natural Being only but Schoolmasters do adorn by Instruction and beautify their Minds therefore School-Masters are more to be honour'd by young Lords and Princes than are their Lords and Kings their natural Parents Or thus One end why Men were first Created and afterward born be they Kings or Princes Priests or private Persons was to live in the World but for the supporting of Mens Lives Husbandry and many other Occupations are of greater Importance and Necessity than are either Kings Princes Lords or civil Magistracy therefore those Mens base Callings are to be preferr'd before the Callings of the other Or as if a Man should reason thus They that have the chiefest charge of Souls committed unto them are to be esteem'd as Men in this World of the highest Calling but all Christians generally have every one of them a greater charge committed unto them of their own Souls than any sort of Priests or Ministers have therefore every Christian is in that respect in Calling and Dignity to be preferred before the Calling of any one Pastor Priest Prelate or Pope Now after he hath dallied with such sophistications and comparisons betwixt the Body and the Soul the Flesh and the Spirit he falleth upon some particulars the more fully as he saith to express what he had formerly delivered The sum of which particulars is That although the Pope as he is Pope cannot ordinariè ordinarily depose temporal Princes or make civil Laws or judge de rebus temporalibus yet in ordine ad Spiritualia he may do them all And this he taketh upon him to prove by five main reasons grounded God knoweth upon very weak Foundations Of which his odd number for the glory of them this which followeth is the first Civil Power is subject to Spiritual Power when they are both part of a Christian Commonwealth therefore the Spiritual Princes may command temporal Princes and dispose of their temporal affairs in ordine ad Bonum spirituale n order to a spiritual good The Antecedent of which Argument may briefly be refuted for ought that he hath said to justify it in manner as followeth For in saying that this subjection of the temporal Power to the Spiritual is but where both these Powers are part of one and the same Christian Commonwealth he maketh the Estate of Christian Kings and Princes inferiour and worse than the Estate of those that be Infidels Whose political Power being no part of any Christian Commonwealth is not subject to the Ecclesiastical Again to prefer the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Church for honour and dignity in this World before the temporal Authority of Kings and Princes is in effect to prefer the poor and base Estate of our Saviour Christ as he was a mortal Man here upon Earth subject to many wants oppressions and injuries before the glory and majesty of his Divine Nature in that Kings have their Authority and Calling from Christ as he is God Whereas all Ministers even St. Peter himself and consequently the Pope are but Christ's Vicars and Substitutes as he was Man subject to the said wants miseries and Oppressions Moreover in that every Soul by the testimony of St. Paul is subject to the Power and Authority of temporal Princes and that they must be so not because of wrath only but also for Conscience sake forasmuch as the points of subjection there specified are commanded to all Men to be observed Sacerdotibus Monachis non solùm saecularibus to Bishops and Monks and not to secular Priests only as Chrysostom saith by our Interpretation adding to these words of the Apostle Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Etiamsi Apostolus sis si Evangelista si Propheta sive quisque tandem fueris although thou art an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Prophet or whosoever thou art and because for ought we have read none of the ancient Fathers do herein dissent from Chrysostom We hold it to be very plain and evident to our understandings that the Ecclesiastical Authority to be exercis'd in this World by any manner of Ecclesiastical Persons whosoever is inferiour and of a lower degree than is the Authority and Power of temporal Kings and Princes For if the Authority of such Ecclesiastical Persons whether Apostles Evangelists Prophets Bishops or Priests either Regular or Secular cannot exempt them from the Authority of Kings it must follow of necessity that it is subject and inferiour to their temporal Power and Authority Another of the Cardinal's Reasons whereby he would gladly prove the Pope's indirect temporal Power to omit the rest of his absurd trifling about the first is built upon a very traiterous Position never heard of in the Church in the times of the principal ancient Fathers For how earnest soever he seem'd before in refuting their Opinions who hold That no Princes are to be obey'd if they be Infidels he thinketh he is able to shift off that in effect with his jugling and indirect Fetches These are his traiterous words It is not lawful for Christians to tolerate a King being an Infidel or an Heretick if he endeavour to draw his Subjects unto his Heresy or Infidelity but to judge whether a King doth draw his Subjects to Heresy or no doth belong to the Pope unto whom is committed the charge of Religion and therefore it belongeth to the Pope to judge whether a King is to be deposed or not Concerning the Assumption of this Argument touching the presupposed charge of the Pope in matters of Religion over all the Churches in the World we shall have a fitter occasion to touch it after a sort in the next Chapter Now we will only briefly handle the falshood of his Proposition Of the Power of Subjects over their Soveraigns Where after he hath abused a place in Deuteronomy and spent some idle conceits of his own he writeth in this sort Although Christians in times past did not depose Nero and Dioclesian and Julian the Apostate and Valens the Arrian and such like id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis it came to pass because Christians did then want temporal Forces For that otherwise they might lawfully so have done appeareth by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. Where he commandeth new Judges of temporal Causes to be appointed by Christians that Christians might not be compelled to plead their Cause before a Judge that was a Persecutor of Christ Upon which Text the Cardinal maketh this Gloss Sicut novi Judices constitui potuerunt ita novi Principes Reges propter eandem causam si vires adfuissent as new Judges might have been appointed so might new Princes and Kings for the same cause if the Christians then had been able by reason of their Forces to have created to themselves such new Kings and Princes Thus the Cardinal Who undoubtedly was brought into some hard streight or else he would never have written in this sort St. Peter and St. Paul lived and dyed under
fault What the Cardinal's Friends will say of his perverting the Apostle's meaning with so desperate an Exposition we are uncertain but of this we are sure that the Estate of that Church must needs be very miserable that cannot be upheld without so apparent injury done to the Holy Ghost Which observation we thought fit to make in this place because he once having past the bounds of all Modesty or rather Piety is grown to that presumption and hardness of heart against the truth as that he dareth to ground another of his Reasons to prove that the Pope hath Authority indirectly to depose Kings and Princes upon these words spoken to St. Peter Pasce oves meas Feed my Sheep Touching which words because we have a fitter place to entreat we will here be silent and address our selves to his fourth Reason as idle and as false as any of the rest These are his words When Kings and Princes come to the Church that they may be made Christians they are received cum pacto expresso vel tacito with a condition expressed or implied without any mention made of it that they do submit their Scepters unto Christ and do promise that they will keep and defend the Faith of Christ Etiam sub poenâ Regni perdendi even under pain of losing their Kingdoms Therefore when they become Hereticks or do hinder Religion they may be judged by the Church and also deposed from their Principality and there shall be no injury done unto them if they be deposed For answer whereof first we say That in all the Forms of Baptisms which hitherto have been published we cannot learn that there was ever any such express Covenant as the Cardinal here mentioneth required of any King when he came to be Christned Baptism is the Entrance ordain'd by Christ into the Church which is his spiritual Kingdom and agreeably to the nature of that Kingdom all who are thereby to enter into it of what Calling or Condition sover they are as well poor as rich private Persons as Princes are according to the Rules of Baptism practised in all the particular Churches in the World for ought that is known to the contrary either themselves in their own Persons or if they be Infants by their Sureties to profess their belief in Christ and to Promise that they will forsake the Devil and all his Works the vain Pomp and Glory of the World with all covetous desires of the same and carnal desires of the Flesh and that they do constantly believe God's holy word and that they will keep his Commandments The willful breach of any of which points and perseverance in it without Repentance doth indeed deprive every Christian Man of what Calling soever he be from the interest he had by his said profession and promise when he was Baptized to the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ in this Life that is from being a true and lively Member of the Church and mystical Body of Christ and from the Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come But that any Man by the breach of any Promise made when he was Baptized should lose that which he gain'd not by his Baptism or that the Church did never receive any King or Prince to Baptism but either upon condition in express terms or by implication made either by himself or by his Godfathers that he would submit his Scepter unto Christ that is unto the Bishop of Rome as the Cardinal's drift sheweth his meaning to be and promise to keep and defend the Faith of Christ under pain of the loss of his Kingdom is certainly a Doctrine of Devils and was never heard of in the Church of Christ for many hundred years but is utterly repugnant to the Analogy of Scripture and to the true nature of Christian Baptism These secret intentions for as we have said there was never any Form of Baptism that contain'd any such express contract as the Cardinal speaketh of Mental Reservations and hidden Compacts such as Men were never taught in the Primitive Church nor ever dream'd of or suspected to be thrust into one of the holy Sacraments may well become the Impostors of Rome but are altogether contrary to the meaning of Christ and of his holy Apostles In whose days he that believed was baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost without any such jugling or snares laid to hazard and entangle Mens temporal Estates There is nothing in the Gospel whereof Men ought to be ashamed or which will not abide the touchstone of truth if it be compared with the rest of the Scriptures or that doth not promote the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ it being called in that respect Evangelium Regni the Gospel of the Kingdom Now whether this underhand bargaining be suitable or no with the sincerity of the Holy Ghost or whether if it had been known in the Primitive Church that all Men who would submit themselves to the Doctrine of the Gospel and be baptized did thereby bind themselves to be subject and at the Commandment of the Bishop of Rome for the time being under pain to lose all their Worldly Estates the knowledge thereof would not rather have hinder'd than either promoted or further'd the good success of the Gospel no Man is so simple but he may easily discern it Assuredly the Grecians who did so long oppose themselves against the Authority which the Bishops of Rome did challenge over all Churches were ignorant of this mystical point of Baptism and so were all the Churches in the World for many Ages or else there would not have been so great stirs in the World about the continual Usurpations and Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome as are many ways testified by sundry Ecclesiastical Histories But we insist too long upon this so ridiculous and impudent a fiction and therefore will come to the Cardinal 's principal reason of the Pope's said indirect temporal Authority to toss Kings and Kingdoms up and down as he list The Ecclesiastical Commonwealth saith he must be perfect and sufficient of her self in order to her own end for such are all Commonwealths that are well instituted and therefore she ought to have all necessary Power to the obtaining of her own end But the Power of using and disposing of temporal things is necessary to the Spiritual End because otherwise Evil Princes might without punishment nourish Hereticks and overthrow Religion and therefore the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth hath this Power Hitherto the Cardinal The substance of whose Argument is that the Church of Christ cannot attain to her Spiritual End except the Bishop of Rome have Authority to dispose of temporal Kingdoms and to punish Kings by deposing them from their Crowns if he hold it expedient For the refutation of which vain and false Assertion there are very many most direct and apparent Arguments We will only touch some few of them Our Saviour Christ in his days and the Apostles in their times and the Primitive
Churches for the space of 300. years brought the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as here it is termed unto her Spiritual End as directly and fully as either the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops have at any time done since and yet they took no Power and Authority upon them nor did challenge the same of disposing of temporal Kingdoms or Deposing of Princes Besides if such an indirect temporal Power be so necessary in these days for the upholding the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as that without the same she cannot attain the Spiritual End or be a perfect Ecclesiastical Commonwealth when there are so many Christian Kings and Princes then was the same much more necessary for the attainment of the same end in the said times of Christ of his Apostles and of the Churches in the Ages following for 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Pagans and Infidels and for the most part Persecutors of the truth But we hope we may be bold without offence to say that there appeared then no such necessity of this pretended temporal Power and Authority in any Ecclesiastical Persons over Kings and Kingdoms for the disposing of them and that nevertheless the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth in those times did attain her Spiritual End and was as perfect an Ecclesiastical Common-wealth as it is now under the Pope's Government notwithstanding all his temporal Sovereignty wherein he so ruffleth Again we are perswaded that it cannot be shewed out of any of the ancient Fathers or by any general Council for the space of above 500. years after Christ that the Bishops of Rome were ever imagin'd to have such temporal Authority to depose Kings as now is maintained much less was it ever dream'd of during that time that such Authority was necessary for the attaining the Spiritual End whereunto the true Church of Christ ought to aim or that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth ordain'd by Christ and his Apostles could not be perfect without it It were a miserable shift if any should either say that during all the times above-mention'd first the Apostles and then the holy Bishops Martyrs and Fathers after them were ignorant of this new temporal Power or at least did not so throughly consider of the necessity of it as they might have done or that whilst they lived there could indeed no such matter be collected out of the Scriptures for that in those days the Scriptures had not received such a sense and meaning as might support the same but that afterward when the Bishops of Rome did think it necessary to challenge to themselves such temporal Authority over both Kings and Kingdoms the sense and meaning of the Scripture was alter'd But be this shift never so wretched or miserable yet for ought we perceive they are in effect and still will be both in this cause and many others driven unto it the Scriptures being in their hands a very Rule of Lead and Nose of Wax as in another more fit place we shall have occasion to shew moreover if the Bishops of Rome have this great temporal Authority over Kings and Soveraign Princes to preserve the State of the Church here upon Earth that she may attain her Spiritual End assuredly he hath made little use of it to that purpose For it is well known and cannot be denied that for the first 300. years of Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel did flourish far and near in Greece Thracia Sclavonia Hungary Asia minor Syria Assyria Egypt and throughout the most part of Africk where there were many very worthy Apostolical and notable Churches in the most of which places there are scarce in these days any footsteps or visible Monuments of them And although afterward during the space of above 700. years much mischief was wrought in these parts of the World better known unto us than the rest by sundry sorts of Scythians and Northern People yet after the days of Gregory the Seventh when the Bishops of Rome did most vaunt of this their Soveraign Power over Kings and Princes the Turks gained and encroached more upon Christendom still retaining that which they then had so gotten than at any time before Whereby it is to us very evident that neither Christ nor his Apostles ever ordained that the means of building of the Church of Christ and the conservation of it should consist in the temporal Power or Authority of any of their Successors to deprive Emperours or Kings from their Imperial or Regal Estates and that the Bishops of Rome may be ashamed that having had so great Authority in their own hands extorted from the Emperours and other Kings per fas nefas since Gregory the Seventh's time they have made no better use of it but suffer'd so many famous Countries and Kingdoms to be utterly over-run and wasted by Pagans and Infidels considering that they pretend themselves to have so great an Authority for no other purpose but only the preservation of the Church that she might not be prevented of her Spiritual End But what should we speak of the shame of Rome whose forehead hath been so long since hardned or ever imagine that Almighty God either did or will bless her Usurpations and Insolencies against Emperours Kings and Princes for any good to his Church other than must accrue unto her through her Persecutions and Afflictions For it were no great labour to make it most apparent by very many Histories if we would insist upon it that the Bishops of Rome in striving first to get and then to uphold after their scrambling manner this their wicked and usurped Authority of troubling and vexing Christian Kingdoms and States with their manifold Oppressions and quarrels have been some special means whereupon the Saracens Turks and Pagans have wrought and by degrees brought so great a part of Christendom under their Slavery as now they are possessed of For it is but an idle and a vain pretence that the preservation of as much of Christendom as is yet free from the Turk and Paganism is to be ascribed to the Bishop of Rome and his Authority that so the Catholick Church might attain her Spiritual End which ought to be the planting of Churches and Conservation of 'em it being most manifest to as many as have any wit experience and sound Judgment that as the very situation of the said Countries which now Pagans enjoy made them very subject unto the Incursion and Invasions of Saracens and Turks God himself for his own Glory having his Finger and just operation therein so through his most merciful goodness and care of his Church he blessed the situation of the rest of Christendom being now free in that respect from those kind of violences and endowed the hearts of Christian Kings and Princes with such Courage and Constancy in defence of Christianity and of their Kingdoms as notwithstanding that the Popes did greatly vex them in the mean while they did mightily repel the Forces of their Enemies and most religiously uphold and maintain the
is but this Eternal and Divine Kingdom doth not abollish the Dominions of Men. Again I affirm not saith he that Christ as he was Man could not though he would and had thought it expedient for him have received Regal Authority but yet I say that he would not and therefore that he did not receive nor had not only the Execution of any Lordship or Regality but neither the Authority or Power of any Temporal Kingdom Again Christ as he was Man had no Temporal Kingdom neither by Inheritance nor by Election nor by Conquest nor by any special Gift of God and therefore he concludeth that Christ had no Temporal Kingdom at all because every such Kingdom is gotten by one of the said four means Again saith he Christ never used in this World any Regal Power He came to minister and not to be ministred unto to be judged and not to judge And again Regal Authority was neither necessary nor profitable to Christ but plainly idle and unprofitable For the End of his coming into the World was the Redemption of Mankind but to this end Temporal Power was not necessary but only Spiritual Lastly All the places of Scripture almost saith he where is a Treaty of the Kingdom of Christ ought necessarily to be understood of his Spiritual and Eternal Kingdom and therefore it cannot be deduced out of the Scriptures that Christ had any Temporal Kingdom So as in this Man's Judgment neither St. Peter for his time nor since any of his Successours did ever receive any Temporal Kingdoms from Christ he himself being never possest of any as he was Man either to retain in their own hands or to commit the Execution of them as in their Right to other Kings and Temporal Monarchs But to omit the further prosecution of this Loyolist's said Positions delivered truly in this point more at large and proved by sundry Arguments in his Book quoted by us because he is a Man though he be a Cardinal and of great Estimation with his own Society whose Credit seemeth to decay especially with the said Canonists and others of that like Crew For if the rest shall hereafter proceed with him as One of them hath already done by perverting the whole drift of his Disputation in that behalf very childishly and grosly he will be driven e'er it be long to range himself in the Troops of some who are falsly supposed Hereticks in that the said grave Canonist is so couragious as he dareth to adventure the pronouncing of a Curse of the greatest nature against him by name even Anathema sit and therefore We will clear our hands of him and drawing to an end in this matter leave the Conclusion of it unto Christ himself who knew his own Estate when he lived here in the World as well as any Canonist either by Birth of Padua Naples or Rome or of any other City or Countrey whatsoever It is true that our Saviour Christ as soon as he was born was a Spiritual King not only over the Jews but also over all Nations And therefore when at the time of his Arraignment before Pilate though in scorn the Jews termed him King and that indeed he could not truly have denied it yet he did not equivocate therein but confessed unto them what manner of King he was For Pilate saying unto him Art thou the King of the Jews and telling him that the Jews and High-Priests had delivered him into his hands Jesus answered thus My kingdom is not of this World if my kingdom were of this World my Servants would surely fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my kingdom not from hence As if he should have said I am no Temporal King nor have any Temporal Kingdom in this World for if I had my Subjects no doubt would never have suffered me to come to this distress or if it had been my hap so to have been dishonoured as now I am they would out of all doubt have fought on my behalf as all dutiful Subjects are bound to do when the Persons of their Sovereigns shall be in any danger But my Kingdom is of another Nature it is no Temporal Kingdom either of this World that is such a Kingdom as those who are Temporal Kings do possess or from hence that is my Kingdom requireth no worldly Assistance the World hath given me no Subjects neither have I any worldly Estate or Possessions so as it might be affirmed truly either of me or of my Kingdom that either for the Dignity of my Person or the strengthning of my Government I have any thing hence that is from the World CAN. II. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Jews did not erre in conceiving that their Messiah when He came into the World should as a Temporal Monarch reign amongst them or that the Apostles themselves were not somewhat tainted with such like imaginations or that Christ's Answers to his said Apostles did not sufficiently shew unto them that he came not into the World to erect for himself a temporal Kingdom and that therefore they were not to expect from him such worldly preferments as they had dreamed of or that the Son of God in that he was made Man did by his blessed Nativity deprive all the Civil Magistrates in the World of that power and Authority which he had formerly given unto them as he was God or that Christ as he was Man was by his birth made a Temporal King over all the World or that all Temporal Princes and Sovereign Kings were thenceforth bound to hold their several Countries aud Kingdoms no more under Christ as he was God but as being Man he was become a Temporal Monarch over all Nations or that the Emperour Tiberius who then reigned did govern the Empire for the space of above fifteen Years without any lawful Authority until our Saviour Christ willed the Jews to give unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's or that Christ having willingly undertaken for our sakes the fulfilling of all the Law and consequently of the Fifth Commandment did not hold it to be a part of his Office to obey the Emperour upon whom he had as he was God bestowed such lawful Authority as did appertain unto his Government or that either Christ's fact in paying of Tribute or his words in willing the Jews to give unto Caesar those things that were Caesar's did then import that neither Obedience Tribute Custom nor any other Duty of Subjection did until that time belong to the Emperour as being thitherto by Christ's Birth deprived of all his Regal Authority or that it is not a great Impiety in any Political Respect whatsoever for any Man to maintain when Christ saith his Kingdom is not of this World that it was a Worldly and Temporal Kingdom or when Christ saith his Kingdom was not from hence that it was notwithstanding as a Worldly Kingdom from
dispose them all according to his divine pleasure Yet the Parasitical and sottish Crew of Romish Canonists with the new Sectaries their Companions will assuredly moil and repine thereat telling us by the Pen of one of their Fellows the veriest Idiot we think amongst them That all Power Dominion and Worldly Principality was left by Christ after his Ascension unto St. Peter That two times are to be considered in Christ the one before his Passion when propter humilitatem he refused to judge that is to shew himself a Temporal Magistrate the other after his Resurrection and then he said All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth That Christ after his Resurrection gave his Power to St. Peter and made him his Vicar and that ex potestate Domini the Power of his Vicar is to be measured And to advance that Power as highly as he can supposing that what he can say thereof doth belong to St. Peter he quoteth a number of places out of the Scriptures concerning the Dignity Honour Royalty and Majesty attributed to our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension by reason of the Unition so oft before by us mentioned and doth conclude That cessantibus rationibus humilitatis necessitatis atque paupertatis that the reasons of his former humility necessity and poverty ceasing Christ did shew himself to be the Lord of all ut ascensurus ad Patrem eandem potestatem Petro relinqueret And moreover he is peremptory that Peter did exercise this temporal Power in suâ propriâ naturâ temporaliter in the proper nature of it temporally for it is said in the Acts c. 5. that he condemn'd Ananias and Sapphira pro crimine facti ad panam civiliter for the crime of a fact to a punishment civilly Now if Peter were so great a Temporal Monarch whilst he lived what must we think of his Vicar the Pope and how royal is the Estate of all Archbishops and Bishops that have any dependency upon him For as the especial Jesuit and Cardinal an Enemy to the Canonists in this point doth infer Si Papa est Dominus totius orbis Christiani supremus ergo singuli Episcopi sunt principes temporales in oppidis suo Episcopatui subjectis If the Pope be Lord of all the Christian World then it followeth that all particular Bishops are temporal Princes in the Cities and Towns subject to their Bishopricks To the manifestation of all which the said Canonist his so absurd and gross assertions before we proceed any further We hold it not unfit for the reasons elsewhere specified by us when we shewed that Christ was no temporal Lord nor had any temporal Dominion after the manner of other Kings First to hear the Cardinal how he shaketh the very ground-work and foundation of all these Vanities For whereas his Opposites would make St. Peter and consequently the Pope his Successor to derive such their infinite Power and temporal Authority from Christ after his Resurrection as he was then a Man immortal and glorious having cast off his former infirmities and mortality The Cardinal is resolute to the contrary and doth reason in this sort Christus ut homo dum in terris vixit non accepit nec voluit ullum temporale Dominium Summus autem Pontifex Christi Vicarius est Christum nobis repraesentat qualis erat dum hic inter homines viveret Igitur summus Pontifex ut Christi Vicarius atque adeo ut summus Pontifex est nullum habet temporale Dominium Christ as he was Man and lived upon the Earth neither did nor would receive any temporal Dominion But the Pope is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us in that Estate and Condition that he lived in here amongst Men therefore the Pope as Christ's Vicar and so as he is the highest Bishop hath no temporal Dominion And again Dicimus Papam habere illud Officium quod habuit Christus dum in terris inter homines humano more viveret Neque enim Pontifici possumus tribuere officia quae habuit Christus ut Deus vel ut homo immortalis gloriosus sed solum ea quae habuit ut homo mortalis We say that the Pope hath that Office that Christ had when he lived in the Earth amongst Men after the manner of Men for we cannot ascribe unto him those Offices which Christ hath as he is God or as he is Man immortal and glorious but only those which he had as a mortal Man Neither doth he stay here but goeth on forward saying Add that the Pope hath not all that Power which Christ had as a mortal Man For He because he was God and Man had a certain Power which is called a Power of Excellency by the which he govern'd both faithful Men and Insidels but the Pope hath only committed unto him his Sheep that is such Persons as are faithful Again Christ had Power to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which things the Pope cannot do Also Christ might absolve Men from their Sins without the Sacraments which the Pope cannot Nay the Cardinal was so far from believing that all Power and Worldly Principality was left by Christ unto St. Peter and so unto his Successors as he confesseth in effect that neither St. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome nor any of his Successors can challenge so much as a rural Farm or any other kind of temporal Possessions which have not been given unto them by the Emperours and other Temporal Princes And lest such gifts might be held by any to be unlawful he to prove the contrary alledgeth that they were godly Princes who so endowed the Church of Rome These are his words Qui donaverunt Episcopo Romano aliisque Episcopis Principatus temporales pii homines fuerunt eâ de causâ praecipuè à totâ Ecclesiâ commendati sunt ut patet de Constantino Carolo magno Ludovico ejus silio qui inde Pius appellatus est They who gave to the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops temporal Principalities were godly Men and for that cause especially were commended by the whole Church as appeareth ofConstantine Charles the Great and Lewis his Son who in that respect was called Lewis the Godly Again That the Pope holdeth in right that Principality which he hath may easily be perceived quia dono Principum habuit because he had it by the gift of Princes Of which gifts he saith the Authentical Instruments remain still in Rome adding nevertheless that if they had been lost abunde sufficeret praescriptio octingentorum annorum that a prescription of 800. years were abundantly sufficient to prove the Pope's right And unto these words of Bernard Forma Apostolica haec est interdicitur Dominatio indicitur Ministratio he answereth that Bernard doth speak of the Bishop of Rome secundum id quod habet ex Christi institutione Also
with Rods. I was once stoned I suffered thrice Shipwrack Night and day have I been in the deep Sea In Journying I was often in perils of Water in perils of Robbers in perils of mine own Nation in perils amongst the Gentiles in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false Brethren In weariness and painfulness in watching often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Besides these things which are outward I am cumber'd daily and have the care of all the Churches Much is not written of St. Peter by the Evangelist St. Luke but it is not to be doubted that his Case was as bad as any of his Fellows When he began to Preach he was call'd in question with great eagerness and vehemently threatned Also with some other of the Apostles he was cast into Prison and beaten Likewise when James was killed by Herod's Commandment Peter was again Imprisoned and loaden with Irons and had assuredly in all likelyhood escaped hardly with his Life but that the Angel of the Lord delivered him In a word after many Afflictions Injuries Calamities and Miseries endured by the Apostles whilst they lived in this World they were in the end as well St. Peter as almost all the rest most spitefully and cruelly by the Enemies of Christ and of their own Salvation put to Death During the course of whose lives in so great dangers and manifold distresses out of question they would greatly have marvelled their hard Estates consider'd but especially St. Peter if he had known himself to be the sole Monarch under Christ over all the World and that the Emperour and all other Kings had been at that time his Vassals and that likewise they the rest of the Apostles had been under St. Peter so many Soveraign and Temporal Princes to have commanded and ruled amongst them throughout the whole World Neither do we see any true cause that might have moved St. Peter to have concealed that his so eminent temporal Power and Authority if he had thought it to have been the Ordinance of God or at least if he for modesty would have been silent why the rest of the Apostles should not have published it that the civil and temporal States in those times who knew no such Ordination made by Christ might have been left inexcusable Besides the concealing of a truth of so great importance was an injury offered to all the faithful in those days who had they been truly taught in these Mens conceits ought to have left their Obedience to the Emperour in all temporal Causes and for the dignity of the Gospel to have adher'd unto St. Peter to have been directed in them by him their temporal Monarch The consideration of all which inconveniences and consequents doth perswade us to think that none of the Apostles ever dreamed of any such temporal Soveraignty notwithstanding that they knew well the Scriptures how Christ told them That All Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto him how St. Peter had two Swords and how Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Ghost were stricken suddenly from Heaven with Death Touching the two first of which places the same being notoriously abused and wrested by the Canonists and their Adherents to prove the Popes temporal Monarchy the said Cardinal doth very resolutely reject the Arguments which are thence by them deduced And to the first he answereth Potestatem de quâ hic loquitur Dominus non esse potestatem temporalem ut Regnum terrenorum sed vel tantùm spiritualem ut B. Hieronymus B. Anselmus exponunt qui hunc esse volunt sensum eorum verborum Data est mihi omnis potestas in coelo in terrâ i.e. ut sicut in coelo Rex sum Angelorum ità per fidem regnem in cordibus hominum vel ut addit Theophylactus esse potestatem quandam summam in omnes creaturas non temporalem sed divinam vel divinae simillimam quae non potest communicari homini mortali That the Power whereof the Lord here speaketh is not a temporal Power like the Power of terrene Kings but it is either a spiritual Power as St. Hierom and St. Anselm do expound the said place who will have this to be the sense of those words All Power is given me in Heaven and Earth which is to say that as in Heaven I am King of Angels so by Faith I do reign in the hearts of Men or as Theophylact addeth it is a certain supream Power not temporal but divine or most like to the Divine Power which cannot be communicated to any mortal Man And for the second Argument drawn from St. Peter 's two Swords the same is set down by our said Cardinal in these words Secundò objiciunt Scripturam Luc. 22. Vbi Dominus duos gladios Petro concedit Cùm enim Discipuli dicerent Ecce duo gladii hic Dominus non ait nimis est sed satis est Quare B. Bernardus 4. 4. de Consid Bonifacius octavus in Extravag Vnam sanctam de Majoritate Obedientiâ ex hoc loco deducunt Pontisicem duos gladios ex Christi institutione habere that is Secondly they object the Scriptures Luc. 22. Where the Lord doth grant two Swords to Peter For when the Disciples said Behold here are two Swords the Lord answered not they are too many but they are sufficient Therefore St. Bernard and Boniface the eighth do hence deduce that the Bishop of Rome by Christ's Institution hath two Swords Unto which objection our Cardinal saith thus Respondeo ad Literam nullam fieri mentionem in eo loco Evangelii de gladio spirituali vel temporali Pontificis sed solum Dominum illis verbis monere voluisse Discipulos tempore Passionis suae in iis angustiis metu ipsos futuros fuisse in quibus esse solent qui tunicam vendunt ut emant gladium ut ex Theophylacto aliisque Patribus colligitur I answer that according to the Letter there is no mention made in that place of the Gospel either of the spiritual or temporal Sword of the Bishop of Rome but that Christ meant only in those words to admonish his Disciples how they should be in the time of his Passion in those straights and fear wherein Men are accustomed to be who sell their Coat to buy them a Sword as it is to be collected out of Theophylact and other Fathers And for Bernard and Boniface he saith They did expound the said place mystically and meant not to have their words so far extended as the Objector would have them Which answer it is likely Bernard if he were now alive would take in good part but assuredly if any Cardinal in Bonifacius 's days had made it he would have smarted for it and might perhaps have tried the depth of Tiber. Neither do we suppose that the now Pope will give him any great thanks for it nor
Clamour of the Canonists of the Glossographers and of the Schoolmen and Divines that took their part in the Pope's behalf upon whom all their Preferment Credit and Countenance did depend as they would needs by force carry the Bell away though their Opposites each of them were very confident that the common Opinion sway'd with their side more standing for them than were against them We have before briefly touched the chief Grounds and Reasons whereupon the Civil Lawyers divided amongst themselves did insist and therefore that we may not seem partial we thought it fit to hear the Canonists with their Adherents whilst they tell us That all the World is the Pope's at his disposition as well the Emperour as any other the meanest Person whosoever Because 1. that Christ had all Power given him 2. That the Pope blesseth the Emperour 3. That the Bishops of Rome do anoint them 4. That the Church Triumphant hath but one Prince 5. That Innocentius told the King of France that he did not intend to abate his Jurisdiction whereby it is collected that if he had pleased he might have so done 6. That in the Vacancy of the Empire the Pope hath the Government of it 7. That the Pope translated the Empire from the Grecians to the Germans 8. That the Papacy exceedeth the Empire as far as Gold doth Lead or as Men do Beasts 9. That Pope Nicholas saith Christ gave to St. Peter the Key-Carrier of Eternal Life Jura terreni simul coelestis Imperii The Authority both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire 10. That Optimum optima decent but the Monarchical Government is best and so fittest for the Pope 11. That no Man giveth that to another which he hath not himself but the Pope giveth Licence to chuse the Emperour and to govern in Temporal Causes 12. That as the Body is for the Soul so Temporal Government is for the Spiritual 13. That Reason teacheth us when an Office is committed to any that also is thought to be committed without the which it cannot be executed but except the Bishop of Rome may rule all the World he cannot discharge the Office that is committed unto him And 14. lastly to omit infinite such like Collections this Argument is reserved after many other by a great Clerk that it might strike home viz. because it is defined by Boniface the Eighth that No Man can be saved except he be subject to the Bishop of Rome Which Argument is held so strong as it carries with it divers other of little less Force than it self as that St. Peter had a Sword because Christ bad him put up his sword 2. Ecce duo Gladii Behold here are two Swords One Sword must be under another the Temporal under the Spiritual 3. It is not agreeable to the general course of things that they should have all equally their immediate being 4. The Spiritual Power ought to institute the Temporal 5. The Spiritual Man judgeth all things and therefore what Catholick can deny that the Bishop of Rome hath both Swords the One actually the Other habitually to be drawn at his Commandment We have not quoted the several Authors that are Parties unto the Particulars which we have touched in this Chapter because twenty such Margents would not contain them Only we refer our selves in that behalf to these few which we have noted and selected from the rest Unto which Number if we shall add John of Paris Bellarmin and Covarruvias they altogether will furnish a Man with divers sorts of other Authors such as they are who have disputed these Points at large and in that manner as we are driven into a great admiration that any Men of Understanding could be so sottish either to write as they have done or to give any Credit to such ridiculous Janglings or rather indeed that ever Christian Kings and Princes should have endured such Impostors so long to seduce their Subjects and presumptuously to shake and dishonour the Royal Authority given them from God to have bridled such Insolency Placet eis Jo. Overall CAP. XIII NOtwithstanding that the Bishops of Rome especially since Gregory the Seventh's time have ruffled and tyrannized as before we have shewed and that still they have been supported in all their wicked attempts partly by stirring up Subjects to rebel against their Soveraigns and partly by the Canonists School-men Monks Friers Hirelings and Flatterers Yet their Hypocrisy Pride Covetousness and Ambition were never so closely cover'd and cloaked with St. Peter's name and sundry other Flashoods Wringings and Wrestings but that their nakedness in that behalf with all their Deformities were clearly discover'd by the wiser sort and there were always some that spared not as there was occasion for the discharging of their Consciences to speak the truth When the said Gregory did so proudly encounter with the Emperour Henry the Fourth he was Condemn'd for a perjur'd Person and depos'd from his place by a Council held at Worms in the year 1076. by all the Bishops of Germany almost saving those of Saxony who in his Quarrel were become Traytors to the Empire And afterward also in the Year 1080. the said Gregory was more roughly handled in another Council of thirty Bishops at Brixia wherein he was declared to be a perturber of the Christian Empire a sower of Discord a Protector of Perjury a Murtherer a Necromancer one possess'd with a wicked Spirit a Man altogether unworthy of the Papacy and therefore to be deprived and expelled Henry the Fifth with his Council did easily discern the packings both of Paschal the Second and of his Predecessors When he complain'd of their thrusting him into Arms against his Father and how Genitore oppresso his Father being overborn they sought likewise his suppression and overthrow He charged them with great Unthankfulness in that being made rich by the Emperours they were never satisfied but under a Religious pretence of Ecclesiastical liberty desired still more and more and that by shaking off from their shoulders all duties and subjection they did affect the Empire it self and would not cease until they had it ended With this the Emperour's plainness the said Paschal being incens'd made certain unlawful Decrees against the said Emperour which Decrees the Divines of Fraxinum who were accounted the most learned men in all Germany did condemn and reverse as being contrary to the word of God Upon the insolent Speeches of Adrian the Fourth's Messenger one that was present had slain the said Messenger if the Emperour had not staid him And two Archbishops thereupon did write to Rome accusing the Priests there of Pertinacy Pride Covetousness and Faction against the Emperour requiring them to give Adrian their Pope some better Counsel Frederick the Second in one of his Letters to the Princes of Christendom in defence of himself against Gregory the Ninth does likewise most notably describe the ambitious aspiring hearts of the
serve or as St. Luke hath Christ's words Ye shall not be so that is Ye shall not live as Kings upon the Earth nor have such worldly Estates as that thereby ye might have occasion to vaunt in the World what great Benefactors you have been in advancing your Followers to this or that Dukedom according as great Kings and Monarchs are accustomed to deal with their Servants and principal Subjects but let the greatest amongst you be as the least and the chiefest as he that serveth For who is greater he that sitteth at the table or he that serveth Is not he that sitteth at the table and I am among you as he that serveth By which words of our Saviour it is very manifest how far he was from challenging to himself any worldly Kingdom and how much his Apostles were deceived in apprehending what great Men they should become by being his Followers and Disciples To this purpose much more might be here alledged by us as also it would not be forgotten what we have before observed in the former Chapter tending to the same effect in as much as Christ having made himself subject to the Obedience of the Fifth Commandment which tied him as well to be a Subject unto the Emperour under whom he was born as to the obedience of his Parents did thereby shew himself to be no temporal Monarch Howbeit all this notwithstanding there are some so much addicted in these days unto the said erroneous opinion of the Jews as for the advancement of the glory of the Bishop of Rome they will needs have Christ to have been here upon the Earth a Temporal King Affirming that upon his Nativity all the Kings in the World lost their Regal Power and Authority all their Kingdoms being devolved unto him and that they could no longer possess them by any Right Interest or Title until they had again resum'd them from him as he was Man and forsaken their ancient Tenures whereby they had held them of him as he was God Insomuch as some of them say in effect that neither Augustus Caesar nor Tiberius his Successor were lawful Emperours from the time of Christ's Birth for above the space of thirty years until our Saviour had required the Jews to pay Tribute to Caesar as if in so doing Tiberius had again received thereby his former right to the Empire and that thereupon he was from that time forward to hold it of Christ as he was Man In which erroneous conceits these Men proceed further than ever the Jews or the Apostles in their weakness did For the Jews never imagin'd of their Messiah that when he came into the World he should abolish all civil Government amongst the Gentiles and be a temporal King to Rule all Nations or that as many Soveraign Kings and Princes as should from that time forward desire to rule their Subjects by any lawful Power and Authority must receive and hold the same from the said Jews their temporal Kings but did restrain their conceits within more narrow bounds thinking that their Messiah should not have such intermedling with the Gentiles but only restore the Kingdom of Israel which had for a long time been miserably shaken and rent in pieces and live in that Country amongst them in a much more glorious form and state than any of their Kings before him had done And yet notwithstanding these the said Persons having inconsiderately so far overrun the Jews in their Follies are possessed nevertheless with some Imaginations no doubt that because the Pope doth either applaud or wink at their proceedings they may in time make it probable to the simpler sort who when force is to be used do bear the greatest sway that as all Emperours and Kings forsooth held their Kingdoms from Christ as he then was and still is Man so ought they now in these days to hold them of the Pope in that if Men might safely believe them our Saviour Christ did as they say after his Ascension bestow all such Worldly Dominions upon St. Peter and consequently upon his Successors the Bishops of Rome and that now all Worldly Principalities are theirs and must be held of them as they were before of Christ after his Incarnation by as many Kings and Princes as desire to hold their Kingdoms by any right title But these are Men not to be feared For to say the truth of them they are all of them in effect either but gross and unlearned Canonists or else but new upstart and sottish Nerians and of great affinity with the Canonists who meaning as it seemeth to outstrip the Jesuits do labour as much to make the Pope a Temporal Monarch as the Jesuits have done for his pretended Spiritual Soveraignty whose endeavours are altogether as we suppose to be contemned in that both the sorts of them as well Canonists as Nerians are more voluminous in their Writings than substantial filling them principally with very idle and ridiculous Canons and Decrees of the Pope's own making and having no true feeling or sense of Divinity do handle the Scriptures when they have leisure to come unto them with so foul and unwashed hands as that their Master either is or ought to be ashamed of them in that he permitteth their so absurd Books to come abroad into the World Besides it will not a little hinder their credit if it make them not a scorn to all Posterity even amongst such Men as have otherwise made themselves Vassals to the See of Rome because the said Jesuits and some others not to have been despis'd for their learning whilst they had strived to advance the Pope's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical have themselves in a manner broken the Neck of his fondly-conceited temporal Monarchy Some of the chiefest among them affirming very peremptorily That our Saviour Christ as Man was never a temporal King upon Earth nor ever had any such temporal Authority or Government as doth appertain unto Kings and Soveraign Princes We will set down some words of one that is of especial Authority amongst them not because we intend to ground any thing upon them but for that they are true and may perhaps be of more force than ours are like to be with some kind of People the rectifying of whose hearts in the truth we tender as much as we do our own Christ saith he did not take Kingdoms from them whose they were for Christ came not to destroy those things that were well setled but to make them better Therefore when a King is become a Christian he doth not lose his Earthly Kingdom but procureth a new Interest to a Kingdom that is Eternal Otherwise the benefit of Christ should be hurtful to Kings and Grace should destroy Nature And again Christ as he was Man whilst he lived upon the Earth neither did nor would receive any Temporal Dominion And again I say that Christ was always as the Son of God a King and Lord of all Creatures in such sort as his Father
Death of Christ to repair to their Priests and Sanhedrims if either they meant to be truly instructed in the Laws or to have such manner of Offences lawfully punished by those kind of Censures that Christ in the said place speaketh of But what should we insist so much upon this point to prove that all the Jews that either believed in Christ or did reject him were bound before the Passion of our Saviour Christ to be obedient to the Ecclesiastical Governours established by God himself in that visible Church considering how careful our Saviour Christ was upon every occasion offered for the preservation of their Authority whilst it was to endure and with what Humility he did submit himself unto it For being sent for by them he was content at that time to go unto them and to be examined by them when he had found them many ways before to be his mortal Enemies and knew how at that present they were plotting to take away his Life by corrupting of Judas to betray him into their hands and by suborning of false Witnesses to accuse him as also how after they had examined him they would use him most despitefully and scornfully spit in his Face and buffet him beat him with Rods carry him bound as a Malefactour and deliver him to Pilate the Civil Magistrate Likewise how they themselves would be his Accusers how they would practise with the People to prefer Barabbas's liberty being a Murtherer before his and to cry out with them to Pilate Let him be crucified Let him be crucified Crucify him Crucify him their Outrage and Fury being so bent against him as that they themselves would have put him to death if by the Laws of the Romans whereunto they were then subject they might have been permitted so to have done CAN. III. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived upon the Earth was not obedient to the State Ecclesiastical as he was to the Temporal or that all Christians by his Example are not bound to be as well obedient to their Church-Governours as they are to their civil Magistrates or that Christian Kings have not now as full Authority to appoint some Festival Days of publick thanksgiving to God in remembrance of some great and extraordinary mercies of his shew'd unto them upon those days as Judas Maccabaeus had to ordain the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple to be yearly celebrated or that where any such Festival Days are appointed the Subjects of every such King ought not by Christ's Example in celebrating the said Feast to observe and keep them or that all the true Members of the Church are not taught by Christ's Example in his observing of the Ceremonial Law being then in force that they likewise are bound to observe all such Constitutions and Ceremonies as for Order and Decency are with all due Cautions established in any particular Church by the chief Governours of it until it shall please them the said Governours to abrogate them or that all Christians are not bound by Christ's Example to refrain all bitterness of Calumniation and Detraction and to deal temperately and mildly with their Ecclesiastical Governours in respect of their Authority that it be not brought into contempt though they find some imperfections either in their Persons or in their Proceedings as he our said blessed Saviour in the same respect dealt with the Priests of the Jews though they had many ways transgressed and were his mortal Enemies or that Christ by whipping Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple did either impeach the Authority of the Priests or practise therein any Pontifical or Temporal Power as if he had been a temporal King or did the same by any other Authority than as he was a Prophet or that Christians are not now as strongly bound in doubts of Religion to repair unto the chief Ministers and Ecclesiastical Governours although they are not always tied to do as they do as were the Jews in such like Cases bound to repair to them that sate in Moses's Seat or that every true Christian when for the said Cause he repaireth to the chief Ministers and Governours of the Church to be resolv'd by them is any further now bound to depend upon such their Resolutions than they are able to shew them unto him out of the Word of God or than the Jews were bound to believe the Scribes and Pharisees though they sat in Moses's Chair when they taught them any thing which was not agreeable to that which Moses had commanded or that Christ's Example in condemning the false Interpretations and Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and in restoring to the Law the true sense and original meaning of it hath not ever since warranted learned and godly Men when they found the Scriptures perverted by those that govern the Church of purpose to make their own gain thereof and to maintain their great Vsurpations to free the same by searching the said Scriptures from all such false Interpretations and Glosses and to make plain as much as in them did lie the true sense and meaning of them or that our Saviour Christ when he purged divers parts of the Law from the gross and erroneous Expositions of the Scribes and Pharisees did give any other sense and meaning of them or infer upon it any new Rules of greater perfection either as he was Man or as he was a Prophet than they had and contained originally when he first gave them to the Israelites as he was God or that it is not an erroneous and fond conceit like unto that of the Sectaries among the Jews especially of the Pharisees for any sort of Persons no way able to perform their duties to God in such manner and sort as they ought once so much as to imagine that by the observation of their own rules they are able to attain to greater perfection than by the observation of God's rules or that it is not as vain and fond an imagination as the former for any Christian Man to think that the enjoying of such Possessions and Riches as God hath blessed him with is repugnant to that perfection which God hath required at his hands or that the same are otherwise incompatible with the said perfection than in such cases only when either they must leave their Worldly Estates or Christ their Saviour or that our Saviour Christ by laying of some grounds for the future estate of the Church after his Passion did thereby erect any new Churches apart from that Church which was to continue until his Death or that the Example of Christ and his Apostles in holding Society and Communion with the Jews in the outward worship and service of God doth not condemn all such Sectaries as do separate themselves from the Churches of Christ whereof they were once Members the same being true Churches by lawful Authority established under pretence of they
know not what new Christianity or that there ought not to be now amongst Christians Ecclesiastical Courts for Ecclesiastical Causes as well as there were such Courts amongst the Jews for such kind of Causes or that all Christians are not now bound to repair as well to Ecclesiastical Courts and Governours for reformation of such Offences as are of Ecclesiastical Counusance as the Jews were bound to repair to their Sanhedrims to have those Evils redressed that were to be reform'd by those Courts or that as many as do profess themselves to be true Imitators of Christ in their Lives and Conversation are not bound to such obedience unto their Princes and Rulers how evil-disposed soever they be yea though they seek their Lives as Christ shewed and performed both to the Ecclesiastical and Temporal State of the Iews at what time he knew they were plotting his Death He doth greatly Erre CAP. V. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not alter the form of temporal Government establisht by himself long before his Incarnation and that therefore Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes though they were then Infidels were nevertheless to be obey'd by the Subjects as formerly from the beginning they had been IT hath been before observ'd by us that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World was no temporal King nor had any temporal Dominion Court Possessions Regal State Dukes Earls Lords or any other Subjects as other temporal Kings had to obey and serve him But perhaps after his Resurrection it was for otherwise with him Indeed so it was For whereas the Son of God God himself equal to the Father by being made Man did cease to put in practice the Glory and Majesty of his Deity in his humane Nature otherwise than by doing such Miracles as he thought necessary for the Conversion of those who were to believe in him Now after his Resurrection and Ascension the state of his humane Nature was become as it may well be said much more glorious because his Divine Nature did communicate unto his Humane Nature So many divine Dignities and operations of his Deity in respect of the hypostatical Union betwixt them as the same was capable of without turning of his Divine Nature into his Humane Nature It being always to be understood that the said hypostatical and real Union notwithstanding there was never any Confusion betwixt the two Natures of Christ both of them always retaining their distinct and essential Proprieties Which ground observ'd we may truly say that the Attributes are admirable which in regard of the said Union are and may be ascribed unto our Saviour Christ as he is Man especially after his Resurrection and Ascension For some short proof hereof these following Places may suffice Before our Saviour Christ commanded his Apostles to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost he told them lest they should have doubted whether he had any Authority to make them so large a Commission that all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth He also was before as the Holy Ghost testifieth of him made Heir of all things and so had a true Interest in them and after his Resurrection had the full possession of them We see Jesus saith the Apostle crown'd with glory and honour And again When God raised up Jesus from the dead he set him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Domination and every Name that is named not in this world only but in that also which is to come and hath made all things subject under his feet And again The kingdoms of this world are our Lord's and his Christ's And again The lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings And to conclude He hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written The King of kings and Lord of lords Howbeit all that we have hitherto said notwithstanding though all the World doth actually appertain to our Saviour Christ now in Glory as he is Man in respect of the said Unition or hypostatical Union yet did he not alter after his Resurrection and Ascension the manner of temporal Government which he had ordained throughout the World before his Incarnation as he was God his humane Nature being invested by the power of his Divinity in manner before exprest with all his said Glory and Authority but doth still continue the sole Monarch over all distributing that his universal Kingdom as formerly he had done into divers Principalities and Kingdoms and appointing temporal Kings and Soveraign Princes as his Substitutes and Vicegerents to rule them all by the Rules and Laws of Nature if they be Ethnicks or if Christians then not only by those Rules but also as well by the Equity of the Judicial Laws which he gave to the Jews as by the Doctrine of the Gospel more throughly opened and delivered with all the parts of it by himself and his Apostles than in former times it had been Of Christian Kings we shall have fitter place to speak hereafter Now we will prosecute this point concerning the Regal Authority of Princes that are Infidels and consider more particularly Whether they did not and so consequently do not still as lawfully enjoy their Kingdoms and legal Soveraignties under our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension as they did before either of them and likewise as they did before his Incarnation according to that which we have delivered in the former Chapter And the especial Reason that moveth us so to do is the audacious temerity of the before-named ignorant Canonists and of their adherents the new Sectaries of the Oratory Congregation who with the like Ignorance and Folly that they told us how all Kings lost their Interest and Authority over their Kingdoms by the birth of our Saviour Christ do furthermore endeavour very wickedly and sottishly to pervert such especial places in the Apostles Writings as are most aparently repugnant to their said Fancy or rather Phrenzy To make their dealing with one place apparent is sufficient for our purpose Whereas St. Paul writing to the Romans willeth them to be subject to the higher Powers or teacheth them as a late absurd Canonist abridgeth the place Obediendum esse Principibus that Princes are to be obeyâ—d He speaketh not saith he de Ethnicis as that place is corruptly alledged sed quatenus de illis intellexit that is in such a sense as he meant it And what the Apostle meant he is not ashamed to tell us in this sort saying 1. the Apostle speaketh of the Roman Empire which Christ had approved when he bad the Jews pay Tribute to Caesar 2. the Text doth expound it self for he writeth to Christians whom he counselleth to be obedient to Princes lest they should sin for Princes are not to be feared for good works
Timothy of of his Epistle to Titus though they are found in the ancient Copies of the Greek Testament are of no Credit or Authority or that such an Impeachment and Discredit laid upon them is not very prejudicial to the Books and Writings of the Holy Ghost or that it is not great presumption for Men in these days to take upon them to know better Whether Timothy and Titus were Bishops than the Churches and godly Fathers did which were planted and lived either in the Apostle's times or presently after them except they have some especial Revelations from God or that whilst Men do labour to bring into discredit the ancient Fathers and Primitive Churches they do not derogate from themselves such credit as they hunt after and as much as in them lieth bring many parts of Religion into a wonderful uncertainty or that it is probable or was possible for Timothy to have observ'd those Rules that St. Paul gave him unto the coming of Christ except as the Fathers expound some of them he meant to have them first observed by himself and other Bishops in that Age and that afterward they should so likewise be observed by all Bishops for ever or that the ancient Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories when they Record it to all Posterity that these Men and those Men were made by the Apostles Bishops of such and such places are not to be held to be of more credit than any other Historiographers or Writers or that when the ancient Fathers did collect out of the Scriptures and practice of the Apostles the continuance for ever of that Form of Church-Government which was then in use they were not so throughly illuminated with the Holy Ghost as divers Men of late have been or that it was an idle course held by the Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers to keep the Catalogues of their Bishops or to ground Arguments in some Cases upon their Succession in that they were able to deduce their beginnings either from the Apostles or from some Apostolical Persons or that the Form of Government used in the Apostle's times for the planting and ordering of Churches was not in many respects as necessary to be continued in the Church afterward especially considering that many Churches were not left fully ordered nor in some places were at all planted when the Apostles died or that true and perfect Order grounded upon the very Laws of Nature and Reason and established by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles times was not fit for the Churches of God afterward to embrace and observe or that any Church since the Apostles time till of late years when it received the Gospel had not likewise Archbishops and Bishops for the Government of it or that divers of the ancient Fathers did not hold and that very truly for ought that appeareth to the contrary that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in establishing the Form of Church-Government amongst the Gentiles had an especial respect to that Form which God had setled amongst the Jews and did no way purpose to abrogate or abolish it or that any since the Apostles times till of late days was ever held to be a lawful Minister of the Word and Sacraments who was not Ordain'd Priest or Minister by the Imposition of the hands of some Bishop or that it is with any probability to be imagin'd that all the Churches of Christ and ancient Fathers from the beginning would ever have held it for an Apostolical Rule That none but Bishops had any Authority to make Priests had they not thought and judged that the same Authority had been derived unto them the said Bishops from the same Apostolical Ordination that was committed unto Timothy and Titus their Predecessors or that the Apostles and all the ancient Fathers were deceived when they judged the Authority of Bishops necessary at all times for the suppressing of Schisms and that without Bishops there would be in the Churches as many Sects as Ministers or that when Men find themselves in regard of their disobedience to their Bishops so fully and notably described and censured by all the ancient Fathers for Schismaticks and contentious Persons they have not just cause to fear their own Estates if they continue in such their willfulness and obstinacy or that the Church-Government by us above treated of is truly to be said to savour of Judaism more than the observation by godly Kings and Princes of the Equity of the Iudicial Law given to the Jews may truly be said to savour thereof or that it doth proceed from any other than the wicked Spirit for any sort of Men what godly shew soever they can pretend to seek to discredit as much as in them lieth that Form of Church-Government which was established by the Apostles and left by them to continue in the Church to the end of the World under Archbishops and Bishops such as were Timothy and Titus and some others then called to those Offices by the said Apostles and ever since held by the Primitive Churches and all the ancient Fathers to be Apostolical Functions or to term the same or any part of it to be Anti-Christian He doth greatly Erre CAP. IX The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ upon his Ascension into Heaven did not commit the Temporal Government of the whole World unto St. Peter That the Apostles and whole Ministry did succeed Christ not as he was a Person immortal and glorious after his Resurrection but as he was a Mortal Man here upon the Earth before his Passion That Christ left neither to St. Peter nor to the Bishops of Rome nor to any other Archbishops or Bishops any temporal Possessions all that since any of them have gotten being bestowed upon them by Emperours Kings and Princes and other their good Benefactors And that the Imagination of St. Peter's Temporal Sovereignty is very idle the same being never known unto himself for ought that appeareth and argueth great Ignorance of the true nature of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ for the erecting whereof the spiritual working of the Holy Ghost with the Apostles and the rest of the Ministry of the Gospel was and is only necessary IT hath been shewed by us before that our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension became actually in the State of the Heir of all things Governour of all the World and King of kings even as he was Man his divine Nature working more gloriously in his Humanity than formerly it had done Howbeit although we also made it plain that notwithstanding the said Glory Power Rule Dominion and Majesty wherewith Christ is really possest sitting in Heaven at the right hand of his Father he made no alteration in the Form and manner of Temporal Government but left the whole World to be ruled by Kings and Soveraign Princes under him as it had been before himself retaining still in his own hands the Scepter and chiefest Ensigns of Royal and highest Majesty to direct and
profession of Christ So as the preservation of the Gospel in these parts of the World may more truly be attributed to the working of the Spirit of God in them than to the Bishops of Rome who have been the chief Authors and occasions of many incredible mischiefs Now lastly and for conclusion of this point had not Satan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders so inveigled and seduced the hearts and minds of the adherents to the See of Rome as that by degrees they leaving the love of the truth are therefore given over by God unto such strong delusions that they should believe lyes as the Apostle speaketh amongst many other of the gross errours maintained by them we might marvel at this that ever they durst take upon them in these times of so great light to write and defend it with such resolution and confidence that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as they term it cannot be perfect nor attain her Spiritual End except the Pope may have the said temporal Power and Authority to depose Kings considering how far the true nature of the Church which is the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ and the true Means and Armour that Christ our Spiritual King hath indeed ordained and appointed for the Edification and Defence of this his Spiritual Kingdom and for the attainment of the supernatural and right end and beauty of it are repugnant to these their Carnal and Worldly conceits Touching the true nature of the Church and Spiritual Kingdom of Christ we have before spoken and the true Spiritual End of the Church being by teaching the ways of truth to bring as many as possibly they can to the knowledge of their Salvation through Christ so as by Faith they may become true Members of his Spiritual Kingdom in the Life to come the means ordain'd for that purpose do contain the full duty and office of all Bishops and Ecclesiastical Ministers who are furnished by Christ neither with temporal Swords nor Imperial Authority to depose Kings and Soveraign Princes but ought to carry themselves toward all Men especially towards Kings and Princes if they be either Pagans or Enemies to Religion as Christ himself and his Apostles did by Preaching and Praying for them by Humility and Patience to endure whatsoever punishment shall be thought fit to be imposed upon them for doing of their duties and never to intermit such their pains and diligence to the end that if it please God to bless those their Ministerial so great labours their Auditors of all sorts private Persons Kings and Prince may be brought to the knowledge of the truth that so Satan being expelled out of their hearts Christ by Faith may raign in them To the effecting of which so great and so divine an alteration and change in Mens Souls there is no Worldly Force nor temporal Sword which will serve the turn And therefore the Apostle speaking of this matter doth write in this sort The Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal as if he should have said We do not come with Troops of Men to promote the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ but with Weapons of another nature with the glad ridings of the Gospel with the Doctrine of Salvation to all Believers and with the Furniture of the Holy Ghost which Weapons are not weak but mighty through God and able to cast down holds that is all the carnal Forces of Men all Principalities and Powers that shall presume to rise up against Christ And through the assurance and experience which both St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles had in the force of these Weapons he saith further that with them they overthrew Councils and every high thing that did exalt it self against the knowledge of God and that they brought into Captivity all imagination or understanding to the obedience of Christ away then with the Pope's Carnal Weapons and with all their Illusions and Juglings that seek to uphold them for such Weapons were never ordain'd by Christ for his Apostolical Warfare CAN. IX AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the external Callings in this World of those Men as Ministers and Schoolmasters that have to deal with the information of Mens Minds and Souls are superiour and to be preferr'd in Honour and Wordly Dignities before the Callings of Kings and Soveraign Princes or that because health is better and more to be desired in this Life than any Worldly Preferments therefore the Calling of Physicians who are ordain'd for the health of Mens Bodies ought to be superiour to all other Worldly Callings or that the Regal and Political Power of the King when it is part of a Christian Commonwealth is thereby brought into greater servitude and thraldom than is the Regal and Political State of Ethnick Princes when the same are no parts of a Christian Kingdom or that to prefer the Ecclesiastical State for Worldly Authority before the State of Kings and Soveraign Princes is not in effect to prefer the humbled Estate of Christ as he was Man living here upon the Earth before his glorious Estate after his Ascension and before the glory and majesty of the Divine Nature or that any Ecclesiastical Authority which the Apostles ordained did either free them or any of their Successors from subjection to Kings and Princes and to their temporal Authority or that St. Peter being an Apostle and so subject to the civil Sword of Temporal Authority could lawfully by any indirect device challenge any temporal Power and Dominion over Kings and Princes for that had been to have extorted the temporal Sword out of their hands to whom it appertain'd and to have incurr'd again the commination of his Master when he told him how all that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword or that it is not a most profane impiety tending altogether to the discredit of the Scriptures for any Man to hold that St. Peter and St. Paul had so instructed the Christians in their times as that they knew if they had been able they might without offence to God have deposed Nero from his Empire or that the Christians in Tertullian's time when they professed that notwithstanding their numbers and forces were so great as they had been able to have distressed very greatly the Estate of the Emperours being then Persecutors they might not so do because Christ their Master had taught them otherwise ought not to be a sufficient Warrant for all true Christians to detest those Men in these days and for ever hereafter who contrary to the Example of the said Christians in the Primitive Church and the Doctrine of Christ which was then taught them do endeavour to perswade them when they shall have sufficient Forces to Rebel against such Kings and Emperours at the Pope's Commandment and to thrust them from their Kingdoms and Empires or that this Devilish Doctrine of animating Subjects to Rebellion when they are able against their
our Saviour Christ to be contented with that Form of Government in his Church which they think good to assign unto him and so make him to divide stakes as the Phrase is with the Bishops of Rome or else to be reputed amongst them for a Person of little Discretion and Providence and to have dealt absurdly in ordering and setling the external Government of his Church as he had ordered and setled the external Government of his Universal Kingdom over all the Kings and Princes in the World Which profane wicked and blasphemous proceedings with Christ will no doubt in short time receive a heavy Judgment in that although the Man of sin hath long wrought in a mystery and taken upon him for his time and so every one of his Successors during their Lives to sit in the Temple of God vaunting that the said Temple or Spiritual Kingdom of Christ is wholly at his Command yet now he beginneth to be revealed and disclosed to be that Impostor that by the assistance of Satan hath with power and signs and lying wonders in all deceiveableness and unrighteousness long abused the Christian World and is consequently to be consumed by our Saviour Christ with the Spirit of his mouth In the mean while and till this work be throughly effected we are not to censure Christ either for his Discretion or Divine Providence but indeed to admire and magnify them both considering that by his Government both of the Universal World as he is the Son of God and of his Catholick Church as he is the Redeemer of it in such manner and form as we have before expressed by several Kings and Priests within their Kingdoms Provinces and Diocesses he hath left unto them certain general rules and motives which being diligently observed do tend to the universal good and preservation both of the one and the other though they have no assistance therein from the Bishops of Rome For as it is an apt and good reason to perswade all Kings and Kingdoms to live quietly with their Neighbour Princes and Nations and to be at a firm League and Friendship with them because they have all but one Heavenly King are Members and Subjects of one Universal Kingdom have or ought to have but one moral Faith one rule of Justice one square for Equity one nature of Truth one moral Law one Kind Form and nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual one natural Instinct to know God and to worship him and one Form and Rule of mutual love and affection So the particular Churches dispersed over the World when they had small Comfort from the civil Magistrate held themselves bound to have a special care one over another that matters of Religion might proceed by one rule with mutual Agreement and Uniformity for avoiding of Schisms in that they well knew they had all but one Redeemer and Saviour one Heavenly Spiritual King or Archbishop were all of them Members of one mystical Body whereof Christ was the Head had all of them but one Faith one Baptism one Spiritual Food one Hope one Bond of Charity one Redemption and one Everlasting Inheritance in the Life to come Which were such Arguments of mutual Consociation in those days as when any great matters of importance did fall out in any one Country through the willfulness and obstinacy of Hereticks and crafty Seducers of the People which perhaps were countenanced with some of strength and greater power than could easily be withstood their Neighbour Churches adjoining did sometimes assist them by their Letters with the best counsel they could give them and sometimes did send some especial Learned Men unto them for the better suppressing of those Evils and sometimes when occasions fell out thereunto moving sundry Archbishops and Bishops of several Countries with other learned Priests and Persons of principal note did as they might for fear of danger meet together and upon due and mature deliberation did so order and determine of matters as thereby Heresies and Contentions were still suppressed and the Churches in those Countries received great comfort and quietness And if in those troublesome times the peace of the Church were thus preserved how much more now under Christian Magistrates may it be strengthned upheld and maintain'd without the Pope not only within their several Kingdoms but likewise throughout in effect all these Western Parts of the World if Christian Kings and Soveraign Princes would agree together for a general Council to the end that all those Heresies Errours Impostures and Presumptions wherewith the Church of Christ hath been long and is now miserably shaken and disturbed might be at the last utterly suppressed and extinguished Many other means might here be alledged to shew how the state of Christian Religion is to be upheld and maintained without any assistance from the Bishop of Rome But our purpose being in this place to resemble and compare the government of the Catholick Church with the Universal Government of the Son of God over the whole World We hold it sufficient to observe That every National Church may as well subsist of her self without one Universal Bishop as every KIngdom may do without one general Monarch Nevertheless we acknowledge that in this particular Tractate we have been very tedious and it may be thought perhaps by some that our pains therein is altogether superfluous because many of our Adversaries do in effect acknowledge that there is the like necessity of one Emperour to govern all the World as there is of one Pope to have the oversight and ordering of the whole Catholick Church Indeed upon the sifting of the usurped Authority of the Bishops of Rome our Adversaries finding that by their Arguments to bolster up his said Authority the Erection of one Man to govern the World in temporal Causes is as necessarily to be inforced as of one Pope to govern the whole Church in Ecclesiastical Causes they are grown to this most admirable Insolency and most high presumption as that they dare affirm and do take upon them without all modesty to maintain it That the Pope is both the Monarch of the Catholick Church and the Emperour of all the World Which mystery of theirs is thus managed and by piece-meal unfolded after this sort viz. That to ease the Pope lest he might be oppressed with multitude of affairs if he should take upon him in his own Person to govern the whole World as he doth direct the especial affairs of the Catholick Church they do assign unto him Power and Authority to create and delegate under him as his Feudatary or Vassal this one supposed Emperour to whom they say he may commit the special Execution of his temporal Sword to be drawn and put up at his direction and commandment And for this one base Emperour over all the World many are now as busy as others are to maintain the Pope's Supremacy over the whole Catholick Church Now to prove that the Pope hath
Power unto others and writeth thus Whatsoever Emperours have they have it from Christ and therefore saith he the Bishop of Rome may either take from Kings and Emperours the execution of their Authority as being himself the highest King and Emperour or he may not If he may then is he greater than Christ If he may not Ergo he hath not in truth any Regal Power And he concludeth this Point with this Observation As the Sun did not make or institute the Moon but God himself so likewise the Empire and the Pontifical Dignity are not One neither doth the One absolutely depend upon the Other Lastly To prove his third Proposition That the Pope hath no Temporal Jurisdiction directly he reasoneth in this sort Christ as he was Man whilst he lived here upon Earth neither took nor would take any Temporal Dominion but the Bishop of Rome is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us qualis erat dùm hîc inter homines viveret as he was whilst he lived here amongst Men therefore the Bishop of Rome hath no Temporal Dominion Now before he comes to the Proof of the the first Proposition of this Argument and that he might make the Ground thereof more plain he saith 1. That Christ was always as he is the Son of God the King and Lord of all Creatures in the same sort that the Father is 2. That his Kingdom is Eternal and Divine and neither taketh away the Kingdoms of Men nor can agree to the Bishops of Rome 3. That Christ as he was Man was the Spiritual King of all Men and had most ample Spiritual Power over all Men as well faithful as Infidels 4. That this Spiritual Power of Christ shall after the Day of Judgment be sensible and manifest 5. That the Glory of this Kingdom did begin in our Head Christ when he arose from the dead Upon which Grounds he maketh these Inferences 1. That the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ the Glory whereof began after His Resurrection is not a Temporal Kingdom such as are the Kingdoms of our Kings 2. That the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ over all Men cannot be communicated to the Bishop of Rome because it pre-supposeth the Resurrection 3. That Christ as he was Man if he had list and had thought it expedient for him could have taken upon him a Kingly Authority but would not and therefore neither did receive any such Authority neither had not only the Execution of any Dominion or Kingdom but not the Authority or Power of any Kingdom Temporal And so he cometh to the Proof of his said Proposition saying That if Christ had any such Temporal Kingdom He had it either by hereditary Succession or by Election or by the Law of War or by the Especial Gift of God but He had it by none of these four ways Ergo He had no such Dominion For the Proof of all which Particulars he taketh good Pains and then cometh to the Explication of these words in his second Proposition of the first Argument concerning this point viz. That the Pope doth represent Christ unto us as he was when he lived here amongst Men and saith 1. We cannot attribute unto the Pope those Offices which Christ hath either as he is God or as he is an immortal and glorified Man but those which he had as he was a mortal Man 2. Neither hath the Pope all the Power which Christ had as he was a mortal Man For he because he was both God and Man had a certain Power which Men call the Power of Excellency whereby he ruled both Faithful and Infidels But the Faithful only are committed to the Pope 3. Christ had Authority to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which the Pope hath not 4. Christ had Power to absolve Men from their sins without the Sacrament which the Pope cannot do With Bellarmin that he may not bear this great burthen upon his own shoulders and undergo alone the Envy thereof ensuing an Army of Writers both old and new do concur He hath himself set down the names of some and for his better supportation we have thought it fit to assist him with two more viz. the Archbishop of Compsa one Ambrosius Catharinus and Boëtius Epon a Count Palatin whose Book of Heroical and Ecclesiastical Questions Printed at Doway 1588. a place wholly Jesuited is greatly approved by Tho. Stapleton our Countryman and Balthazar Seulin the Dean of Amate a Licentiate of the Pope's Law and the ordinary Visiter or Allower of such Books as are thought meet to be published Non desunt plerique c. There are many saith Catharinus who are not content with that that is sufficient Ne dicam nimiùm that I may not say It is too much Who either to flatter or of too gross simplicity do affirm that the temporal Dominion of the whole World doth belong of Right to the Bishop of Rome as being Christ's chief Vicar in Earth in that Christ said All things are given to me of my Father Verùm ridicula haec profectò quae neque ipsimet Pontifices auderent asserere But assuredly these are ridiculous Joys The Popes themselves dare not for shame so affirm Quòd autèm Papa sit Vicarius Christi c. For that the Pope is called Christ's Vicar what force hath it to perswade us that all the Kingdoms in the World are committed to be govern'd by him in temporal Causes Nay saith he it rather induceth us to believe that they are not committed unto him quoniam Christus abjecit ea ut Homo erat in Mundo non habuit because he cast them from him and as he was Man had them not himself And the said Boëtius Epon having set down the reasons why some have maintain'd the Pope's said Universal Dominion in temporal Causes and given a touch of the Jews Errour and of the Apostles oversight in that behalf he saith thus Neque nos forsitan Judaeis multò vel meliores vel minùs inepti sumus dum c. And we perhaps are not either much better or less foolish than the Jews whilst we do ridiculously mingle the temporal and Earthly Kingdom or Empire with the Kingdom Ecclesiastical or Spiritual by wresting to that purpose the Testimonies of the sacred Scriptures which do nothing less than make either Christ or Peter or the Pope the temporal Monarch either of the whole World or of the Christian World Digni profectò c. We are certainly worthy of this answer of Christ Nescitis quid petatis quidve disputetis you know not what you ask nor what you dispute of And thus it appeareth what Opposition there hath been ever since the days of Gregory the Seventh against the Insolency of the Bishops of Rome in challenging to themselves such eminent and Soveraign Authority temporal over all Kings and Emperours and how in these later times through the light of the Gospel Men of any good parts or