Bishoppe he meaneth not onely a Pastor but a Doctor and not onely a Doctor but also a Priest or Elder whose office ye say consisteth onely in gouernement and not in publike teaching Ergo a Doctor and a Pastor and a gouernour for so ye call your not teaching Priest or Elder are all one and equall Which is the cleane ouerthrowe of all this your Learned discourse of Ecclesiast Gouernment Likewise as on this former worde Bishop Beza and the Geneua Testament comprehend Doctors Pastors and Elders not teaching but only gouerning so also on the other word Deacons But saith Beza he vnderstandeth Deacons to be the stewards of the Eccles. treasurie and the college of the widdowes And 1. Tim. 3 Deacons These are they that haue the care of the poore c. And the Geneua note By Deacons such as had the charge of the distribution and of the poore and sicke Yea Beza here procéedeth further and saith when otherwise this name is sometime vniuersall in so much that it comprehendeth euen the Apostles themselues also So then we must againe conclude that the name Deacon comprehendeth the treasorers the widdowes the Apostles yea and all the Ecclesiasticall ministers and so Doctors and Pastors too Ergo all together are but all one office and all alike equall in the same Who séeth not the euill sequence of this conclusion And surely though your argument faile and your selues also are not comparable to the excellent Learned Master Beza yet of twaine in my iudgement ye holde the truer opinion in not vnderstanding here by the name of Bishops Elders those that are onely Gouernours and not Teachers but vnderstanding thereby Pastorall Elders contrarie to Beza and to the Geneua Testament And as we will all ioyne with you thus farre-foorth herein that by the name of Bishops he comprehendeth Pastors and not those that were not Pastors so shall wee haue Caluine on our side yea and Danaeus too who is also of Geneua and a most earnest fauorer of your opiniō and one that hath written best in my fancie of all our side for the maintenance of it And yet where he goeth about of set purpose to 1. Tim. 3.1 to prooue Bishops and Pastors to be all one and maketh your last example Act. 20 his seconde argument and this your present example Phil. 1. to be a part of his fourth argument and where he distinguisheth of Elders as you do euen there saith he of these Elders therfore that haue here their name of dignitie not of age there are two sortes in the Scripture The one of thē that watch on manners onely the other of them that attende both on doctrine and on manners and labour in both The which may be easily gathered out of this Epistle cap. 5. ver 17. Concerning therefore the first sorte as it is distinguished from the second so it is to be seuered frō the Bishops and Doctors And so he entreth into his processe the whole beginning whereof was this which I should haue set before But Paule in all this chap. treateth of Bishops and Deacons Howbeit there are other Ecclesiasticall and necessarie dignities besides Deacons Bishops as are Elders of whom some thinke that Paule spake nothing at all in this place But reiecting their opinion distinguishing of these two sorts of Elders he encludeth only Pastorall Elders as you doe in the name of Bishops The like doeth Caluine in this place Phil. 1. vppon the worde Bishops He nameth the Pastors by themselues for honours sake Moreouer it is lawefull to gather hereon the name Bishop to be common to all the ministers of the worde when he attributeth manie Bishoppes to one Church Therefore the name of Bishoppe and Pastor are Synonyms or diuerse wordes meaning one thing c. And on the name Deacon he saith also in the saide place This name may be taken two wayes eyther for the ministers and carers for the poore or for the Elders that were appointed to gouerne the manners But because it is more commonly taken of Paule in the former sense I rather vnderstande it for the stewardes that had the ouer-sight of distributing the almes Thus you and we herein haue these two most famous men of our side against Beza and the quoters of the Geneua Testament And to say the truth all respect of persons set aside our opinion is the better hauing the manifest not example onely but rule of Gods woorde in both places that the Bishops there mentioned Act. 20.28 must feede which ye say inclusiuely is as much as Pastor And 1. Tim. 3.2 he must be apt to teach which appertayneth not vnto an onely Gouernour Nowe although ye doe well herein to dissent from Beza and from the notes of the Geneua translation vnto whom if ye would haue agréed you might easilier perhaps haue founde manie Bishops both there in one Citie and here in another but then must you eyther amende this your argument or else ye should confound all offices in one and make all equall yet still your argument euen as theirs also is not of sufficient force that because Pastors are there named included vnder the name of Bishop therefore simplie Bishop and Pastor are all one and yet I will gladlie graunt both you and them also more than the argument can make good That in the nature of the Pastorall Eldership and Episcopall ouer-sight though ratione they differ in this or that consideration one from the other yet re and indéede they are so ioyned together in one office that the one might then verie well till the name Bishop grewe to a more proper signification yea may yet well inough interchangeablie be spoken the one of the other a Pastor is a Bishop a Bishop is a Pastor notwithstanding it doth not followe hereupon that in all respectes they are now or were then simplie and absolutely all one and the same offices and especially that in dignitie they were all a like and equall For that is the chiefe point that should herein be prooued Must al that be of one order or office of necessitie be of one equall dignitie in the same What degrée or calling haue you of Gentlemen Esquiers Knightes Barons Lordes Earles Dukes Princes or Kinges but that being in any one of these estates orders degrees or offices as they may be equall so one may haue dignitie authoritie gouernement and superioritie well-inough ouer another euen of the same estate order degree or office that themselues be If ye say we must not bring examples of offices in the ciuill policie and applie them to Ecclesiasticall though your selues brought in such examples a little before out of Numb 11.16 how God ordeyned 70. auncients to assist Moses in his gouernment which were ciuill Seniors and applie them to these Ecclesiasticall and Pastorall Elders yet will not you graunt this that when it shall come to anie assemblies of Synodes or Councels one of these equalles may
contrary And shall wee dare to saye on the other side finding both the example heere alleadged by themselues Acts 14. and Saint Paules preceptes to Timothie and to Titus of ordeyning pastorall Elders to bee made without mentioning of the Churches elections that the Apostles durst not ordeyne any Pastors with the Churches elections no wee dare not say so but that the Apostles might haue done it with them or without them as they thought best hauing the warrant of Gods Spirite and as the occasion serued for their ordeyning of the Pastors And therefore I meruell how our Brethren durst so boldly affirme that the Apostles not only did it not but durst not doe it Secondly say they that they giue an office without a charge and sende him to seeke a flocke where he can finde it Our Bretheren here begin to descant vpon the names of Pastors and office Neither doe wee denye but that the name Pastor betokeneth an office whether wee vnderstande it as hee is onely a Minister of the worde and Sacramentes and so he is sayde to haue taken Orders or as he hath a peculiar flocke to minister the worde and Sacraments in as we commonly call the Rector Parson Vicar or Curate the pastor of such and such a Church or Parish The worde Pastor in both sences may bee comprehended in the name of an office And yet here if wee should goe as strictly to worke as our Bretheren doe which curiositie I mislike not in them to finde out all the quirkes in the worlde to beate out the trueth more throughly wee shall easely see great differences in the proprieties of these names and words of an office and of an order Albeit they may well bee taken and oftentimes are vsed indifferently But the question is here whether any office can bee giuen and the man truely called an officer without a charge of a place or a flock giuen withall vnto him whereof he is and may bee called the officer They denye it and I say he may and my reason is this The word office hath not alwaies relation to the charge of a place onely and that specially of a certeyne place where or of persons among whome the office is exercised but of the matter it selfe and â—uetie whereof the office consisteth in resâ—â—t of which matter the other are as it were but accidentall which our Bretheren here make all or principall The Prophetes were Prophetes before they had any certeyne places were they prophecied The Apostles were called and in office were Apostles before they were sent into any message of their Apostleship And Saint Paule calleth all both Apostles and Pastors Ministers 1. Cor. 4.1 though all of them had no certeyne standing places designed to them to minister in and yet were they all of them in the very office of the Ministerie full Ministers of the worde and Sacraments if wee may so properly call the Ministerie of the worde and Sacraments an office as an order In deede Saint Paule sayth of an office Rom. 12. vers 7. or an office on the office That is to say he that hath an office let him bee diligent in his office But he assigneth not any certeyne places and charge of flockes to all the offices that he there reckoneth vp Although as it is an old saying so it is not vntrue Priesthood and Knighthood are orders rather than offices And Priesthoode I meane not the Popish sacrificing Priesthoode but the Pastorall Eldership may well be called an order when the making of a Priest or pastorall Elder is called the ordering or the ordeyning of him and our Bretheren themselues do well call it the giuing of orders Knighthood now being likewise more properly called an order than an office when a man hath receiued the order of Knighthood it followeth not that he must be a Knight of this or that place as were some Knightes namely the Knightes of Prussia or the Knightes late of the Rhodes and now of Malta neither followeth it that he that made him Knight must alwaies withall giue him landes and liuing and yet all the better for the Knight if hee so doe and more fitte for his order to haue sufficient maintenaunce and though hee had but xl pounde a yeere which was called a Knightes fee. Howbeit hée mâ—ght bâ—e a Knight though a poore Knight without any such fee. For the order is one thing and the maintenaunce of him in his order yea his charge to doe his duetie iâ— his order is another thing and not the order it selfe But say they this is as vnreasonable a thing as iâ— one were chosen not to be a Knight but to bee a Churchwarden and had neuer a Church to keepe or made a Constable that had neuer a Towne or place appoynted whereof he should be Constable The similitudes of these two offices and of Church-warden and of a Constable are not a like to the order or if they will so call it to the office of the ministerie for bicause that these two Offices haue a necessary relation in them selues not onely to the office but also to the place where the paâ—tie is the officer so that if no place be assigned them there is no such officer made To which kinde of officers the old distinction serueth that the office the place be distincta ratione non re They cannot in the act of them be separate though they be distinguished in the reason of them And yet we see that in some such offices as in which besides the office there is ioyned with all a degree of honour and dignity though the relation of the office in respect of the place where the office laye doth cease as either the place being wasted or possessed by another and he dispossessed yet may his degree of dignitie not cease or be in him vtterly exstinguished so long as the right of the office is in him though the exercise and action of the office together with the place and other appendices of the office bee taken from him as a Kinge Duke Earle or Lord though he loose be it not by his own demerite resignation or lawefull depriuation his Kingdome Dukedome Earledome or Lordshippe but by an others intrusion or occupation yet is he still both called and is in deedâ— a King a Duke an Earle a Lord by reason he still holdeth the right of the office and capacitie to repossesse it though he haue neither possession action nor exercise of it at this instante Notwithstanding as it is sayd in the old verse on fortunes wheele regno regnaui regnabo sum sine regno He may be rex sine regno euen the lowest degree of them all and yet rex still Yea to descend to baser offices also not only a professor of liberal sciences but euen one professing mechanicall artes or as we commonly terme him a handicrafts man although he exercise not alwaies the action of his Function nor occupie in his occupation or
being out of that place And that where such preachers are not there can bee no publike prayers nor sacraments administred c. What one of these points and a number moe hath bin prooued by anie one cleere testimonie or necessarye consequent of the Scripture or by any one substantiall reason for the proofe of them and what else in effect is this than but to order all these thinges at their pleasures And when they take on with all the Bishops as though by their former industries and labours they their selues had not receaued this light of the Gospell which God bee praysed wée haue if wee can vse it thankfully or as though they were not by the Bishops made Ministers of the Gospell if they haue anye Ministerie at all thereof and be not meere lay men is not this euen as though the Gospell so far as the light of these controuersies commeth vnto and their Ministerie thereof sprang first from them or had come vnto them onely if not to our Bishops nor to anye of our conuocations nor to all the clergie of our Church of England but onely to them that set these thinges abroache and what now shall wée conclude on them as they do on the Bishops it sauoureth nothing so much as of popish tyranny whereof sauoreth this first to put backe the Princes supremacie in Ecclesiasticall causes till all their Eccl. tetrarchie be parted among them in such maner as wee haue alredy heard and then to pull downe all the dignities and authorities of Archebishops Bishops and all other Ecclesiasticall superiour Prelates And to set vp themselues euerye one to bée a full Bishoppe in his owne seuerall congregation what though not Lordeship in name but M. Bishop yet in rule and authoritye ouer all in his congregation to bée euen a Lordeship to suffer no superiour Pastor ouer him in his iurisdiction but eche one equall to the best and hée as though hée were in his terrytorie euen another newe little Pope sitting in his pontificalibus with his consistorie of gouernors as though it were a Colledge or Senate of a newe kinde of Cardinalles as the hingins that holde vp the dores of Ecclesiasticall regiment and discipline with a new mixte kinde of gouernors semi-secular and dimi-ecclesiasticall Seniors to sit by the themselues rounde aboute this Episcopall Pastor ouer ruling all the congregation yea whosoeuer were inhabiting in the parish Knight Lord Earle Duke Prince Queene King or Emperour they must all of them for all discipline and Ecclesiasticall regiment be ouer-ruled by him by these his Gouerning Elders sitting about him Of what sauoureth this Of dominion of Poperie of tyrannie of confusion of pride of ordering all things at their pleasures besides what dangers else or worse thaÌ„ yet we see not if our bishops shoulde thus retallie these thinges vnto our Bretheren woulde they not trowe you pay home the reckoning But as thoughe they were not yet on euen handes but that there were a greate oddes in this reckoning and as though the Bishoppes were not to bee accompted comparable nor for Learning Studye Iudgemente Zeale Example they were so woorthy of their authoritye as these our Bretheren are to haue this newe kind of Eccl. gouernment they obiect vnto the bishops their non sufficiencie in these thinges Whereas otherwise saye they it is well knowne they are not all of the best learned nor all of the longest study nor all of the soundest Iudgement nor all of the greatest zeale nor all of the best Example and therefore not meetest to be the onelye determiners in Ecclesiasticall matters to the preiudice of the whole Synode As for this conclusion wee shall come to it in his turne This comparison in the antecedent is somewhat odious to vpbraide to the Bishoppes that they are not all of the best in these thinges as though there were some other in the Synode better heerein than they Belike they meane those diuerse godlye and learned Preachers that they sayde before before offered to speakâ— or else some other of themselues that they woulde haue to bee also of the Synode For although it were a pretie pollicie to commit vs together among our selues with an emulation agaynste our bishops as not so learned c. as they would haue vs of the Conuocation house thinke our selues to bée yet they lightly giue not this to â—â—y of vs to be counted eyther learned or studious or sounde in iudgement or of greate zeale or of best example But they oftentimes commende themselues for all these thinges to bée godlie wise graue and zealous men they are those that Preache moste diligentlye praye most feruentlye and minister the Sacramentes moste reuerently they are the faithfull Ministers that seeke the Churches reformation and still looke vp to the top of euery leafe and there hangeth vp this Iuie Garland to tolle on the reader A Learned discourse of Ecclesiasticall gouernment As for our Bishops tush for them it is well knowne they are not all of the best learned nor all of the longest studie nor all of the greatest zeale nor all of the best example I praye you bretheren of what sauoureth this Surely it sauoureth not all of the best learning neyther in my iudgement if not rather of that learning whereof Sainct Paule sayth scientia inflat Well howe vnsounde soeuer they shall accounte my simple Iudgement woulde God their learning sauoured a little more of lowlie humility and of Christian charitie than it doth to thinke better of other their brethren in these qualities namely of their betters than of them selues And yet if one shall examine these qualities particularly what cause haue they to vpbrayde their Learning to the Bishops Iwisse they may easilie enter comparison with many of these our Bretheren And if they shoulde all bée measured by this Learned discourse might not these wordes returne to their Maisters that neyther they are all of the best learning except they haue better learning that they keepe yet in store for an after reckoning And as for long studie in the moste of them there néede no long studie for an aunswere All the worlde may see that in the yeares of the studentes do not their selues in their preface confesse If any shal obiect that the graue authority of Archbishops Bishops shall receaue a checke whilste they are brought to deale with those whom they iudge few yong vnlearned not comparable to themselues but now they dare compare both in long studie in learning too with the B. and giue the check too as yong as they be yea in their opinion to giue theÌ„ check-mate and that with a pawne But what sayd they there to this obiection did they not say let vs graunt the greate difference which they make of yeares and learning yet the speeche of Elihu giueth them sufficient aunswere that this vnderstanding is not tyed to such outwarde respectes but to the reuelation of Gods spirite Here as it were
his wrath from vs. Now my sonnes be not deceaued for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him to serue him and to be his ministers and to burne incense Then the Leuites arose Mahath c. and they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselues and came according to the commandement of the King and by the wordes of the Lord for to clense the house of the Lord and the priests went into the inner partes of the house of the Lorde to clense it c. Here indéede the King refuseth not the Leuites but calleth them vnto him and maketh vnto them this memorable oration and those that otherwise in their offices were his fathers hée calleth his sons in respect of his supreame authoritie ouer them himselfe being but a young man and they againe speake verse 18. And they went in to Ezechiah the king and sayd we haue clensed all the house of the Lord c. but here is nothing wherein they appoint or charge the King but all still of the Kinges commaundementes vnto them Verse 20. And Hezechias the king rose earlie and gathered the Princes of the citie and went vp to the house of the Lord and they brought seauen bullocks c. And he commanded the Preests the sonnes of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord c. Then they brought the hee Goates for the sinne offering before the King c. For the king had commanded for all Israel the burnt offering and the sinne offering And he appointed also the Leuites in the house of the Lord with Cymbals with Violes with Harpes according to the commandement of Dauid and Gad the kings seer c. And Hezechiah commanded to offer the burnt offering vpon the altar c. verse 30. And Hezechias the king and the princes commanded the Leuites to praise the Lord with the words of Dauid and Asaph the seer so they prayed with ioye and they bowed themselues and worshipped And Hezechias spake and said Now yee haue consecrated your selues to the Lord come neere and bring the sacrifices and offerings of praise into the house of the Lord and the congregation brought sacrifices c. Héere the King still commandeth both the Priests and Leuites and the people and they all obeyed But the Leuites are commended vers 34. To be more vpright in hart to sanctifie themselues then were the Priests As for the 30 chapter which our brethren cite after the foresaid first verse wherein the King writeth to all Israel and Iudah It followeth in the second c. And the king and his princes and all the congregation had taken councell in Ierusalem to keepe the passeouer in the second moneth For they could not keepe it at this time bicause there were not priests enough sanctified neither was the people gathered to Ierusalem And the thing pleased the King and all the congregation and they decreed to make proclamation through-out all Israell c. So the Posts went out with letters by commission from the King and his Princes throughoâ—t all Israel with the commandement of the King saying Yee children of Israel turne againe vnto the Lord God of Abraham Isaac c. And at this sacrifice the King praied for the people saying verse 18 c. The good Lord be mercifull towards him that prepareth his whole heart to seeke the Lord God the God of his fathers though he be not clensed according to thepurification of the sanctuarie and the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people And verse 22. Hezechiah spakâ— comfortablie to the Leuites that had good knowledge to sing vnto the Lord c. And in the chapter following verse 2. Hezechiah appointed the courses of the Priests and Leuites for the burnt offerings and peace offerings to minister and giue thankes and to praise in the gates of the tentes of the Lord And verse 4. He commanded the people that dwelt in Ierusalem to giue part to the Priests and Leuites that they might be incouraged in the lawe of the Lord. And when the commandement was spred the children of Israell brought aboundance of fruites c. And when Hezekiah and the Princes came and sawe the heapes they blessed the Lord and his people Israel And Hezechiah questioned with the Preists concerning the heapes And Azariah the cheefe preest of the house of Sadoch answered him and said Since the people began to bring offerings we haue eaten and haue beene satisfied and there is left aboundance For the Lord hath blest his people and the aboundance that is left And Hezechiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of the Lord c. And Iehiel c. were ouerseers by the appointment of Cononiâ—h and Shimer his brother and by the commandement of Hezechiah the king and of Azariah the cheefe of the house of God c. And thus did Hezechiah through-out all Iuda and did well and vprightlie and truelie before the Lord his God Thus haue we séene both in the chapter quoted by our brethren and the chapter going before and the chapter following how the King directed all those Ecclesiasticall matters commanded ordered and gouerned both the Leuites and the Priests But what is anye thing héere to our brethrens purpose Did the Leuites debate anye controuersies with the King and Princes or with the high Priest before the King And the king the princes or the high preest yeeld therein vnto the Leuites Or not rather they yeeld vnto the king and to the princes and to the high preest in those matters If now this be so memorable an example why doo not our brethren if they will be like the Leuites yeeld to hir Maiestie her counsell and hir Bishops Except they will be rather héerein like the king his princes and the high priest then like these Leuites As for the elders in the assemblie and conference Act. 15. They also yeelded vnto the Apostles not the Apostles vnto them Although the Apostles refused not the elders no more doe our Bishops refuse our brethren or anye other ecclesiasticall persons that are lawfullie appointed and called to the conuocations or to anie other ecclesiasticall assemblie or conference Neither do they denie the accepting euen of the people in some manner to be heard to speake But whereto doe our brethren mention héere the people in this debating This is againe cleane contrârie to their ownâ— rules as we shall sée in this learned discourse Would they haue the people also to be debaters or to be Iudges of these controuersies And to ouer-rule the Bishops and cleargie in the determination of them But they haue yet one example more At least saye they let â—â—eir owne opinion that in interpreting the scriptures and deliuerie of doctrine we are equall with them persuade them And héereto they quote this marginall note and Whitegifts booke pag. 389. If the Archbishop that now is dooth graunt this it is the greater signe of his reuerent modestie Neither do anâ—e of our Bishops or any of vs
Lordes Doe ye shunne the names and shooue at the matter And so farre that Emperours Kings Queenes and all Christian Princes for all their supremacie must backarie and come after you or else it is not agreeable to good order of teaching If yée teache in this order it is such a lesson that I am a-fraide some can not easelie learne it But for my parte I hope it is not of anie pride in you Neuerthelesse I tell you playnelie as my friendes and bretheren leaue it for manie mislike it and suspecte it shrewdely if it be not of pride yet to be no orderlie kinde of Teaching nor good and plaine dealing with Christian Princes But you say it may be plaine to euery man by this reason The Church of God was perfecte in all her Regiment before there was any Christian Prince Yea the Church of God may stand and doth stande at this day in most bessed estate where the Ciuill Magistrates are not the greatest fauourers By which it is manifest that the Regiment and Gouernment therof dependeth not vpon the authoritie of Princes but vpon the ordinance of God May it be plaine to euerie man by this reason Euerie reason or argument as it should be good and true both for forme matter so it ought to be directed to the purpose and to conclude the point that is to be proued And then to euerie man it is a plaine reason What nowe is the point here to be prooued It is not needefull nor agreeable to good order of teaching to begin first with intreating of the Supreame authoritie of Christian Princes in Eccles. causes This then beeing the point to be prooued must by necessarie consequence of the premisses be plainely argued and set downe in the conclusion or else euerie man may plainely see it is no plaine reason nor needfull to be yéelded vnto nor agreeable to good order of teaching but either some intricate Sophistication or some vnnecessarie conclusion litle or nothing pertayning to the purpose Plaine dealing sayeth the Prouerbe is a Iewell Let vs therefore sée this plaine reason and the parts thereof whether it conclude this point or no. The Church of God was perfect in all her regiment before there was anie Christian Prince Yea The Church of God may stande and doeth stande at this day in most blessed state where the Ciuill Magistrates are not the greatest fauourers What is the conclusion By which it is manifest that the Regiment and Gouernment thereof dependeth not vppon the authoritie of Princes but vpon the ordinance of God c. Loe howe plaine to euerie man and howe agreeable to good order of teaching in any figure and moode of Syllogisme this reason is framed and how patte the conclusion of this reason hittes the point to be prooued which they haue here so lustily auouched may be plaine to euerie man by this reason What will our Learned brethren here say Tush we meane not in saying it may be plaine to euerie man by this reason to reason so strictly according to the order of teaching in Logike but we reason at large Rhethorically This is ye wotte a Learned discourse and therefore we are not bounde to make short conclusions but according to our title to shewe our Learning in discoursing on it Call ye this discoursing It is a Discourse indéede but of the coursest fashion that euer I saw I know these Discoursers haue learning ynough though they spare it here yet if they should vtter it I would bee loath for my part to contende with them But sée howe affection in discoursing may carrie Learning and all quite away so farre from reason that here neither in matter truthe onlie which is principall is remembred nor in forme and manner anie good order of teaching is obserued nor yet in the conclusion the principall point is marked but gone cleane from whereunto all the reason should be leaueled Well yet since this is the best reason and all that here or hereafter they haue to make this matter plaine to euerie man least perhaps in the partes or in the conclusion there might lie hidden some further matter or reason then they would open plaine to euerie man let vs weighe the partes and conclusion better and lay them more open that euery man may perceaue plainely the plaine truthe and full validitie of this reason For this seemeth to be a great reason and to haue many small reasons in it First on this first and maior proposition of the same the Church of God was perfect in all her regiment before there was anye Christian Prince although they make no direct conclusion thereon yet they séeme to drawe an argument à priore from the former as pleading from the elder hande by senioritie and on that also procéede to the greater perfection and thereupon reason as it were in this manner That which in the regiment thereof was perfect before the other that is to be treated vpon before the other But the Church of God was perfect in all her regiment before there was anie Christian Prince What followeth hereupon but this Therefore the Church of God is to be treated vppon before Christian Princes But the question is not here betwixt the Church of God and Christian Princes whether of them shall first be treated vpon For whereas the name of the Church is an integrall worde and conteyneth the whole and the Christian Princes are though principall partes yet but particuler partes thereof included in the whole and so the question were as if one should aske whether is the man before the head or the head before the man they offer therefore herein an iniurie to Christian Princes as séeming to contende with the whole and so striued against themselues being partes of the whole And yet if a man would make an Anatomie of the whole body and beginne with the treatise of the head as the principall part though the head was not the first part that was formed but the heart or some other and afterwarde the heade yet beginning with the head and to treate first of the office and powers thereof hee should not doe a thing disagreeable to good order of teaching Or in the description of a house though the house was not perfect till all the partes were made if hee treated first of the court or of the hall or of the roofe which perhappes were builded last yet might hee in processe orderly describe the whole house For our question is not heere of anie part compared with the whole but in the whole of anie parte compared to another For as the Christian Princes are but partes of the Church of God so these foure estates that claime the direction of all Eccl matters in the Church are but partes of the Church also So that this first and Maior proposition might haue béene lesse captious as will appeare after in the viewe of the conclusion and a great deale plainer not to say
but he condemneth ambition as August declareth in the Sermon of the Lords words out of Mat. 11. as Erasinus hath noted Or else by these titles Master or Father in this place he meaneth them not in such senses as we commonly vse to call them but for such as are Doctors or Maisters in teaching and giuing praeceptes and so are the very wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye not called Doctors as who say Be ye not called Doctors of any doctrin of your selues and precepts of your devising nor be ye called fathers as authors originals of doctrin religioÌ„ for that only appertaineth to God Both which expositions as the text yeelds them apparantly so the moste and best of all the interpreters old and new agree vpon them Neither doth the reason that he addeth For you are all Br. meaning both by creation and regeneration vnder God our cheef Master father take away the lawfull vse of this title Mast. Father among men or the being either of Mast. in their subalternall degrees either of Father in nature in yeares or in dignity either ecclesiasticall or political Yea our brethren theirselues if they haue children can be content they call them Father and they call one another Master for all these wordes And therefore this is not so truely inferred For these names agree properly to God Christ except they mean this properly not very properly neither in this speech of God and Christ for though S paul in a fewe places speak thus distinctly God and Christ yet might we more properly vse S. Paules plainer speeches and sith Christe also is God and man to haue said God the father and Christ Neither do these titles Father master agree so properly to God the Father and to Christ. For both Christe is called more properly of the twaine the sonne than the father And God the father of whom is all fatherhood in heauen earth thogh he be properlie called God the father and our heauenlie father yet he is not properlie called father in the proper sense For when wee saie a thing is propâ—r to one we commonlie exclude the proprietie of the same from all but him But God that vouchsafeth as I haue said already to communicate higher more proper names of his than Master or Father alloweth so generallie the vse of these names Maister and Father both to good and bad nor debarreth them from any his ministers that I sée not how in anie sense that we doe vse them they can be aptlie sayd to agree properlie to â—od Christ which if it were true then our vse of these names Maister or Father were not onelie improper but plaine blasphemie As for that that is added here as a reason héereof for the greatest dignitie of an Eccl. person is a ministerie and not a Lordship is a verie improper illation on the premisses Howbeit it may be well graunted without preiudice And may as well be sayde of any ciuill as of anie Ecclesiasticall person that his greatest dignitie is a Ministerie and not a Lordship For in that he is Gods Minister it surmounteth rhe greatest worldly dignitie he can attaine vnto al were he King or Keyser neuer so great And this also is in very déede the greatest dignitie in euery Eccl. person aboue anie degree of externall dignitie which for order sake hee is promoted vnto that he is Gods Minister as S. Paule saide let a man so esteeme vs as the ministers of Christe and stewardes of the mysteries of God 1. Co. 4.1 And in this respect not the greatest prince in the world if he feare God but be â—he Preest neuer so poore or low of degree he humbly acknowledgeth this poore Minister of Gods worde and Sacramentes in his Ministration to be of farre greater dignity than is all his Ciuill power and externall Maiesty But the question is not heere so properly which is the greatest dignity of an Ecclesiastical person whether a Ministery or a Lordship meaning by Ministery the Ecclesiasticall function by Lordship eyther a Title or an estate of some externall superiour gouernment as whether these twayne may bee competible Which point though Caluine on the foresaid sentence of our Sauiour Christ Math. 20. resolue it for a Ciuill Princes or temporall Lordes part that in cases of vrgent necessity hee that hath the Lordshippe of a Village or a city may exercise the office of teaching and the same he shewed in his foresaid Epistle to the king of Polonia and on the other part Brentius on the foresaid exaÌ„ple likewise resolueth this point for him that is a Minister of the Word that he in diuerse respects also may withall hold as the possession of externall goods so an externall Lordship or principality Yet sith that the most famous Zanchius hath euen as it were the other day besides his former confession on this though not directly on neither of these points yet added in his appendix Cap. 25. Aphoris 21. His obseruations also heereupon I will onely here set downe that which he saith whereby we may see howe much more any Lordships that any of our bishops or arch-B haue are allowable and our Brethren should gladlier yeeld vnto them There are two far different questions saith Zanchius whether it bee lawfull for bishops to be princes also and for Princes to be bishops retaying their principalities And whether they which already are both B. princes besides their authority Ecclesiasticall may also haue rightes or lawes politike ouer Citizens being subiects vnto them and thereupon whether the subiects ought to obey them as princes yea or no. In my Aphorisme I spake nothing at all of the former question because it was not necessary but onely of the later But who doth not plainly see that it is made manifest by the testimonies of mee brought foorth that by what right and by what wrong they were created princes they must wholy obeye them For why shoulde not they that are subiectes to the B. of Mentz Coleine and Triers being princes of the Empire and withal Archb. obey them in things that fight nothing at all with Christian godlinesse Certesse it were the part of seditious men not to obey them But if they must obey these why must not they also that liue vnder his gouernmente obeye the bishoppe of Rome in the same thinges and for the same cause For of all these the reason is the same or all one Of the former question as I sayd bfore I disputed nothing nor yet now also in this my briefe confession haue I determined to dispute When as I know that all are not of one opinion and many thinges may be spoken on both parts That place Math. 20. Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles or of the nations doe rule ouer them the great men exercise power ouer them but ye shall not so Some interpreting it one way of the only apostles and Ministers of the word others
the Prophet in the Psalme 78. ver 70. c. He chose Dauid also his seruant and tooke him from the sheepe foldes euen from behinde the ewes with young brought he him to feede his people in Iacob and his inheritance in Israell So hee fedde them according to the simplicitie of his heart and guided them by the discretion of his handes Princes then being Pastors our Brethren say Pastors are Substitutes of God and haue an office of credite committed vnto them Shall wée therfore thus conclude here with our Brethrens consequence Therfore by no good reason may they make any substitutes in their place or coÌ„mitte their charge vnto another Mought not Dauid substitute his deputies both in the teritories he coÌ„quered froÌ„ other Princes out of the bounds of Israell and make Substitutes Liefetenants of his owne Cities Castles Mought not Iosaphat make Zebadiah a ruler of the house of Iudah for all the kings affaires 2. Chron. 19. v. 11. mought not Pharao make Ioseph his substitute ouer all Aegypt mought not Ahasuerus make Mardocheus his Substitute And Darius Daniel And Artaxerxes Nehemias doth the holy Ghost improue this order of substitutioÌ„ vnder the Emperor Luke 3. v. 1. Now in the fift yeare of the reigne of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being Gouernour of Iudea and Herode tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and of the countrie of Trachonitis and Lysanias the Tetrarch of Abilene Did Christ denie Pilates authoritie to be lawfull because hée was the debitie or substitute of Tiberius or S. Paule not acknowledge Faelix and Festus substitutes of Nero and gouernors of those parties in his absence And is not this also the doctrine of S. Peter 1. Pet. 2. ver 13. 14. Submit your selues vnto all manner ordinance of man for the Lordes sake whether it be vnto the king as vnto the superiour or vnto Gouernours as vnto them thaâ— are sent of him And are not al these againe both the kings substitutes and the kings theÌ„selues the substitutes of God as Iosaphat said vnto his Iudges that he set through out the lande in euery Citie 2. Chron. 19.6 Take heede what ye do for ye execute not the iudgements of man but of the Lord And S. Paul speaking of the Magistrate Rom. 13. ver 1.4 5. saith There is no power but of God c. He is the minister of God c. they are Gods ministers c. and how his ministers but as substitutes may they therefore make no substituts vnder them nor coÌ„mit their charge vnto another This doctrine of our Breth is very dangerous toucheth not only Eccl. Pastors Bish. all appropriations to the Prince or to whoÌ„ soeuer but also toucheth so néere or rather cutteth cleane off all Princes holding of diuerse realmes dominions signiories by what right of conquest gift inheritance or any other neuer so good title they enioy the same Yea and all nobles or any other priuate persons offices and liuings that as they are all of them what soeuer they haue and whosoeuer they be but substitutes of God and haue offices of credite coÌ„mitted vnto them So if they haue any moe offices or liuings than one and in one place they must cleane forsake them giue theÌ„ all vp And why forsooth because they are but substitutes of God and can not make any substitute in their place Now although this doctrine be so dangerous absurde notwithstanding our Brethren to confirme it do procéed The law of man grounded vpoÌ„ good reason alloweth not substitutes of substitutes nor coÌ„mitting ouer of an office of credite in teÌ„porall matters How shall God almightie then take it in good part wheÌ„ the flock of Christ which he hath purchased with his own bloud shal be so greatly neglected to the endangering of their euerlasting saluation Sith I professe not the study of the law of man I referre the discussing of the same to the learned professors of it But it being grounded as our Breth say vpon good reason and but the law of man speaking but of the substitutes of man it séemes no good reason it should ouer-rule those that by the law of God are the substitutes of God of whoÌ„ our Breth before spake And although I gladly yéelde vnto this rule of the law of man being grounded vpoÌ„ good reason yet in my simple reason it shold séeme not to be so absolute a lawe so generall a rule but that it may both by the law of man it selfe grounded vpon as good reason as it by the lawe of God whereunto all the groundes of good reason giue place admit many exceptions that controll it For although in the Courte of Delegates it might haue some place yet in some cases delegates the are but substitutes of the Prince do substitute delegates and other substitutes as commissioners vnder them to search out matters and circumstances and to call before them and examine such persons factes as they their selues being absent can not inquire vpon But what toucheth this the Prince himselfe that maketh these delegates and yet himself is but a delegate vnder God This rule of the law of man Nemo potest glady putestateÌ„ sibi datam vel cuiuslibet alterius coertionis ad aliuÌ„ transferre No man can passe ouer to another the power of the sword that is the autoritie of putting to death or of any other punishmeÌ„t was an ancient rule among the Romanes tendring the libertie life of man and yet al kings Princes to whoÌ„ God hath giuen the power of the sword though their selues be but the substituts of God they make other their substitutes in this power and thereby the iudges euen as substitutes of substitutes do punish offenders and if Iustice so require euen by death Yea and their substitutes also vnder them doe execute the sentence of those substitutes And hath not also the law of man such an expresse exception Vicarius Vicarium constituere non potest ficut nec delegatus delegatum nisi datus esset à principe He that is a Vicar or a Deputie of another cannot appoint another Vicar or Deputie as neither can a Delegate appoint another Delegate except he be giuen of the Prince So that by the Prince he may And therefore it is also saide in the Lawe of man quando committitur aliquid alicui subdelegato cum authoritate subdelegandi tune potest subdelegare alias non When an other thing is committed to any vnder Deligate or substitute with an authority of substituting an other vnder him theÌ„ may he substitute such a substitute or else not And this againe is a coÌ„mon rule of the law of man grounded also vpon good reason Potest quis per aliuÌ„ ê™ potest facere per seipsum That which a man can do by himselfe the same he can doe by an other in his name True it is in some cases
the whole Church but onely such prayers as he his owne selfe eyther hath before hande made and conned by roate or such as without any premeditation or committing to memorie he doth in his head conceaue euen as he vttereth them with his mouth and so at that instant make them this we vtterly deny And not to suspect here wtout good cause that our Breth vnderstand this terme of making publike prayers in this sense not only their wordes here following do plainely expounde their meaning when they saye It apperteyneth to the Pastor to conceaue publike prayers and it is a common phrase among our Brethren that such and such a one is an excellent conceauer meaning that he can make godly prayers but also that they can not away with formall reading as in contempt they call it and a prescribed forme of prayer But to confute this and to proue that a prescribed forme of the diuine seruice for the publike prayers besides the reading of the scriptures in appointed courses and orders is a thing lawefull and profitable First the Iewes had the same before and in and after Christes time not onely as perteyning to the ceremoniall but to the morall lawe for the obedience of the first table perteyning to the worshippe of God Numb 6.22 c. The Lorde spake to Moses saying speake vnto Aaron and to his sonnes saying thus shall ye blesse the children of Israell and say vnto them the Lorde blesse thee and keepe thee the Lorde make his face to shine vpon thee and be mercifull vnto thee the Lorde lift vp his countenance vpon thee and giue thee peace c. And although they had many of their publike prayers beeing mixt with hymnes thankesgiuings not onely sayde but song also yet were they such not only as their selues made or conceaued were they neuer so learned men but such as either Moses or Samuell or Dauid or Esdras or some other Prophete especially appointed thereunto by God had drawen out and prescribed vnto them As may appeare 1. Chron. 9. where after he had shewed ver 22. c. how Dauid and Samuell the feer had established the porters and other officers ver 33. he sayth And these are the singers the chiefe fathers in the Leuites which dâ—elt in the chambers and had none other charge For they had to doe in that businesse day and night And speaking of Dauid who made the most paâ—t of the Psalmes in the 16. Chapter ver 4. And he appointed certaine of the leuites to minister before the Arke of the Lorde and rehearse and thank and praise the Lorde God of Israell And vers 7. Then at that time Dauid did appoint at the beginning to giue thankes to the Lorde By the hande of Asaph and his brethren Whereon sayth the Geneua note Dauid gaue them this psalm to prayse the Lorde signifying that in all our enterprises the name of God ought to bee praysed and called vpon psalme 105. Thus doe our brethren apply these doinges of Dauid vnto our estate And in the 25 chapter ver 2. He mencioneth those that were vnder the hande of Asaph which sang prophesies by the commission of the king Thus did Asaph then set foorth the publike prayers endited prescribed by Dauid Although he as diuers think conceiued made many psalms and Prayers and prescribed then to others Likewise 2. chron 29. verse 27. And Ezekiah commaunded to offer the burnt offering vpon the Alter and when the burnt offering began the song of the Lorde beganne with the trumpets and the instruments of Dauid king of Israell and all the congregation worshipped singing a song c. All which orders and formes of publique prayer at the Diuine seruice though the Iewes afterward corrupted Esdras after the captiuitie recollected set againe in order Which though they were eftsoones corrupted and intermingled especially with the Pharisees traditions yet til and in the time of Christe they had at the diuine seruice the ordinary courses of reading the Lawe and Prophets as appeareth by S. Luke 4. vers 16.17 c. Where the booke of the Prophet Esay was deliuered to Christ. And by that saying in the person of Abraham to the rich glutton they haue Moses and the prophets let theÌ„ hear them Luke 16.29 Which Paule testifieth in his sermon to the Antiochians Acts. 13.27 For the inhabitants of Ierusalem and their rulers because they knewe him not nor yet the wordes of the prophets which are read euery saboth day c. And that this was the auntient order Iames the byshop of Ierusalem in the determination of that famous assembly holden by the Apostles Act. 15. ver 20. sayth For Moses of olde time hath in euery city them that preach him sithe that hee is reade in the synagogues euery sabboth day And heere also is the publique reading called a preaching With which exercises they especially adioyned the reading also of the Psalmes and other solemn publique prayers of the Scripture For which principal cause Christ saith of the Temple Math. 21.13 It is written mine house shall bee called the house of prayer c. And Act. 3. Peter and Iohn went vp together into the Temple at the ninth hower of prayer Which orders were of Christe so little improoued that not onelie as Luke declareth cap. 11.1 that one of the Disciples sayde vnto him Maister teach vs to pray as Iohn also taught his disciples desiring that they might haue some prescribed form of praier set downe vnto them but that also Iohn baptist had taught some forme to his Disciples Which request Christe did so little mislike that he himselfe also taught his Disciples among other preceptes a prescribed forme of prayer which the Euangelists wrotte and all Christians doe vse as the Lordes prescription Which is a strong warrant vnto vs that so long as all formes of prayers are according to that platforme of prayer they may most safely be prescribed For it serueth not only for priuate but for publike prayer Nowe although besides this onely forme of prayer prescribed by Christ we finde no form set out that the apostles or the primitiue church immediately after them did vse or prescribe to be vsed because they hauing that full measure of the spirite of God namely the Apostles Euangelistes Prophets Bishops Pastors and Elders yea the moste of all the faythfull people in these dayes so that they might well make conceiue their publique prayers before the Congregation euen as the spirite of God suggested in their heart gaue them vtterance in their mouths yet because that in the publike assemblies the Apostles prescribed the writteÌ„ scriptures to be read as Col. 4. ver 16. And wâ—en this epistle is read of you cause that it be read in the church of the Laodiceans also that ye likewise read the Epistle writâ—en from Laodicea and as they vsed that so no doubt did they vse to read in their publike assemblies the
vs all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we came and the Lord did cast out before vs al the people euen the Ammorites which dwelt in the land therfore wil wee also serue the lorde for he is our God c. Was this also a disordered and confused noise and yet the speeche of al the people For we reade not here of any speaker in their names nor any necessitie driueth so to imagine If it bee replied these were not publike praiers What of that were they not the publike speeches of the Congregation and coulde these publike speeches of all or manie without confusion be orderlie vttered which perhaps were not before premeditated and can not much better without any disorder or confusion some such publique praiers Psalmes or short responses as they are often acquainted withall or as their bookes leade them if they can reade or as their Pastor saith before them in bréefe sentences But for publike praiers too how often is it mentioned in the booke of the Iudges that the children of Israel when they were oppressed of their enimies They cried vnto the lorde Iud. 3. ver 9. 15. Iud. 4 verse 3. Iud. 6. verse 6. 7. Were these cries no praiers or were these prayers not as well publike as priuate Or did God refuse to heare them as a confused noyse or rather did he not like these cries as a sweete harmonie and sent them helpers But that their cries were not lamentations onely but confession of their sinnes and prayers it appeareth Iud. 10. verse 10. Then the children of Israell cried vnto the lorde saying we hauâ— sinned against thee euen because we haue forsaken our owne God and haue serued Baalim And when God layde before them howe often he had deliuered them bad them Goe try vnto the God which yee haue chosen let them saue you in the time of your tribulation ver 14. 15. The Children of Israel saide vnto the lord we haue sinned doe thou vnto vs whatsoeuer please thee onely we pray thee to deliuer vs this day Which publike praiers of them with the déedes following in putting away their Idols were such orderlie and effectuall prayers that God raised them vp another helper Likewise Iud. â—1 2 When they had almost destroyed the tribe of Beniamin for their wickednes The people came vnto the house of God abode there til euen before God lifting vp their voices wept with great lamentatioÌ„ said O Lord God of Israel why is this com to passe in Israel that this day one tribe of Israell should want Againe when Samuel had shewed the people their sinne in asking to haue a king 1. Sam 12. And the Lorde had sent thunder according to Samuels saying ver 19. Al the people said vnto Samuell pray for thy seruants vnto the L. tâ—y God that we die not for we haue sinned in asking vs a king besides all our other sinnes And how often doth Dauid in his Psalms stir vp all the people not only to sing but also to confesse their sins to cal vpoÌ„ to praise his name and to declare his workes in the Congregation and in these actions to ioine all their voices together and would he not exhort them if it were a disorder and confusion When Solomon made his praier in the temple which hee had new builded besought God to heare the praiers that should be made in the same among other things he saith 1. kin 8.37 c. When there shal be famine in the land when there shall be pâ—stilence when there shall be blasting mildâ—we Grashopper or Caterpiller when their enimies shall besiege them in the Cities of the lande or anie plague or anie sicknesse then what praier and supplication soeuer shall bee made of any man or of al thy people Israel when euery one shal know the plague of his owne heart and stretche foorth his handes in this house heare thou him in Heauen c. Wherein hee speaketh not onely of the priuate praier of any man but of the publike praier made by all the people Heare thou then in heauen their prayer and their supplication and iudge their cause If they sinne against thee for there is no man that sinneth not and thou be angry with them and deliuer them vnto the enimies so that they carry them away prisoners into the lâ—nde of the enimies eyther farre or neere yet if they turne agayne wich their heart in the lande to the which they bee carried away Captiues and returne and pray vnto thee in the lande of them that carried them away Captiues saying VVee haue sinned wee haue transgressed and haue done wickedlie c. Then heare thou their prayers and their supplication in Heauen thy dwelling place and iudge their cause and bee mercifull vnto the people that haue sinned against thee c. For they bee thy people and thine inheritaunce which thou broughtest out of Aegypt from the middest of the yron fornace Let thine eyes bee open vnto the prayer of thy seruaunt and vnto the Prayer of thy people Israel to hearken vnto them in all that they call for vnto thee c. So that hee speaketh not heere of anye one man praying in the name of the people but bothe of euerye one whosoeuer and iointlie of all the peoples prayers vnto God Which if they had not vsed so to praye or hee had thought GOD would haue accounted those publique praiers that all the people iointlie withall their voices made a disordered and confused noise hee woulde neuer haue made this solemne prayer for them What confusion and disorder of voices was this at the praier of Elias 1. Reg. 18. verse 39. All the people when they sawe the fire to fall from heauen and consume the burnt offering fell on their faces and sayde the Lorde is God the Lorde is God It may be thought that at the reedifying of the Temple in this number of voices there was then some confusion of them For when as in the first of Esdras the thirde chap. verse 1. it is sayde that the people assembles them-selues as one man vnto Ierusalem It followeth verse 10. c. And when the builders layde the foundation of the Temple of the Lorde they appointed the Preestes in their apparell with Trumpettes and the leuites the sonnes of Asaph with Cimballes to prayse the lorde after the ordinaâ—â—e of Dauid king of Israel Thus they sang when they gaue prayse and when they gaue 〈◊〉 vnto the lorde For hee is good for his mercie endureth euer towardes Israel Where withall we see the former point of the prescribed forme of Prayers And all the people showted with a great showte when they praysed the Lorde because the foundation of the house of the lorde was layde And many also of the Prieâ—â—es and leuites and the cheefe of the Fathers auncieÌ„t mâ—Ì„ which had seene the first house when the foundation of
to her children And againe 105. a. the kingdome of the Burgundians is the first section from Gondengus alias Gondochius or Gondebundus vntill Clotildis placed in matrimonie to Clodoueus vnto whom succeded heyres suruiuing Gondebaldus and Gondesigillus But to Gondebaldus succeeded Sigisimundus who beeing slayne the scepter of the kingdom came to Clotildis and to her posteritie But whē as vnto Clotildis and vnto her posteritie succeeded a great many children the kingdome of Burgundie flewe among them with doubtfull fethers which must needes fall out that at the length the kingdome of Burgundie should come to the last suruiuer which should be only called the Monarch of the Gaules And all this fell out after Pharamundus about the time of Clodoueus who was the first Frenche king that was Christened by the meanes of this his wife Clotildis frō whose issue succéeded the line of the Merouingians of Meroueus grand-father to Clodoueus and by affinitie as Aimonius witnesseth that is through title of kindred by his wife the successor of Clodio Pharamundus son so that againe all the line of the Merouingians came by the woman Which line of the Merouingians continued till Charles Martell the Father of Pipine and Grandfather to Charles the great In whose stocke both Burgundie and the regiment of all Fraunce continued vntill the time of Hughe Capete who gaue the same vnto his brother it being not long before abased by Lotharius from the state of a kingdome to a dukedome for his contumelious striking of an Arch-bishop But now sayth Caenalis after that the inheritaunce of the Burgundian dukedome came to the French kinges ye shall scarse finde concerning the race of the Princes of the Burgundians where ye may safely fixe your foote euen vntill the time of S. Loyes and that chiefely by reason of women S. Loyes had Agnes or Agnet his daughter Duchesse of Burgundie whom not long time after Lewes surnamed Hutin succeding married Philip surnamed the fayre married Margaret ennobled by the ftocke of Burgundie Then followed Ioane giuen in mariage to Philip the long Whom straight-way followed Blanch Duches of Burgundie ioyned in mariage to Charles the fayrer that succeeded Philip the long After whome Philip of Valoys following married Ioane Duchesse of Burgundie This Philip gotte the crowne of France from Edwarde the 3. King of Englande By whose meanes this Salike law against the inheritance of the female was first vnder the name of Pharamunde deuised Vppon pretence as the fame went that a certaine Queene of France cast her fancie on a Butcher as Iohannes Methensis witnesseth and married him For detestation of which fact they made the Salike lawe that no woman should after that inherite the kingdome of Fraunce And although Gaguinus to defeate king Edwardes title alleage that euerie one of the thrée sonnes of Philip the faire both Lewes Hutin and Philip the long Charles the fayre had all issue besides the other daughters that he mentioneth of Philip le Beau yet sithe it is apparant that of none of all those issued any heyres male or female how could Philip of Valoys pretende from his Vncle Philip S. Lewes sonne which Philip was Father to Isabel Edwarde the thirde his mother to bereaue Isabell and her sonne Edwarde of this right but vnder pretence only of this deuised lawe Which lawe as we haue séene by Caenalis owne confession taking no place in Burgundie the Burgundians and the Frankes following one condition of inheritaunce it followeth that this lawe Salike is but a méere deuise and that in searching the practise wée finde all cleane contrarie And as the inheritance of Burgundie went thus vntill that time that this deuise was hatched so hath it gone since For although Caenalis when he commeth to Charles Carolese or rather Careles which last was flaine by the Switzers sayth who when hee wanted an heyre male by the vertue of the Salike lawe the Dukedome of Burgundie came to the kinges of Fraunce euen vntill this day I much maruell what face Caenalis durst so constantly auouch this thing sithe all Christendome knoweth that although the French King scambled for his share and gotte a parte thereof in that time of hauocke yet Maximilian the Emperour marying afterwarde the daughter and heyre obteyned by her the right and title of that inheritance By which it is most cleare that these two estates of France and Burgundie the one following in inheritance the condition of the other that as Burgundie notwithstanding any Salike lawe admitteth the inheritance of the woman so should France also Yea and by reason of this house of Burgundie hath title come by the woman also euen to the crowne of Fraunce The which Caenalis himselfe can not denie For sayth he fol. 106. a. speaking of Philip the long whom he calleth the Brother he should say the sonne of Philip the faire he succeded his elder brother Lewes surnamed Hutin that is as some interpret it troublesome or brawling vnto whom Margaret the sister of Robert Duke of Burgundie was maried Of whom Hutine begat Ioane which Ioane was maried vnto the Earle of Eureux and to the king of Nauarre Whereupon controuersie arose betweene the Duke of Burgundie and Philip he meaneth Philip of Valoys which of a regent was created king about the yeare 1316. by reason of which Ioan the Scepter was staide to be diuolued to the Duke of Burgundie brother of Ioan. But the lawe Salike directlie withstood this sentence How beit the mariage of Ioan daughter of Philip whome the Duke of Burgundie tooke to his wife brake off that strife But because this Ioane Hutines daughter had no issue Edwarde therefore came still before the Duke of Burgundie And yet had this Duke carried it away euen by affinitie for all the lawe Salike had not the matter béene otherwise composed And Caenalis reckoning vp the Genealogie of the Earles of Burgundie comming from Otto he sayth Otto begat Ioane the French Queene and Queene of Nauarre the Ladie of the countrye Palatine of Burgundie whom Philip the French king chose to his wife of which mariage issued Lewes the french King and his 2. sonne Philip Earle Palatine of Burgundie c. Ioane had daughter Elisa or Elisabeth maried to Robert Duke of Burgundie about the yeare 1306. Lewes the French king and of Nauarre begat the Earle of Poyters Palatin of Burgundie and Lorde of Salinople not long after French king This Philip of whom we haue spoken begat Margaret enriched with a triple Earledome of Flaunders of Artoys and of Burgundie c. Thus doth Caenalis in prosecuting these pedegrées of these Princes declare withall what inheritances also came to them with women that vnto the French king besides Britanie diuerse other Prouinces by mariages of the heires female Yea what title to the French crowne himself had Pipine but on the mothers side As Caenalis is faine to confesse though he would turne
any Princes somewhat giuen to learning and to godlinesse they deride them Verily this Woman behaued not herself after this manner And therefore as Christe hath forespoken it in the last day he shall iudge them She came to tempt Solomon but not with a pernitious temptation Yea rather with a holie and an honest temptation wherewith shee desired to be enstructed of those things whereof she was ignorant Aenigmata hard sentences properly are called very obscure allegories which are rare in vse the which in dayly speeche doe well-neere alwayes come in vse which are easie But in this place by harde sentences we vnderstande doubtfull and difficult questions which mightily occupy the minde not about light businesse or euery kinde of matters but about great and graue pointes appertaining both to eternall life and also to the ciuile gouernment The Hebrue Worde as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to sharpen from whence the Noune beeing deducted betokeneth an oration or obscure question To the exposition whereof it behooueth to apply the sharpenesse of the witte It is likely that the Queene had aâ— home Philosophers Magitians and wise men which concerning humaine and naturall matters coulde haue easily aunswered her But concerning Diuine and supernaturall matters sithe that in them there is neede of the spirite and of diuine reuelation they were not able to satisfie her VVhereupon shee trauailed her selfe vnto Hierusalem in the which Citye GOD had placed not onely the Castle of Wisdome and pure religion but also Solomon of all Kings the moste wise Thus at large writeth Peter Martyr in the commendation of this noble Queene Whereby it appeareth that not onely shee was for worldly estate a mighty Queene not vnder her husband in that respect but aboue him and hee had shee any but her deputie vnder her in her absence albeit shée was inferior to him in the bandes of matrimony and inferior in sexe to all the men in her Monarchie but also that for religion though her people were Idolaters yet was shée a professor of the onely true and liuing God and euen one of Gods elected if we may aduenture to iudge so farre on such excellent fruits and not only a figure of bringing the Gentiles to the knowledge of God but a verie mirror and Patern for al Christians specially Christian Princes to set before them And if she be such a spectable to all Christian Princes and shall bee also a iudge to a great many of them mought not shée or such another as shee haue beene the Queene or chéefe gouernor also euen ouer the people of God and would she not haue gouerned them farre better than many or most of their kings did And verily Solomon doth no lesse estéeme of this moste excellent Lady that came thus vnto him then the goodnesse of the cause that mooued her did deserue Did he repell her out of his kingdome as a Monster For so vnaduisedly Caluine said all prudent men haue alwayes repudiated or put back the gouernment of Women as it were of a Monster Or did he mislike any whit of her the more for her supreme GouernmeÌ„t ouer men We find no such matter But that hee receiued her with all honour and heard her speake vnto him whatsoeuer she had in her hart and Solomon declared vnto her all her questions not one word was hidden from the king that he declared not vnto her And had hee misliked her estate that she being but a woman shold rule meÌ„ shold busy her head about such high questions and meddle with the administration of a common-weal and be the cheefe gouernor of a kingdome if he had thought this to bee directly or indirectly against Gods Lawe or against the Lawe of nature since she came especially to heare Gods Law and to conferre about such matters no doubt he would neuer haue concealed that matter aboue all other but haue reproued her or haue gently perswaded her at least take it how she would haue truly enformed her of the vnlawfulnes and vndecency of her calling Which thing sith he did it not yet neither he nor shee dissembled or flattered the one with the other I cannot tel what other men wil iuge quot capita tot sententiae so many heads so many wittes surely my dull wit cannot conceiue but that it is a mighty argument to confirm the supreme gouernment of a woman Neither ground I mine argument so much on Solomons doings or approbations but that the holy ghost also hath so farre allowed thereof that he hath consecrated the same both to perpetuall memory and to profitable example and therefore cannot this gouernment bee debarred euen from the people of God Especially being also approued and recommended to al Christians by our L and Sauiour Iesus Christ. Mat. 12.24 Luk. 11.31 in plaine tearmes calling her the Queene of the south not the monster or vsurper of the south Countries And here because our question of womens publike gouernment arose on womens publike speaking let vs sée also how this most excellent Qu. behaued herself in her publiâ—e speaking For after she had propounded al her questions was satisfied in his answeres to them after she had beholden al his wisdome his house that he had builded the meat of his table and the sitting of his seruants the order of his ministers their apparel his drinking vessels his burnt offerings which hee offered in the house of the L she was exceedingly astonished and said vnto him It was a true word that I heard in mine owne land of thy sayings and of thy wisdom Howbeit I beleeued not this report till I came and had seene it with mine eyes But loe the one halfe was not tolde mee For thou haste more VVisdom and prosperity than I haue heard by report Happy are thy men happy are these thy seruaunts which stande euer before thee and heare thy VVisedome Blessed bee the Lorde thy God which loueth thee to set thee on the Throne of Israel Because the Lorde loued Israel for euer made thee the king to doe equitie and righteousnesse These wordes though she spake especially to him yet as shee spake them publiquely in the audience of his subiectes for so her wordes import happy are these thy seruauntes that stande before thee and heare thy wisedome So therein shee conteineth notable matter And being before so publike a person both a king and a Prophet and before the assembly of his Court and of her troupe shee breaketh foorth into the function of a greate Prophetesse The Queen saith Peter Martyr on these foresayde wordes being no lesse Godly than prudent placeth the cheefest good neyther in power nor in riches nor in pleasure but in the knowledge of God which shoulde be had in his Worde and not onely by the contemplation of naturall thinges The Sonne of God brought foorthe this selfe same sentence but somewhat more augmented and more clearely expounded Blessed
sayde hee are they that heare the Worde of God and keepe the same that is doe not suffer it easily to fall from them but expresse it both in their factes and workes After this shee referreth all the good thinges of Solomon vnto God Which example of her it becommeth vs also to imitate For while wee beholde the good workes of Godly men it behooueth that we glorify our heauenly Father For it is a vitious thing to stay our selues in the causes inferiour when wee ought alwayes to ascend to the highest that is vnto God the founteine the heade and beginning of all good thinges But sayth she God which hath delighted him-selfe in thee or which hath loued thee She teacheth that so many and so great things hapned not to Solomon of his deseruinges and his vertues it was the meere goodnesse and clemency of God that had so greatly ennobled Solomon Shee amplifieth the benefit giuen vnto him of God that he had gotten a kingdome and that not of any Nation whatsoeuer but of the people of Israel whome she testifieth that God had loued perpetually But if ye shall demaund from whence shee coulde knowe these thinges that God esteemed the Israelites so much I answere that the deliuerance out of Aegypt which consisted of so many and so great wonders was known almoste to all the southerne and the Easterne prouinces VVhich also were not ignoraunt that Israel was brought into the possession of the Lande of Chanaan by the helpe of God they knewe also the actes of Dauid prosperouslye atchieued who the Lorde beeing his guide with greate might and many victories obteyned Syria euen vnto the riuer Euphrates At length shée toucheth the ende wherefore the King was placed of God ouer that people that is to witte that he shoulde do iustice and iudgement That is he should gouern them with right and equity Thus doth this notable Quéene not onely set foorth the publike praises of God In the presence of so wise a King but as it were presume to teach him at leaste wise to confirme him in the most speciall pointes of a Princes supreme Gouernment And therefore she her selfe being also taught and confirmed mutually by the wisdome of him was not ignoraunt of the lawfulnesse of her state nor how to gouerne her people accordingly Nowe although this example doe not yet prooue that there was any Queene the cheefe gouernor ouer Gods people yet sith as Peter Martyr sayth shee tooke this iourny that shee might get not onely to her selfe but also to her people sounde religion and sincere Godlinesse If this her good purpose were not frustrated but tooke such effect that many of her subiectes both of the very great traine that came with her and saw and hearde the wisedome of Solomon likewise and of her other subiects at home to whom she related no doubt that she had séene and heard abroad whereby many are thought to haue beléeued as she did in the onely true and liuing God then may we safely say though shee were neither Queen of Iuda nor of Israel yet was shée a Queene ouer Gods people though not ouer that people of God And this also being a secrete folded vp signifying the calling of the Gentiles which were to gather themselues to Christe the true Solomon What doth the vnfolding of this secrete infer to haue the thing signified aunswere to the signe but that those Gentiles that should be conuerted to the true Solomon Iesus Christ which is the wisdom of God and Prince of peace all true glory should come to him become his people as well by the trauell and vnder the gouernment of Queenes being their supreme gouernors as this Quéene was as vnder the supreme gouernment of any kings And that as Martyr well obserueth in this respect also as of Gods elections ther is no difference of persons before God so much lesse of sexe Male or Female as heere wee sée by the notable example of this Queene By this example it is plain that although there were no good Queene like this queene of the Southe that had the cheefe gouernment ouer Gods people during that state of their Kinges in Iurie and Israel before the captiuitie yet sithe Solomon one of the best Kinges among them doth thus allowe it in other Nations therefore De iure it had not béene vnlawfull among the people of God if De facto they had had occasion of Womens lawefull inheriting of that state Though they had it also de facto in Athalia where in Iurie de iure it appertained not vnto her And yet in that disturbed state of the Iewes that succéeded their returne out of captiuity we are not destitute of another example of Alexandra whome Iosephus and other histories doe recorde True it is shee was not of the right line of Dauid and Solomon nor of the tribe of Iuda but of the tribe of Leui and descended from the Machabees which not long before had mightily defended the Iewes and therfore they gaue to their posterity this honour of the cheefe gouernment of them Albeit the Scepter was not yet cleane taken from the tribe of Iuda in whome the iurisdiction of the Sanedrin did continue And although the Pharisees at that time bare the greatest sway and Alexandra the title and the dignity insomuch that Iosephus saith lib. 13. antiq Iud. cap. 22. The Queen only the royall name but the Pharises possessed all the power c. Yet notwithstanding in those dangerous times all that was done but for a policy which her husband Alexander taught her on his death bed for the more assurāce of their state and preseruation of their children Which counsel Alexandra following she gouerned very politikely And therefore of all the Chroniclers that mention her she is reckoned in the number of their lawfull Princes and nine yeares so reigned ouer Gods people that shee deserued not by Danaeus to be wittingly buried in obliuion Danaeus his next example is of the Amazones Which sith I accord also that it was an ill state of gouernment in murdring and expelling of men from the whole affaires of the cōmonweale and from liuing among them though I take it not to be altogether fabulous but that there were in-déede such Women and had such gouernment I therfore passe it ouer without further aunswere as I did before to the like obiection of Caenalis Howbeit this we may say that if they had not so misused themselues but giuen that honour vnto the Man which by the Lawe of God and nature is due vnto the dignity of his sexe in the societie of Matrimony had not violated the mans prerogatiue Then if the right of gouerning those regions had falne to a Woman I sée not why it had not bene as lawful there as in Ethiopia Sabaea Iurie or in any other kingdomes aboue specified But saith Danaeus as though this that hee alleaged of the Amazones were not to the matter Let vs
by the name of a King he vnderstandeth euery such Gouernor and Duke or guide as Moses was such an one also as was Iosue to conclude such as were the Iudges that were afterwardes raysed vp And it is taken in that sense Deut. 33. 5. The scripture therefore woulde shewe that there was at those times no guide that should gouerne all the Hebrues and restrayne them into order and admonish them of their duety as Moses and Iosue had done and whome all the Hebrues woulde heare and obey Finally that should so holde all the tribes in their dutifulnes that he should execute reuenge on violence publikely committed and punish both whoredomes and Idolatries Whereupon it came to passe that rather euery tribe yea and euery of the Cities also and besides that euery priuate person committed euery where many things that were horrible to be spoken of which were not publikely reuenged For that most beautifull face of the holy common weale which shined in the times of Moses and Iosue was for the moste part so decayed that notwithstanding it was not vtterly extinguished For there remayned in euery City their owne Iudges and Elders to witte the Chiliarkes the Centurions c. As appeareth Iudg. 9. 6. Where mention is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col Baale shichm ve col Beth millo Of all the Lordes in French 〈◊〉 gnieurs as our Br. cal these Elders or seniors gouernors or as it were Lordings of Sichem of the family or kindred of Millo that is of the Princes of the cities that gouerned the same and of the whole assembly of the Citizens of the Sichemites for so I interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth Millo and out of the tenth chap. ver 18. where it is said the whol people that is all the citizens heads of the families of Gilead it selfe together also with the princes of Gilead said euery one to his neighbor c. And in the 11. ch v. 8. The selfe same princes are called the Seniors or Elders of Gilead As also ch 8.14 The same to be called the princes of the Succothites And these things are also better apparāt out of Rut. 4. These kind of princes or Eld. did so flatter the people that they pretermitted many things perteining to their office which sufficiently appeareth by the whole history of the Iudges Whereupon is manifest that the Lorde was so offended with the peoples Idolatries that he often admonished the people by the prophets at length corrected them also by the Chananites Thus writeth Bertram euen of the first state of al these gouerning seniors and of all their senates and assemblies immediatly after Moses and Iosues time and in the time of Phinees that was liuing euen when that was done which our Bret. these Learned Discoursers cite out of Num. 11 16. for the Institution of the seniors Sanedrin that they would bring in to rule now ouer vs and say That our sauiour Christ in that word Congregation Dic ecclesia alludeth vnto the assembly of Elders that was among the Iewes which they called but corruptly of a Greeke worde Synedrion which signifieth a counsell or consistory sanhedrin which had the hearing and determining of all weighty and difficult matters amōg the Iewes the like wherof he willed to be established in his church for administration of gouernment For seeing it was first instituted by God for gouernment of his church in the old Law as hath bin shewed before out of Num. 11.16 Althogh it was shamefully abused by the wicked Iewes our Sauiour Christe translateth it into his Church in the new Testament Here was indéed some corruptiō in some of those officers that flattered the people but the orders and the offices remaining as yet intire This then is the state of gouernment that in plain expresse terms our Brethren would so fayne haue vs and all the Church of Christe reduced vnto So that vnder a name and colour other-where of Eccl. Seniors wee may heere moste euidently sée what Deciniers what Fiftinaries what Centurions what Chiliarkes these Tetrarkes would be yea which is farre aboue all this if they would be like the Seniory of the 70 what principalitie they aspire vnto and in what matters of weight and gouernment those gouernors would gouern like Princes hauing litle common-weales of their owne in euery town city or prouince And might not this full quickly bréed as horrible factes and foule a stirre as was heere betweene the Beniamites and the Israelites If they reply it woulde not so hauing a generall Gouernour which the Israelites did then want And what would they haue Iudges also as they had tohelp this inconueniēce because Caluine and Danaeus would not haue the Iurisdictions of Magistrates go by inheritance but by election And this Bertrame that likeneth these auncient Iudges to Dictators after he hath shewed howe those Iudges also did degenerate and that when the people called for a King hee sayth that Samuell taking it greeuously referred it to the Lorde who comforted his prophet and bids him diswade the people from this purpose Proposito Regis iure plane tyrannico Laying foorth the right or Lawe of a King playne tyrannicall Thus doth Bertram also esteeme not of the abuse but of the Lawe or right of a King all to recommend vnto vs that first policy and Gouernment of the Iewes Nowe whereas Bertram here mentioneth that the Prouinces tribes came together ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to the assembly which he calleth againe Seu Concionem vniuersalē populi Dei The Congregation or Concion vniuersall of Gods people which was of 400000 in which generall Concion the Leuite made his complaint to the people of his iniury of this Concion let vs sée also what Carolus Sigonius writeth Who althogh he be otherwise an aduersarie therfore not of credit or authority in our controuersies yet in this matter not litigious betwéen them vs and he both commended and his promise of this argument expected by this Bertram let vs at least wise see him so far forth as he truely clearly gathereth his collections out of the holy scriptures or out of the testimonies of other ancient vnsuspected authors wherein we cannot iustly except against him In his booke De rep Hebraebrum li. 6. c. 2. de consiliis he saith Counsels thē I cal those assemblies that chiefly decreed those things which conteined the state of the whole cōmonweal as the war the peace the victuals the bounds the institutiō of laws the creatiō of magistrates such things as are of that sort The which is nothing else but to dispute of a singular profit that could not be comprehended in the lawe But these Counsels as in other common weales so also in that of the Iews were two For either they were entred into of all in common or seperatly of a few and those of such as were the auncienter in yeares If they were of all
was burned by the Romanes and they sate in Hamih But it was not lawfull De Capite agere to deale with matters of life and death except in Gazith As it is Deut. 17. And thou shalt doâ— according to the worde of the mouth that they shall shewe vnto thee out of that place And againe Thou shalt arise and go vp to that place At the last al these Iudges also were againe killed of the Romanes And these thinges verelie haue the Thalmudists who chalenge to themselues an assured knowledge of these thinges whereof Petrus Galatinus is the Authour But vnto those thinges which they haue written hauing founde them out as it were with their eyes we adioyne these thinges out of the holie Treasuries of the newe and olde Testament and besides out of the Monuments of Iosephus by the which wee shall lay foorth the institution confirmation right and power of this Councel First of al therfore it appeareth that this tribunal or iudgment seate was ordeined of God that from the iudgement of the iudges they should come to the council of the seniors and of the preestes as it is written 17. Deut. For Moses speaketh there by the praescription of God vnto the people But if so bee thou shalt perceiue a difficult and doubtful iudgement to be before thee betweene bloude and bloud cause and cause Lepry and not Lepry and thou shalt see the Iudgements of the iudges within thy gates To vâ—ry arise and goe vp vnto the place which the Lorde thy God shall choose that thou mightest there call vpon his name And thou shalt come to the priestes of the Leuiticall stocke and to him that shal be Iudge for that time and thou shalt aske it of them Who shall shewe vnto thee the trueth of the Iudgement And thou shalt do whatsâ—euer they shall say that rule the place which the Lord shall choose and they shall teach thee his Lawe and thou shalt follow their sentence Neither shalt thou swarue from it to the right hande nor to the left And whatsoâ—uer shal be proude refusing to obey the Preestes commaundement which at that time ministreth vnto the Lorde his God that man by the decree of the Iudge shall dye Out of these it appeareth that this Iudgement was committed to the king to the preestes and to the Elders of the people For they were the cheefe that ruled the place that the Lorde had chosen Iosephus therefore doth so rehearse this lawe that he maketh cheefe mention of the senate For then he wrot But if the Iudges want knowledge to pronounce of the matters brought before them let them sende the whole cause into the holie City and the Bishop and the Prophet and the Senate shall pronounce that that seemeth vnto them But afterward Moses nameth the Iudges them selues whome we haue spoken of preests saying in the 19. chapter If a lying witnesse shall stande against a man accusing him of trespasse they shall both of them stande before the Lorde and before the preestes and before the Iudges that shall bee in those dayes But Iosephus citeth it of the preestes themselues in his second booke to Appion when as he wrote The Preestes were ordeined of Moses the viewers of all thinges the Iudges of the controuersies the punishers of the condemned Moreouer Moses him-selfe in the counsell tooke knowledge or hearing of his cause that gathered stickes on the sabboth Leuit. 15. For so saith Philo. 3. De vita Mosu They tooke the man brought him to the Prince about whome in the Counsell sat the Preestes but all the multitude was present on the Sabboth day to heare them But Moses not knowing what punishment the maÌ„ deserued asked counsel of God who answered that he should be stoned to death By this it appeareth that all the parties that sat in this Sanedrin except the Kings and the Princes persons were Teachers of the Lawe and and word of God Yea in al the other inferior Seniories they were noble men that onely were ioyned to the Teachers But as Moses ordeined this tribunall so afterward Iosaphat King of Iuda ordeined as he also confirmed the iudgements in the cities For thus it is written in the seconde of Paral. He appointed also in Ierusalem Leuites and Preestes and Patriarches out of Israel that they should iudge the cause of the Lord to the inhabiters thereof and commanded them saying thus shal ye do in the feare of the Lord faithfully and with a perfect heart Euery cause that shall come vnto you of your Brethren which dwell in their cities betweene kindred kindred wheresoeuer the Question of the Lawe of the ceremonies of the iustification in the Greek translation it is of the precept commandement iustifications and iudgements He declared vnto them that they should not offend against the L. And leaste wrath should come vpon you and vpon your Brethren Doing thus therefore yee shall not sinne But Anainas your B. shal gouern in those things which pertain to God Zabadias the sonne of Israel which is Capten in the tribe of Iuda shall bee ouer those workes which pertaine to the offices of the king The Masters in Greeke the Scribes The Leuites shall be before them Into this counsell therefore as it appeareth there entred the king with the Princes of the people and the 70. seniors of the people and the Bishop with the princes of the preestes the scribes that is the doctors of the Lawe as is easy to see out of the Gospels where the iudgement made on Christ is treated vpon Wherefore Ioseph of Arimathia a senator or noble decurion the same man being a partaker of the councell for it is written that he gaue not his assent with the other to the condemnation of Christ. But I call them the Princes of the Preestes which in 24. formes of the Preestes euery one of them ruled in euery one of their turnes but the Scribes I call them that were the doctors of the Lawe whome Iosephus called Propheâ—s Afterward the Councell in the transmigration of Babilon being destroyed when the Iewes being returned into their countrie the residue of their institutions were restored the power of Iudging in the Councel was also giuen vnto the preestes Which thing Ezechiel cap. 44. did fore-warne by the commaundement of Goâ— saying The Preestes shall teach my people what difference there is betweene holy and prophane and they shal Iudge vnto them betweene impure and pure and they shall endeuour them-selues that they may iudge about the iudgement of bloud and they shall iustify my iustifications and iudge my iudgements and they shall keepe my lawes and my preceps in all my feast dayes that is they shall take notice of causes of religion and of capitall matters that is of life and death and they shall iustify men that is absolue them and iudge men that is condemne them euen as I haue prescribed in the Lawe to be done where I
haue declared who are worthy of pardon and who of punishment But some there are that thinke this counsell to haue beene chosen out of the family of Dauid and that they were afterward taken away of Herod the King Which if it bee so whether the wordes of the Psalme sung as S. Athanasius witnesseth in the restoring of the City of Ierusalem may be referred thereunto because there that is in Ierusalem sate the seates vnto iudgement the seates vpon the house of Dauid that is the seate out of the house of Dauid But eyther the King or the Bishop called this counsel according as the crime brought before them eyther touched the City or Religion But the order of executing the matter was almoste in this manner He that desired to put vp the name of another for the moste part came eyther to the king or to the Bishop or to the Princes and declared the guilty party Which done they sent Ministers to take the man And if the matter required they added a band also receiued from the gouernour of the Temple And hauing brought him they kept him for the moste part eyther in prison or in souldiers custody vntill iudgement passed on him The whole Councell beeing afterward called together they gaue them-selues to the vnderstanding of the matter As for the crime and the punishment was of the accusant called vpon in these wordes The Iudgement of death is due to this man because hee hath done this or that But the Defendant repelled it with these wordes The Iudgement of death is not due to this man because hee hath not done it or because hee hath doone it righteously But when the cause hath beene throughly pleaded vpon then were the suffrages or voyces giuen of the iudges and either hee was condemned or absolued according to the number of the sentences But when the matter was brought to the Romaynes the onely condemnation was left to the Councell but the the punishment was taken away but permitted vnto the Roman procurator Which hapned in the iudgement of Christe For the Councell condemned Christe and adiudged him to death But the people being stirred vp of the Councell demaunded of Pilate the Procurator that he might be crucified he gaue iudgement that it should so be done The forme of laying the accusation or of repelling the crime as in the 26 of Hieremie the preestes and the prophetes spake vnto the princes of Iuda saying the iudgement of death is vnto this man because he hath prophecied against this City And the princes sayde vnto the preestes the iudgement of death is not vnto this man because he hath spoken vnto vs in the name of the Lorde our God A forme of the condemnation is in S. Math. 26. Beholde now yee haue heard blasphemie what seemeth it to you and they answering sayde he is guilty of death the which thing Marke saith Who all of them condemned him to bee guilty of death but these things which we haue spoken shall all be more cleare knowne if euery one of the iudementes made after this order whereof record is left in writing shall be shewed foorth And here he proceedeth to the manifolde testimonies and examples hereof in the Scripture and in Iosephus but especially in the newe testament By al which it appeareth for this Senate or council of the 70 Seniors which after the Iewes mixture with the Graecians of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was corruptly called Sanedrin what persons they were except the King and the Princes all of them either preestes or teachers of the Lawes of God And how they sat but in one and the heade Citie assistant with the King and the princes in al matters of plea and controuersie of Lands goods of warre and peace of life and death c. Nor the King coulde rule these matters without them and that their autority herein grewe not so much by the late corruptions as it was rather thereby abridged in the age of Christe by the Romaynes and by Herod If nowe our Learned discoursing Brethren shall reiect all these so industrious collections of Sigonius as an aduersary what proofes reasons and authorities soeuer he auouch let vs then sée howe farre foorth Bertram also doth confirme it For besides that which wee haue alleaged out of him for the original and the first practise thereof before the gouernment of the Kings after the negligence of Saule speaking of Dauid chap. 10. Page 56. he saith Moreouer Dauid restored the municipall iudgementes altogether into their auncient order Howbeit but about the last times of his reigne because that being hindred with warres and diuers businesses hee was content with those Iudgementes which for a greate part beeing decayed perseuered but litle constantly in euery of the Cities and tribes euen from the times of Iosue vntill then But yet so that the more waighty causes especially the appeales were referred to him as it appeareth out of 2. Sam. 15.2 But at the length he also restored this part of the common weale so that vnto the Leuites reckoned vp he established to be firm their changable and vncerteine offices both in the holy or Ecclesiasticall policy and also in the ciuill In the ciuill policie hee is saide to haue appointed out of the Leuites 6000. Iudges and praefectes or Gouernors Out of the Leuites the Iudges and praefectes were assumed for this reason That first there shoulde bee certayne out of the Leuites which should bee assistors or sitters together with the ordinary and municipall iudges that were called seniors Who some-times also De plane vt Vulgo loquuntur Iudicarent de rebus leuioribus shoulde Iudge after a playne sorte as is the common saying of the lighter matters such as were the pecuniarie either they alone or taking some one vnto them of the Seniors of the place or City And moreouer that there should also be some other which should execute the matters adiudged Or else that which is indeed the more likely they that were the Assisors of the ordinarie Iudges who also their selues tooke notice of the pecuniarie matters iudged them and executed the matter it selfe that they had iudged He ordained therefore that Chanenias and his sonnes or his posterity should be designed for iudges and Prefects for the outward worke that is to saie for the outward holie offices that we necessarie for the making of sacrifices in the house of the Lord or Tabernacle in Israel that is among the Israelites that dwelt on this side Iordan except the Tribes of Iuda Beniamin and Simeon The number of these is nor prescribed He also ordained out of the Hebronites Hasabias and his brethren that they should gouerne the Western coasts side-long or on the side of Iordan that is on the hether-hand Iordan as well in the businesse of the Lord as in the seruice or ministerie or obeisance of the king In French Pour le seruice du Roy that is in the
businesses or affaires appertaining to the Royall administration or ciuill policie as shall afterward appeare This Westerne coast contained the Tribe of Iuda Beniamin and Simeon Which Tribes of those that are on this hand Iordan doo lie Westward The other which are attributed to Israel are Northerne Hasabias his brethren are accounted 1700 Hee ordeined also that out of the Hebronites the brethren or the next a kinne of Ierias the Prince of all his familie to the nuÌ„ber of 1700. should gouerne the Rubenites the Gadites and the halfe Tribe of Manasses For euerie matter of God that is Ecclesiasticall and for the matter of the ning that is the ciuill Of the same familie therefore were adhibited to gouerne the Church and to gouerne the ciuill policie neuerthesse in such sort that there was no confusion and permixture as it appeateth out of those things that were restored of Iosaphat It seemeth therefore that then and from thence vpward euen to the times of Iosue there were certaine Ecclesiastical assemblies of the Leuites at euerie one of the Synagogues of euerie one of the Cities or verely at tho e cities which were proper to the Leuites as in the 15. chap. we shall more at large declare Thus was the state againe rightly restored to the originall as Bertran sayth in Dauids time and that by his industrie and supreme authoritie Wherein we see what those Seniors onely were that here medled not onelie with Ecclesiasticall but ciuill gouernment to wit all of them Leuites And such as might teach the lawe For the other which were the Elders of other Tribes dealt onelie in ciuill-matters except the Prince alone that had the principall charge ouer both the Tables though not to execute yet to sée executed by the persons competent in both founctions as wel the Ecclesiasticall as the ciuill policie And thus as Dauid did dispose the regiment of these Seniors a little before his death so no doubte but that his sonne Salomon did all his life obserue it After whome sayth Bertram concluding that Chapter In the time of Ieroboam the iudgementes began to degenerate especiallie after the Empire was diuided But entering againe into a fresh reâ—toring thereof in the 11. Chapter he procéedeth saying Iosaphat hauing taken possession of the kingdome proceeded both in restoring the Ecclesiasticall and ciuile policie To this purpose therefore hee thought it verie expedient if first of all he remoued the high places and the groues as a little after wee shall throughlie handle it And then that he should send fiue of his Princes Beuchail Abdias Zacharias Nathaniel and Micheas vnto whom he adioined two of the Priests and nine Leuites And he sent them throughout all the Cities of the kingdome of Iuda c. beginning at Beer-sheba and ending at the mount of the Tribe of Ephraim to reclaim his people to the worship of God To confirme this he is said to haue ordained Iudges in all the defenced Cities Citie by Citie that is in euerie of the Cities or for Citie and Citie City He placed the iudgement in the chiefeft Cities to the which iudgementes the causes of the lesser Cities Pages and Ilandes should be referred These Iudges are to be taken in that manner as they were instituted at Hierusalem to wit Ecclesiasticall ciuile So that they appointed ciuil iudgements out of the Seniors of euerie Citie and the Leuites are sayd to be adhibited to be the gouernours vnto either of the iudgements to wit after the same manner whereby Dauid hadde assigned them to that office as appeareth out of the ende of the Chapter Hee also ordained Iudges at Ierusalem out of the Leuites and the Priests and heads of the Fathers of Israel partlie for the iudgementes of the Lord that is the Ecclesiasticall partlie also for plea that is for the ciuile iudgement In these words the two iudgements to wit the Ecclesiasticall and the ciuile are distinguished The ciuil as it seemeth to consist on the heades of the Fathers of the people seemeth to bee the Synedrion of the three score and ten Elders In those heads of the Fathers we may place the Priests and the Leuites for the institution of the seauentie themselues had their gouernours which were the Leuites But those seuentie were not now taken out of those seuentie families of whome we spake before But of those onelie that were vnder the dominion of Iosaphat Wherevpon also at the length they were chosen out of the onelie house and familie of Dauid As concerning those Iudges being chosen are sayde to returne vnto Ierusalem This may bee so vnderstoode that leauing the allottmeÌ„t of their Tribe those Iudges came to abide at Ierusalem or that they vsed to meete at Ierusalem where the iudgement was to be entered It is likely that the Ecclesiasticall iudgement did then consist of the Priests and Leuites onely These two iudgements were the chiefe and principal whereunto the more difficult causes were referred as the Lorde had commaunded in the Lawe For the King in his exhortation set foorth vnto the same Iudges confirmeth this sufficientlie while hee sayth And yee shall iudge euerie strife which shall come from your Brethren that dwell in their Cities c. The matter of either iudgemeÌ„t may seem to be al one but in a diuerse respect that is to wit Ecclesiasticall and ciuil according as in the same cause somewhat was Ecclesiasticall somewhat ciuil as in a pawne deuided c. Moreouer the high Priest was sometimes demaunded concerning the Law that it might at length bee determined concerning the fact To conclude as these iudgements were the highest they had at Ierusalem their municipal iudgement which seemeth to appertain to the king and to his officers or rather to the Chiliarks Centurions c. of that territorie Notwithstanding so that the whole iurisdiction should be subiect to either of those iudgements By these things therfore this King seemeth rather than anie other iudge or King to haue come néere to the naturall institution of the Lawe prescribed concerning this matter Heere againe doe we sée a cléere example of that Seniory which Caluine and our Brethr. doe so much vrge drawing néerest to that verie institution of the old lawe without the corruption that they except against And they saith Bertram that were the gouernours of the supreme ciuil iudgemeÌ„t do seeme for the same cause to be those which with the later kings are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sarim that is princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chorim that is Patricians or noble Fathers That these Princes wer out of the heads of the Fathers and out of the ordinarie Iudges it appeareth out of the things aforesayde and especiallie out of these things that are declared in this restitution of Iosaphat yea rather out of the Prophets often reprehensions beeing so conuerted and composed to these Princes that they altogether respect their iudgements Verilie of this so greate Empire or
Magistrates for we will not speake of Sergius Paulus Proconsull of Cyprus because he was but a Liefetenant of the Romane Emperour this authoritie was proper vnto the Synode If Donatistes Anabaptistes or Papistes had repeted this reason I would lesse haue marueiled For this argument is the common refuge of all these three most pernitious Heretikes and enemies to the authoritie of the ciuill Christian Magistrate When the Emperours made lawes against the Donatistes and they vsed this reason against the Emperours Saint Augustine aunswereth them thus Non inuenitur c. There is not founde an example in the Euangelicall and Apostolicall writinges that any thing was craued of the Kinges of the earth for the Church against the enemies of the Church who denieth that it is not founde But as yet that prophecie was not fulfilled And nowe ye kinges vnderstande and bee yee learned that iudge the earth serue the Lorde in feare For as yet that was fulfilled which is sayde a little before in the same psalme Wherefore did the Gentiles fret and the people imagine vaine thinges The Kinges of the earth and the Princes came together in one against the Lorde and against his Christe or his annointed Neuerthelesse if the factes forepassed in the propheticall bookes were figures of thinges to come in that King which is called Nabuchodonozor eyther of the times was figured both that which the Church had vnder the Apostles and that it nowe hath In the time therefore of the Apostles and martyrs that was fulfilled which was figured when the King whome wee haue mentioned did compell the Godly and the iust to worship Images and commaunded them that refused to bee casâ— into the flambes But now is that fulfilled which a little after was figured in the same King when as hee beeing conuerted to honour the true God decreed in his kingdome that whosoeuer blasphemed the God of Sydrak Misak and Abednago shoulde suffer due punishmentes The former time therefore of that King did signify the former times of the infidell Kings which the Christians suffered for the wicked But the later time of that king did signify the times of the later Kinges that are nowe faythfull which the wicked suffer for the Christians Thus sayth S. Augustine against the Donatistes that vsed this argument against the Lawes and decrees of the Emperors that in the Apostles times there were no Christian Princes that Christ appointed not Princes but Preachers to meddle in matters of Religion and at this day the Papistes and Anabaptistes furbish ouer a fresh the same arguments and will our Brethren nowe gather vp once again the off-scourings of these their rotten reasons to furnish their Learned Discourse of their Pastors and Elders in their assemblies and Synodes against the lawfull authoritie in Ecclesiasticall matters of the ciuil Christian Magistrate But wee haue scene this reason before sufficiently confuted by Gellius Snecanus a principall fauorite of our Brethren to whose further confutations I remit them Who confuteth also this exception of Paulus Sergius which namely heere our Brethren put backe and will not admitte But their reason is ouer weake Because hee was but a liefetenant of the Romayne Emperour For if he were the Emperors Lifetenant he represented to them where he was liefetenant the cheef authoritie of the Emperour himselfe euen as much as Pilato Festus or Felix did in Iurie And if the people did obey him before hee was a Christian did his Christianitie among those people that were conuerâ—ed likewise ouer whome he still gouerned diminish his authoritie but what meane they heereby doe they reiect all argumentes for proofe of the authoritie of the ciuill Christian Magistrate if they bee not as meere Monarkes as was the Emperor what an aduantage were this giuen to the Anabaptists and what a number of Snecanus examples were hereby defeated And yet doth not this argument holde that because this authoritie was proper to the Synode before there were any Christian Magistrates and â—o the Synode then decreed all such caeremonial constitutions without yea agaynst the consent of the ciuill magistrate because as they say there were not then any Christian Magistrates that yet it so remayneth still proper to the Synode to decree all such caeremonial constitutions without yea against the Ciuill Magistrate being now become a Christian Magistrate But they can-not doe so nowe the state of the Prince being the principall partie ouer them and agreeing in faith with them as they could do them or rather could do them otherwise So that all the case is cleane altered by this so great an alteration And nowe if they will not haue the ciuill Christian Magistrate to decree any such caeremonial constitutions without and against the Pastors consent is it meete the Pastors shoulde on the other side decree any such constitutions without and against the consent of the ciuil Christian Magistrate what an arrogancie were this in them and what an iniurie offered to the ciuil Christian Magistrate But as they can shewe no such Caeremoniall Constitution in force among vs made by our gracious souereigne against or without the consent of sufficient store of our Learned Bishops and Pastors so they can shewe none made by our Learned Bishops and Pastors whereby the Church of England must bee gouerned without the consent of our moste Christian soueraigne and cheefe Magistrate No God forbid that euer we should contend with so godly a Prince And would God our Brethren would not so farre presume herein hauing such a blessed Prince of her Maiestie as they and wee haue to contend thus to get vnto them selues the only or cheefe authoritie to call Synodes to decree caeremoniall constitutions to prescribe lawes to frame modilles and to lay plot-fourmes of Ecclesiasticall regiment and Christian Discipline to set foorth newe bookes of Common Prayer of the diuine seruice and administring Sacraments of ordeining Ministers of making new maners of marying of Excommunicating the offenders by new gouernors of burying the dead without all accustomed orders of altering parishes of deposing B. of making al Past. to be equall of bringing in new officers of disposing al the Clergies liuings yea of limitting the authority of the ciuil Christian magistrate and commending al these things vnto the subiects in the title of Learned Discourses and faithfull ministers and to do all this and many thinges mo besides those that yet wee see not so plainly opened both without and against the consent and authoritie of their moste dread and Christian Soueraigne yea verilie to her greate greefe and no small daunger both of her royall estate and person But as though all were cleare and safe our Brethren still go on against the ciuil Christian Magistrates authoritie saying Which authoritie we knowe to bee graunted to the Church by our Sauiour Christe practized by his Apostles continued by their successors three hundred yeres before there was any Chrisâ—ian Emperors
for we receiue not Philip for a Christian Emperour and long time after there were Christian Emperours euen as long as any puritie continued in Religion vntill both Emperours and Synodes were thrust out of all lawfull authoritie which they ought to haue in the Church by the tyranny of Antichriste I graunt the Synodall authoritie to bee graunted to the church by our Sauiour Christe to be practized by his Apostles and to bee continued by their successors three hundred yeares not before there were any Christian Emperours but before there were any such Christian Emperors as onelie proclaimed the maintenaunce and profession of the Christian faith as Constantine his successors did For Constantius Chlorus the Father of this Constantine the great is commended by Eusebius lib. 8. cap. 14. in these wordes Not long after Constantius the Emperor passing all others throughout his life in clemencie and goodnesse towardes his subiectes singularly affected towardes Gods worde ended according to the Lawe of nature the common race of his mortall life Leauing behinde him his naturall sonne Constantinus Emperour and Caesar to supplie his room And was first related of them meaning the Heathen into the number of the Gods Enioying after his death all imperiall honor and dignitie due to his person In his life hee was moste benigne and of most bountifull soueraignty among all the Emperours who alone of all the Emperors in our time gouerned most gratiously and honourablie during the whole tearme of his reigne shewing humanity and bountifulnesse vnto all men no partaker by anie meanes with any presumptuous sedition raysed agaynst vs hee garded the Godly about him in securitie without sentence of gilt and without all contumelye hee destroyed no Churches hee practized no impietye that mighte bee preiudiciall to oure Religion He obtayned a blessed life and an end thrise happy He being Emperour alone ended this life both gloriously and peaceably in the presence of his naturall sonne and successour who also was moste prudent and Religious His Sonne Constantinus beeing proclaymed full Emperour and Caesar by the armie and long before by God him selfe the vniuersall King became a follower of his Fathers pietie in Christian religion All this his commendation writeth Eusebius who was also liuing in his dayes And to confirme this he telleth also lib. 1. De vita Constantini cap. 11 Howe he fayned that he woulde put all the Christians which would professe their religion out of their offices and preferre the Paganes But when they which were Godlie Christians gaue vp their offices and chose rather to leaue their honors then to leaue their profession of the Christian fayth hee embrased them and those which offered to deny Christe to kéepe their dignities hee vtterly remooued from his person affirming that they woulde neuer be faithfull to the Prince which were vnfaithfull to God Whereby it appeareth that he was a true and Godly Christian Emperor Whereupon Eusebius concludeth that not onely he himself but his subiects also did enioy by him a pleasaunt conuersation in holinesse and deuotion towardes God Hee banished out of his Court Idolaters and dissemblers in religion and hee receiued and iudged those moste worthie to bee about an Emperour which confessed Gods trueth commaunding such to haue the guard both of his person and Dominion Hee serued and worshipped the onely true God Hee condemned the multitude of the Gods that the wicked had Hee fortified his house with the prayers of holy and faythfull men and hee did so consecrate his pallace to the seruice of God that his housholde was a congregation within his pallace hauing Gods Ministers and whatsoeuer is requisite for a Christian Congregation And although our Brethren peremptorily doe say wee receyue not Philip for a Christian Emperour yet wee haue hearde howe Eusebius telleth that though at the first hee was not of the Church of Christe so receyued by reason of his notorious sinnes neuerthelesse on his repentaunce and confession hee was at length receyued into the assemblie of the Christians at Rome euen as a Christian and of consequent as a Christian Emperour except the Christians woulde haue denied him to bee Emperour because hee was become a Christian. In-déede hée coulde not such was the iniquitie of the time then make open profession of his Christianitie or if he began it he was too soone cut off But this impediment was no debarre vnto his right if hee had had such time and occasion as had Constantine But had there bene no Christian Emperors before Constantine the great yet were there in other Countries mo Christian Princes besides those that were the Emperours of Rome yea to goe no further than this our owne Countrie was not here King Lucius a Christian besides other Christian Princes after him To which Lucius also as wee finde in aunciâ—nt recordâ— thereof a letter was written by Eleutherius Bishop of Rome anno Dom. 202. in these wordes following You required that we should sende you the Romane and Emperiall lawes that you might vse them in your kingdome of Brytannie But those lawes we may disprooue and not the lawes of God You haue of late through the goodnesse of GOD receaued in your kingdome the fayth and lawe of Christe you haue there in your kingdome both the Testamentes out of them by the grace of God and the aduice of your Realme take you a lawe and thereby Gouerne patiently your kingdome You are in your kingdome the Vicar of God according to the saying of the kingly Prophet The earth is the Lordes and his fulnesse is the whole worlde and all the dwellers therein And againe thou hast loued righteousnesse and hated iniquitie wherefore GOD euen thy God hath annoynted thee with the oyle of gladnesse abâ—ue thy fellowes They are the kinges children Christian Nations and people of your kingdome that liue and consist vnder your protection peace and kingdome according to the scripture euâ—n as the Henne gathereth her chickensvnder her winges The people and Nations of the kingdome of Brytannie is yours Such as are deuided you shoulde gather them together vnto the lawes of Christe vnto his holie â—hurch vnto peace and concorde And you should cherish mayntaine protect gouerne and defend them from the iniurious from the malitious and from the enemies of them VVoe to that kingdome whose king as a chilâ—e and the Princes eaâ—e early in the mourning I do not call the king a child for his youth and minoritie but for his follie iniquitie and madnesse according to the kingly Prophet the bloudthirstie and deceitfull men shall not liue out halfe their dayes By eating we shall vnderstande gluttonie by gluttonie luxurie by luxurie all silth wickednesse and mischiefe as sayth king Salomon wisdome will not enter into a malitious soule nor inhabite in a bodie thrall to sinne A King hath his name of gouerning and not of his kingdome So long shall you be a King as you rule well Otherwise you shall not so be
that the Apostles desired not such thinges of the kinges of the earth they consider not that then it was another time and that all things are to be done in their times For what Emperour did then beleeue in Christ that might serue him in making lawes for pietie against impietie where as yet that propheticall saying was fulfilled why did the Gentiles frette and the people imagine vaine thinges the kinges of the eartâ— stoode vppe and the Princes came together against the Lorde and against his Christ. But as yet that was not done â—hich in the same Psalme is sayde a little after and now yee kiâ—ges vnderstande bee yee wise that iudge the earth serue the Lorde with feare and reioyce vnto him with trembling Howe then doe kinges serue the Lorde with feare but in forbidding with a religious seueritie and in punishing those thinges that are doone contrarie to the commaundementes of the Lorde For hee serueth otherwise for that he is a man and otherwise for that hee is a king For that he is a man he serueth in liuing faythfully But for that he is also a king he serueth in enacting with a conuenient vigor lawes that commaunde iust thinges and forbid the contrarie Euen as Ezechias serued in destroying the groaues and temples of the Idolles and those high places that were builded contrarie to the commaundements of God Euen as Iosias serued he also dooing the same things Euen as the king of the Niniuits serued in compelling the whole Citie to pacifie God Euen as Darius serued in giuing it vnto Daniel into his power to breake the Idoll and in casting his enemies to the Lyons Euen as Nabuchodonozer serued of whom wee haue alreadi spoken in forbidding by a terrible lawe all that were placed in his kingdome from blaspheming God In this therfore kings do serue the Lord so farre forth as they be kinges when they do those things to serue him that none but kinges can doe Sith kinges therefore did not as yet serue the L. in the Apostles times but as yet did imagine vaine thinges against God and against his Christ that all the foretellings of the Prophets should be fulfilled impieties could not then indeede be forbidden by lawes but rather be exercised For so was the order of the times rowled about that both the Iewes killed the preachers of Christe thinking they did a dutie to God as Christ foretold and the Gentiles fretted against Christ and the Martyrs patience ouercame them all But when thaâ— began to bee fulfilled which was written and all the kinges of the earth shall worship him and all Nations shall serue him what man that is sober in his wit can say to kinges Haue not you care in your kingdome of whom the Church of your Lord is holden or is oppugned It perteineth not in your kingdome vnto you who will bee eyther religious or sacrilegious vnto whom it cannot be sayde it pertayneth not vnto you in your kingdome who will be shamefast who will be vnshamefast For when free choyse is giuen of God vnto a man why shoulde adulteries bee punished by lawes and sacrileges be suffered Is it a lighter matter for the soule not to keepe her fayth to God than for a woman not to keepe her faith to her husbande Thus doth Augustine proue that this authoritie of the Christian Magistrates and Monarkes in making constitutions lawes for Eccl. matters as wel as for temporall though it were not accomplished in the Apostles time yet it was prefigured prophecied and promised that it should be afterward fulfilled and in conuenient time it was performed Therefore it remayneth that it be shewed by them that defend that this absolute authoritie is in the ciuill Magistrate by what spirite or reuelation or scripture if there be any that we knowe not for wee would be glad to learne how this authoritie was translated from the Church in which it was once lawfully vested vnto the ciuill Christian Magistrate I knowe none of vs that defendeth that an absolute authoritie is in the ciuill Magistrate And therefore it remayneth not in vs to shewe any thing for that which we defende not If wee defende it let them name the man and shewe the place and let the partie defende himselfe as he can And I would learne of them also by what spirite or reuelation or scripture if there be any that wee knowe not they can so vntruelie burden their so gratious Soueraigne to take vpon her an absolute authoritie Or to sclaunder vs their Brethren that we defend that this absolute authoritie is in the ciuill Magistrate They say they would be glad to learne how this authoritie was translated from the Church in which it was lawfully vested vnto the ciuill Christian Magistrate And can they proue then that the Church was euer lawfully vested with this absolute authoritie For my part I am of contrarie opinion nor euer yet learned for all the Papists harpe much vpon some what the like string that the Churche of God euer had or tooke vpon her any absolute authoritie in any Eccl. matters whatsoeuer and much lesse do I learne that it was translated from the Church vnto the ciuill Christian Magistrates Howbeit I trust they will giue vs leaue to learne thus much as euen Beza himselfe out of the worde of God shall teach vs to be a lawefull authoritie and a needefull of the ciuill Christian Magistrate ioyned with the Synode in these matters Beza in the 5. Chapter of his christian confession in the 15. article afore cited for the Princes calling the generall councels or synodes for making the Presidents or Gouernors of the same first he alleâ—geth some obiections to the contrarie that the Princes gouernment is different from the Ministers of the word And that it is for many causes a most perilous thing to throwe the councels vnder the authoritie of Princes For that thereby the ambition of them that would gratifie Princes is so kindled and on the contrarie the simplicitie of many terrified with the vnwonted presence of the Princes not to speak of that which would God were not true that there haue alwayes bene but fewe Princes that haue bin indued with so much both learning and godlinesse as is necessarily required for the moderating of such actions or that thinke they ought seriously to consider of these matters When as rather by a certaine calamitie of the world as it were fatall they vse to be intentiue either to euery bodie or to hearken rather to the euill than to the good Notwithstanding all these obiections to the contrarie Beza sayth but it seemeth not verie difficult to aunswere these arguments First I iudge that heede must be taken that wee so discerne not the Princes of this worlde from the ministers of the worde that wee shoulde also separate them as though they were prophane Which was the first stâ—ppe whereby the
contayning withall his care industrie in these matters For the which doing the Councell reacknowledgeth the king to deserue the reward of an Apostle because he had performed the office of an Apostle And when al the nobilitie had giueÌ„ vp also their confessions in writing and subscribed openly vnto theÌ„ then the king commanded the Synode to go in hand with the repayring and establishing some forme of eccl discipline saying that the care of a king ought to stretch forth it selfe not to cease till he haue brought the subiects to a full knowledge perfect age in Christ. And as a king ought to bend al his power authoritie to represse the insolencie of the euill and to nourish the common peace tranquillitie euen so ought he much more to studie to labour and be carefull not only to bring his subiectes from errors false religion but also to see theÌ„ instructed taught trayned vp in the truth of the cleare light And hereupon by this his authoritie he maketh a decree coÌ„mandeth the Bishops to sée it put in executioÌ„ that euery time at the receiuing of the coÌ„munioÌ„ al the people together do distinctly with a lowde voice recite the Nicene creede Which being done that the Synode had coÌ„sulted about the orders of their discipline exhibited the same vnto the king he considering the same ratifieth and confirmeth al their doings And first he himselfe and after him all the Synode subscribeth to those orders The like wee read in the Councell of diuerse kinges of Spayne afterwardes Sisenandus that called the fourth Councell of Toledo Chintillanus that called the 5. and 6. Chinaswindus that called the seuenth Reccessinuthus that called the 8.9 and 10. Councels at Toledo Bamba that called the 12. 13. Egita that called the 14.15 and 16. all which kinges of Spayne as they summoned the Councelles their selues and commaunded thâ— Bishops to assemble so they sate in the Councels with them and when the Councels had consulted and agreed vpon any Ecclesiasticall matters thâ—y offred the same to the Prince to be ratified and confirmed This authoritie had the Christian kinges of Spayne not only in gouerning of all the eccl persons but in making together with the Bishops and in ratifying and confirming all their Synodall decrees and constitutions of Eccl. matters And no lesse authoritie had the kings of this our Britannie also in gouerning their Eccl. state by the aduise of the Clergie of their dominion For profe whereof we haue séene the Bishop of Romes owne letter to king Lucius that is reputed to be the first Christian king of Brytannie Who when he wrote to Eleutherius then Bishop of Rome to haue the Romaine and the Imperiall lawes to vse them in his kingdome the Bishop returneth him this aunswere as we haue séene those lawes wee may disprooue but not the lawes of God You haue receaued lately through the goodnesse of God in your kingdome the faith and law of Christ. You haue there in your kingdome both the testamentes out of them by Gods grace and the aduise of your Realme take a Iawe and thereby patiently gouerne your kingdome You are in your kingdome the Vicare of God c. In which wordes hee plaiâ—ely confesseth that the Christian kinges authoritie stretcheth euen to the very making and ordeyning of Ecclesiast lawes with the aduise of the Realme and so withall of the Clergie And that thiâ— supreme authoritie of thâ— king was so practised in this lande not only by Lucius but also by the Christian kinges that succéeded him while the Brittaines had the kingdome which rather were not full kinges but vnder the soueraigntie of the Romaine Emperours which beeing at that time the most of them Paganes the Princes in Brytannie hadde the lesse authoritie whereby there grewe manie corruptions especiallye the Heresie of Pelagianisme in this realme till the Brytaynes were expulsed by the Saxons And therefore what with the oftâ—n warres eyther with the Romaines or with the Pictes or with the Saxons little or no certaine recorde remayneth of anie Councelles helden or of anie Ecclesiasticall Lawes made in the times of those brittish Princes Except we shall account Constantine the great as one of them beeing the sonne of Constantius Chlorus by the most noble and Christian Queene Helena who being excellently learned in the tongues wrote diuerse treatises of Religion and Ecclesiasticall matters of the prouidence of God of the immortalitie of the soule of the rule of godly life c. As Bale reporteth of this Queene of whose husband and sonne we haue heard sufficiently before But to come to the Saxon kinges after they had receaued the faith of Christ for perhaps our Brethren also comprehende them in the name of the Christian Kinges of this our Brytanie William Lambert hath much helped vs in gathering and translating though rather to the sense than to the wordes the auncient lawes of those kinges whereby we also may gather what great authoritie they hadde in these matters who beginning with the Lawes of Kinge Inas setteth them downe in these wordes I Inas by the benefite of God King of the West Saxons through the persuasion and institution of Cenrede my father of Lyedda and Erknwalde my Bishoppes and of all mine Aldermen or Senators and of the most auncient wise men of my people in the great assemblie of the seruauntes of God I studied both for the saluation of our soules and for the conseruation of our kingdome that lawefull contractes of matrimonie and that right iudgementes might be founded and established throughout all our dominion and that hereafter it be not lawfull to any Senator or to any other inhabiting our dominion to breake these our iudgementes This preface béeing made by all their aduice and consentes but as is aforesayde by his authoritie he setteth downe his Lawes in Chapters both for Ecclesiasticall and ciuill matters And first he beginneth with Ecclesiasticall of the forme howe the ministers of God should liue First of all wee commaunde that the Ministers of GOD doe care for and keepe the appointed forme of lyuing And afterwarde wee will that among all our people the lawes and iudgementes be thus holden An infant shal be baptized within 30. daies after it is come forth into the worlde Which thing if it be not done the default shal be punished with the paying of 30. s. but and if it die before it be baptized he shall forfaite all his goods If a bondseruant be put to any seruile worke on the Lordes day his Master shall make him free and his Maister shall paye thirtie shillings but if he did that worke without the commaundement of his Maister the seruaunt shall bee beaten with stripes or at least let him redeeme with a price of money the feare of his beating If a free man labour on this day without his Maisters commaundement let him eyther bee made a bonde
man or paye 60. shillings if a Prieste offende in this behalfe the penaltie shall bee augmented double The first frutes of the seedes shall be paide at Saint Martyns tyde He that then shall not haue payde them shall be fined 40. shillings and besides pay 12. times as much as the frutes come to If any man giltie of death shall flee to the Church he shall enioy his life and make recompence according to right and lawe If anie man haue deserued beating and flee to the Church the beating shall be forgiuen him These arâ— all the Eccl. lawes of Inas which are there sette downe sauing that in the next lawe after the Penaltie of fighting in the Kinges Court he adioyneth also the forfeite of 120. shillinges for fighting in the Church and in the 11. lawe the forfaite of as much to him that bringeth in false witnesse before a Bishop His other lawes are méere ciuill and politike But by these we sée his supreme authoritie euen to the making the decree it selfe of the Ecclesi lawes so well as of the temporall As for the last decree of killing ones gossippe or of the Kings godsonne or of the sonne of a Bishop for Bishops and all the Clergie might then marry are méere temporall The next lawes that Lambert translateth are of that excellent Prince Aluredus Where first he setteth downe the ten commaundementes of Almightie giuen by Moses Exod. 20. and from thence procéedeth to the most of the lawes mentioned in the 21.22 and some in the 23. chapters of Exod. which done he sayth These are the lawes that Almightie GOD himselfe deliuered to Moses to bee kept As for the onely begotten sonne of God our saluation Iesus Christe when hee came into the worlde hee openly declared that hee came not to violate the lawe giuen but with all meekenesse and goodnesse to fulfill it For hee deliuered the discipline of true godlinesse After whome when hee was crucified his Disciples while they were as yet together nor were seuered a sunder to preach the Gospell ioyned vnto Christ manie Nations and sent their legates and Interpreters of the will of God to Antiochia Syria and Cilicia which were conuerted vnto Christ from the bondage of the Gentiles The Apostles and the Elders Brethren sende greeting vnto you For as much as we haue heard that certaine men which departed from vs haue troubled you with wordes and when as they would declare vnto you certaine thinges whereof they had no commaundement from vs they haue rather weakenâ—d your mindes with error than instructed then with sounde and entire doctrine â— it was thought good vnto vs being gathered together to sende vnto you chosen men Barnabas and Paule which haue aduentured their life for Christe together with whome wee haue sent Iudas and Sylas who shall also by wordes declare the same thinges vnto you For it seemed good to the holie Ghoste and to vs to laye vppon you nothing more of necessarie burden than this that ye must abstayne from those thinges that are offered to Idols and from bloud and from that that is strangled and from fornication And that which yee would not haue to be done vnto you ye should not doe the same to others Out of this one precept it euidently appeareth that right must bee rendered to euerie bodie for there needeth no other iudiciall booke saue onely this whosoeuer sitteth beeing a Iudge vppon other that he would not pronounce any other sentence vppon others than he would haue to bee giuen vppon him selfe But where as when the Gospell of GOD was spread abroade manie Nations yea and that the English-men adioyned theyr fayth vnto the worde of God manie assemblyes were made through-out the worlde and also in Englande there were holden meetinges together of the Bishoppes and of other most notable wise men and these men beeing informed of the mercie of God did at the first impose vpon euerie offender a punishment of money and gaue vnto the Magistrates the office of taking the same without all prouocation of offending GOD hauing giuen them pardon before saue onely vppon a Traytor and forsaker of his Lorde they thought not this beeing a milder penaltie to bee inflicted which manner of man they thought good that hee shoulde not bee spared at all both because God woulde haue the dispisers of him-selfe to bee vnwoorthie of all mercie and also for that Christe forgaue not them that were betrayers of him to death but he decreed that the Lorde shoulde bee worshipped before other These men therefore in manie of their assemblies appoynted punishmentes of euerie one of the offences and committed them to the monumentes of writing These sanctions I Alured the king haue gathered together into one and haue put them in writing a great part of which our auncestors kept religously and mee-thinketh that manie of them are woorthie to bee in this age kept of vs with like righteousnesse Notwithstanding some of them which seemed to bee lesse profitable vnto vs I haue by the consultation of wise men prouided partly that they shoulde bee abrogated and partly innouated And because it might bee thought rashnesse for any man to recorde in the monumentes of writing manie of his owne decrees and also it might be vncertaine what credite they shoulde haue with the posteritie which thing we do highly esteeme whatsoeuer thinges I haue founde worthy to be obserued in the actes of my countrey-man Inas of Offa king of the Mercians or of Ethelbert which was the first king of the Englishe men that was baptized I haue collected them all The other I haue vtterly omitted And also in the discerning of these actes I Aluled king of the west Saxons haue vsed the Counsell of the most prudent of our men and they all liked the obseruation of the same to bee sette foorth Thus writeth Alured of his doing both concerning his owne decrees and the decrees of all those kinges his auncestors in these matters which were not onely ciuill and politike but also Ecclesiasticall In all which though he vsed the counsell and aduise of the Clergie and of other learned and wise men yet as he did the action himselfe so hee did it by his owne supreme authoritie and reckoning vp all these other kinges decrees also it argueth that they in their times and dominions had the like authoritie in eccl matters The Eccl. lawes of Alurede are the seconde and the fift of the priuileges of Churches the 6. of robbing Church goods the 8. of violating Nunnes the 16. of teaching them in dissolute manner the 21. of Priests that kill any man the 29. of them that enter into religion being indebted the 39. of the festiuall and solemne dayes After this Alurede his sonne Edwarde surnamed the elder ioyning with Guthrune the Dane king of the east Angles who changing his name at his baptisme was called Athelstane doe sette foorth diuerse Ecclesiasticall Lawes which the
same Guthrune and Allfred had before made but belike not till then sette foorth which lawes were these Before all thinges they enact that one God onely should be honorably and holily worshipped dispising and renouncing all the barbarous worship And then because they certainely knewe that many would not be kept in the boundes of their dutie nor obey the Eccl. discipline without them they prouided humane lawes to be written out and they sette forth the lawes pertayning to Christe in common together with the lawes pertayning to the king that by these the rashnes of them might be restrayned that would not obey the commandements of the Bishop This therefore did they first decree That the peace of the Church within her walles and that the tranquillitie which is deliuered by the hande of the king should be kept godly and inuiolably And so they procéede against them that forsake the Christian fayth Against eccl persons that robbe the Churches that fight or periure themselues or commit fornication c. And against incest If anie being condemned desire to confesse himselfe to the Priest that all doo-earnestly and diligently promote all the lawes of God c. For payment of tithes for the money â—hat then was payde to Rome called the Peter pence for the Church lightes for the plowe almes or as I take it almes giuen by the rate of their plow lande and if any Dane denied or suppressed the diuine rightes or duties Of them that doe their businesses on the Lordes daye of fastinges And iudiciall swearinges on the festiuall dayes and against witches Of those that are entred into orders and are deceaued of their goods Next of these are the lawes of Ethelstane I Ethelstane the king by the prudent Counsell of the Arch-bishop Vlfhelme and of other my Bishoppes doe verie straightly charge and commaunde all the Gouernours that are in my dominion by the holie diuine powers of God and of all the Saintes and for my loue that I beare to them that before all other thinges they paye the iust and due tenthes or tythes of that that is mine owne in proper as well of liuing beastes as of the yearely profites comming of the earth which thing besides mee euerie one of my Bishops Senators and Gouernors shall do c. After Athelstane followeth Edmunde In the solemne feast of Easter king Edmunde did celebrate at London a great assembly as well of the Ecclesiasticall persons as of the Laye in the which were present Oda and the Arch-bishop Wolstane and many other Bishops to consult about the health of their soules and all them that they had care of First they that haue entred into holy orders and of whom the people of God ought to require the example of vertue to followe the same they shall leade their life chastly as the reason of their order shall suffer be they men or women which thing if they shall not doe they shall be punished according to the rules of their orders that is to witte they shall forfeit all their earthly possessions so long as they liue and beeing dead they shall not be buried with holy buriall except that they amended their manners Euery Christian shall religiously pay their tythes and the first fruites of their seedes and the money that is due for the plowe almes He that payeth it not let him be accursed Euerie Bishop at his owne charges shal repaire the house of God and may admonish the king that the other Churches may be decently adorned which is a very necessary matter Whosoeuer forswere themselues or make any barbarous sacrifices except they repent and amend their minde the sooner they shall for euer be debarred of all the diuine seruices I Edmund the King to all that are in my Dominion and power yong and olde doe clearely signify that I haue earnestly inquired of the moste skilfull of my kingdome in the assembly as wel of the Ecclesiasticall as lay persons by what meanes Christendome might be moste aduaunced and it seemed best vnto vs all that we should nourish loue and mutuall good will amongst vs through out all our Dominions for we are all wearie of these continuall fightinges And therefore we ordeyne in this manner And so hee procéedeth to Lawes for these matters After this follow the Lawes of Edgar The Lawes which Edgar the King decreed in the great Senate God to loue and him-selfe to preserue and to benefite all his Lordship or Dominion And so hee also procéedeth to the making of Lawes Eccl. Of the rightes immunities and tithes of the Church Of the manner of their tything to them that haue a place of buriall in the Church Of the times when the tythes of all sortes are due to payde of the Penie to Rome out of euery house Of the Feast dayes and fastings And then he commeth to humaine and politike Lawes Thus did all these Saxon Kinges with the aduice of their Bishops Cleargy make as well Ecclesiasticall Lawes as temporall with the aduice of the Lordes and other their officers temporall And this they did their selues and by their owne authoritie and not onely allowed of that which the Bishops and Cleargie before had decreed All which I alleage not to allowe of all those their Ecclesiasticall decrees for many of the thinges especially in the Kings following were full of superstition and error as by Gods permission the blindnesse of the time then was but I note them onely for the point in question of the Princes authoritie not onely in making Ciuill Lawes for Ecclesiasticall matters but in making Lawes of Ecclesiasticall matters and so in making Ecclesiasticall Lawes themselues And thus it continued heere in Englande till the Danes got the Kingdome Neither did Canutus the Dane take vpon him any whit lesse the dealing in Ecclesiasticall matters than the Saxon Kings had done but rather sheweth it more liuely than all the other as appeareth in the collection of his Lawes as well Ecclesiasticall as temporall The decree that Canutus King of the English men of the Danes and of the Norwayes to the loue of God to his own ornament and to the profit of his people enacted at Winchester on the feast of Mid wintertide or the natiuitie of Christe First that all men shall through out all ages honourablie and aboue all other thinges worship one God And holde religiously the onely Christian religion and loue the king Canutus with all fidelitie and obseruaunce Let vs maintain the temple of God with Godly continuall peace let vs all often frequent it both for the health of our soules and for the encrease and profite of other things for the onely peace of Christ comprehendeth all the Churches and therefore it is meete that all Christians holde the Church in greate worship and honour For the peace of God ought to bee desired and retayned aboue other thinges And next after that the kings peace ought to bee
kept It behooueth therefore that the peace of the Church of God within the walles therof and the tranquilitie deliuered by the hande of the Christian king bee euer cheefely kept firme and inuiolated If any therefore shall violate any of these two Gods Churches and the kinges peace forfetting his Lands he shall be put to death except the king shall pardon his offence c. And if the Churches peace bee broken without man-slaughter let the punishment followe according to the manner of the offence c. It greatly behooueth all Christian men moste religiously to maintayne in peace the holinesse the orders and the places consecrated vnto God and to giue to euerye order his owne dignitie For let euery one knowe at leaste hee that will or may knowe that it is a matter of greate waight and moment which the Preeste must doe â—or the health of the people if so bee hee shall studye to please GOD aright Greate is the sanctifying and more is the sanctifying or consecrating with the which in consecratinge baptisme and the Sacrament of thankes-giuing the Deuill is driuen away Yea the Angelles keepe the holye mysteries and depending on the Diuine prouidence assist the preest so often as he serueth God aright Which thing they do at all times when as the preeste doth humblie from his heart beseeche Christe and begge of him those thinges that are necessarie for the peoples life these men therefore for the fear of God for the dignitie of their order are to bee discerned from other men If therefore anye man shall accuse of any crime a Preeste liuing according to some certayne rule of Religion and if hee witte himselfe to bee cleane thereof let him say Masse if hee dare and with his once receyuing of the sacrament of thankes-giuing hee alone shall dash all the slaunder But if hee shall bee accused by three then receiuing the Communion if so be hee dare and taking with him two other of his owne order hee shall wipe away the suspition of the supposed crime If any man shall accuse with some speciall sclaunder of crime a Deacon liuing after some certayne forme of â—eligion the Deacon shall purge himselfe of the crime by taking two other with him of his own order But if hee haue beene accused thrise he shall purge him selfe with sixe other men of his owne order c. Wee also doe bidde or pray and doe teache all the Ministers of GOD and especially the preestes that they obey GOD and loue cleannesse and auoyde the wrath of GOD and flee from the lake of Hell fire c. Moreouer wee teache and wee pray and in Gods name wee commaunde that no manne can contract mariage with in the sixt decree of kindred neyther yet mary the Widowe of his coosine that was within sixe degrees vnto him neyther that hee mary any that was of kinne to his Wife that hee had before neyther that any Christian mary his Gossippe nor any that is deuorced To conclude hee that hath any care to keepe Gods Lawe and will study to haue his soule saued froÌ„ hell fire let him shunne harlots and keepe him to his onelie wife ioyned vnto him in lawfull mariage and haue no more so long as his wife liueth Let euery man pay vnto God yeerely his rightes and his iust duties orderly let him pay the almes of his plowing the fift day after Easter The tenth of his Cattell at Whitsontide and the tenth of his fruites at Alhollow-tide But if so be that any wil not pay their tenthes in manner as we haue afore-sayd concerning the acre that is tythe-able then let the kinges officer the Bishoppe and the Lorde of the soyle and the seruing preeste of the Churche come together and whether hee will or no deliuer the tenth part to the Churche whereunto it is due and leaue the ninth to him as for the other eyght partes the Lorde of the soyle shall haue the one moytie of them and the Bishoppe of the diocesse shall haue the other be he the Kings man or any Noble mans And in this order he proceedeth to a great number of other Ecclesiasticall matterâ— mingling as in these a great deale I graunt of foul chaffe but good and badde one with anâ—ther all shewe his authoritie in Ecclesiasticall matters But when hee commeth to the nineteenth and so forwarde because the Laws are of better matters I will craue the readers patience further in setting them downe also And let euery Christian man doe all those thinges that are profitable to his saluation Let him applie him-selfe with all his thought and care to the Christian fayth and Religion and whosoeuer will conceiue in his soule and minde those things that are nâ—â—essarie for his saluation as indeede it ought to bee the desire of all men let him prepare his minde to receiue the Sacrament of thankesgiuing at leaste thrise a yeare And if hee will hope to finde fauour let him well bestowe all his wordes and deedes and dispose them orderly let him keepe his othe and fayth giuen moste religiously And let euerie man to the vttermost of his abilitie driue away from the boundes of our Dominion all vnrighteousnesse and hereafter earnestly follow the righteousnes of God both in wordes and deeds and so at the length we shall all bountifully obtain the mercie of God Besides this let vs our selues put that in execution that we commaunde other Let vs alwayes bee of a firme and faythfull minde to God Let vs vpholde his honour with all our forces and abilities and obey his will For what soeuer wee shall doe towardes the Lorde beeing mooued with that faythfulnesse that is ioyned with vertue and our office that shall be to our great aduantage For in this thing God the cheefe ruler and Lorde of all will bee exceeding faythfull vnto vs it standeth vs therefore cheefely vpon that they which are Lordes behaue themselues rightly to their vassailes And wee earnestly admonishe all Christian men that inwardly withall their heart they loue God that religiously they holde the right Christian fayth and that gladly they obey their Diuine Doctors that moste diligently they search the Lawes and Doctrine of God and that they searche for it often and much for their owne commoditie And wee admonish that euery Christian man doe so throughlie learne that at the leaste hee doe well knowe the right Fayth and can say the Lordes Prayer and the Articles of his beleefe For by the one all Christian men doe call vpon God and by the other they professe a right fayth Christe him-selfe did first set foorth the Lordes prayer and taught the same vnto his Disciples Which diuine prayer consisteth of seuen petitions the which whosoeuer shall vtter not faynedlie but from his heart hee conferreth with God him-selfe of all thinges that are necessarie either for the life present or to come But by what meanes can any man heartily pray vnto
and aduise of them that be learned in those matters Neither any good reason nor any ordinaunce of God plaine or not playne in the Scriptures willeth any person taking such aduise leaste of all willeth the Prince on that aduise giuen or taken to thinke that because hee shoulde do nothing without their aduise that he can do nothing without their authority Neither is there any reason or ordinaunce of God in the Scriptures that any which are but aduisers to the prince shoulde fall from aduising him so to incroche vpon him And if I were worthy to aduise princes I would aduise them to take good aduisement howe they aduised themselues by such aduisers and as I am thus aduised mee thinketh it reason And if all princes by heathen wise mens iudgements are so rulers that they are seruantes of the Lawes and of the common wealth why shoulde it bee accounted for any dishonour vnto princes to bee obedient to the Lawes of God their Father and to serue to the commoditie of the Church their Mother It is a greater honour to bee the Sonne of God and the Childe of the Church than to bee a Monarke of all the earth All princes I graunt are such seruauntes of the common wealth not onely by Heathen wise mens iudgementes hut also by all Christian wise mens iudgements too that neuerthelesse their supreme authority in gouerning of the common wealth is not one whit diminished by that seruice And as for their seruice to the Lawes which Lawes either they haue made them selues or were made Lawes before they were made rulers serueth I graunt also to the maintenaunce of those Lawes and to the punishment of the impugners of them howbeit this hindreth not but that princes haue another ruling and not seruing seruice or as wee may well terme it a seruing rule and gouernment besides the conseruing of the Lawes euen to make Lawes as our Brethren haue before confessed And as Saint Augustine excellently well doth say in his 48. epistle ad Vincentium And in his 50. Epistle ad Bonifacium as we haue séene at large before And in his fift Booke De ciuit Dei cap. 24. Hee reckoneth this seruice among the princes cheefest vertues hee sayth that they make their power which they haue to bee a seruaunt vnto the Maiestie of God moste largely to spreade abroad his seruice And of this seruice as Eusebius reporteth in the seconde Booke of Constantines life doth Constantine glory saying I reclaymed mankinde beeing instructed by my seruice or ministery to the religion of the holye Lawe and I caused that the moste blessed fayth shoulde more and more growe vnder a better ruler For I woulde not be vnthankfull especially to neglect my principall seruice which is the thankes that I owe euen of duetie Sith therefore the princes seruice is so high and principall a seruice stretching to the making of Eccl. Lawes and to all these matters which seruice as Saint Augustine sayth Epistola 50. None can doe but princes This seruice is no debarre but rather an aduauncement and prerogatiue of the princes supreme authority in these matters Wee doe not therefore accounte it anie dishonour vnto princes to bee obedient to the Lawes of GOD the Father and serue to the commoditie of the Church their Mother It is rather the greatest honour that in this Worlde and in their royall estate they canne attaine vnto Neyther can any of their subiects Clergie or other compare with them in the supreme degree of that authoritie that onelye Christian princes haue heerein But rather our Brethren woulde abase this authoritie with telling princes they must account no dishonour to obeye the lawes of GOD their Father and serue to the commoditie of the Churche their Mother what lawes of God the Father haue they as yet alleaged either for this matter or for any of their tetrarches that inferre anye of these new Lawes which they all without and besides the authoritie of a prince woulde presse both vpon the prince and vs Or what one thing that beeing better considered serueth to the commoditie of the Churche their and our Mother but rather to the greate disquieting of her in the calme harbour God bee thanked heere in Englande and to the discrediting of her name to all other Churches and peoples rounde about vs and to the great hazarde of her estate amongst vs And is this the way to serue her commoditie If not rather to serue their owne turnes and humors both to the great dishonour of God our father and to the no little damage of the Church our mother besides the dishonour and disobedience of our so gratious Prince with the trouble and endaungering of all the whole Realme But let our Brethren take good héede that they abuse not Princes thus vnder these high titles of God their Father and of the Churche their mother for euen with these termes did the Papistes deceaue Princes and all the world When they sought their owne honour or profite then they alwayes pretended the honouring of God their father and seruing the commoditie of the Church their mother in whose names as Gods and the Churches deputies they tooke on them selues to be honored and their owne commoditie serued both of all Princes and of all people as much if not much more than eyther their father or their mother It is a greater honor say they to be the sonne of God and the child of the Church than to be a Monarke of all the earth And so it is indeede who denieth it and this is also as one of the papists blearing the eyes of princes But any man woman or child neuer so pore or priuate may by the grace of God be so well ynough though he haue no publike auth at all But can not a man be a Monarch though not of al the earth but in his owne dominions be also the Sonne of God and child of the Church and yet with all in his owne Dominions be the supreme gouernor ouer all persons in all matters and causes eccl so wel as temporall Of this honourable subiection to God and his Church Esay prophesieth Chapter 49.23 Kings shall be thy nourssing Fathers and Queenes shall bee thy Nourses They shall worship thee with their faces towards the earth and licke the dust of thy feete and thou shalt knowe that I am the Lorde The Prophet meaneth that Kinges and Queenes shall be so carefull for the preseruation of the Churche that they shall thinke no seruice too base for them so they maye profite the Churche of Christe withall Vnto this honorable subiection the holie ghost exhorteth Princes in the second Psalme after that they haue tried that they preuayle nothing in striuing against the kingdome of Christe Bee nowe therefore wise O yee Kinges bee learned that iudge the earth serue the Lorde with feare and reioyce to him with trembling declaring that it is a ioyfull
seruice to bee obedient to Christe yea to serue God is indeede to reigne And especially it is to bee noted where S. Paule commaundeth prayers and supplications to be made for the conuersion of Kinges vnto the knowledge of the truth and their owne saluation that hee alleageth this reason That wee may lead a quiet peaceable life in al godlinesse and honestie vnder their protection A godlie honest life we may liue vnder enemies of the church and persecutors but a peaceable and quiet life in all godlinesse and honestie onely vnder a Christian prince This thing therefore the Church most humbly desireth of the prince for this end the Church continually prayeth to God for the prince in this respect the Church most obediently submitteth her selfe vnto the prince as a childe to his Nursse that both Prince and people may honor God in this life and after this life reign with Christ euerlastingly We shall nowe haue after these reasons some testimonies of the scripture alleaged but if we shall still holde vs to the point in controuersie whether the Christian prince hath authoritie with the aduise and counsell of his learned clergy to make and set foorth ecclesiasticall decrees and lawes for all persons in his dominion to obserue not one of all these three testimonies here cited out of the scripture do gain-say it yea rather euery one of them doth confirme it The Papistes also alleage this Testimonie of Esay for the superiority of the pope and of the Church ouer all Christian princes and will our Brethren abuse it likewise for their newe clergies authority but who may not see that euen in the resemblaÌ„ces of these metaphors a great authoritie not vnder but ouer the Church is giuen here of God to Christian princes yea eueÌ„ as much in the new testament as was in the olde but by our Brethrens drift they shoulde haue lesse See what an interpretation they make of this prophecye as though the Prophets meaning were altogether to abase the authoritie of Christian princes and not rather cleane contrarie to exalt and extoll it though withall in some respects it be inferiour For except he had called Kinges and Queenes Fathers and Mothers by what neerer title could the Prophet haue called them than Kings to be the nourishing Fathers and Queenes to be the nourishing Mothers of the Church Ioseph was but a nourishing Father vnto Christ and yet sayth the text as well of him as of the Virgine Marie his naturall Mother Luke 2. verse 51. that hee was Subiect vnto them So honorable is the title of a nourishing Father and comprehendeth in it such authoritie Not but that the Princes againe in respect that the Church is the spouse and wife of Christe do humble them selues as Children vnto her And so as they acknowledge God to be their Heauenlie Father they reacknowledge her to bee their mysticall Mother Which not onely they but euerie Ecclesiasticall person also must doe as well and as farre foorth as they though in some other respects the pastors are again spirituall Fathers euen as well to the Princes as to any other of Gods people And so are both the partes of this Prophecie ioyned together that the Princes superioritie is declared in the former part of the sentence Kinges shall bee thy nursing Fathers and Queenes shall bee thy Nurses that neuerthelesse in the other respect they againe bee the Churches Children and therefore it is added They shall worship thee with their Faces towardes the earth and licke the dust of thy feeete But both these partes of prophesy are againe referred to a thirde that followeth And thou shalt knowe that I am the Lorde for they shall not bee ashamed that waite for me As though he sayde to the Church Doe not thou ascribe this vnto thy self but vnto mee by whom and for whom it is done neyther let the Princes bee ashamed as though they did abase them-selues in doing this to thee for they doe it to thee not for thee but for me for whome they waite and haue respect vnto therefore this reciprocall obedience neither of thee to them nor of them to thee for mee shall be anie shame or dishonor either vnto thee or vnto them nor any abasing of their Soueraigne authoritie ouer thee for they shall not bee ashamed that wayte for mee Which last wordes of the sentence our Brethren cleane cut off and leaue out And thus doth Caluine him-selfe expounde the wordes For they shall not be ashamed c. I take this worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a particle causall for it is a continuing speeche which of some is ill cut off and by this argument hee prooueth it to bee equitie that Princes shoulde cheerefully addict them-selues to the Empire of God nor bâ— agreeued to humble themselues before the Church because God doth not suffer them to bee shamed that put their trust in him But hee ioyneth his trueth with our health as though hee should say this shall be an amiable and pleasant subiection c. So that this is no diminishing nor abasing of the Princes authoritie and therefore Caluine also called them before vpon the first words And Kinges shall bee thy noursing Fathers Patrons and Tutors Whereupon sayth hee it is to bee noted that a certayne singular matter is heere required of Princes besides the vulgar profession of the fayth because authoritie and power is of God giuen vnto them that they shoulde defend and procure the glorie of God This in-deede pertayneth vnto all but Kinges howe much greater their power is so much the more ought they to employ them-selues and more studiouslie to haue care thereof And this is the reason why Dauid by name calleth on them exhorteth them to be wise and serue â—he Lorde and kisse the Sonne Heereupon it appeareth howe madde their dotages are which affirme that Kinges can-not bee Christian except they renounce that office For these thinges were fulfilled vnder Christe when as by thâ— preaching of the Gospell Kinges beeing conuerted vnto GOD they atteyned vnto this moste noble degree of dignity wherewith all kinde of Dominions and principalities are excelled that they shoulde bee the noursing Fathers and Tutors of the Church The papistes doe vnderstande that Kinges are noursing Fathers of the Churche none otherwise then that they haue left vnto their sacrificing preestes and Monkes moste large reuenewes wealthie possessions and wide demaynes by which they are fedde fatte as Hogges in a Stye But this education tendeth to a farre other matter then to glutte such vnsatiable gulfes For neyther treateth hee heere of enritching their houses that vnder a false pretext vaunt them-selues to bee the Churches Ministers which was nothing else but to corrupt the Church of God and to destroy it with deadly poyson but of taking away superstitions of remoouing all wicked and naughty worship of promooting the kingdome of Christe of conseruing the purity of Doctrine of
remoouing offences and of purging the filthes which corrupt Godlinesse and obscure the maiesty of God If nowe the authoritie of the Prince stretcheth it selfe to all these thinges in the name of nourishing the Churche which is farre aboue all bodilie nourishment or mayntenaunce of liuing then is not the Christian princes authority abased any whit thereby in the making of Ecclesiasticall Lawes for these Eccl. matters but much more confirmed and encreased so that the prophetes meaning was not as our Br. heere say the prophet meaneth that kinges and Queenes shall bee so carefull for the preseruation of the Church that they shall think no seruice too base for them so they may profite the Churche of Christe withall For it is no proâ—iâ—â— at all vnto the Churche for princes to abase them-selues as they haue done vnto the Pope and his Ministers who no lesse shamefully abused 〈◊〉 prophesy than the Princes simplie in beleeuing of them did thinke indeede no seruice too base for them that they might as they thought profit the Church of Christe withall But the prophetes meaning was rather of twayne besides the comforting of the Church to foretell not onely the Princes honorable reuerencing of the Church but also that by their exaltation greate authoritie aboue it they shoulde becom of persecutors as it were euen parents to it But now if this testimonie wil not serue to make Princes stoupe vnto their bent they haue another at hand Vnto this honorable subiection say they the holy Ghost exhorteth princes in the 2. psalme after that they haue tried that they preuayl nothing in striuing against the kingdome of Christe Be nowe therefore wise O yee kinges bee learned that Iudge the earth serue the Lord with feare and reioyce to him with trembling declaring that it is a ioyful seruice to be obedient to Christ yea to serue God is indeede to reigne Our Brethren where they shoulde yet nâ—wâ— at length according to their promise wâ—en all their other tetrarcheâ— were serâ—ied haue declared vnto vs howe farre the Princes authoritie in the gouernment of Eccl. matters stretcheth they are nowe altogether fallen from describing vnto vs the Princes authoritie of which God wot wee haue hearde full litle yet to the descriptâ—â—n all of the Princes subiection For although they commende it with the name of honourable yet still it is but subiection that they speake of not authoritie Albeit I graunt this is moste true that it is a ioyfull seruice to bee obedient to Christe yea to serue God is indeede to reigne better than to reigne in any worldly kingdome without Gods seruice and therefore the holy ghoste â—oth well therein exhort those Princes which haue tried that they preuayl nothing in striuing against the kingdome of Christ to be wise and learned and to serue the Lorde But let our Br. withall remember this that they abuse not this exhortation of the holy ghost spoken to those Princes that resisted Christs kingdome by applying it here altogether to the Princes that we speak of that only are true Christian Princes haue already subiected their kingdoms to Christs kingdom For nowe we enquire of godly Princes what auth they haue by Christ allowed theÌ„ in the gouerning of his kingdoÌ„ Otherwise if they apply this sentence thus as though her Maiestie in not submitting herself and her auth to these their decrees orders did as yet resist the kingdome of Christe they offer her Maiestie no small 〈◊〉 nor she may well abase her authoritie so farre nor any other Christian Prince that hath subiected his kingdome to the obedience of the kingdome of Christe as her Maiestie God bee praysed hath doâ—nâ— Not but that I graunt there is still an vse of this exhortation euen to all Princes neuer so godly to continue in this Wisedome learning and seruice of the Lorde But her Maiestie God be praysed being wise and Learned indeede hath Learned and found out a great diffâ—rencâ— betwéen thâ— seruing of the Lorde himselfe and the seruing of the seruaunts of the Lorde For although there bee a seruice that the Prince oweth to them also in respect that they in their diuine seruice of Gods worde and Sacraments represent God yet the Princes being also the seruaunts of God as they again represent him in their seruice so their seruice is such a high and supreme gouernment as set the verie action of the spiritual seruanâ—s diuine seruice aside they are all inferiour to the Princes seruice and in some respects not onely Subiects but seruaunts also to their Princes and not the Princes seruaunts vnto them Yea euen in those diuine seruices which the Ministers Stewards or seruants of God professe the Christian Princes being also the Ministers and seruaunts of God haue an higher seruice ministerie and Stewardship in the general ouer-sight of those particular ouer-seers to ouer-see and ouer-rule them to doe their dueties and with their aduise and counsell deuising and determining what is fittest to make lawes and orders with them and aboue them not onely to rule all his temporall subiects but all his Eccl. subiects too and euen him selfe in all due subiection to those his Lawes orders that he hath made And that this seruice of the Prince to God stretcheth hereunto and to the Prince especially aboue all other we haue heard how S. Augustine expoundeth this testimonie And yet because our Br. lead vs heere vnto it let vs again mark it a little better whether it more infirme and abase or confirm and augment the princes authoritie in making decrees lawes of Ecclesiasticall matters S. Aug. in his 50. Epistle ad Bonifacium vpon this verse And nowe yee Kings vnderstand c. Howe then saith he doe kinges serue the Lorde in feare but in forbidding with a religious seueritie and in punishing those thinges which are done contrary to the commaundementes of the Lorde For hee serueth otherwise in that hee is a man and otherwise in that he is a King For in that he is a man hee serueth in liuing faythfully But in that hee is also a King hee serueth in the enacting with a conuenient vigour Lawes that commaunde righteous matters and forbidde the contrary Euen as Ezechias serued in destroying the groues and Temples of the Idolles and those high places that were builded contrary to the commaundement of God Euen as Iosias serued he also doing the same things Euen as the King of the Niniuites serued in compelling the whole Citie to appease God Euen as Darius serued in giuing it into Daniels power to breake the Idoll and in casting the enemies to the Lyons Euen as Nabuchodonozor serued of whom we haue already spoken in forbidding by a terrible Lawe all that were placed in his kingdome from blaspheming God In this therfore kings doe serue the Lord when they doe those thinges to serue him that none but Kinges can doe If this seruice then be the onely prerogatiue of
administration of a kingdome requireth they are lesse apt and are vnable by reason of the nature and imbecillitie of their sexe As for exāple to gouerne an armie to pronounce the lawe sitting in publike Which thinges certainely do not become at all a womans shamefastnesse In commending the wisedome of those people which haue prouided by their lawes that women should not haue the supreme gouernement among or ouer them Danaeus séemeth though with more modest couerture then did Caenalis to insinuate the French his countrie men But with what wisedome they could deuise better lawes than Gods lawes and oppose their caueats or prouisions of those their lawes to cutte off his lawes I referre to Danaeus and to the indifferent readers further deliberation But if we may coniecture by the euent as wee haue séene alreadie out of Meierus the Chronicler of the Lowe countries this wise prouision of their lawes contrarie to the prouision of Gods lawe hath béene the very folly which hath made that realme of France refuse to vnite it selfe with this Realme of Englande and with all those countries wherby such a mightie Monarchie might haue growen as might haue both repressed the vsurpation of Antichrist and the inuasion of the Saracens and Turkes the one hauing woonne and spoyled more than halfe the other hauing seduced and tyrannized almost ouer all Christendome without anie Christian Monarke sufficient to resist or stoppe them For the kinges of Englande that euer to their power did most withstande these two open priuie enemies of Christs Gospell were either still crossed by the french or for want of this vnion that in right ought then to haue béen made had not might sufficient to atchieue it While in the meane season France hath felt that the only mayntaining of this their wise prouision hath béen the greatest plague and scourge that euer France hath had and the chiefest occasion of their greatest ouerthrowes And at this day God be praysed for it Englande hath the light and libertie of the Gospell and is so blessed withall vnder her Maiesties most happie raigne as Danaeus sayth that would to God France and euery Christian kingdome yea all the worlde had the like blessings of God if it were according to his good will Not that they should be all gouerned still by women for so is not Englande But not to debarre the right of inheritance no not to a woman And if all the world neuer saw so happie a raigne as is the Queenes of England Why might we not charitably wish that all the world Fraunce and all might sée the like happines in their dominions What could it preiudice if a woman now and then reigned ouer them so long as God blessed their raigne as he doth her Maiesties But now where Danaeus drawes his sentence further with this conditionall if we conferre the sexe it selfe of the woman with the mans If he adde this as a reason that moued the French or any other to make this prouiso against womens supreme gouernement then I aunswere that indéede in this conferring the womans sexe is inferiour to the mans Howbeit gouernment hauing rather relation to that principall person that is represented in the gouernement which is God and with all to the abilitie by the giftes and spirite of gouernement which God giueth to the partie whom he aduaunceth and also to the right of inheritaunce whereby the Gouernour claimeth title or comes thereto the superioritie is rather to be conferred in these or the like respects or cōparisons thā in the sexe of man womā only And yet we grant that the sex of the man cateris paribus all other thinges in conferring of them being found to be equall is euermore as the more worthy to be preferred before the sexe of the womā But if now this conferring of the sexes be referred to the later part of the sentence which rendreth a cause hereof saying because that vnto many functions which the administration of a kingdom doth require they are lesse apt and are vnable by reason of the nature and imbecilitie of their sexe then I deny this also to be a sufficient cause or reason to debarre any persons of their right to a kingdome onely for that they are not able personally to administer many functions which the administratiō of a kingdō doth require For if he mean that all Princes must of necessitie administer all such functions in their owne persons or else they be not lawfully administred then not only as we haue shewed a man childe while he is a childe is cleane cut off from the possession of a kingdome and must for conferring his age with the age of a man that is of riper yeares be excluded because that vnto many functions which the administration of a kingdome requireth the nature and imbecilitie of his age is lesse apt and is vnable but also of what age soeuer he be yet his sickenesse may so greatly or so continually empaire the strength of nature that he may be euen altogether vnable at least the lesse apt to administer many of those functions Yea what health so euer he haue also and might and wisedome yet if hee haue many kingdomes or prouinces vnder him as diuerse Princes had that are not therfore improoued in the scripture yea Dauid Salomon Iehosaphat c. had suche Prouinces too and deputies in them and howe then can the king administer those functions in his prouinces personally Yea haue he but one kingdome and that but a small one too yet will there still bée many functions which the administration of a kingdome doth require that he shall be driuen to doe by other persons in his name and right and not all of them in his owne person If nowe this administration of those functions by a deputie or minister in his name and hauing authoritie from him be good and lawful in a man why it is not good and lawfull also in a woman If any reply that although the King may appoint such deputies yet he must appoint a man to doe the actions that appertaine to a man I denie it not But can not a woman Prince appoint men also to do them as well as a man Prince can appoint them But of that after only this now why should a woman be more bounde to the personall administration of suche functions more than a man is bounde Or shoulde shée not rather euen for the nature imbecilitie of her sexe be of the twaine séeing she is the weaker and so the more to be honoured and borne withall be permitted to administer all such functions by other men as she can not administer by her selfe without any preiudice to her right or supreme authoritie in the kingdome The Apostle S. Peter went not thus strictly to worke for Princes personall administration of all their functions but saith 1. Pet. 2. v. 13. c. submit your selues vnto all manner of humane ordinance for the Lords sake
whether it be vnto the king as vnto the superiour or vnto the Gouernors as vnto theÌ„ that are sent of him c. here he first nameth this generall word euery humane ordinace or creature For the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coÌ„prehend both the ordinaÌ„ce created also the creature or person either of maÌ„ or womaÌ„ And though he afterward specifie the name of king which rather séemeth to be limited to a man yet his reason includeth both sexes though according to the coÌ„mon phrase he meÌ„tion only the more worthy sexe As wheÌ„ he sayth afterward ver 17. honor all men he excludeth not the honor due to womeÌ„ but includeth it And v. 18. 19. Seruants be ye subiect to your Masters withal feare not only to the good courteous but also to the frowarde For this is thaÌ„ke worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffring it wrongfully here these words Master maÌ„ are not limited to the sexe but are rather spoken of the persons So by a courteous or a froward M. is ment also a courteous or a froward Mistresse by maÌ„ either any seruaÌ„t or any person he or she that suffreth wrongfully Neither only doth Peter in the terme of one sex include both but méeteth also with this reason that it is no disobedience to the king but only to his deputie therfore sayth he or vnto gouernors as vnto those that are sent of him Which word him if we refer to the king If he may haue such gouernors as sent of him so also may a Queene as sent of her Caluin rather referreth it as vnto those that are seÌ„t of God But this again makes for vs. He signifieth saith Caluin al sorts of Magistrats as though he should say there is no kind of gouernmeÌ„t to which they ought not to subiect themselues He coÌ„firmeth this because they are Gods ministers For they that refer this Pronoune him to the king are much deceaued This therfore is a coÌ„moÌ„ reason to coÌ„mend the authority of all Magistrats that they rule by the coÌ„mandemeÌ„t of God are sent of him So that what sorts of Magistrates so euer they be we neither respect the difference of their states whether in a Monarchie or in an Aristocratie or in a popular coÌ„mon wealth nor yet respect we the sexes of the gouernors but God that placed them in authoritie for his ordinance sake we must obey them and their ordinances if they be not contradictorie but subalternall to God their principall that did sende them So that the inabilitie of the sexe is no more lawful pretence to repell the autoritie of the person theÌ„ is the inability of age or of health or of streÌ„gth or of knowledg to administer personally many functions that pertain to the administratioÌ„ of a kingdome Pharao could not do many things pertaining to the administratioÌ„ of his kingdome that Ioseph could do neither Nabuchodonozer that Daniel could do nor Saul that Dauid nor Oziah that his tutors in his naÌ„e could do yet was this no impechmeÌ„t to their states But here Danaeus pickes out two things that he thinkes by all meanes to be vtterly inconuenient for women to haue anie dooing at all in them that is to witte to be ouer an armie and to pronounce lawe sitting in publike place of iudgement These two functions are such I grant as appertaine vnto a supreme gouernour and are necessarie both for warre and peace the two chiefe estates of euery common weale the one to defende theÌ„ from their enemies the other to maintaine them among themselues Howbeit neither of these two functions eyther to be a gouernour in warre or to bee a Iudge in peace are such functions that if a Prince can not personally exercise the same he should therfore be debarred from his right or hauing it he should surcease it For if the king be a childe well may they liue in hope of his riper yeares but in that infirmitie of his age neither the actiuitie of his bodie nor the skill of his mind will reach to the administring of these two functions Yea when he comes to mans estate he may both be so weake in bodie so faint in heart and so vnexpert in the feates of warre he may againe be so simple in iudgement so vnlearned in the lawes and maye proue altogether so vnapt for discerning and deciding of controuersies that neither childe nor man hee may be able or apt for the personall administration of these functions And what then Shall he be cleane excluded or deposed from his kingdome for his only vnabilitie or vnaptnes in these functions Or on the other side if we shall more safely conclude that deputies may supply his imbecilitie herein as we haue séene how Azarias remayned king being a â—eper separate and shut vp from the people neither able to gouerne an armie nor to sitte in iudgement but to doe these functions and al other bâ—longing to the administration of a kingdome by his sonne Iotham who gouerned the house and iudged the people of the lande 2. Reg. 15 ver 5 can then not Christian Princes where any imbecilitie of nature or of sexe maketh them lesse able to doe these things themâ—elues supply them also by their deputies Did Dauid guide all his armies by his personall conducte or not his greatest most daungerous battels by his liefe-tenant Ioab Yea 2. Sam. 18. ver 3. the army would not suffer him to goe to battell with them but sayde Thou shalt not goe foorth for if wee flee they will not regarde vs neither will they passe for vs though halfe of vs were slaine But thou art nowe worth ten thousande of vs c. And yet Dauid ceased not to be their king still Yea he was the safer froÌ„ daunger in his person for the matter he made no lesse noble conquestes by his Captaines The Senate and people at Rome conquered the most famous partes of all the worlde and all or most by their deputies whom they sent foorth with their armies while they sate still debated the matters in the Capitoll And although that the sitting in publik iudgement and pronouncing right be easier for the bodie of the twaine yet sith it requireth the knowledge of the lawes except Princes should sitte for a shewe or according to lawe will I or resolue the doubt as Alexander vndid Gordias his knotte how many Salomons are there that sit their selues in iudgement some of them good Princes too hauing learned vncorrupt iudges to administer those functions for theÌ„ But can any of theÌ„ therfore be sayd that he is not a lawfull Prince or no Prince at all yea although he were also a dissolute and vniust Prince If now these functions in men Princes can be thus administred by the deputations of other men experienced approued in these functions why should this supply be debarred froÌ„ a womaÌ„