have all manner of Power over their Subjects that can be given to man for the government of mens externall actions both in Policy and Religion and may make such Laws as themselves shall judge fittest for the government of their own Subjects both as they are the Common-wealth and as they are the Church for both State and Church are the same men If they please therefore they may as many Christian Kings now doe commit the government of their Subjects in matters of Religion to the Pope but then the Pope is in that point Subordinate to them and exerciseth that Charge in anothers Dominion Iure Civili in the Right of the Civill Soveraign not Iure Divino in Gods Right and may therefore be discharged of that Office when the Soveraign for the good of his Subjects shall think it necessary They may also if they please commit the care of Religion to one Supreme Pastor or to an Assembly of Pastors and give them what power over the Church or one over another they think most convenient and what titles of honor as of Bishops Archbishops Priests or Presbyters they will and make such Laws for their maintenance either by Tithes or otherwise as they please so they doe it out of a sincere conscience of which God onely is the Judge It is the Civill Soveraign that is to appoint Judges and Interpreters of the Canonicall Scriptures for it is he that maketh them Laws It is he also that giveth strength to Excommunications which but for such Laws and Punishments as may humble obstinate Libertines and reduce them to union with the rest of the Church would bee contemned In summe he hath the Supreme Power in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill as far as concerneth actions and words for those onely are known and may be accused and of that which cannot be accused there is no Judg at all but God that knoweth the heart And these Rights are incident to all Soveraigns whether Monarchs or Assemblies for they that are the Representants of a Christian People are Representants of the Church for a Church and a Common-wealth of Christian People are the same thing Though this that I have here said and in other places of this Book seem cleer enough for the asserting of the Supreme Ecclesiasticall Power to Christian Soveraigns yet because the Pope of Romes challenge to that Power universally hath been maintained chiefly and I think as strongly as is possible by Cardinall Bellarmine in his Controversie De Summo Pontifice I have thought it necessary as briefly as I can to examine the grounds and strength of his Discourse Of five Books he hath written of this subject the first containeth three Questions One Which is simply the best government Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy and concludeth for neither but for a government mixt of all three Another which of these is the best Government of the Church and concludeth for the mixt but which should most participate of Monarchy The third whether in this mixt Monarchy St. Peter had the place of Monarch Concerning his first Conclusion I have already sufficiently proved chapt 18. that all Governments which men are bound to obey are Simple and Absolute In Monarchy there is but One Man Supreme and all other men that have any kind of Power in the State have it by his Commission during his pleasure and execute it in his name And in Aristocracy and Democracy but One Supreme Assembly with the same Power that in Monarchy belongeth to the Monarch which is not a Mixt but an Absolute Soveraignty And of the three sorts which is the best is not to be disputed where any one of them is already established but the present ought alwaies to be preferred maintained and accounted best because it is against both the Law of Nature and the Divine positive Law to doe any thing tending to the subversion thereof Besides it maketh nothing to the Power of any Pastor unlesse he have the Civill Soveraignty what kind of Government is the best because their Calling is not to govern men by Commandement but to teach them and perswade them by Arguments and leave it to them to consider whether they shall embrace or reject the Doctrine taught For Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy do mark out unto us three sorts of Soveraigns not of Pastors or as we may say three sorts of Masters of Families not three sorts of Schoolmasters for their children And therefore the second Conclusion concerning the best form of Government of the Church is nothing to the question of the Popes Power without his own Dominions For in all other Common-wealths his Power if hee have any at all is that of the Schoolmaster onely and not of the Master of the Family For the third Conclusion which is that St. Peter was Monarch of the Church he bringeth for his chiefe argument the place of S. Matth. chap. 16. 18 19. Thou art Peter And upon this rock I will build my Church c. And I will give thee the keyes of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Which place well considered proveth no more but that the Church of Christ hath for foundation one onely Article namely that which Peter in the name of all the Apostles professing gave occasion to our Saviour to speak the words here cited which that wee may cleerly understand we are to consider that our Saviour preached by himself by John Baptist and by his Apostles nothing but this Article of Faith that he was the Christ all other Articles requiring faith no otherwise than as founded on that John began first Mat. 3. 2. preaching only this The Kingdome of God is at hand Then our Saviour himself Mat. 4. 17. preached the same And to his Twelve Apostles when he gave them their Commission Mat. 10. 7. there is no mention of preaching any other Article but that This was the fundamentall Article that is the Foundation of the Churches Faith Afterwards the Apostles being returned to him he asketh them all Mat. 16. 13. not Peter onely Who men said he was and they answered that some said he was Iohn the Baptist some Elias and others Ieremias or one of the Prophets Then ver 15. he asked them all again not Peter onely Whom say yee that I am Therefore S. Peter answered for them all Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God which I said is the Foundation of the Faith of the whole Church from which our Saviour takes the occasion of saying Vpon this stone I will build my Church By which it is manifest that by the Foundation-Stone of the Church was meant the Fundamentall Article of the Churches Faith But why then will some object doth our Saviour interpose these words Thou art Peter If the originall of this text had been rigidly translated the reason would easily have appeared We are therefore to consider that the
Laws if any else can make a Law besides himselfe all Common-wealth and consequently all Peace and Justice must cease which is contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane Nothing therefore can be drawn from these or any other places of Scripture to prove the Decrees of the Pope where he has not also the Civill Soveraignty to be Laws The last point hee would prove is this That our Saviour Christ has committed Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction immediately to none but the Pope Wherein he handleth not the Question of Supremacy between the Pope and Christian Kings but between the Pope and other Bishops And first he sayes it is agreed that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is at least in the generall de Iure Divino that is in the Right of God for which he alledges S. Paul Ephes. 4. 11. where hee sayes that Christ after his Ascension into heaven gave gifts to men some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some Teachers And thence inferres they have indeed their Jurisdiction in Gods Right but will not grant they have it immediately from God but derived through the Pope But if a man may be said to have his Jurisdiction de Jure Divino and yet not immediately what lawfull Jurisdiction though but Civill is there in a Christian Common-wealth that is not also de Jure Divino For Christian Kings have their Civill Power from God immediately and the Magistrates under him exercise their severall charges in vertue of his Commission wherein that which they doe is no lesse de Jure Divino mediato than that which the Bishops doe in vertue of the Popes Ordination All lawfull Power is of God immediately in the Supreme Governour and mediately in those that have Authority under him So that either hee must grant every Constable in the State to hold his Office in the Right of God or he must not hold that any Bishop holds his so besides the Pope himselfe But this whole Dispute whether Christ left the Jurisdiction to the Pope onely or to other Bishops also if considered out of those places where the Pope has the Civill Soveraignty is a contention de lana Caprina For none of them where they are not Soveraigns has any Jurisdiction at all For Jurisdiction is the Power of hearing and determining Causes between man and man and can belong to none but him that hath the Power to prescribe the Rules of Right and Wrong that is to make Laws and with the Sword of Justice to compell men to obey his Decisions pronounced either by himself or by the Judges he ordaineth thereunto which none can lawfully do but the Civill Soveraign Therefore when he alledgeth out of the 6 of Luke that our Saviour called his Disciples together and chose twelve of them which he named Apostles he proveth that he Elected them all except Matthias Paul and Barnabas and gave them Power and Command to Preach but not to Judge of Causes between man and man for that is a Power which he refused to take upon himselfe saying Who made me a Iudge or a Divider amongst you and in another place My Kingdome is not of this world But hee that hath not the Power to hear and determine Causes between man and man cannot be said to have any Jurisdiction at all And yet this hinders not but that our Saviour gave them Power to Preach and Baptize in all parts of the world supposing they were not by their own lawfull Soveraign forbidden For to our own Soveraigns Christ himself and his Apostles have in sundry places expressely commanded us in all things to be obedient The arguments by which he would prove that Bishops receive their Jurisdiction from the Pope seeing the Pope in the Dominions of other Princes hath no Jurisdiction himself are all in vain Yet because they prove on the contrary that all Bishops receive Jurisdiction when they have it from their Civill Soveraigns I will not omit the recitall of them The first is from Numbers 11. where Moses not being able alone to undergoe the whole burthen of administring the affairs of the People of Israel God commanded him to choose Seventy Elders and took part of the spirit of Moses to put it upon those Seventy Elders by which is understood not that God weakned the spirit of Moses for that had not eased him at all but that they had all of them their authority from him wherein he doth truly and ingenuously interpret that place But seeing Moses had the entire Soveraignty in the Common-wealth of the Jews it is manifest that it is thereby signified that they had their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and therefore that place proveth that Bishops in every Christian Common-wealth have their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and from the Pope in his own Territories only and not in the Territories of any other State The second argument is from the nature of Monarchy wherein all Authority is in one Man and in others by derivation from him But the Government of the Church he says is Monarchicall This also makes for Christian Monarchs For they are really Monarchs of their own people that is of their own Church for the Church is the same thing with a Christian people whereas the Power of the Pope though hee were S. Peter is neither Monarchy nor hath any thing of Archicall nor Craticall but onely of Didacticall For God accepteth not a forced but a willing obedience The third is from that the Sea of S. Peter is called by S. Cyprian the Head the Source the Roote the Sun from whence the Authority of Bishops is derived But by the Law of Nature which is a better Principle of Right and Wrong than the word of any Doctor that is but a man the Civill Soveraign in every Common-wealth is the Head the Source the Root and the Sun from which all Jurisdiction is derived And therefore the Jurisdiction of Bishops is derived from the Civill Soveraign The fourth is taken from the Inequality of their Jurisdictions For if God saith he had given it them immediately he had given aswell Equality of Jurisdiction as of Order But wee see some are Bishops but of own Town some of a hundred Towns and some of many whole Provinces which differences were not determined by the command of God their Jurisdiction therefore is not of God but of Man and one has a greater another a lesse as it pleaseth the Prince of the Church Which argument if he had proved before that the Pope had had an Universall Jurisdiction over all Christians had been for his purpose But seeing that hath not been proved and that it is notoriously known the large Jurisdiction of the Pope was given him by those that had it that is by the Emperours of Rome for the Patriarch of Constantinople upon the same title namely of being Bishop of the Capitall City of the Empire and Seat of the Emperour claimed to be equall to him it followeth that all other Bishops
and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament have had one and the same scope to convert men to the obedience of God 1. in Moses and the Priests 2. in the man Christ and 3. in the Apostles and the successors to Apostolicall power For these three at several times did represent the person of God Moses and his successors the High Priests and Kings of Judah in the Old Testament Christ himself in the time he lived on earth and the Apostles and their successors from the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on them to this day It is a question much disputed between the divers sects of Christian Religion From whence the Scriptures derive their Authority which question is also propounded sometimes in other terms as How wee know them to be the Word of God or Why we b◅leeve them to be so And the difficulty of resolving it ariseth chiefly from the impropernesse of the words wherein the question it self is couched For it is beleeved on all hands that the first and originall Author of them is God and consequently the question disputed is not that Again it is manifest that none can know they are Gods Word though all true Christians beleeve it but those to whom God himself hath revealed it supernaturally and therefore the question is not rightly moved of our Know edge of it Lastly when the question is propounded of our Beleefe because some are moved to beleeve for one and others for other reasons there can be rendred no one generall answer for them all The question truly stated is By what Authority they are made Law As far as they differ not from the Laws of Nature there is no doubt but they are the Law of God and carry their Authority with them legible to all men that have the use of naturall reason but this is no other Authority then that of all other Morall Doctrine consonant to Reason the Dictates whereof are Laws not made but Eternall If they be made Law by God himselfe they are of the nature of written Law which are Laws to them only to whom God hath so sufficiently published them as no man can excuse himself by saying he knew not they were his He therefore to whom God hath not supernaturally revealed that they are his nor that those that published them were sent by him is not obliged to obey them by any Authority but his whose Commands have already the force of Laws that is to say by any other Authority then that of the Common-wealth residing in the Soveraign who only has the Legislative power Again if it be not the Legislative Authority of the Common-wealth that giveth them the force of Laws it must bee some other Authority derived from God either private or publique if private it obliges onely him to whom in particular God hath been pleased to reveale it For if every man should be obliged to take for Gods Law what particular men on pretence of private Inspiration or Revelation should obtrude upon him in such a number of men that out of pride and ignorance take their own Dreams and extravagant Fancies and Madnesse for testimonies of Gods Spirit or out of ambition pretend to such Divine testimonies falsely and contrary to their own consciences it were impossible that any Divine Law should be acknowledged If publique it is the Authority of the Common-wealth or of the Church But the Church if it be one person is the same thing with a Common-wealth of Christians called a Common-wealth because it consisteth of men united in one person their Soveraign and a Church because it consisteth in Christian men united in one Christian Soveraign But if the Church be not one person then it hath no authority at all it can neither command nor doe any action at all nor is capable of having any power or right to any thing nor has any Will Reason nor Voice for all these qualities are personall Now if the whole number of Christians be not contained in one Common-wealth they are not one person nor is there an Universall Church that hath any authority over them and therefore the Scriptures are not made Laws by the Universall Church or if it bee one Common-wealth then all Christian Monarchs and States are private persons and subject to bee judged deposed and punished by an Universall Soveraigne of all Christendome So that the question of the Authority of the Scriptures is reduced to this Whether Christian Kings and the Soveraigne Assemblies in Christian Common-wealths be absolute in their own Territories immediately under God or subject to one Vicar of Christ constituted of the Vniversall Church to bee judged condemned deposed and put to death as hee shall think expedient or necessary for the common good Which question cannot bee resolved without a more particular consideration of the Kingdome of God from whence also wee are to judge of the Authority of Interpreting the Scripture For whosoever hath a lawfull power over any Writing to make it Law hath the power also to approve or disapprove the interpretation of the same CHAP. XXXIV Of the Signification of SPIRIT ANGEL and INSPIRATION in the Books of Holy Scripture SEeing the foundation of all true Ratiocination is the constant Signification of words which in the Doctrine following dependeth not as in naturall science on the Will of the Writer nor as in common conversation on vulgar use but on the sense they carry in the Scripture It is necessary before I proceed any further to determine out of the Bible the meaning of such words as by their ambiguity may render what I am to inferre upon them obscure or disputable I will begin with the words BODY and SPIRIT which in the language of the Schools are termed Substances Corporeall and Incorporeall The Word Body in the most generall acceptation signifieth that which filleth or occupyeth some certain room or imagined place and dependeth not on the imagination but is a reall part of that we call the Vniverse For the Vniverse being the Aggregate of all Bodies there is no reall part thereof that is not also Body nor any thing properly a Body that is not also part of that Aggregate of all Bodies the Vniverse The same also because Bodies are subject to change that is to say to variety of apparence to the sense of living creatures is called Substance that is to say Subject to various accidents as sometimes to be Moved sometimes to stand Still and to seem to our senses sometimes Hot sometimes Cold sometimes of one Colour Smel Tast or Sound somtimes of another And this diversity of Seeming produced by the diversity of the operatiō of bodies on the organs of our sense we attribute to alterations of the Bodies that operate call them Accidents of those Bodies And according to this acceptation of the word Substance and Body signifie the same thing and therefore Substance incorporeall are words which when they are joined together destroy one another as if
of them that were absent or that being present were not willing it should be done According to this sense I define a CHURCH to be A company of men professing Christian Religion united in the person of one Soveraign at whose command they ought to assemble and without whose authority they ought not to assemble And because in all Common-wealths that Assembly which is without warrant from the Civil Soveraign is unlawful that Church also which is assembled in any Common-wealth that hath forbidden them to assemble is an unlawfull Assembly It followeth also that there is on Earth no such universall Church as all Christians are bound to obey because there is no power on Earth to which all other Common-wealths are subject There are Christians in the Dominions of severall Princes and States but every one of them is subject to that Common-wealth whereof he is himself a member and consequently cannot be subject to the commands of any other Person And therefore a Church such a one as is capable to Command to Judge Absolve Condemn or do any other act is the same thing with a Civil Common-wealth consisting of Christian men and is called a Civill State for that the subjects of it are Men and a Church for that the subjects thereof are Christians Temporall and Spirituall Government are but two words brought into the world to make men see double and mistake their Lawfull Soveraign It is true that the bodies of the faithfull after the Resurrection shall be not onely Spirituall but Eternall but in this life they are grosse and corruptible There is therefore no other Government in this life neither of State nor Religion but Temporall nor teaching of any doctrine lawfull to any Subject which the Governour both of the State and of the Religion forbiddeth to be taught And that Governor must be one or else there must needs follow Faction and Civil war in the Common-wealth between the Church and State between Spiritualists and Temporalists between the Sword of Iustice and the Shield of Faith and which is more in every Christian mans own brest between the Christian and the Man The Doctors of the Church are called Pastors so also are Civill Soveraignes But if Pastors be not subordinate one to another so as that there may bee one chief Pastor men will be taught contrary Doctrines whereof both may be and one must be false Who that one chief Pastor is according to the law of Nature hath been already shewn namely that it is the Civill Soveraign And to whom the Scripture hath assigned that Office we shall see in the Chapters following CHAP. XL. Of the RIGHTS of the Kingdome of God in Abraham Moses the High Priests and the Kings of Judah THe Father of the Faithfull and first in the Kingdome of God by Covenant was Abraham For with him was the Covenant first made wherein he obliged himself and his seed after him to acknowledge and obey the commands of God not onely such as he could take notice of as Morall Laws by the light of Nature but also such as God should in speciall manner deliver to him by Dreams and Visions For as to the Morall law they were already obliged and needed not have been contracted withall by promise of the Land of Canaan Nor was there any Contract that could adde to or strengthen the Obligation by which both they and all men else were bound naturally to obey God Almighty And therefore the Covenant which Abraham made with God was to take for the Commandement of God that which in the name of God was commanded him in a Dream or Vifion and to deliver it to his family and cause them to observe the same In this Contract of God with Abraham wee may observe three points of important consequence in the government of Gods people First that at the making of this Covenant God spake onely to Abraham and therefore contracted not with any of his family or seed otherwise then as their wills which make the essence of all Covenants were before the Contract involved in the will of Abraham who was therefore supposed to have had a lawfull power to make them perform all that he covenanted for them According whereunto Gen. 18. 18 19. God saith All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. From whence may be concluded this first point that they to whom God hath not spoken immediately are to receive the positive commandements of God from their Soveraign as the family and seed of Abraham did from Abraham their Father and Lord and Civill Soveraign And consequently in every Common-wealth they who have no supernaturall Revelation to the contrary ought to obey the laws of their own Soveraign in the externall acts and profession of Religion As for the inward thought and beleef of men which humane Governours can take no notice of for God onely knoweth the heart they are not voluntary nor the effect of the laws but of the unrevealed will and of the power of God and consequently fall not under obligation From whence proceedeth another point that it was not unlawfull for Abraham when any of his Subjects should pretend Private Vision or Spirit or other Revelation from God for the countenancing of any doctrine which Abraham should forbid or when they followed or adhered to any such pretender to punish them and consequently that it is lawfull now for the Soveraign to punish any man that shall oppose his Private Spirit against the Laws For hee hath the same place in the Common-wealth that Abraham had in his own Family There ariseth also from the same a third point that as none but Abraham in his family so none but the Soveraign in a Christian Common-wealth can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God For God spake onely to Abraham and it was he onely that was able to know what God said and to interpret the same to his family And therefore also they that have the place of Abraham in a Common-wealth are the onely Interpreters of what God hath spoken The same Covenant was renewed with Isaac and afterwards with Jacob but afterwards no more till the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians and arrived at the Foot of Mount Sinai and then it was renewed by Moses as I have said before chap. 35. in such manner as they became from that time forward the Peculiar Kingdome of God whose Lieutenant was Moses for his owne time and the succession to that office was setled upon Aaron and his heirs after him to bee to God a Sacerdotall Kingdome for ever By this constitution a Kingdome is acquired to God But seeing Moses had no authority to govern the Israelites as a successor to the right of Abraham because he could not claim it by inheritance it appeareth not as yet that the
houses upon pretence of doing it in the honor of Christ of the Virgin Mary and of the Apostles and other the Pastors of the Primitive Church as being easie by giving them new names to make that an Image of the Virgin Mary and of her Sonne our Saviour which before perhaps was called the Image of Venus and Cupid and so of a Iupiter to make a Barnabas and of Mercury a Paul and the like And as worldly ambition creeping by degrees into the Pastors drew them to an endeavour of pleasing the new made Christians and also to a liking of this kind of honour which they also might hope for after their decease as well as those that had already gained it so the worshipping of the Images of Christ and his Apostles grew more and more Idolatrous save that somewhat after the time of Constantine divers Emperors and Bishops and generall Councells observed and opposed the unlawfulnesse thereof but too late or too weakly The Canonizing of Saints is another Relique of Gentilisme It is neither a misunderstanding of Scripture nor a new invention of the Roman Church but a custome as ancient as the Common-wealth of Rome it self The first that ever was canonized at Rome was Romulus and that upon the narration of Iulius Proculus that swore before the Senate he spake with him after his death and was assured by him he dwelt in Heaven and was there called Quirinus and would be propitious to the State of their new City And thereupon the Senate gave publique testimony of his Sanctity Iulius Caesar and other Emperors after him had the like testimony that is were Canonized for Saints for by such testimony is CANONIZATION now defined and is the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathen It is also from the Roman Heathen that the Popes have received the name and power of PONTIFEX MAXIMUS This was the name of him that in the ancient Common-wealth of Rome had the Supreme Authority under the Senate and People of regulating all Ceremonies and Doctrines concerning their Religion And when Augustus Caesar changed the State into a Monarchy he took to himselfe no more but this office and that of Tribune of the People that is to say the Supreme Power both in State and Religion and the succeeding Emperors enjoyed the same But when the Emperour Constantine lived who was the first that professed and authorized Christian Religion it was consonant to his profession to cause Religion to be regulated under his authority by the Bishop of Rome Though it doe not appear they had so soon the name of Pontifex but rather that the succeeding Bishops took it of themselves to countenance the power they exercised over the Bishops of the Roman Provinces For it is not any Priviledge of St. Peter but the Priviledge of the City of Rome which the Emperors were alwaies willing to uphold that gave them such authority over other Bishops as may be evidently seen by that that the Bishop of Constantinople when the Emperour made that City the Seat of the Empire pretended to bee equall to the Bishop of Rome though at last not without contention the Pope carryed it and became the Pontifex Maximus but in right onely of the Emperour and not without the bounds of the Empire nor any where after the Emperour had lost his power in Rome though it were the Pope himself that took his power from him From whence wee may by the way observe that there is no place for the superiority of the Pope over other Bishops except in the territories whereof he is himself the Civill Soveraign and where the Emperour having Soveraign Power Civill hath expressely chosen the Pope for the chief Pastor under himselfe of his Christian Subjects The carrying about of Images in Procession is another Relique of the Religion of the Greeks and Romans For they also carried their Idols from place to place in a kind of Chariot which was peculiarly dedicated to that use which the Latines called Thensa and Vehiculum Deorum and the Image was placed in a frame or Shrine which they called Ferculum And that which they called Pompa is the same that now is named Procession According whereunto amongst the Divine Honors which were given to Iulius Caesar by the Senate this was one that in the Pompe or Procession at the Circaean games he should have Thensam Ferculum a sacred Chariot and a Shrine which was as much as to be carried up and down as a God Just as at this day the Popes are carried by Switzers under a Canopie To these Processions also belonged the bearing of burning Torches and Candles before the Images of the Gods both amongst the Greeks and Romans For afterwards the Emperors of Rome received the same honor as we read of Caligula that at his reception to the Empire he was carried from Misenum to Rome in the midst of a throng of People the wayes beset with Altars and Beasts for Sacrifice and burning Torches And of Caracalla that was received into Alexandria with Incense and with casting of Flowers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with Torches for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were they that amongst the Greeks carried Torches lighted in the Processions of their Gods And in processe of time the devout but ignorant People did many times honor their Bishops with the like pompe of Wax Candles and the Images of our Saviour and the Saints constantly in the Church it self And thus came in the use of Wax Candles and was also established by some of the ancient Councells The Heathens had also their Aqua Lustralis that is to say Holy Water The Church of Rome imitates them also in their Holy Dayes They had their Bacchanalia and we have our Wakes answering to them They their Saturnalia and we our Carnevalls and Shrovetuesdays liberty of Servants They their Procession of Priapus wee our fetching in erection and dancing about May-poles and Dancing is one kind of Worship They had their Procession called Ambarvalia and we our Procession about the fields in the Rogation week Nor do I think that these are all the Ceremonies that have been left in the Church from the first conversion of the Gentiles but they are all that I can for the present call to mind and if a man would wel observe that which is delivered in the Histories concerning the Religious Rites of the Greeks and Romanes I doubt not but he might find many more of these old empty Bottles of Gentilisme which the Doctors of the Romance Church either by Negligence or Ambition have filled up again with the new Wine of Christianity that will not faile in time to break them CHAP. XLVI Of DARKNESSE from VAIN PHILOSOPHY and FABULOUS TRADITIONS BY PHILOLOSPHY is understood the Knowledge acquired by Reasoning from the Manner of the Generation of any thing to the Properties or from the Properties to some possible Way of Generation of the same to the
and in all differences between him and other Princes charmed with the word Power Spirituall to abandon their lawfull Soveraigns which is in effect an universall Monarchy over all Christendome For though they were first invested in the right of being Supreme Teachers of Christian Doctrine by and under Christian Emperors within the limits of the Romane Empire as is acknowledged by themselves by the title of Pontifex Maximus who was an Officer subject to the Civill State yet after the Empire was divided and dissolved it was not hard to obtrude upon the people already subject to them another Title namely the Right of St. Peter not onely to save entire their pretended Power but also to extend the same over the same Christian Provinces though no more united in the Empire of Rome This Benefit of an Universall Monarchy considering the desire of men to bear Rule is a sufficient Presumption that the Popes that pretended to it and for a long time enjoyed it were the Authors of the Doctrine by which it was obtained namely that the Church now on Earth is the Kingdome of Christ. For that granted it must be understood that Christ hath some Lieutenant amongst us by whom we are to be told what are his Commandements After that certain Churches had renounced this universall Power of the Pope one would expect in reason that the Civill Soveraigns in all those Churches should have recovered so much of it as before they had unadvisedly let it goe was their own Right and in their own hands And in England it was so in effect saving that they by whom the Kings administred the Government of Religion by maintaining their imployment to be in Gods Right seemed to usurp if not a Supremacy yet an Independency on the Civill Power and they but seemed to usurpe it in as much as they acknowledged a Right in the King to deprive them of the Exercise of their Functions at his pleasure But in those places where the Presbytery took that Office though many other Doctrines of the Church of Rome were forbidden to be taught yet this Doctrine that the Kingdome of Christ is already come and that it began at the Resurrection of our Saviour was still retained But cui bono What Profit did they expect from it The same which the Popes expected to have a Soveraign Power over the People For what is it for men to excommunicate their lawful King but to keep him from all places of Gods publique Service in his own Kingdom and with force to resist him when he with force endeavoureth to correct them Or what is it without Authority from the Civill Soveraign to excommunicate any person but to take from him his Lawfull Liberty that is to usurpe an unlawfull Power over their Brethren The Authors therefore of this Darknesse in Religion are the Romane and the Presbyterian Clergy To this head I referre also all those Doctrines that serve them to keep the possession of this spirituall Soveraignty after it is gotten As first that the Pope in his publique capacity cannot erre For who is there that beleeving this to be true will not readily obey him in whatsoever he commands Secondly that all other Bishops in what Common-wealth soever have not their Right neither immediately from God nor mediately from their Civill Soveraigns but from the Pope is a Doctrine by which there comes to be in every Christian Common-wealth many potent men for so are Bishops that have their dependance on the Pope and owe obedience to him though he be a forraign Prince by which means he is able as he hath done many times to raise a Civill War against the State that submits not it self to be governed according to his pleasure and Interest Thirdly the exemption of these and of all other Priests and of all Monkes and Fryers from the Power of the Civill Laws For by this means there is a great part of every Common-wealth that enjoy the benefit of the Laws and are protected by the Power of the Civill State which neverthelesse pay no part of the Publique expence nor are lyable to the penalties as other Subjects due to their crimes and consequently stand not in fear of any man but the Pope and adhere to him onely to uphold his universall Monarchy Fourthly the giving to their Priests which is no more in the New Testament but Presbyters that is Elders the name of Sacerdotes that is Sacrificers which was the title of the Civill Soveraign and his publique Ministers amongst the Jews whilest God was their King Also the making the Lords Supper a Sacrifice serveth to make the People beleeve the Pope hath the same power over all Christians that Moses and Aaron had over the Jews that is to say all Power both Civill and Ecclesiasticall as the High Priest then had Fiftly the teaching that Matrimony is a Sacrament giveth to the Clergy the Judging of the lawfulnesse of Marriages and thereby of what Children are Legitimate and consequently of the Right of Succession to haereditary Kingdomes Sixtly the Deniall of Marriage to Priests serveth to assure this Power of the Pope over Kings For if a King be a Priest he cannot Marry and transmit his Kingdome to his Posterity If he be not a Priest then the Pope pretendeth this Authority Ecclesiasticall over him and over his people Seventhly from Auricular Confession they obtain for the assurance of their Power better intelligence of the designs of Princes and great persons in the Civill State than these can have of the designs of the State Ecclesiasticall Eighthly by the Canonization of Saints and declaring who are Martyrs they assure their Power in that they induce simple men into an obstinacy against the Laws and Commands of their Civill Soveraigns even to death if by the Popes excommunication they be declared Heretiques or Enemies to the Church that is as they interpret it to the Pope Ninthly they assure the same by the Power they ascribe to every Priest of making Christ and by the Power of ordaining Pennance and of Remitting and Retaining of sins Tenthly by the Doctrine of Purgatory of Justification by externall works and of Indulgences the Clergy is enriched Eleventhly by their Daemonology and the use of Exorcisme and other things appertaining thereto they keep or thinke they keep the People more in awe of their Power Lastly the Metaphysiques Ethiques and Politiques of Aristotle the frivolous Distinctions barbarous Terms and obscure Language of the Schoolmen taught in the Universities which have been all erected and regulated by the Popes Authority serve them to keep these Errors from being detected and to make men mistake the Ignis fatuus of Vain Philosophy for the Light of the Gospell To these if they sufficed not might be added other of their dark Doctrines the profit whereof redoundeth manifestly to the setting up of an unlawfull Power over the lawfull Soveraigns of Christian People or for