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
CAN. XXXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that during the continuance of the Old Testament the Merits of Christ's Death actually to come were not sufficient to save all true Believers or that there was then no Catholick Church or that at any time there was any other Rock but Jesus Christ the blessed Seed upon whom the Catholick Church was then built or that many of the Gentiles were not always for ought that is known to the contrary true Members of the Catholick Church or that Christ himself was not the sole Head or Monarch all that while of the whole Catholick Church or that the said Catholick Church after the Members of it were dispersed into all the places of the World was otherwise visible than per partes or that Noah did appoint any Man to be the visible Head of the said Catholick Church or that the High-Priest among the Jews had any more Authority over the Catholick Church of God than King David had over the Vniversal Kingdom of God or that the said High-Priest had not greatly sinn'd if he had taken upon him or usurped any such infinite Authority He doth greatly Erre Placet eis The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have passed with one Consent both the Convocation-Houses and so are approved R. Cant. The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have been diligently read and deliberately examin'd and thereupon have likewise passed with one Consent in the Convocation-House of the Province of York Jo. Bristol praeses Convocat Eborac LIB II. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended course through the Old Testament and until the Destruction of Jerusalem we over-slipped and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said course as we find the true Grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our entrance into which course we confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange Impediments and mighty Stumbling-blocks which through long Practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successours For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit Project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better ordered polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successours We can see no Authentical Ground nor sufficient Warrant in those Writings which ought to be the true Rule of every Christian Man's Conscience as not being there to be found for any Apostolical Priest or Bishop either to pretend that all the particular Churches in the World are under his Government or to tell the Subjects of any Christian King opposite in some points unto him That they are no longer bound to obey him their said King but until they shall be able by force of Arms or by some secret Practice to subdue him or to challenge to himself an Absolute and Universal Authority and Power over all Kings and Kingdoms in the World to bestow them in some cases under pretence of Religion when he shall think the same to be most available for the strengthning and upholding of such his pretended Universal Power and Dominion To the Proof whereof before we address our selves because the same doth much depend upon the admirable Humiliation of the Son of God in taking our Nature upon him and performing the Work of our Salvation in such a manner as he did We have thought it our Duties lest otherwise we might be mistaken either through Weakness Simplicity or Malice first briefly to observe notwithstanding our Saviour's said Humiliation the most wonderful Dignity Preheminency and Royalty of his Person It is many ways apparent that the mean Estate and Condition of our Saviour Christ here upon Earth was one especial Motive both to the Jews and Gentiles why in their carnal Judgments he was to the one sort a Scandal and to the other a Scorn as if he had been a Man out of his Wits and preached he knew not what In which respect partly not only the People of the Jews the Priests of all sorts the Scribes and Pharisees with the rest of their Hypocritical Orders but likewise the civil Governours as well Romans as Jews did utterly despise him hate him deride him beat him and put him to death Since which time sundry sorts of Hereticks have stumbled at the same stone labouring by all the means they could to impeach and dishonour the Person of Christ in regard of the mean shew of his humane Nature notwithstanding the many Arguments which they might have found in the Scriptures had not their Hearts been hardned of his Divinity On the other side we are not ignorant how the Bishop of Rome and his Adherents supposing it would too much impeach their Credits and worldly Reputations if they should be too much pressed to deduce the principal strength of their Estates and Callings from the said mean Condition of our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in this World do thereupon attribute sundry Virtues Powers and Branches of Authority unto his humane Nature which do not in Truth belong properly unto it but are rather appertaining to his Person being both God and Man as hoping thereby to get some fair Pretences and Colours for the upholding of their usurped Greatness and pretended uncontroulable Sovereignty For the avoiding therefore of these Extremities and because such as deny the Pope's Supremacy are most falsly charged by sundry passionate and inconsiderate Persons to be Men that believe no one Article of the Christian Faith We have thought it meet to make it known to all the Christian World how detestable to the Church of England all such false Doctrine is as doth any way not only impeach the Sacred Person of our Saviour
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
Vniversal Kingdom of Christ are not of as great validity to prove that there ought to be one temporal King under him to govern his Vniversal Kingdom over all the World as are the other Vnities touching the Church to prove that there must be one Bishop under him to govern all the particular Churches in the World or that because Kings when they have occasion to be absent from their Kingdoms do commonly appoint some Vice-Roy to Rule their People until their return it thereupon followeth that Christ supplying his corporal absence from his Spiritual Kingdom the Church by the comfortable presence of the Holy Ghost was of necessity to leave one carnal Man to be his Vicar-General over his said Spiritual Kingdom or that seeing our Saviour Christ held it expedient for his Catholick Church that he should deprive her of his corporal presence that she might be ruled by the Holy Ghost it is not to be thought great presumption for any Man to tell us that his corporal presence is necessary for the Government of the said Catholick Church as if he meant to put the Holy Ghost out of Possession or that either the said one Vniversal Kingdom of Christ the King and Creator of it is otherwise visible upon the Earth than by the particular Kingdoms and several kinds of Governments in it and perhaps in a sort and by Representation when some Neighbour Kings either in Person or by their Ambassadours may be met together for the good of their several Kingdoms or that the said one Catholick Church of Christ as he is the chief Bishop over all is otherwise visible on the Earth than by the several and particular Churches in it and sometimes by general and free Councils lawfully assembled or that it is a better consequent that if the Catholick Church have no visible Head all other Bishops Doctors Pastors and Ministers are needless than if one should say because there is no one King to govern all the World therefore there is no use of Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes or civil Magistrates or that it doth more follow that Christ should have left his Faithful People in a confused Anarchy except he had left St. Peter and his Successors to govern the whole Church than it doth that the whole World hath been left by him in a Confusion without any Government in it in that he hath not left one Vniversal Emperour or that the intolerable Pride of the Bishop of Rome for the time still being through the advancement of himself by many sleights stratagems and false Miracles over the Catholick Church the Temple of God as if he were God himself doth not argue him plainly to be the Man of Sin mentioned by the Apostle or that every National Church planted according to the Apostle's Platform may not by the means which Christ hath ordained as well subsist of it self without one Vniversal Bishop as every Kingdom may do under the Government of their several Kings without one general Monarch He doth greatly Erre The End of the Second Book LIB III. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended Course through the Old Testament and until the destruction of Jerusalem we overslipt and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said Course as we find the true grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our Entrance into which Course We confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange impediments and mighty stumbling blocks which through long practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successors For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better order'd polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successors We can see no sufficient Warrant or probable reason why the Bishop of Rome should take upon him as he doth so eminent and supream Authority over all the Kingdoms and Churches in the World to rule them direct them bestow them and chop and change them under pretence of Religion as he from time to time shall think fit Sure we are if the Scriptures may retain their ancient Authority and continue to be true Rulers and principal Directors to all Apostolical Bishops that in them there will not be found any shadows or steps of those so high and lofty conceits To the proof whereof before we address our selves We have thought it very expedient for the carriage of our course more perspicuously and clearly to make it apparent by what degrees and practices the Bishops of Rome have proceeded in aspiring to that Soveraignty and Greatness which now they have attained Placet eis John Overall Prolocutor CAP. II. AS it was said long since Religion brought forth Riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother So may it very truly be said in these days The Empire begat the Papacy and the Son hath devoured his Father For as we suppose by the Effects no sooner did the Bishops of Rome even in the first times of Persecution get any rest and courage but they began to think with themselves That they were as able to govern all the Churches in the Empire as the Emperours themselves were to govern all the Kingdoms and Nations then subject unto them and that Rome was as fit a Seat for such a Bishop as it was for so great an Emperour Some Seeds of this Ambition began to sprout there when Victor presumed to threaten the Greek Churches concerning the Feast of Easter although Irenaeus then living did greatly dislike it and the Bishops of Asia little regarding him in that behalf said They nothing cared for such his threats And it was not we suppose an idle conceit of one who writing