familiarly with them cannot stand with our owne safety or the honour of Religion or the Law of common decency but those whom we account as Publicans we doe not make Publicans whom we shun as infectious we doe not punish as rebellious their actions we doe generally detest but their persons we doe not judicially condemne Princes under the Law might not eate of the Shew bread nor approach the Sanctuary being in a polluted condition nor in case of Leprosie might they be admitted into the Congregation of the Lord so nor bastards c. but these are all instances of Non-communion not of Excommunication and the reason of Non-communion is perpetuall so that if Princes in open contempt of the Sacraments should desire them at the Ministers hands Ministers ought rather to dye than to administer them But to deny the Sacrament is not any spirituall obduration or castigation to this denyall no speciall authority is necessary neither to that authority is any coercive force internally working upon the soule granted Cain having committed an unnaturall murther was generally abhorred amongst his brethren and abandoned as unfit for humane society but this was a crime proper for the temporall sword and if this was a proper punishment it was temporall And it is plainly cleered to us that adultery it selfe by Gods Law was punished by the temporall not spirituall sword and that abscissio animae amongst the Iewes was ever spoken of corporall punishment by death the inffliction whereof was only left to the temporall Magistrate and that there was no difference observed betweene Crimes Spirituall and Crimes Temporall Non-Communion then we grant to have bin of ancient use and perpetuall but we wish great caution and circumspection to be had therein amongst Christians for as visibly prophane persons are to be rejected so no former profanenesse ought to be cause of rejection where the party with outward professions of repentance and gestures of reverence craves the mysteries at the Ministers hands as almost all Christians doe For in such case if the Sacrament then the word also may be denyed and so no manner of salvation shall be left to such as have bin formerly vitious whatsoever their present demeanour be To come now to Excommunication or the Spirituall Sword and sentence of the Church as it was used in the Primitive times yet so wee finde differences of it amongst our Divines That incestuous Corinthian which was said to be traditus Satanae as Chrysostome conceives was not ejected out of the Church by ordinary excommunication but was miraculously left to Satan ut percelleretur vulnere malo aut morbo and such was the punishment of Ananias and his Wife and of Elymas c. according to Ierom Ambrose Theodoret Oecumenius Theophylact c. This excommunication if it may be called so was a corporall punishment and there is no appearance of any internall obduration by the binding power of the Minister and it was miraculous and therefore though it was of use then when the Keyes of Church-men could not erre and when a Temporall Sword was wanting yet now it is utterly uselesse and abolisht For any other excommunication of present and perpetuall necessity in Ecclesiasticall regiment there is little proofe in Scripture it is the spirituall Scepter of our Hierarchrists without which their Empire would appeare meerely imaginary and therefore their zeale is strong for it though their grounds be weake It seemes to me a very darke deduction that the Keyes of Heaven in the Gospell must needs import reall power and jurisdiction in Church-men and onely in Church-men and that that power and jurisdiction must needs intend such a spirituall sword as our present form of excommunication is and that that sword is as miraculous as it was or as usefull as if it were miraculous and that the stroke of it is meerly spirituall and not to be supplyed by the temporall sword and that Princes are as well lyable to it as other Lay-men Ierome sayes that with God not the sentence of the Priest but the life of the sentenced party is look'd upon and regarded and sayes he Vt Leprosum mundum vel immundum Sacerdos facit Sic alligat vel solvit Presbyter It should seeme our Priests now have the same power to try and discerne scandalous persons amongst us as the Iewish had Leapers in their times and no man supposes that the Iewish Priests had any vertue or force in their judgements to purge such as were uncleane or to infect those which were cleane they were held the most fit and impartiall judges but the matter to bee judged of was visible easie and sensible So much as this no man will deny to our Ministers for if they binde and shut Heaven to persons sensibly profan not altering at all the condition of such as they binde and shut out this is no such strange Spirituall Sword and Celestiall power and supereminent dominion as they have hitherto pretended to neither is it of any such great consequence in the Church of God But if Ministers can yet by vertue of their Keyes either search into the reines and hearts of hypocrites as the Apostles did or alter the condition of such as are subject to them either by absolving or obdurating the guilty or can effect any remedy in the Church for the taking away of scandall by their spirituall power which the temporall ruler doth not effect as the Apostles may be supposed to have done This is more than the Iewish Priests ever professed this is supernaturall and wee ought to admire it I doe not beleeve that our Ministers will lay clayme to any such miraculous vertue and infallibility and if they did I hope they would give us some signes and demonstrations therof by opening Heaven to thousands and by confounding all incorrigible opposers of Religion If Nero had resorted to Peters ministery desiring to bee made partaker of the Word and Sacraments out of fraud and dissimulation Peter doubtlesse would not have refused him and cast him off without a certaine insight into his hypocrisie but if Peter did discerne his hypocrisie and reject him yet our Ministers cannot discerne the like and therefore cannot reject in the like manner With us take Excommunication as a spirituall punishment as it hardens and drives from Repentance for so the shutting of Heaven intimates and our Ministers should bee cruell to use it where they are ignorant of the heart and take it as a wholesome remedy and fit meanes to draw to repentance as corporall punishments sometimes are though it bee strange to conceite the like of spirituall yet their vertue being ignorantly applyed is no proper vertue For in case of utter impenitence and open perversenesse Heaven is shut without the Ministers power and in case of fained penitence the Ministers Key cannot open effectually though he discerne not the fraud and in case of true penitence if the Minister be mistaken yet Heaven will not remaine shut Howsoever if Priests may now
Reign of wicked Emperours to whom in Ecclesiasticall affaires more might be denied then to ours for though Reges in quantum Reges serviunt Deo as Saint Augustine sayes yet in quantum pii Reges they serve God the more gloriously and have a neerer accesse to God and in that respect it may bee more truly said of them that they are à Deo secundi solo Deo minores and if so how awfull and venerable must this render their persons and with what submission must we prostrate our selves at their sacred feet and that it may not seeme strange that meer power and rule in an unbelieving or wicked Prince should be so sacred and inviolable wee must take notice that the wickednesse of Princes in ill commands though it discharge us as to those ill commands yet it does not discharge their power or rule either in those or in any other For when Princes rule well they are to be obeyed when ill they are to be endured and this very indurance is an effect of obedience and subjection Peter as a Citizen of the Common-wealth is a servant to Nero and though in the meere consideration of a Christian Hee has not dependance upon Nero further then is to be testified by suffering under him in ill commands yet in all civill things and things indifferent his dependance remayns undissolved If Nero forbid Peter to preach contradicting God herein whose power is still transcendent this prohibition binds not Peter but if Nero use the Sword hereupon against Peter this sword is irresistible because though in this it be injurious in other things it is still sacred This one violence of Nero is tyrannous but the authority whereby this is done is not tyranny For the same sword which offends one defends many still and if one here be defended many must be offended and the good of many is to be preferred before the good of one And yet if God had made Peter supreame Judge of such cases and had given him a power independent it had been necessary that he had given him withall some remedie and sufficient means to support the same Supremacy independent right for God gives no man an absolute right without some proper remedy appertaining to the same The use of power is not to intreat or perswade only for these may bee done without power but to command and commands are vaine without compulsion and they which may not compell may not command and they which cannot command may not meddle at all except to intreat or perswade Power then there must be and that power must be somewhere supreame that it may command all good and punish all evill or else it is insufficient and if all then in religious as well as in civill cases for Supremacie may be severally exercised but the right of it cannot be severally enjoyed if Peter may doe more then perswade Nero the Scepter is Peters not Neroes if hee may doe no more he is as meer a subject as any other Layman but in whethersoever the power of commanding rests it cannot rest in both the Scepter cannot be shared independence cannot be divided the people cannot obey both as equall Judges whilst their judgments remain contrary nor serve both as equal Lords whilst their commands are contrary To perswade and intreat in Ministers are the offices of a blessed vocation but they are not properly Ensigns of Royaltie and power and if the spirits of men are somtimes moved won by the perswasions of Ministers as they may by other means yet captivated and commanded they cannot be and therefore if this be called power it is but imaginary and improper and such as ought not to enter into any comparison or rivalitie with that solid sensible coercive binding power wherewith God has invested his true Lievtenants upon earth That power which is proper must include not only a right of commanding but also an effectuall vertue of forcing obedience to its commands and of subjecting and reducing such as shall not render themselves obedient The supreame civill Magistrate has this power grounded upon the common consent of Mankinde and as strong as is the politicall consent of humane nature in its supream Law of publike conservation so vigorous and invincible is this power Had Priests any such power or sword we should soon see it and feele it and voluntarily stoop under it but since they can pretend to none such the meere noyse of an imaginary spirituall power and sword must not deceive us The sword must be of sympathy and proportion answerable to those commands for which it was ordained if the commands be externall and politicall the sword must not be invisible and meerly spirituall If the Pope can impose an oath upō us to stand to his laws and to obey his awards our obedience being here politicall his power of imposing Oaths must be the like for if he pretend a right and have no remedy that is no power if he have a remedy that is not of the same nature with his command it will prove no remedy it will be found vain and uneffectuall Wee cannot thinke that God has given the Pope any power but for good and wee cannot think that power good whereby the Pope may destroy Millions of souls and yet cannot reclayme or convince one The Popes commands seeme to mee unreasonable unnaturall impious the Pope herein ha's no spirituall power to rectifie mee or to discover my errour to me or to procure obedience from me that power which he ha's over my soule is only to exclude it from heaven and to give it as a prey to Satan for not attributing more to him then to my own conscience and naturall light Can wee think that God gave this new Power never before knowne to these latter days out of mercy that all except one handfull of men should perish by it and none at all receive benefit by it It cannot be said that the same keys which shut heaven to so many open heaven to any one for those few which obey the Pope obey him either voluntarily or by constraint and they which are constrained obey him as a Prince not as a Priest and bow under his temporall not spirituall yoke howsoever it be otherwise pretended Voluntary obedience also is such as is rendred without any externall influence from the Pope For the will is capable of no compulsion and if it were my will would be as lyable to the same as any other mans and if the Pope may compell my will and so open Heaven to me as it were by his spirituall keys and will not t is his crueltie not my contumacie It s no glory to the Pope that some few by blinde voluntary obedience acknowledge the power of his keyes in this hee has no advantage of Mahomet that sword which was so victorious in the hand of Mahomet was as spirituall and as universally prevalent as the Popes So much of the imaginary rule and spiritual sword of
Priests as also of the reall effectuall dominion of Princes I shall now prove further that the sword of Kings if it be not so spirituall as the Pope pretends to cut off souls yet it is more then temporall and extends to things most spirituall The Founders and Patriarchs of the World before the Law of Moses did not only governe the Church but also execute all pastorall spirituall Offices as they were Princes and Supream Potentates within their own limits they did not governe men as they were the Priests of God but they did sacrifice and officiate before God as they were the Heads and Governours of men In those times it was not held usurpation or intrusion upon priests for Princes to sacrifice with their own hands or to teach the will of God with their own mouthes it would have been held presumption if any else had attempted the like and a dishonour to Gods service Nature then taught that the most excellent person was most fit for Gods service in the Church and that no person could be more excellent then hee which served God in the Throne The word priest now may have divers acceptions In some sense whole Nations have been called priests viz. comparatively and in some sense all Fathers of Children and Masters of Servants are in the nature of priests and in more usuall sense all Princes so farre as they have charge and cure of souls and are intrusted with Divine Service within their severall commands are more supereminently taken for priests but the most usuall sense is this A Priest is hee which hath cure of Souls and a trust of Gods worship by a more peculiar kinde of publike and politike consecration and dedication thereunto of such consecration or ordination before Aaron we read nothing and for ought I see we are bound to believe nothing Melchisideck was a pious man a devout Father a religious Master nay a zealous Prince and Commander but in all these respects hee had no priviledge nor right to the denomination of priest more then Adam Sem Noah c. had You will say then how is that denomination given him so peculiarly This denomination might be given not by reason of any externall formall ceremoniall Unction or imposition of hands or any other solemne Dedication or separation before men but in this respect that he did perhaps publikely officiate in the presence of all his Subjects and perhaps in behalfe of all his subjects and this is a higher and blesseder Sacerdotall Office then any we read of in his predecessors or successors till Aarons dayes It is probable that God was served in Families before Aaron and perhaps there were solemne days and Feasts which all Families by joynt consent did in severall places dedicate to Gods service by strict observance of the same but that any publike places were appointed for whole Congregations to joyne and meet publikely in under the charge and function of any one publike Priest till Aaron is not specified This only we may guesse by the speciall name of priest applied to Melchisedeck that perhaps being a priest of Salem he was the first that made the worship of God so publike and did not only by the generall influence of his power take order for the service and knowledge of God in severall Families but also gather severall assemblies of united Families and there publikely sacrifise and officiate in behalf of great and solemne Congregations wherein he might far exceed Abraham Howsoever its sufficient for my purpose that this he might doe by vertue of his Regall power and dignity without any further consecration or Sacerdotal instalment whatsoever And in this respect he was without predecessor and perhaps successor so that I think hee was the most lively and Honourable type of our Saviour for Aarons Order was Substitute and his consecration was performed by the hand of his Prince and Superiour and being so consecrated He did sacrifise not as a Prince but meerly as a Priest Whereas Melchisedeck received his Order from none but himselfe and so remayned not only independent but his service also being both Regall and Sacerdotall as our Saviours also was it was yet more Honorable in that it was Regall then in that it was Sacerdotall And this certainly sutes best with our Saviours Order for no Secular authority but his own did concurre in his inauguration hee was his owne Ancestor in this in that his owne Royall dignitie gave vertue to his Sacerdotall and though hee would not assume to himselfe the externall Function of Royalty in meer Secular things yet in this he would follow holy Melchisedeck But to passe from Melchisedeck within some few ages after wee finde the Scepter and Censor severed Wee finde no prints of great Empires before Moses for in small Countries we finde divers petty independant principalities and it may be imagin'd that neither true policie nor wicked tyranny was then knowne in such perfection as now it is The Israelites at their departure from Egypt were a great and formidable Nation as appeares by the combinations of many other Potentates against them yet at that time the weightie charges both of prince and priest were supported by Moses alone This was exceeding grievous till Jethro in civill affaires and till God himselfe in matters of Religion for his further ease took much of his laborious part from off his shoulders Subordinate Magistrates were now appointed in the State and priests and Levits in the Church the Nation being growne numerous and Ceremonies in Religion very various but wee must not think that Moses was hereby emptied or lesned of any of his Civill or Ecclesiasticall authoritie as he retained still Supremacie of power to himselfe in all things so that Supremacy became now the more awfull and Majesticall The poet says of waters Maxima per multos tenuantur flumina rivos And indeed did waters run backwards they would spend and diminish themselves by often divisions in their courses but we see that in their ordinary naturall Tracts many litle petty streams officiously hasten to discharge themselves into greater so that the more continued the course is the greater the streams ever grow It is so with power both in Church and State Sovereigntie is as the mayne Ocean of its vast abundance it feeds all and is fed by all as it is the fountain to enrich others so it is the Cisterne to receive and require back againe all the riches of others That which Moses parted with all and derived to others was for the better expedition both of pietie and justice that GOD might be more duly served that the people might be more quickly relieved and that his own shoulders might be the freelier disburdened for as a man hee could not intend universall businesse yet a Prince he might well superintend it in others And it is manifest that after the separation of the Priesthood he did still as superiour to Aaron in the most sacred things approach God in the Mountain to receive the
custodie of the Law from Gods hand and to receive Orders from God for the Tabernacle and all religious services and did performe the act of consecration to Priests and did always consult with God by Priests and command all men as well Priests and Levits as other men Hooker and Bilson and I thinke most of our Divines doe confesse not only this that Moses retained all Ecclesiasticall Supremacie to himselfe but that hee left the same also to his Successours Hooker sayes that by the same supreame power David Asa Jehosaphat Josias c. made those Lawes and Statutes mentioned in sacred History touching matters of meer Religion the affairs of the Temple and service of God And by vertue of this power the piety and impietie of the King did alwayes change the publike face of Religion which the Prophets by themselves never did nor could hinder from being done And yet if Priests alone had bin possest of all spirituall power no alteration in Religion could have beene made without them it had not beene in the King but in Priests to change the face of Religion And the making of Ecclesiasticall Lawes also with other like actions pertayning to the power of dominion had still been recorded for the acts of Priests and not of Kings whereas we now find the contrary Hooker says this and more and Bilson sayes not one jot lesse Hee confesses the Jewish Kings were charged with matters of Religion and the custodie of both Tables nay publishing preserving executing points of Law concerning the first table hee assignes as the principall charge committed to Kings as Kings Religion being the foundation of policy Hee instances also in the good Kings of Iudah who as they were bound so they were commended for their dutie by God himselfe in removing Idols purging abominations reforming Priests renewing the covenant and compelling all Priests Prophets people to serve God sincerely Many of the learnedest papists doe not gainsay this evident truth and therefore Stapleton being I suppose fully convinced of it seekes to answer and avoid it another way But I proceed to the times of thraldome wherein the Iews were governed by the Persians How far the Iews were left in Babylon to the free exercise of their own Religion is uncertain it may be conceived that their condition was not always alike under all Kings but generally that they found more favour there then Christians did afterwards under the Roman Emperours before this time there is no probability of Excommunication or any spirituall Judicature wee reade nothing of Maranathaes or Anathemaes but now perhaps some such government might take place for where no peculiar consecrated Ministery is the Magistrate is fittest to officiate before God and where no Magistracie is permitted Ministers are fittest to preserve order Some Papists that wil undertake to prove any thing out of any thing alleage Cain as an instance of Excom. as if Adam were so a Priest as that hee were no Prince and had power to excommunicate in case of so horrid a murder but not to execute any other Law or as if Moses would proceed against adultery by temporall punishment when Adam had proceeded against murther by spiritual but not to insist longer upon these conjecturall passages I come to our Saviours days his government also being Regal as wel as Sacerdotall nay being rather divine then either I shal not stay there neither Our mayn strife is how the Apostles their successors governed after his Ascention during the times of persecution but little need to be said hereof For in Scripture wee finde the Apostles themselves very humble and unlordly and transacting all things according to our Saviours command and example rather by perswasion and evidence of the spirit then by command and constraint and if any difference was between a Bishop and a Priest it was in outward eminence or majoritie very small and the very termes themselves were promiscuously applyed In the next ensuing times also wee finde by ancient Testimony that Omnia communi Clericorum consilio agebantur and after that Episcopacy had gotten some footing yet as another ancient testimony informes us except â Ordinatione setting Ordination only aside it challenged no priviledge above Presbyters but as I have said before whatsoever authority did reside in the Clergie whilst temporal rule was wanting to the Church and whilst miraculous power of binding and loosing sinners and of opening and shutting Heaven was supplyed by the Holy Ghost for the emergent necessity of those times the reason thereof no longer remayning it ought now to remayne no longer as it did but to devolve againe into the Temporâ—ll Rulers hands from whence it was not taken by Christ but where it was then abused and made unprofitable by the owners themselves If wee doe imagine that Timothy and Titus had Episcopall power and by that Episcopall power did send out processes and keep Courts and holds pleas of all Testamentary and Matrimoniall Causes and Tithes Fasts and all other which our Bishops now clayme and did redresse all grievances for the preventing of confusion in the Church during the malignity of Secular power if wee take all this for granted though it be some thing too large to be granted yet still wee ought to conceive that this power was conferred upon them not in derogation of Secular authoritie but for necessities sake till Secular authority should againe come in and undertake the same offices which Timothy and Titus were now to performe when confusion cannot otherwise bee prevented Timothy and Titus shall governe but when it may be prevented by that authoritie which is most competent and when more perfect order shall bee more naturally and justly induced what injury is this to Timothy or Titus Why rather is it not an ease and comfort to them that they have now leasure more seriously to attend their own proper function and ministration Hookers owne words are if from the approbation of Heaven the Kings of GODS own chosen people had in the affaires of the Jewish Religion supreame power why should not Christian Kings have the like in Christian Religion And Bilson having mayntained the supremacie of the Jewish Kings Hee ascribes the like to the whole function Hee sayes it is the essentiall charge of Princes to see the Law of God fully executed his Son rightly served his Spouse safely nursed his house timely filled his enemies duly punished and this he sayes as it was by Moses prescribed and by David required so it was by Esay prophesied by Christ commanded by Paul witnessed and by the Primitive Fathers consented too Hee sayes further that what the Jewish Kings had Christian Kings ought to enjoy and therefore Esay says Hee prophesying of the Evangelicall times foretold that the Church should suck the breasts of Kings and Queens and that milk which those breasts should afford He interprets to be spirituall milk Now what can be added to this what more excellent and perfect Regiment then this had Timothy
Politicians have invented to be profitable nay necessary for the universall government of Mankind for what one man can receive Appeals either in temporall or spirituall affaires or direct finall unerring dispatches to all the remote climates of the earth at one time or what a cursed vexation were it for all people of all languages and customes to be chained to One City thither to travell for all finall determinations and there to attend confused sentences and in the mean time to endure at home endlesse dissentions and hopelesse divisions under the insufficient rule of subordinate limited Princes and Bishops Surely had Mahomet preached any such grosse doctrine amongst his ragged barbarous Arabians hee had never tamed and broken them so easily to his wretched usurpation T is wonderfull that our Ancestors could drink of such a cup of intoxication in the worst of times but that the nauseous dregs of its bottome should now be obtruded upon us in these golden shining dayes is almost past belief The Pope never yet had the rule of a third part of the World but so far as hee ha's had it he ha's given sufficient testimony how insupportable great Monarchies are both to the Governour and the governed And where the yoke of Rome ha's prevailed what ha's that infallible judgement and unlimitable power which the Pope pretends to for our good what ha's it availed the Church of God when the Easterne Churches were in Unitie this gave them occasion to depart and revolt but when the rent was what vertue had the Pope to reduce them to unite The like may bee asked concerning all Protestant Countries now falne from Romish obedience nay of al Turks Heathens not yet subdued to the triple crown if Christ intended the Popes infallibilitie for the discovery of all errors and heresies and his supremacie for the subjugation of al such as would maliciously persevere in discord errours and heresies how comes this intention to be so defeated and frustrated if the Popes keyes be potent enough for both these purposes why does he not force all men to come in within his sheepfold and if not why does he pretend so much Would Christ put into one Bishops hand an universall Scepter such as the World never before heard of such as hee himselfe here on earth never exercised and yet leave it contemptible to the greatest part of the World if ignorance prevail and incredulity let the key of knowledge assist us and bring us into light if stubbornes and perversnesse have hardned our hearts let the key of power dissolve and bruize us and if hee can doe neither of these what vertue is there in the Roman Oracle what benefit is there in that prophetick chaire what priviledge ha's Peter more then Iohn Shall the Citie of Rome it selfe be upheld and secured from ever erring and falling away and shall not England shall not Scotland shall not all Nations be the like The power of the Pope is the same in all Countries if it faile in England it may faile at Rome if it faile not at Rome it would not faile in England but that the Pope is lesse propitious O why should his mercy bee more narrow then his vertue O let him once againe graciously ascend his reverent chaire let him congregate generall Councils and there poure out the treasures of his inspired breast let him there give judgements as cleere pure irrefragable and as obvious to humane apprehension as Scripture it self nay if something more sufficient then Scripture be necessary for the composing of all our strifes let him give us Solutions in a phrase more powerful then the Apostles ever used and prescribe rules more convincing then God himselfe or Christ in his incarnation ever prescribed and if Kings and Emperours still make resistance let him put on his robes of Majesty and terrour let him passe over them as Serpents and Basilisks whilst the stroke of his foot upon the earth fils all Countries with battalions of armed men nay if terrestriall forces come not in fast enough let him shake the Heavens with the thunder of his voice and call downe Seraphims to his attendance and let the highest orders of Heaven give testimony to his earthly Deity I might frame the like expostulations after a sort against our own Prelats also but I forbeare for if God ha's given them sole knowledge to determine all controversies and power to enact all Ecclesiasticall Canons doubtlesse hee ha's given them some binding coercive force correspondent thereunto and if so why doe they not expel all dissention by it if their vertue extend no further then to exhortation why do they urge commands upon us if they have a commanding power why do they not second it with due compulsion And as this is sufficient to prove independent power due to Christian Princes in all causes whatsoever so Historie makes it as plaine that Christian Princes at their first entrance till Popery beganne to intoxicate them did clayme and exercise the same as their due Constantine had {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} given him for his Title and wee know hee shewed himselfe no lesse and wee know his Successours for divers Ages did assume and verifie the same Title as their due And therefore Bilson proves out of Socrates and other Historians That in the Primitive Christian Emperours times all Ecclesiasticall affairs did depend upon Emperours and that the greatest Synods and Councels were called at their appointment and that Appeals from Councels were reserved to them and sometimes over-ruled by them and that all Ecclesiasticall Laws were by them enacted confirmed and repealed and that the greatest Prelates were by them ordered and commanded and that whole Provinces and Kingdomes were by them visited and reformed in all cases whatsoever And this truth the learnedst of Papists will nor deny and those wch do deny the same rely upon some particular exception onely and have very few instances before the Popes inthronization at Rome and these of matters of fact and not rights alledged neither Valentinian the Elder is one maine Instance and he when strife was betweene the Arians and the Orthodox Christians would not take upon him to determine the same his modest Answer was non est meum judicare inter Episcopos And Ambrose sayes of him Inhabilem se ponderi tanti putabat esse Iudicii Valentinian here was a pious Emperor and Orthodox but his blame was as Socrates justly taxes him that though he honoured those that were of his true faith and sound opinion yet he in the meane time let the Arians doe what they list And this cannot be excused for if hee was doubtfull of his owne faith this was ignorance and if Hee was not and yet tolerated Arianisme this was neglect in him and if he did shunne this decision as burthensome to him this was impious and if as intricate this was inconsiderate For what if hee could not judge as a Bishop could not he therefore judge by Bishops
that vast spirituall power which He hath put into their hands yea according to that vast spirituall power so will God certainly require at their hands Let Princes know that preaching is not the onely meanes of salvation nor are Ministers the only Preachers nor that the Sacraments are therefore efficacious because the Clergy only may administer them Let them know that though Ministers call themselves only spirituall Persons and the Lot of God and the Church of Christ and put them into the number of Temporall and Lay-men and limit them to secular things yet God will not be so abused they must make an answer to him for things most spirituall and for the improvement of those graces and prerogatives which belong to Gods most beloved inheritance and honoured servants and neere Officers in his Church And let Ministers also on the other side learne to acknowledge that Character of Divinity which is so much more fairely stamped upon Princes than it is upon them and let them not rob Princes of that influence in sacred things which they of themselves can never injoy For as Princes shall answer for them if they imploy their power to the depression of Ministers so shall Ministers also answer for Princes if they cosen Princes out of their supreme power out of pretense that Gods message is so delivered to them Let Ministers assist Princes in their religious and spirituall offices as Aaron and Hur did Moses Let them not contend for supremacy in the highest offices of devotion but like humble servants let them account it their most supreme service to attend upon that supremacy Let them in the most glorious services of Religion looke upon Princes as Ioab did upon his Master in martiall exployts Let them be jealous of themselves that no part of honour due to the independent power of Princes may rest upon the secondary instruments but returne to the first and highest movers And thus shal more honour and sanctity passe from Ministers to Kings and more efficacy and vertue from Kings to Ministers and more grace and happinesse from both to the people Another occasion of mistake and error in Nazianzen and Bilson seemes to be that in comparing the great fruits of Princes and Priests in their severall functions they both speake of the whole order of Priest hood as if every Prince were therefore lesse spirituall or excellent than every Priest because all Priests in some things excell some Princes If we speak of a Prince and all the Clergy within his dominion perhaps we may say he is universis minor and yet he may be singulis major perhaps he may not doe so much good in the Church as all his Clergy yet he may doe more than a great number of them And yet for my part I am of opinion that all the Clergie are so dependent and borrow such vertue from the Kings supreme spirituality as I may so say that whatsoever good they doe they ought not to let the honour thereof terminate in them but returne to him upon whom they depend And now I thinke these things being made cleere that Princes are sacred in respect of their supreme rule and spirituall in respect of their spirituall rule and that Priests have no proper rule at al over mens spirits or in any Ecclesiasticall cases but derivative and subordinate to Princes I may conclude that there can be no office nor action so sacred upon Earth for which Princes are incompetent in respect of personall sanctity And therefore as it is most erroneous to argue that Princes are not capable of spirituall rule because their persons are not holy enough So it is most undenyably true and we may safely argue on the contrary that no mens persons can bee more holy than such as God hath honoured and intrusted with such supremacy of spirituall rule as He hath done Princes THe next argument which raises the Miter above the Diadem is drawne from the power of the Church in Excommunication and it is framed thus That supremacy which makes Princes to be above the Church and free from Ecclesiasticall censures is absurd but such is here maintained Ergo by the word Church may be meant the Catholike Church or some Nationall Church The Church Triumphant or the Church Militant th Church which was from the beginning and shall be to the end or the Church which now is We apply the Title of Head ship to Princes over no Churches but such as are under their present Dominions and that Head-ship we account subordinate to Christs and we allow with Saint Ambrose in some sense that the King is Intra and not supra Ecclesiam For he is not such an universall supreme Head as Christ is but is a member under Christ the Head Yet this impugnes not but that the King may in an other sense be both intra and supra as to his owne dominions for take the Church for Ecclesiasticall persons and so the King may governe all under Christ but take it for Ecclesiasticall graces and so the King may be subject He may be superior to Priests yet acknowledge inferiority to Scripture Sacraments c. And therefore with that of Ambrose that of Nazianzen may well stand Thou raignest King together with Christ Thou rulest together with him Thy sword is from him Thou art the Image of God And surely this is something more glorious than can be applyed in so proper and direct a sense to any Clergie-man whatsoever But let us briefly see what this spirituall sword of Excommunication is which the Church that is Church-men only clayme and wherewith they thinke they may as freely strike Princes as Princes may doe them with the temporall The grounds in Scripture for Excommunication are severall not all intending the same thing yet all are blended and confounded by Clergie-men to the same purpose wheras we ought to put a great difference betweene Excommunication and Non-communication and in Excommunication betweene that spirituall stroke and punishment which was ordinary in case of contempt and that which was extraordinary in cases of most hainous nature Non-communication may be supposed to have beene from the beginning and by common equity for Gemmes were never to be cast to Swines nor the priviledges and Treasures of the Church to bee imparted to such as were enemies and strangers to the Church Heathens and Publicans hated the Religion of the Iewes and therefore it was hatefull to the Iewes to communicate with them either in matters of Religion or in offices of friendship The Iewes did not forbeare all civill conversing with them but all familiarity they did forbeare and yet the forbearance of familiarity was no proper punishment to them Nor was it a thing spiritually inflicted by authority but by generall and naturall consent practised So men of the same nature as Publicans and Heathens now viz. such as hold our Religion contemptible or whose profession is scandalous to Religion they ought to be to us as they were to the Iewes to mingle
And whereas hee sayes further of the power of Priests that God Himselfe would not impart it to Angels or Arch-Angels wee may adde also nor to Princes yet this concludes nothing to the derogation of Angels or Arch-Angels or Princes For the Angels c. though they have not the same Ministery in the same kinde and order yet they have a more glorious and heavenly and consequently so may Princes That which Saint Augustine sayes also that Princes beare the Image of God Bishops of Christ We willingly consent to and yet by Bishops here we do not intend only such Church-Governours as our Bishops now in England are but all other such as doe the same offices over Gods people whatsoever their stiles or externall additions be otherwise And these things we conceive ought to receive such constructions because our Saviour Himselfe did alwayes decline all State and pompe and recommend the same lowly president to his followers with strict command not to exercise any Lordly Dominion nor to assume the Name of Rabbi upon them ever pressing this That he came to serve and not to be served And yet in the meere Name of Lord or Rabbi there could be no offence if the power and grandour belonging to those names had not bin displeasing to him and if it was displeasing in those his immediate followers whom he had made governours as wel as Preachers and for their better governing had indued with many miraculous gifts to discerne spirits and to open and shut Heaven and inriched with many other weighty graces we cannot imagine it should now be pleasing in our Ministers where lesse power is necessary and lesse vertue granted However it is farre from our meaning to detract or derogate any thing from that internall reverence which is due to Christs Embassadors and Stewards c. in the Church we know that he that despises them despises Christ Himselfe according to Christs own words our meaning is only to place them next and in the second seate of Honour after Princes and Rulers and Iudges which have Scepters committed to them by God either mediately or immediately Cyp. sayes well that our Saviour being King and God did Honour the Priests and Bishops of the Iewes though they were wicked for our instruction we grant that our Saviour ought in this to be imitated and that all Priests whether they have such command or no as the Iewish had or whether they bee Religious or no yet for Christs sake which is our High-Priest and their Head we ought to pay all reverence and awe to them THe last Argument urged is this That Order which is of the greatest necessitie in Religion without which no Church can at all subsist is most Holy and excellent but such is the sacerdotall order for Religion had subsistence under the Apostles without Princes and that it never had nor could have under Princes without Priests Ergo This is no way true for Religion can have no being without men and men can have no being without government and therefore as to this first and most necessary being wee may justly say that the Gospell it selfe was as well protected by Caesar which hated it as by Peter which preached it For Peter did owe his civill being to Caesar and without this civill being his Ecclesiasticall being had perished Besides Peter c. was not only a Preacher but also a Governor and those offices which he did as a Governour might be as much conducing to the welfare of Religion as those which hee did as a Preacher and yet for want of the civill Magistrates further assistance both offices were some way defective and perhaps had bin wholly unprofitable had not miraculous gifts and graces superabounded to supply that defect Howsoever it is more true that after the Creation Religion did subsist under Princes onely without Priests for untill the Priest-hood was severed in Aron Adam Melchisedeck c. were not so properly Priests as Princes for though they performed the offices of Priests yet they had no other Consecration to inable them therefore than their Regall Sanctity and sublimity If the meere officiating did make a Priest then the Priest-Hood were open to all and if some right and warrant be necessary it must orginally flow from Princes and they which may derive it to others have it till they derive it in themselves The essence of Priest-Hood doth no more consist in the rites and Ceremonies of Consecration than Royalty doth in Coronation and the due warrant of lawfull authority being that essence before that warrant granted we must looke upon authority as including that warrant within its vertue and after that warrant granted as not exhausted of its vertue When the Priest-hood was separated from the greater and confered upon the inferior some formall Ceremonious resignation therof was thought necessary but before that resignation till Moses wee may well conceive that Princes did officiate in their owne rights without borrowing any thing therein from Ceremonies or from any higher power than their own I have now done with Arguments of the first kinde which are urged against the sanctity and competence of Princes in Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall things I come now to answer such things as are further objected against other defects of qualification in them especially in learning knowledge and theologicall understanding THe maine argument here is thus Whosoever is fitest to direct to Truth is also fittest to command for Truth but Ministers being most skilld in Divinity are most fit to direct Ergo In answer hereunto I must make appeare 1. That Ministers are not alwayes most learned 2. That the most learned are not alwayes the most judicious 3. That learned and judicious men are not alwayes Orthodox and sound in faith 4. That there is no necessitie in policy that the most learned judicious and sincere men should be promoted to highest power in the Church And first we deny not that the blessing of God doth usually accompany the due act of Ordination to adde gifts and abilities to the party ordained we only say that Gods grace like the winde hath its free arbitrary approaches and recesses and is not alwayes limited or necessitated by the act done of consecration And we say also that as God usually sanctifies Ministers for their function so he doth also Kings and when he did lay his command upon Kings to have a Copy of his Law alwayes by them to reade and study it for their direction we conceive it is intimated to us what kinde of knowledge is most fit for Kings and what kinde of grace God doth most usually supply them withall King Edward the sixth Queene Elizabeth and King Iames of late and happie memory were so strangly learned and judicious in Divinity that we may well thinke there was something in them above the ordinary perfection of nature and had they perhaps relyed lesse upon the greatest of their Clergie in matters concerning the interest and honour of the Clergie the Church might
more vertuous than his Crosiers and when the Councell was by Constantine called and ordered the Bishop of Rome was not the onely Oracle in that Councell neither had that great trouble of assembling been if one Bishop had then bin more oraculous than all The same offices also which Constantine did in his dayes many other godly Emperors did in their raignes and had not they done them no one Bishop could for the Catholike Bishops were many times inferior in number and power to the Heretikes and if the Pope had then had the power to utter Oracles yet not having power to inforce and authorise the same upon all opposites hee could not have advantaged Religion amongst Heretikes more than hee doth now amongst Protestants Iewes Turkes or Pagans If God gave infallibility to one Bishop for the availe of all the world why doth not that Bishop availe the whole world Why is so great a light put under a Bushell Why are not all men illuminated by it And if God had no regard therein but to that remnant which worships the Pope if his only ayme therein was at the salvation of Papists why is this made a ground of universall authority to the Pope or of generall priviledge to all Bishops But I am to speake now to Protestants which hold no one Bishop infallible but the whole order of Bishops freer from fallibility than any other condition of men therfore to such I shall instance in Rome it selfe what multitudes of Divines of learned profound Divines of politike Sagacious Divines for many ages together have beene drunke and bewitched with the superstitions Idolatries blasphemies and heresies of that inchanting City Can it bee thought safe for Princes and Lay-men wholly to abjure their owne understandings and yeeld themselves Captives to the dictates of Divines only when so many Millions of them for so many ages notwithstanding all their exquisite learning and rare abilities devote themselves to such sottish impostures and grosse impieties nay to some such infernall diabolicall tenets Can men still persist to give up their judgements wholly to other men for their callings sake or for their learning and wisdome supposed when we see this is the very same rock whereupon Rome suffers Ship-wrack and this blind opinion the very snare wherein so great a part of the world still lies intangled But I will avoydeprolixity And now in the fourth place I come to shew that if we will take all these things for granted and ascribe all learning knowledge and freedome from variance to all Clergie-men and to Clergie-men only yet it doth not follow that they are necessarily to rule and command in chiefe Nay I shall make it appeare that it is not only not necessary but that it is many wayes mischievous that the ablest Divine should alwayes be supreme in all causes and over all persons Ecclesiasticall Power and wisdome are things of a different nature for power cannot stand with inferiority but wisdome may be as efficacious in a man of meane condition as in a man of high quality and power if its supremacy be divided it is diminished but wisdome the more it is dispersed the more the vertue of it is increased Wisedome often is contented to serve and to accept of a low dwelling but power ceases to be power if it dwell not in sublimity and have honour to attend it To be wise and to be contemned dejected suppressed are things compatible they are things frequent but to be potent is the same thing as to be great to be sacred to bee a commander of other mens wisdome Nay to be potent hath no terme convertible but to be potent Power in the State is preserved as the Arke was in the Iewish Church it is priviledged from common sight and touch in all well constituted Common wealths it is united in some one person only and to him so lineally intayled that it may never dye never cease never suffer any violent motion or alteration Power is as the soule of Policy of so exquisite and delicate sense that nothing but the wings of Cherubims is fit to guard and inclose it from all rude approaches vacuity in nature is not a thing more abhorred or shunned with greater disturbance and with greater confusion of properties than the least temeration and eclipse of power in the State How absurd then is this axiome which makes power servile to wisdome not wisdome to power wch subjects power to so many translations competitions and ceslations as often as time shall discover such and such excellencies in such and such men If power shall always be at the devotion of such men as for the present appear most wise if she shal be made so cheap and vulgar and prostituted daily to so many uncertainties what quiet can she procure to the world Nay what bloud wil she not procure I need say no more this axiome is neither consistent with Monarchicall nor hereditary rule For first if the most knowing Divine shall alwayes be supreme Commander in all Church affaires for more than this the Pope never claymed then by the same reason the most knowing States-man shall be supreme in the Palace the most knowing Souldier in the Campe the most knowing Lawyer in the Tribunall c. and so Monarchy shall be changed not into the aristocracy or democracy which are formes not utterly corrupt but into poly-coirany than which nothing can be more unpoliticke All Nations have ever rejected this broken confused rule of many severall independent Commanders which cannot chuse but injoyne impossible things sometimes for all these commanders may at the same time use the same mans service in severall places and in this they never can be satisfied wherefore we may well account this rule as bad as anarchy it selfe Nay even Religion it selfe by this meanes may be distracted into severall supremacies for He that is the ablest Divine in polemicall points and in deciding controversies may not be ablest in positive points or matters of Discipline and yet here the one hath as good title to absolute power in his sphere as the other hath in his And as Monarchy cannot so secondly neither can hereditary right stand with this alwayes uncertaine variable title of ability and excellence in knowledge Nay possession of supremacy is here no good plea For he that was the greatest and most knowing man last yeare is not so this yeare neither perhaps will he be next yeare that is so this yeare A thousand incongruities and inconveniences attend upon this paradox for the abilities of men are very hardly tryable and discernable and if they were not yet the subjecting of power to the perpetual giddy changes of new elections would soone confound us into our old Chaos againe as the Poets word is The three principall acts of power are First to make Lawes Secondly to give judgement according to Lawes made Thirdly to execute according to the right intent of judgments In the making of Lawes also according to Tully there is
three things necessary 1. Invenire 2. Disceptare 3. Ferre The invention of all necessary Lawes is almost perfect alreadie to our hands Those Lawes which God ordained for the Iewes and those which our Ancestors found out for us are daily before our eyes and little can now be added of moment except only for illustration of what was ambiguous before In the Church also is lesse want of perpetuall alterations and additions of Canons than in the State our misery is that we succeed Ancestors which were opprest with too vast a Church discipline Our reformation hath rid us of some part of this burthen but yet no sensible man can chuse but see that our Ecclesiasticall Courts are yet of larger jurisdiction and fuller of trouble than ever the Iewish were or those of the Primitive Christians The reason of this is because wee still rely too much upon Divines herein and they for their own profit and power are still as willing to uphold their own Tribunals as ever they were Did they thinke it a greater honour to serve at the Altar than in the Consistory and did they take more delight in Preaching than attending suites they would not study New Canons but discharge themselves of many old ones and so ease themselves and us too and restore backe againe to the Civill Magistrate that which Popery first usurped and their ambition hath since continued Howsoever if Ministers can adde any Articles to the Doctrine of our Church for the better preventing of Schismes or frame any orders for the more decent performance of Gods worship in the Church I would not exclude them from proposing it I only desire that since they are men and may have private interests and respects to the prejudice of other men they may not ingrosse all power of proposing what they list and to exclude all others from the like power And in the second place if Clergie men only shall propose all Ecclesiasticall Lawes yet it is most unjust that Princes and Lay-men should be held utterly uncapable of ventilating and debating the same Id quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet Nature hath printed this in us if the Priest propose any thing tending to the disservice of God that disservice will draw the same guilt upon me and all others as upon him and it shall not excuse me or others that he pretended his judgment to be unquestionable and shal it then here be unlawfull for me and others to use any endeavour for the prevention of this guilt If Angels from Heaven should seduce me I were inexcusable and when Ministers whom I know to bee subject to the same naturall blindnesse and partiality as I am and to whom I see generall error may be a private advantage in matters of this private advantage shal I be allowed no liberty to search and trye and to use my best art of discussion If this were so God had made my condition desperate and remedilesse and I might safely attribute my error and destruction to the hand of God alone but this no man can imagine of God without great impiety God hath declared himselfe contrary herein for he hath exempted none from error though never so learned nor leaves none excusable in error though never so unlearned if we will blindly trust others t is at our own perill He will require it at our hands but if we will seeke industriously we shall finde if wee will knock at his dore He hath promised to open to us And if private men stand accountable for their owne soules whatsoever the Priests doctrine or commands be how much more shall Princes and Courts of Parliament answer for their wilfull blindnesse if they will depart from their owne right and duty in sifting and examining al such religious constitutions as concerne them and all others under their charge Shall they sit to treate of Lether and Wooll and neglect doctrine and discipline Shall they consult of the beauty and glory of the kingdom and transfer Religion to others which is the foundation of all happines Shall they be sollicitous for transitory things and yet trust their soules into other mens hands who may make a profit of the same Let us not so infatuate our selves let us honour Divines and reverence their counsels but let us not superstitiously adore them or dotingly in-slave our selves to their edicts THe 3d. thing in making of laws is that which we term ferre Legem and till this act of carrying passing or enacting give the binding force of Law to it how good and wholsome soever it be after all debate yet it is but as the counsell of a Lawyer or the prescription of a Physition And here we maintaine that if Divines are the most fit to invent and discusse Ecclesiasticall Constitutions yet they have not in themselves that right and power which is to imprint the obliging vertue of Lawes upon them The forme or essence of Law is that coercive or penall vertue by which it bindes all to its obedience and all cannot be bound to such obedience but by common consent or else some externall compulsion take away this binding vertue and it is no Law it is but a Counsell wherein the inferior hath as much power towards his superior as the superior hath towards his inferior If then Divines will vindicate to themselves a Legislative power in the Church they must deduce the same either from the common consent of the Church or from some other authority to which all the Church is subject and to which the whole Church can make no actuall opposition If they clayme from common consent they must produce some act of State and formall record to abet their clayme and common consent must also still strengthen the same or else by the same that it was constituted it may still be dissolved and if they clayme from some higher externall authority stronger than common consent they must induce that authority to give vigor to their Lawes and to use means of constraint against all such as shall not voluntarily yeeld obedience to the same And it is not sufficient for them to alledge God for their authority without some speciall expresse words from Gods owne mouth for God gave no man a right but he allowes him some remedy agreeable thereunto and God is so great a favourer also of common consent that though hee hath an uncontroleable power above it yet as Hooker observes He would not impose his owne profitable Lawes upon his people by the hands of Moses without their free and open consent And if God which cannot doe unjustice nor will impose lawes but such as are profitable to us and yet hath an undisputable Empire over us will so favour common consent shall man which may erre and doe injurie and is of lesse value then communities and wants might to inforce and put in execution his owne commands usurpe that which God relinquishes Take it for granted that Priests cannot erre out of ignorance or be
humane are and lyable to examination and being made without common consent they binde not at all and being made by common consent they binde all either to obedience or to sufferance It is Gods owne Law that such as shall except against the validity or obliging vertue of common consent shall die the death for no peace can ever be in that State where any inconsiderable partie shall not acquiesce in the common Statutes of the land Those Lawes which Heathen Emperors made by common consent against Christianity were not wise Lawes But they were Lawes there was no pietie but there was vigor in them and doubtlesse the very Apostles which might not lawfully obey them yet might not lawfully contemne them Two things are objected against the Ecclesiasticall power of Parliaments 1. That it is more due to Princes 2. To Councells or Synods T is true anciently Princes were the only Legislatives the old rule was Quicquid placuerit Principii Legis habet vigorem But we must know that Princes had this power by common consent and doubtlesse till policy was now perfect and exquisite t was safer for Nations to depend upon the arbitrary unconfined power of Princes then to have their Princes hands too far bound up and restrained but since Lawes have bin invented by common consent as well to secure Subjects from the tyranny of their owne Lords as from private injuries amongst themselves and those Common wealths which have left most scope to Princes in doing of good offices and the least in doing acts of oppression are the wisest but ever this golden axiome is to bee of all received That that is the most politicke prerogative which is the best but not the most limited But this objection makes for Parliaments for whatsoever power was vested before in Princes and their Councells the same now remaining in Princes and the best and highest of all Counsells viz. Parliaments Counsells also and Synods are as improperly urged against Parliaments for Counsells and Synods did not at first clayme any right or in dependent power they were only called by the secular Magistrate as Ecclesiasticall Courtes for the composing of cissention in the Church and they were as meere assistants called ad consilium not ad consensum In 480 yeares after the establishment of Christians Religion from the first to the seventh Constantine there were but fixe generall Counsells called and those in disputes of a high nature all other Lawes were establisht without Oecumeniall Counsells by the private instruction of such Clergie-men as Emperors best liked The truth is no universall Counsell ever was at all because there never yet was any universall Monarch or Pope whose power was large enough to call the whole world but Princes to the utmost of their bounds did in that space of time congregate Bishops out of all their dominions in those sixe cases and yet we do not finde that those sixe Counsels though they have more reverence yet claymed more power than any other Nationall Synod Without question no lesse power than the Emperors could have bin sufficient to cite and draw together so great a body or to order them being met or to continue their meeâ—ing and no lesse power could animate their decrees with universall binding vertue then the same that so convened them But it is sufficient that Counsels have erred and that appeales have been brought against them and that redresse hath beene made by Emperors in other Counsels called for that purpose for this takes away from them that they are either supreme or sole or infallible judges of Religion and this being taken away they cannot be pretended to have any over-ruling superiority or priviledge above Parliaments The assistance of Counsels and Synods scarce any opposes so that they be not indeed with an obliging Legislative force above Parliaments or preferred in power above common consent which is the soule of all policy and power and that which preserves all Churches and States from utter ruine and confusion and this no wise man can agree too So much of the first act of power in passing and promulgating of Law I now come to the second In giving judgment according to those Lawes But little need here be said for if we did yeeld Clergie-men to be the most skilfull and knowing Iudges in all matter of doctrine and discipline this is no argument at all for their supremacy or independency neither can any difference be shewed why subordinate power in Ecclesiasticall judgments should not be as effectual and justifiable as in temporall and it is sufficiently cleered that poly coirany is not to bee received in any Church or Kingdome and therefore I haste to the third act of power which consists in using compulsory meanes for procuring obedience If Priests had any such spirituall sword as they pretend vertuous and efficacious enough to inflict ghostly paines upon such as disobey them doubtlesse it would reform as well as confound and procure obedience as well as chastise disobedience and then it would as much advance theiâ— Empire as the temporall sword doth the Princes Doubtlesse it would have some sensible efficacy and worke to good ends and men would not nor could not chuse but bow and submit themselves under it but now a spirituall sword is pretended whilst the gaining of a temporall sword is intended and nothing is more plaine to be seene It s not to be wondered at therefore if the people feare not any binding power where they see no loosing nor regard the shutting of those keyes which cannot open nor tremble at that thunder and lightning which is accompanied with no perceiveable vertue of warmth and moysture to open and refresh as well as to breake and burne But I have touched upon this already and so I now leave it THe next Argument is taken from the Iewish policy for they suppose that the Iewish Priest-Hood was independent in Spiritualibus and they suppose that the spirituall knowledge and ability of the Priests and Levites was the ground of this independency Here we say first that there are diverse reasons why more power and preeminence was requisite amongst the Iewish Priests than is now Bilson gives foure differences and I shall add two more for first the Priests and Levites were then a great body they were a twelfth part of Israel and had many Cities and their territories wherein they lived a part from other Tribes and in those Cities and precincts a civill rule was as necessary as els where and that rule could not be administred without inequality and power and in this they much differed from our Ministers Secondly Priests and Levites were then the onely studied Booke-men and Schollers of that Nation learning was at a low ebbe the judiciall as well as the Ceremoniall Lawes were scarce knowne or reade by any but that tribe and in this the State of our times is farre different Thirdly The Priests and Levites had then a naturall command and signiory in their owne families over their owne