised them up and therefore 't is most certain he did so and also that in such raising of them to their places he made them Saviours to his People as the Scriptures speak giving them thereby Authority to save and redeem the Israelites from the Tyrants that oppressed them without both which Prerogatives it had been altogether unlawful for them to have done as they did Besides it appeareth in the Scriptures that when the Lord did thus chuse out and authorize the said Deliverers and Rulers he did not only give them by his holy Spirit full assurance of their lawful Callings but likewise did furnish them with such wisdom and courage as was necessary for them in those kinds of Services So as Ahud at whom we principally aim being thus both called and instructed from God how he should begin his Peoples deliverance from the Moabites by killing of Eglon their King he framed his course accordingly and preparing for himself a meet Weapon took a fit Opportunity and thereupon as God had directed him he wholly resting upon the Lord's assistance
with Rods. I was once stoned I suffered thrice Shipwrack Night and day have I been in the deep Sea In Journying I was often in perils of Water in perils of Robbers in perils of mine own Nation in perils amongst the Gentiles in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false Brethren In weariness and painfulness in watching often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Besides these things which are outward I am cumber'd daily and have the care of all the Churches Much is not written of St. Peter by the Evangelist St. Luke but it is not to be doubted that his Case was as bad as any of his Fellows When he began to Preach he was call'd in question with great eagerness and vehemently threatned Also with some other of the Apostles he was cast into Prison and beaten Likewise when James was killed by Herod's Commandment Peter was again Imprisoned and loaden with Irons and had assuredly in all likelyhood escaped hardly with his Life but that the Angel of the Lord delivered him In a word after many Afflictions Injuries Calamities and Miseries endured by the Apostles whilst they lived in this World they were in the end as well St. Peter as almost all the rest most spitefully and cruelly by the Enemies of Christ and of their own Salvation put to Death During the course of whose lives in so great dangers and manifold distresses out of question they would greatly have marvelled their hard Estates consider'd but especially St. Peter if he had known himself to be the sole Monarch under Christ over all the World and that the Emperour and all other Kings had been at that time his Vassals and that likewise they the rest of the Apostles had been under St. Peter so many Soveraign and Temporal Princes to have commanded and ruled amongst them throughout the whole World Neither do we see any true cause that might have moved St. Peter to have concealed that his so eminent temporal Power and Authority if he had thought it to have been the Ordinance of God or at least if he for modesty would have been silent why the rest of the Apostles should not have published it that the civil and temporal States in those times who knew no such Ordination made by Christ might have been left inexcusable Besides the concealing of a truth of so great importance was an injury offered to all the faithful in those days who had they been truly taught in these Mens conceits ought to have left their Obedience to the Emperour in all temporal Causes and for the dignity of the Gospel to have adher'd unto St. Peter to have been directed in them by him their temporal Monarch The consideration of all which inconveniences and consequents doth perswade us to think that none of the Apostles ever dreamed of any such temporal Soveraignty notwithstanding that they knew well the Scriptures how Christ told them That All Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto him how St. Peter had two Swords and how Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Ghost were stricken suddenly from Heaven with Death Touching the two first of which places the same being notoriously abused and wrested by the Canonists and their Adherents to prove the Popes temporal Monarchy the said Cardinal doth very resolutely reject the Arguments which are thence by them deduced And to the first he answereth Potestatem de quâ hic loquitur Dominus non esse potestatem temporalem ut Regnum terrenorum sed vel tantùm spiritualem ut B. Hieronymus B. Anselmus exponunt qui hunc esse volunt sensum eorum verborum Data est mihi omnis potestas in coelo in terrâ i.e. ut sicut in coelo Rex sum Angelorum ità per fidem regnem in cordibus hominum vel ut addit Theophylactus esse potestatem quandam summam in omnes creaturas non temporalem sed divinam vel divinae simillimam quae non potest communicari homini mortali That the Power whereof the Lord here speaketh is not a temporal Power like the Power of terrene Kings but it is either a spiritual Power as St. Hierom and St. Anselm do expound the said place who will have this to be the sense of those words All Power is given me in Heaven and Earth which is to say that as in Heaven I am King of Angels so by Faith I do reign in the hearts of Men or as Theophylact addeth it is a certain supream Power not temporal but divine or most like to the Divine Power which cannot be communicated to any mortal Man And for the second Argument drawn from St. Peter 's two Swords the same is set down by our said Cardinal in these words Secundò objiciunt Scripturam Luc. 22. Vbi Dominus duos gladios Petro concedit Cùm enim Discipuli dicerent Ecce duo gladii hic Dominus non ait nimis est sed satis est Quare B. Bernardus 4. 4. de Consid Bonifacius octavus in Extravag Vnam sanctam de Majoritate Obedientiâ ex hoc loco deducunt Pontisicem duos gladios ex Christi institutione habere that is Secondly they object the Scriptures Luc. 22. Where the Lord doth grant two Swords to Peter For when the Disciples said Behold here are two Swords the Lord answered not they are too many but they are sufficient Therefore St. Bernard and Boniface the eighth do hence deduce that the Bishop of Rome by Christ's Institution hath two Swords Unto which objection our Cardinal saith thus Respondeo ad Literam nullam fieri mentionem in eo loco Evangelii de gladio spirituali vel temporali Pontificis sed solum Dominum illis verbis monere voluisse Discipulos tempore Passionis suae in iis angustiis metu ipsos futuros fuisse in quibus esse solent qui tunicam vendunt ut emant gladium ut ex Theophylacto aliisque Patribus colligitur I answer that according to the Letter there is no mention made in that place of the Gospel either of the spiritual or temporal Sword of the Bishop of Rome but that Christ meant only in those words to admonish his Disciples how they should be in the time of his Passion in those straights and fear wherein Men are accustomed to be who sell their Coat to buy them a Sword as it is to be collected out of Theophylact and other Fathers And for Bernard and Boniface he saith They did expound the said place mystically and meant not to have their words so far extended as the Objector would have them Which answer it is likely Bernard if he were now alive would take in good part but assuredly if any Cardinal in Bonifacius 's days had made it he would have smarted for it and might perhaps have tried the depth of Tiber. Neither do we suppose that the now Pope will give him any great thanks for it nor
Soveraigns either for their Cruelty Heresy or Apostasie was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the ancient Fathers abovementioned during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperours before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions amongst themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Iudges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Iudges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their Award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their lawful Soveraigns from their Regal Seats and to choose unto themselves new Kings into their places or that any of the said ancient Fathers or godly learned Men for many hundred years after Christ did ever so grosly and irreligiously expound the said place of the Apostle as our Cardinaliz'd Jesuit hath done or that it can be collected out of the Scriptures that either Christ or any of his Apostles did at any time teach or preach that they who meant to be Baptized must receive that Sacrament upon Condition that if at any time afterward they should not be obedient to St. Peter for his time and to his Successors they were to lose and be deprived of all their temporal Estates and Possessions or that it can be proved either out of the Scriptures or by any of the said ancient Fathers or shewed in any ancient Form of Administration of Baptism that ever there was any such Covenant made by any such faithful Persons when they were Baptized or required of them to be made by any that Baptized them or that if such a Covenant were by Christ's Ordinance to be made in Baptism it ought not as well to be made by Farmers by Gentlemen possessed of Mannours and by Lords of greater Revenues and Possessions as by Kings and Soveraign Princes or that it were not an absurd Imagination to think that Christ and his Apostles did only mean that Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes should be received to Baptism upon the said Condition or that all Christian Men ought not to judge that the eleven Apostles if they had known of any such bargain or condition in Baptism would have dealt as faithfully with the Church and in the behalf of St. Peter in preaching and teaching the same as now our Cardinal and other such like Persons of the Roman strain do by their Writing Publishing and maintaining of it in the behalf of the Bishops of Rome or that either Christ or his Apostles knowing that Baptism ought to be received with such a Condition did think it convenient that the same should be concealed not only whilst they lived but for many hundred years afterward until the Bishops of Rome should be grown to such a head and strength as that they might without fear of any inconveniencies make the whole Christian World acquainted with it or that it is not an idle conceit for any Man to maintain that the Renunciation of the effects of Baptism doth deprive Men of their temporal Lands and Possessions which they did not hold by any force of Baptism or make them subject in that behalf to the deprivation of the Bishops of Rome or that Apostasy from Christ put on in Baptism doth any further extend it self than to the Souls of such Apostates in this Life in that the Devil hath got again the possession of them and so depriveth them in this World of all the comfort and hope they had in Christ leading them on to the bane both of their Bodies and Souls in the Life to come or that any Ecclesiastical Person hath any other lawful means to reclaim Wicked Heretical or Apostated Kings from their Impiety Heresy and Apostasy than Christ and his Apostles did ordain to be used for winning Men at the first to embrace the Gospel or that Christ himself while he lived did attempt either directly or indirectly to Depose the Emperour by whose Authority he was himself put to death as holding that the Church could not attain to her Spiritual End except he had so done or that by the death of Christ the Church did not attain to her Spiritual End without the Deposition of any Emperours or Kings from their Regal Estates or that ever the Apostles in their days either preached or writ that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth could not be perfect except St. Peter for his time and after him the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Power and Authority to Depose Emperours and Kings that the Church might attain her Spiritual End or that the Church in their days did not attain to her Spiritual End although no such Authority was then either challenged or put in practice or that the Church could have attain'd to that her Spiritual End in the Apostle's times if the said temporal Power and Authority had been then necessary for the attaining of it or that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles did propound a Spiritual End unto his Church and left no other necessary means for the obtaining of it than such as could not be put in practice either in their days or for many hundred years after or that the Churches of Christ after the Apostle's times for the space of 300. years being wonderfully oppressed with sundry Persecutions did not attain to their Spiritual End without this dream'd off Temporal Authority of Deposing Kings and Emperours then their mortal Enemies not in respect of themselves but of the Doctrine of Salvation which they taught to their Subjects or that this new Doctrine of the Necessity that the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Authority either directly or indirectly to Depose Emperours and Kings for any cause whatsoever or that else the Church of Christ should not be able to attain to her Spiritual End was ever heard of for ought that appeareth for many hundreds of years after the Apostles times either in any Ecclesiastical History or in any of the ancient Fathers by us abovementioned or that the Bishops of Rome with all their Adherents whilst they would make the World believe that the Church of Christ cannot attain her Spiritual End except they have temporal Authority indirectly to Depose for some Causes Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are more learned now than either the ancient Fathers or the Apostles themselves were and that they know the sense of the Scriptures better than either they the said ancient Fathers did or the Apostles that writ them who for ought that was known for many hundred years never preached taught or intended to have any such Doctrine collected out of their Writings and Works or that it may without great Impiety be once imagined that if such a necessary point of Doctrine concerning the said
executed that Judgment upon the said King and afterward so vanquished the Moabites and subdued them under the hand of Israel as the whole Land was at rest from the oppression of their Enemies eighty years Besides it is to be observ'd that as God's appointing by Name and Election of Moses Joshua and Saul and after that the Kingdom was held by Succession the very being of the King's Son and the true Heir Apparent after his Father's Death gave unto them all the actual Interest Right and Possession as Possession in those cases is to be expounded of their several Governments to do any act or acts as well before as after any subsequent Formalities and Ceremonies even so the said form of calling the Judges by God himself immediately made them also Judges actually and did give unto them a full and absolute Authority independent upon any but upon him that gave it them to undertake any thing that by God's direction appertain'd to their places Again there is one other Example of Jehu amongst the Kings of Israel which we have before touched like unto this of Ahud wherein it appeareth that he the said Jehu was of a Subject first made the King of Israel before it was lawful for him to have killed Joram As Ahud a Subject was first made the Judge Prince and Ruler of the People before he might have lawfully killed King Eglon. Both which Examples being but in number two throughout the Histories of all the Princes Judges and Kings either of Judah or Israel do make it known unto us That although the Lord both may and is able to overthrow any Kings or Emperours notwithstanding any claim right title or interest which they can challenge to their Countries Kingdoms or Empires yet foreseeing in his Heavenly Wisdom and Divine Providence what mischief private Men under colour of these Examples might otherwise have pretended or attempted against their Soveraigns as being either discontented of themselves or set into some fury by other Malitious Persons he did so order and dispose of all things in the Execution of these such his extraordinary Judgments as that thereby it might plainly appear to any that should not willfully hoodwink himself never to be lawful for any Person whatsoever upon pretence of any Revelation Inspiration or Commandment from his divine Majesty either to touch the Person of his Soveraign or to bear Arms against him except God should first advance the said Person from his private Estate and make him a King or an absolute Prince to succeed his late Master in his Kingdom or Principality CAN. XXVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that any godly or dutiful Subject in the Old Testament did ever by the direction of God's Spirit account this fact of Ahud to be a lawful Warrant for him to have murder'd the Kings under whose subjection he lived for any cause whatsoever though he should have had never so many motions in his heart thereunto or that the High-Priest himself or all the rest of the Priests who then lived join'd together with him could have given Authority to any Person born a Subject to have so dealt with his Soveraign though he had been never so wicked and that such his Death might have availed the Church in their Opinions never so greatly or that either the said High-Priest and all his Consistory of Priests might lawfully have encouraged any who being born Subjects should have pretended in their Zeal toward Religion never so many Illuminations Directions or Commandments from God to have laid violent hands upon their King the Lord 's anointed for their proceeding in that course or that any Person born a Subject and affirming by all the Arguments which Wit or Learning could devise that God had called him to murther the King de facto under whom he lived yea though he should have first procured himself to be proclaimed and anointed King as Adonijah did and should afterward have laid violent hands upon his Master ought therefore to have been believed of any that feared God except which is impossible he should first prove his Credit in so affirming to be equal with the Scriptures and that Men were bound as strictly to believe him in saying that God called and stirred him up to the perpetrating of that fact as we are bound to believe the Holy Ghost by whose Instinct the Scriptures were written when he telleth us that God raised up Ahud for a Saviour to his People He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVIII HItherto in the whole course of that mild and temperate Monarchical Government which it pleased God to establish among his own People the duty of Inferiour Persons and Subjects of all sorts was ever Obedience They neither took upon them to chuse their Governours nor to bear Arms against them Howbeit it happened otherwise amongst some other Nations Nimrod not contenting himself with the portion which by Noah's general direction appertained unto him could never have erected his Tyrannical Government if a number of rebellious and discontented Persons had not cleaved unto him as the factious Sichemites did to Abimelech and made him their King The Romans having Kings rebelled against them and took the Government into their own hands the execution whereof did trouble them exceedingly Sometimes they committed it to many and sometimes to fewer their two Annual Consuls pleased them long but at the last they thought it fit to have a Dictator till in the end Julius Caesar and Augustus reduced their Government again into a Monarchy And as the Romans dealt with their Kings so did the People in some other Countries with their Governours Whereupon divers other kinds of Governments termed according to their Temper Aristocratical Political Tyrannical Oligarchical or Democratical c. were afterwards setled in many places The Inconveniencies of which Forms of Government being found upon many occasions oftentimes to be very great the People have been driven of necessity in sundry Countries to frame them again as near as they could to the Monarchical Government either by electing to themselves Kings upon certain Conditions to reign over them or by appointment of Dukes or Princes to be the Managers of their chief Affairs according as they themselves should direct them Besides as the said rebellious Humours of the People declining from their Obedience did in many Countries alter that temperate and fatherly Government which Noah had prescribed unto his Off-spring and which God himself established afterward amongst his own People so did the ambitious and insatiable dispositions of sundry no less elsewhere impeach the same as by the beginning and progress of the four Monarchies it is most apparent In all which Abberrations from the said mild and temperate Government before specified Almighty God who for the Sins of any Nation or Country altereth their Governments and Governors transferreth setteth up and bestoweth Kingdoms as it seemeth best to his heavenly Wisdom did ever by his Foresight and Providence so
CAN. XXXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that during the continuance of the Old Testament the Merits of Christ's Death actually to come were not sufficient to save all true Believers or that there was then no Catholick Church or that at any time there was any other Rock but Jesus Christ the blessed Seed upon whom the Catholick Church was then built or that many of the Gentiles were not always for ought that is known to the contrary true Members of the Catholick Church or that Christ himself was not the sole Head or Monarch all that while of the whole Catholick Church or that the said Catholick Church after the Members of it were dispersed into all the places of the World was otherwise visible than per partes or that Noah did appoint any Man to be the visible Head of the said Catholick Church or that the High-Priest among the Jews had any more Authority over the Catholick Church of God than King David had over the Vniversal Kingdom of God or that the said High-Priest had not greatly sinn'd if he had taken upon him or usurped any such infinite Authority He doth greatly Erre Placet eis The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have passed with one Consent both the Convocation-Houses and so are approved R. Cant. The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have been diligently read and deliberately examin'd and thereupon have likewise passed with one Consent in the Convocation-House of the Province of York Jo. Bristol praeses Convocat Eborac LIB II. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended course through the Old Testament and until the Destruction of Jerusalem we over-slipped and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said course as we find the true Grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our entrance into which course we confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange Impediments and mighty Stumbling-blocks which through long Practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successours For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit Project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better ordered polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successours We can see no Authentical Ground nor sufficient Warrant in those Writings which ought to be the true Rule of every Christian Man's Conscience as not being there to be found for any Apostolical Priest or Bishop either to pretend that all the particular Churches in the World are under his Government or to tell the Subjects of any Christian King opposite in some points unto him That they are no longer bound to obey him their said King but until they shall be able by force of Arms or by some secret Practice to subdue him or to challenge to himself an Absolute and Universal Authority and Power over all Kings and Kingdoms in the World to bestow them in some cases under pretence of Religion when he shall think the same to be most available for the strengthning and upholding of such his pretended Universal Power and Dominion To the Proof whereof before we address our selves because the same doth much depend upon the admirable Humiliation of the Son of God in taking our Nature upon him and performing the Work of our Salvation in such a manner as he did We have thought it our Duties lest otherwise we might be mistaken either through Weakness Simplicity or Malice first briefly to observe notwithstanding our Saviour's said Humiliation the most wonderful Dignity Preheminency and Royalty of his Person It is many ways apparent that the mean Estate and Condition of our Saviour Christ here upon Earth was one especial Motive both to the Jews and Gentiles why in their carnal Judgments he was to the one sort a Scandal and to the other a Scorn as if he had been a Man out of his Wits and preached he knew not what In which respect partly not only the People of the Jews the Priests of all sorts the Scribes and Pharisees with the rest of their Hypocritical Orders but likewise the civil Governours as well Romans as Jews did utterly despise him hate him deride him beat him and put him to death Since which time sundry sorts of Hereticks have stumbled at the same stone labouring by all the means they could to impeach and dishonour the Person of Christ in regard of the mean shew of his humane Nature notwithstanding the many Arguments which they might have found in the Scriptures had not their Hearts been hardned of his Divinity On the other side we are not ignorant how the Bishop of Rome and his Adherents supposing it would too much impeach their Credits and worldly Reputations if they should be too much pressed to deduce the principal strength of their Estates and Callings from the said mean Condition of our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in this World do thereupon attribute sundry Virtues Powers and Branches of Authority unto his humane Nature which do not in Truth belong properly unto it but are rather appertaining to his Person being both God and Man as hoping thereby to get some fair Pretences and Colours for the upholding of their usurped Greatness and pretended uncontroulable Sovereignty For the avoiding therefore of these Extremities and because such as deny the Pope's Supremacy are most falsly charged by sundry passionate and inconsiderate Persons to be Men that believe no one Article of the Christian Faith We have thought it meet to make it known to all the Christian World how detestable to the Church of England all such false Doctrine is as doth any way not only impeach the Sacred Person of our Saviour
know not what new Christianity or that there ought not to be now amongst Christians Ecclesiastical Courts for Ecclesiastical Causes as well as there were such Courts amongst the Jews for such kind of Causes or that all Christians are not now bound to repair as well to Ecclesiastical Courts and Governours for reformation of such Offences as are of Ecclesiastical Counusance as the Jews were bound to repair to their Sanhedrims to have those Evils redressed that were to be reform'd by those Courts or that as many as do profess themselves to be true Imitators of Christ in their Lives and Conversation are not bound to such obedience unto their Princes and Rulers how evil-disposed soever they be yea though they seek their Lives as Christ shewed and performed both to the Ecclesiastical and Temporal State of the Iews at what time he knew they were plotting his Death He doth greatly Erre CAP. V. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not alter the form of temporal Government establisht by himself long before his Incarnation and that therefore Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes though they were then Infidels were nevertheless to be obey'd by the Subjects as formerly from the beginning they had been IT hath been before observ'd by us that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World was no temporal King nor had any temporal Dominion Court Possessions Regal State Dukes Earls Lords or any other Subjects as other temporal Kings had to obey and serve him But perhaps after his Resurrection it was for otherwise with him Indeed so it was For whereas the Son of God God himself equal to the Father by being made Man did cease to put in practice the Glory and Majesty of his Deity in his humane Nature otherwise than by doing such Miracles as he thought necessary for the Conversion of those who were to believe in him Now after his Resurrection and Ascension the state of his humane Nature was become as it may well be said much more glorious because his Divine Nature did communicate unto his Humane Nature So many divine Dignities and operations of his Deity in respect of the hypostatical Union betwixt them as the same was capable of without turning of his Divine Nature into his Humane Nature It being always to be understood that the said hypostatical and real Union notwithstanding there was never any Confusion betwixt the two Natures of Christ both of them always retaining their distinct and essential Proprieties Which ground observ'd we may truly say that the Attributes are admirable which in regard of the said Union are and may be ascribed unto our Saviour Christ as he is Man especially after his Resurrection and Ascension For some short proof hereof these following Places may suffice Before our Saviour Christ commanded his Apostles to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost he told them lest they should have doubted whether he had any Authority to make them so large a Commission that all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth He also was before as the Holy Ghost testifieth of him made Heir of all things and so had a true Interest in them and after his Resurrection had the full possession of them We see Jesus saith the Apostle crown'd with glory and honour And again When God raised up Jesus from the dead he set him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Domination and every Name that is named not in this world only but in that also which is to come and hath made all things subject under his feet And again The kingdoms of this world are our Lord's and his Christ's And again The lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings And to conclude He hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written The King of kings and Lord of lords Howbeit all that we have hitherto said notwithstanding though all the World doth actually appertain to our Saviour Christ now in Glory as he is Man in respect of the said Unition or hypostatical Union yet did he not alter after his Resurrection and Ascension the manner of temporal Government which he had ordained throughout the World before his Incarnation as he was God his humane Nature being invested by the power of his Divinity in manner before exprest with all his said Glory and Authority but doth still continue the sole Monarch over all distributing that his universal Kingdom as formerly he had done into divers Principalities and Kingdoms and appointing temporal Kings and Soveraign Princes as his Substitutes and Vicegerents to rule them all by the Rules and Laws of Nature if they be Ethnicks or if Christians then not only by those Rules but also as well by the Equity of the Judicial Laws which he gave to the Jews as by the Doctrine of the Gospel more throughly opened and delivered with all the parts of it by himself and his Apostles than in former times it had been Of Christian Kings we shall have fitter place to speak hereafter Now we will prosecute this point concerning the Regal Authority of Princes that are Infidels and consider more particularly Whether they did not and so consequently do not still as lawfully enjoy their Kingdoms and legal Soveraignties under our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension as they did before either of them and likewise as they did before his Incarnation according to that which we have delivered in the former Chapter And the especial Reason that moveth us so to do is the audacious temerity of the before-named ignorant Canonists and of their adherents the new Sectaries of the Oratory Congregation who with the like Ignorance and Folly that they told us how all Kings lost their Interest and Authority over their Kingdoms by the birth of our Saviour Christ do furthermore endeavour very wickedly and sottishly to pervert such especial places in the Apostles Writings as are most aparently repugnant to their said Fancy or rather Phrenzy To make their dealing with one place apparent is sufficient for our purpose Whereas St. Paul writing to the Romans willeth them to be subject to the higher Powers or teacheth them as a late absurd Canonist abridgeth the place Obediendum esse Principibus that Princes are to be obeyâ—d He speaketh not saith he de Ethnicis as that place is corruptly alledged sed quatenus de illis intellexit that is in such a sense as he meant it And what the Apostle meant he is not ashamed to tell us in this sort saying 1. the Apostle speaketh of the Roman Empire which Christ had approved when he bad the Jews pay Tribute to Caesar 2. the Text doth expound it self for he writeth to Christians whom he counselleth to be obedient to Princes lest they should sin for Princes are not to be feared for good works
but for evil therefore he doth not simply command Obedience to Ethnick Princes c. 3. The like manner of writing St. Paul used in exhorting Servants to honour their Lords etiam infideles though they were Infidels for the Reasons by him there mentioned 4. By those Monitions meaning the said Commandments of the Apostle concerning Obedience of Subjects to their Princes and of Servants to their Masters just Dominion is not founded in the Persons of Ethnicks nam Paulus qui hec dicit non erat summus Pontifex for Paul who said so was not the chief Bishop c. 5. Furthermore in that time of the Primitive Church the Church could not de facto punish Infidels and transfer their Kingdoms c. Thus far this audacious and unlearned Canonist the very citation of whose Words we hold sufficient to refute them although he alledgeth for himself to support them very grave Authors the Distinctions forsooth the Gloss Hostiensis Praepositus adding that some other Canonists do concur with him Only we will oppose against him and all his Fellows to shew their Follies by a proof of this Nature the Testimony of the Pope's chief Champion the only Jesuit without Comparison now a principal Cardinal who maintaineth in express Terms That Infidel Princes are true and supream Princes of their Kingdoms and writeth thus against the said Assertion of the Canonist directly saying God doth approve the Kingdoms of the Gentiles in both the Testaments Thou art King of kings and the God of Heaven hath given thee thy Kingdom and Empire c. Restore those things unto Caesar that are Caesar's Note that he saith not Give but Restore those things that are Caesar's that is those things which in right are owing unto him And Give unto all Men that which is due unto them Tribute to whom you owe Tribute and Custom to whom you owe Custom Et jubet ibidem etiam propter Conscientiam obedire Principibus Ethnicis At certè non tenemur in Conscientiâ obedire illi qui non est verus Princeps that is and we are commanded in the same place even for Conscience to obey Princes that are Ethnicks but assuredly we are not bound in Conscience to obey him who is no true lawful or right Prince Hitherto the Cardinal We would not have cited this Man's testimony thus at large were not All that he hath said therein throughly supported by all the Learned Men as we suppose of his Society and sufficient to refel the Vanity of the Canonists and their Fellows in that folly For if we should insist herein upon the Authority of Men all the ancient Fathers do fully concur with us that through the whole course of the Scriptures Obedience was and is as well prescribed in the Old Testament to Ethnick Princes as unto the Kings of Judah and so likewise in the New Testament as well to Infidel Princes as Christian the Precepts of the Apostles in that behalf being general and so to be applied as well to the one sort as to the other in that they hold their Kingdoms of Christ equally as is aforesaid and therefore ought to be equally obeyed by their Subjects with that general Caution which was ever understood viz. in those things which they commanded them and were not repugnant to the Commandments of God And therefore the Judgments of the ancient Fathers being in this sort only remember'd by us we will not much insist upon them but give that honour which is due especially in a matter so apparent unto the sole Authority of the Holy Apostles who writing by the direction of the Holy Ghost those things which Christ himself before had taught them do give unto all Christians and Subjects to what manner of Kings soever these Precepts following Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God for the Powers that be are Ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Judgment For Princes are not to be feared for good works but for evil Wilt thou then be without fear Do well So shalt thou have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God for thy Wealth But if thou do evil fear for he beareth not the Sword for nought for he is the Minister of God to take Vengeance of him that doth evil Wherefore ye must be subject not because of wrath only but also for Conscience sake For this cause ye pay also Tribute for they are God's Ministers applying themselves for the same thing In which words of the Apostle in saying that Princes have their Power from God and that he is God's Minister there is no repugnancy to that which we have abovesaid concerning the great honour and dignity of the humanity of our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension to prove that Kings do hold their Kingdoms under Christ as he is Man the Lamb of God and Heir of all the World For we were very careful to have it still remembred that all the said Power and Dignity which he hath as he is Man doth proceed from his Divinity and likewise that by reason of the real Union of the two Natures in our Saviour Christ that which doth properly belong to the one nature may very truly be affirmed of the other So as it may in that respect be very well said and truly that all Kings and Princes receive their Authority from Christ as he is Man and likewise that they receive their Authority from Christ as he is God and that they are the Ministers of Christ being Man and the Ministers of God without any limitation But it is plain that the said words of the Apostle do very throughly refute the vanity mentioned of the Canonists and their new Companions in that by the said words it appeareth very manifestly That Kings do not otherwise hold their Kingdoms of the humanity of Christ than they did before of his divine nature They have their Authority saith the Apostle from God and they are God's Ministers And there is nothing written either by St. Paul or by any other of the Apostles which swerveth in any point from this Doctrine where they write of the obedience due unto all Kings and Soveraign Princes whose testimonies in that behalf we are as we promised a little further to pursue I exhort saith St. Paul that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all Men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty And again Put them that is both old and young and all sorts of Persons that are purged to be a peculiar People unto Christ in remembrance that they be subject to the Principalities and Powers and that they be obedient and ready to every good work Also St. Peter saith to the same effect Submit
dispose them all according to his divine pleasure Yet the Parasitical and sottish Crew of Romish Canonists with the new Sectaries their Companions will assuredly moil and repine thereat telling us by the Pen of one of their Fellows the veriest Idiot we think amongst them That all Power Dominion and Worldly Principality was left by Christ after his Ascension unto St. Peter That two times are to be considered in Christ the one before his Passion when propter humilitatem he refused to judge that is to shew himself a Temporal Magistrate the other after his Resurrection and then he said All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth That Christ after his Resurrection gave his Power to St. Peter and made him his Vicar and that ex potestate Domini the Power of his Vicar is to be measured And to advance that Power as highly as he can supposing that what he can say thereof doth belong to St. Peter he quoteth a number of places out of the Scriptures concerning the Dignity Honour Royalty and Majesty attributed to our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension by reason of the Unition so oft before by us mentioned and doth conclude That cessantibus rationibus humilitatis necessitatis atque paupertatis that the reasons of his former humility necessity and poverty ceasing Christ did shew himself to be the Lord of all ut ascensurus ad Patrem eandem potestatem Petro relinqueret And moreover he is peremptory that Peter did exercise this temporal Power in suâ propriâ naturâ temporaliter in the proper nature of it temporally for it is said in the Acts c. 5. that he condemn'd Ananias and Sapphira pro crimine facti ad panam civiliter for the crime of a fact to a punishment civilly Now if Peter were so great a Temporal Monarch whilst he lived what must we think of his Vicar the Pope and how royal is the Estate of all Archbishops and Bishops that have any dependency upon him For as the especial Jesuit and Cardinal an Enemy to the Canonists in this point doth infer Si Papa est Dominus totius orbis Christiani supremus ergo singuli Episcopi sunt principes temporales in oppidis suo Episcopatui subjectis If the Pope be Lord of all the Christian World then it followeth that all particular Bishops are temporal Princes in the Cities and Towns subject to their Bishopricks To the manifestation of all which the said Canonist his so absurd and gross assertions before we proceed any further We hold it not unfit for the reasons elsewhere specified by us when we shewed that Christ was no temporal Lord nor had any temporal Dominion after the manner of other Kings First to hear the Cardinal how he shaketh the very ground-work and foundation of all these Vanities For whereas his Opposites would make St. Peter and consequently the Pope his Successor to derive such their infinite Power and temporal Authority from Christ after his Resurrection as he was then a Man immortal and glorious having cast off his former infirmities and mortality The Cardinal is resolute to the contrary and doth reason in this sort Christus ut homo dum in terris vixit non accepit nec voluit ullum temporale Dominium Summus autem Pontifex Christi Vicarius est Christum nobis repraesentat qualis erat dum hic inter homines viveret Igitur summus Pontifex ut Christi Vicarius atque adeo ut summus Pontifex est nullum habet temporale Dominium Christ as he was Man and lived upon the Earth neither did nor would receive any temporal Dominion But the Pope is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us in that Estate and Condition that he lived in here amongst Men therefore the Pope as Christ's Vicar and so as he is the highest Bishop hath no temporal Dominion And again Dicimus Papam habere illud Officium quod habuit Christus dum in terris inter homines humano more viveret Neque enim Pontifici possumus tribuere officia quae habuit Christus ut Deus vel ut homo immortalis gloriosus sed solum ea quae habuit ut homo mortalis We say that the Pope hath that Office that Christ had when he lived in the Earth amongst Men after the manner of Men for we cannot ascribe unto him those Offices which Christ hath as he is God or as he is Man immortal and glorious but only those which he had as a mortal Man Neither doth he stay here but goeth on forward saying Add that the Pope hath not all that Power which Christ had as a mortal Man For He because he was God and Man had a certain Power which is called a Power of Excellency by the which he govern'd both faithful Men and Insidels but the Pope hath only committed unto him his Sheep that is such Persons as are faithful Again Christ had Power to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which things the Pope cannot do Also Christ might absolve Men from their Sins without the Sacraments which the Pope cannot Nay the Cardinal was so far from believing that all Power and Worldly Principality was left by Christ unto St. Peter and so unto his Successors as he confesseth in effect that neither St. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome nor any of his Successors can challenge so much as a rural Farm or any other kind of temporal Possessions which have not been given unto them by the Emperours and other Temporal Princes And lest such gifts might be held by any to be unlawful he to prove the contrary alledgeth that they were godly Princes who so endowed the Church of Rome These are his words Qui donaverunt Episcopo Romano aliisque Episcopis Principatus temporales pii homines fuerunt eâ de causâ praecipuè à totâ Ecclesiâ commendati sunt ut patet de Constantino Carolo magno Ludovico ejus silio qui inde Pius appellatus est They who gave to the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops temporal Principalities were godly Men and for that cause especially were commended by the whole Church as appeareth ofConstantine Charles the Great and Lewis his Son who in that respect was called Lewis the Godly Again That the Pope holdeth in right that Principality which he hath may easily be perceived quia dono Principum habuit because he had it by the gift of Princes Of which gifts he saith the Authentical Instruments remain still in Rome adding nevertheless that if they had been lost abunde sufficeret praescriptio octingentorum annorum that a prescription of 800. years were abundantly sufficient to prove the Pope's right And unto these words of Bernard Forma Apostolica haec est interdicitur Dominatio indicitur Ministratio he answereth that Bernard doth speak of the Bishop of Rome secundum id quod habet ex Christi institutione Also
Vniversal Kingdom of Christ are not of as great validity to prove that there ought to be one temporal King under him to govern his Vniversal Kingdom over all the World as are the other Vnities touching the Church to prove that there must be one Bishop under him to govern all the particular Churches in the World or that because Kings when they have occasion to be absent from their Kingdoms do commonly appoint some Vice-Roy to Rule their People until their return it thereupon followeth that Christ supplying his corporal absence from his Spiritual Kingdom the Church by the comfortable presence of the Holy Ghost was of necessity to leave one carnal Man to be his Vicar-General over his said Spiritual Kingdom or that seeing our Saviour Christ held it expedient for his Catholick Church that he should deprive her of his corporal presence that she might be ruled by the Holy Ghost it is not to be thought great presumption for any Man to tell us that his corporal presence is necessary for the Government of the said Catholick Church as if he meant to put the Holy Ghost out of Possession or that either the said one Vniversal Kingdom of Christ the King and Creator of it is otherwise visible upon the Earth than by the particular Kingdoms and several kinds of Governments in it and perhaps in a sort and by Representation when some Neighbour Kings either in Person or by their Ambassadours may be met together for the good of their several Kingdoms or that the said one Catholick Church of Christ as he is the chief Bishop over all is otherwise visible on the Earth than by the several and particular Churches in it and sometimes by general and free Councils lawfully assembled or that it is a better consequent that if the Catholick Church have no visible Head all other Bishops Doctors Pastors and Ministers are needless than if one should say because there is no one King to govern all the World therefore there is no use of Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes or civil Magistrates or that it doth more follow that Christ should have left his Faithful People in a confused Anarchy except he had left St. Peter and his Successors to govern the whole Church than it doth that the whole World hath been left by him in a Confusion without any Government in it in that he hath not left one Vniversal Emperour or that the intolerable Pride of the Bishop of Rome for the time still being through the advancement of himself by many sleights stratagems and false Miracles over the Catholick Church the Temple of God as if he were God himself doth not argue him plainly to be the Man of Sin mentioned by the Apostle or that every National Church planted according to the Apostle's Platform may not by the means which Christ hath ordained as well subsist of it self without one Vniversal Bishop as every Kingdom may do under the Government of their several Kings without one general Monarch He doth greatly Erre The End of the Second Book LIB III. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended Course through the Old Testament and until the destruction of Jerusalem we overslipt and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said Course as we find the true grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our Entrance into which Course We confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange impediments and mighty stumbling blocks which through long practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successors For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better order'd polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successors We can see no sufficient Warrant or probable reason why the Bishop of Rome should take upon him as he doth so eminent and supream Authority over all the Kingdoms and Churches in the World to rule them direct them bestow them and chop and change them under pretence of Religion as he from time to time shall think fit Sure we are if the Scriptures may retain their ancient Authority and continue to be true Rulers and principal Directors to all Apostolical Bishops that in them there will not be found any shadows or steps of those so high and lofty conceits To the proof whereof before we address our selves We have thought it very expedient for the carriage of our course more perspicuously and clearly to make it apparent by what degrees and practices the Bishops of Rome have proceeded in aspiring to that Soveraignty and Greatness which now they have attained Placet eis John Overall Prolocutor CAP. II. AS it was said long since Religion brought forth Riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother So may it very truly be said in these days The Empire begat the Papacy and the Son hath devoured his Father For as we suppose by the Effects no sooner did the Bishops of Rome even in the first times of Persecution get any rest and courage but they began to think with themselves That they were as able to govern all the Churches in the Empire as the Emperours themselves were to govern all the Kingdoms and Nations then subject unto them and that Rome was as fit a Seat for such a Bishop as it was for so great an Emperour Some Seeds of this Ambition began to sprout there when Victor presumed to threaten the Greek Churches concerning the Feast of Easter although Irenaeus then living did greatly dislike it and the Bishops of Asia little regarding him in that behalf said They nothing cared for such his threats And it was not we suppose an idle conceit of one who writing
and throw down and build and plant And a little after You see who is this servant even the Vicar of Christ the Successour of Peter the Christ of the Lord the God of Pharaoh one plac'd in the midst betwixt God and Man short of God but beyond Man less than God but greater than Man Likewise from St. Peter's walking on the Water he maketh this Inference Forasmuch saith he as many Waters are many People and the Congregations of Waters are the Sea in that St. Peter did walk upon the Waters of the Sea he did demonstrate his Power over all the World Further this Innocentius having written a malapert Letter to the Emperour of Constantinople his Majesty in answer of it putteth him in Mind how St. Peter commandeth all Men to be subject to Kings whereunto the Pope replyed saying that St. Peter wrote so to his own Subjects and did not therein include himself and that moreover he might not only have remember'd that it was not said to any King but to a Priest Behold I have placed thee over Nations and Kingdoms and so followeth the words of the Text but likewise that as God made two lights in the Firmament of Heaven a greater and a less the one for the Day the other for the Night so for the Firmament of the Universal Church he made two dignities the Pontifical and the Regal the Pontifical resembling the Sun which is the great Light and the Regal the Moon which is the less Light to the end that thereby it might be known that there is a great difference betwixt Pontifical Bishops and Kings as there is betwixt the Sun and the Moon But here we must a little digress to observe that this Pope being swoln as big as the Sun cast his Beams not only into England and scorched King John exceedingly about the Year 1212. by thundering against him and interdicting the Kingdom and by exciting his Subjects to Rebellion and Treason the Weapons of those Bishops but likewise fired Otho the Emperour out of the Empire by raising up against him Frederick the Second And when he had played these two Feats amongst many other he held a Council at Lateran Anno 1215. wherein to strengthen such Traiterous Proceedings he caused it to be ordained as it is pretended That if any Temporal Lord being admonished by the Church should not purge his Countrey from Heresie the Metropolitan and other Comprovincial Bishops should excommunicate him and if within a Year he did not give satisfaction in that behalf the same should be signified to the Bishop of Rome that so he from thence forward might denounce his Vassals absolved from their Fidelity to him and expose his Land to Catholicks to be without Contradiction by them possessed Upon this Canon many in these days do much rely although indeed it was but a Project amongst many other to have been concluded in that Assembly wherein nothing could be clearly determined saith one of their Writers because by Wars it was broken off which the Pope labouring to suppress died in that Journey And now we return from whence we digressed and leaving Innocentius do address our selves to Boniface the Eighth who had as great dexterity as his said Predecessour in expounding of the Scriptures For whereas the Apostles upon a mistaking of Christ's meaning where he bad them to provide bags and scrips for themselves and that he who wanted a sword should sell his Coat and buy one they answered saying Lord we have two swords This Pope inferreth there is in the Church a Spiritual Sword and a Temporal and that consequently they are both at the Commandment of the Bishops of Rome Also to make the matter more clear touching the temporal Sword which should rule the World in all temporal Causes he saith Boniface that shall deny that St. Peter had this temporal Sword doth not well understand Christ's Words when he bad St. Peter after he had cut off Malchus's Ear that he should put up his Sword Again whereas the Apostle doth teach us that the spiritual Man judgeth all things but is judged by none this good Bishop doth ingross these words to the only Use of the Popes and thereupon concludeth that they have Power to judge and censure all Earthly Powers and Authorities but are themselves exempted from the Checks and Censures of any as being only subject to God and to his judgment And again that the Spiritual Authority may institute and judge the Terrestrial it is verified by the Prophecy of Jeremy Behold I have placed thee this day over Nations and Kingdoms for the perverting of which Portion of Scripture both this Pope and Innocentius the Third with all the Popes that since have followed were and are much beholding to Adrian the Fourth he being the first for ought we find that so did overstrain it Lastly That he might imitate as he seemeth the Governour of the Feast in the Gospel that brought forth his best wine in the end of the feast and likewise such skilful Rhetoricians as commonly build their principal Conclusions upon their most pinching Arguments His Holiness relying upon the Scriptures because it is not said In the beginnings but In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth Therefore except we will say with the Manichces That God did not Himself make all Things but that there was also another Creator as well as he It must needs be confessed that there is but One viz. St. Peter's Successor that is the chief and principal Ruler of all the World and so he cometh to his irrefragable Conclusion We declare we define and we pronounce that it is of the Necessity of Salvation for all humane Creatures to be subject to the Bishop of Rome We may not therefore marvel that having thus notably made perfect the rough Platform drawn out by Gregory the VIIth rubbed over by Hadrian the IVth and amended by Innocentius the IIId of so infinite a Soveraignty if He the said Boniface to make the Honour and Glory more conspicuous and memorable to all Posterity after He had thrice refused to yield the Crown of the Empire to Albertus Austriacus came forth one day amongst the people to be admired of them with a Sword by his Side and a Crown upon his Head saying That He and none but He was Caesar Augustus Emperour and Lord of the World It had been plain dealing if for the better strengthning of this his Greatness He had alledged the Words in the Gospel for the Honour of his Lord Paramount All these will I give thee because He did so worthily by his said Proceedings magnifie his Name and Authority Placet eis John Overall CAP. X. WE have hitherto followed the Bishops of Rome through many Windings from their mean and militant Condition like to their Brethren unto their Glorious Estate and as we may say Triumphant We found them at the first little better than their Master Who