the Holy Ghost Separate me Barnabas and saulâ—… c. But seeing the work of an Apostle was to be a Witnesse of the Resurrection of Christ a man may here aske how S. Paul that conversed not with our Saviour before his passion could know he was risen To which is easily answered that our Saviour himself appeared to him in the way to Damascus from Heaven after his Ascension and chose him for a vessell to bear his name before the Gentiles and Kings and Children of Israel and consequently having seen the Lord after his passion was a competent Witnesse of his Resurrection And as for Barnabas he was a Disciple before the Passion It is therefore evident that Paul and Barnabas were Apostles and yet chosen and authorized not by the first Apostles alone but by the Church of Antioch as Matthias was chosen and authorized by the Church of Jerusalem Bishop a word formed in oâ—…r language out of the Greek Episcopus signifieth an Overseer or Superintendent of any businesse and particularly a Pastor or Shepherd and thence by metaphor was taken not only amongst the Jews that were originally Shepherds but also amongst the Heathen to signifie the Office of a King or any other Ruler or Guide of People whether he ruled by Laws or Doctrine And so the Apostles were the first Christian Bishops instituted by Christ himselfe in which sense the Apostleship of Judas is called Acts 1. 20. his Bishoprick And afterwards when there were constituted Elders in the Christian Churches with charge to guide Christs flock by their doctrine and advice these Elders were also called Bishops Timothy was an Elder which word Elder in the New Testament is a name of Office as well as of Age yet he was also a Bishop And Bishops were then content with the Title of Elders Nay S. John himselfe the Apostle beloved of our Lord beginneth his Second Epistle with these words The Elder to the Elect Lady By which it is evident that Bishop Pastor Elder Doctor that is to say Teacher were but so many divers names of the same Office in the time of the Apostles For there was then no government by Coercion but only by Doctrine and Perswading The Kingdome of God was yet to come in a new world so that there could be no authority to compell in any Church till the Common-wealth had embraced the Christian Faith and consequently no diversity of Authority though there were diversity of Employments Besides these Magisteriall employments in the Church namely Apostles Bishops Elders Pastors and Doctors whose calling was to proclaim Christ to the Jews and Infidels and to direct and teach those that beleeved we read in the New Testament of no other For by the names of Evangelists and Prophets is not signified any Office but severall Gifts by which severall men were profitable to the Church as Evangelists by writing the life and acts of our Saviour such as were S. Matthew and S. Iohn Apostles and S. Marke and S. Luke Disciples and whosoever else wrote of that subject as S. Thomas and S. Barnabas are said to have done though the Church have not received the Books that have gone under their names and as Prophets by the gift of interpreting the Old Testament and sometimes by declaring their speciall Revelations to the Church For neither these gifts nor the gifts of Languages nor the gift of Casting out Devils or of Curing other diseases nor any thing else did make an Officer in the Church save onely the due calling and election to the charge of Teaching As the Apostles Matthias Paul and Barnabas were not made by our Saviour himself but were elected by the Church that is by the Assembly of Christians namely Matthias by the Church of Jerusalem and Paul and Barnabas by the Church of Antioch so were also the Presbyters and Pastors in other Cities elected by the Churches of those Cities For proof whereof let us consider first how S. Paul proceeded in the Ordination of Presbyters in the Cities where he had converted men to the Christian Faith immediately after he and Barnabas had received their Apostleship We read Acts 4. 23. that they ordained Elders in every Church which at first sight may be taken for an Argument that they themselves chose and gave them their authority But if we confider the Originall text it will be manifest that they were authorized and chosen by the Assembly of the Christians of each City For the words there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is When they had Ordained them Elders by the Holding up of Hands in every Congregation Now it is well enough known that in all those Cities the manner of choosing Magistrates and Officers was by plurality of suffrages and because the ordinary way of distinguishing the Affirmative Votes from the Negatives was by Holding up of Hands to ordain an Officer in any of the Cities was no more but to bring the people together to elect them by plurality of Votes whether it were by plurality of elevated hands or by plurality of voices or plurality of balls or beans or small stones of which every man cast in one into a vessell marked for the Affirmative or Negative for divers Cities had divers customes in that point It was therefore the Assembly that elected their own Elders the Apostles were onely Presidents of the Assembly to call them together for such Election and to pronounce them Elected and to give them the benediction which now is called Consecration And for this cause they that were Presidents of the Assemblies as in the absence of the Apostles the Elders were were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Aâ—…tistites which words signifie the Principall Person of the Assembly whose office was to number the Votes and to declare thereby who was chosen and where the Votes were equall to decide the matter in question by adding his own which is the Office of a President in Councell And because all the Churches had their Presbyters ordained in the same manner where the word is Constitute as Titus 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest constitute Elders in every City we are to understand the same thing namely that hee should call the faithfull together and ordain them Presbyters by plurality of suffrages It had been a strange thing if in a Town where men perhaps had never seen any Magistrate otherwise chosen then by an Assembly those of the Town becomming Christians should so much as have thought on any other way of Election of their Teachers and Guides that is to say of their Presbyters otherwise called Bishops then this of plurality of suffrages intimated by S. Paul Acts 14. 23. in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor was there ever any choosing of Bishops before the Emperors found it necessary to regulate them in order to the keeping of the peace amongst them but by the Assemblies of the Christians in every severall Town
Laws if any else can make a Law besides himselfe all Common-wealth and consequently all Peace and Justice must cease which is contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane Nothing therefore can be drawn from these or any other places of Scripture to prove the Decrees of the Pope where he has not also the Civill Soveraignty to be Laws The last point hee would prove is this That our Saviour Christ has committed Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction immediately to none but the Pope Wherein he handleth not the Question of Supremacy between the Pope and Christian Kings but between the Pope and other Bishops And first he sayes it is agreed that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is at least in the generall de Iure Divino that is in the Right of God for which he alledges S. Paul Ephes. 4. 11. where hee sayes that Christ after his Ascension into heaven gave gifts to men some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some Teachers And thence inferres they have indeed their Jurisdiction in Gods Right but will not grant they have it immediately from God but derived through the Pope But if a man may be said to have his Jurisdiction de Jure Divino and yet not immediately what lawfull Jurisdiction though but Civill is there in a Christian Common-wealth that is not also de Jure Divino For Christian Kings have their Civill Power from God immediately and the Magistrates under him exercise their severall charges in vertue of his Commission wherein that which they doe is no lesse de Jure Divino mediato than that which the Bishops doe in vertue of the Popes Ordination All lawfull Power is of God immediately in the Supreme Governour and mediately in those that have Authority under him So that either hee must grant every Constable in the State to hold his Office in the Right of God or he must not hold that any Bishop holds his so besides the Pope himselfe But this whole Dispute whether Christ left the Jurisdiction to the Pope onely or to other Bishops also if considered out of those places where the Pope has the Civill Soveraignty is a contention de lana Caprina For none of them where they are not Soveraigns has any Jurisdiction at all For Jurisdiction is the Power of hearing and determining Causes between man and man and can belong to none but him that hath the Power to prescribe the Rules of Right and Wrong that is to make Laws and with the Sword of Justice to compell men to obey his Decisions pronounced either by himself or by the Judges he ordaineth thereunto which none can lawfully do but the Civill Soveraign Therefore when he alledgeth out of the 6 of Luke that our Saviour called his Disciples together and chose twelve of them which he named Apostles he proveth that he Elected them all except Matthias Paul and Barnabas and gave them Power and Command to Preach but not to Judge of Causes between man and man for that is a Power which he refused to take upon himselfe saying Who made me a Iudge or a Divider amongst you and in another place My Kingdome is not of this world But hee that hath not the Power to hear and determine Causes between man and man cannot be said to have any Jurisdiction at all And yet this hinders not but that our Saviour gave them Power to Preach and Baptize in all parts of the world supposing they were not by their own lawfull Soveraign forbidden For to our own Soveraigns Christ himself and his Apostles have in sundry places expressely commanded us in all things to be obedient The arguments by which he would prove that Bishops receive their Jurisdiction from the Pope seeing the Pope in the Dominions of other Princes hath no Jurisdiction himself are all in vain Yet because they prove on the contrary that all Bishops receive Jurisdiction when they have it from their Civill Soveraigns I will not omit the recitall of them The first is from Numbers 11. where Moses not being able alone to undergoe the whole burthen of administring the affairs of the People of Israel God commanded him to choose Seventy Elders and took part of the spirit of Moses to put it upon those Seventy Elders by which is understood not that God weakned the spirit of Moses for that had not eased him at all but that they had all of them their authority from him wherein he doth truly and ingenuously interpret that place But seeing Moses had the entire Soveraignty in the Common-wealth of the Jews it is manifest that it is thereby signified that they had their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and therefore that place proveth that Bishops in every Christian Common-wealth have their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and from the Pope in his own Territories only and not in the Territories of any other State The second argument is from the nature of Monarchy wherein all Authority is in one Man and in others by derivation from him But the Government of the Church he says is Monarchicall This also makes for Christian Monarchs For they are really Monarchs of their own people that is of their own Church for the Church is the same thing with a Christian people whereas the Power of the Pope though hee were S. Peter is neither Monarchy nor hath any thing of Archicall nor Craticall but onely of Didacticall For God accepteth not a forced but a willing obedience The third is from that the Sea of S. Peter is called by S. Cyprian the Head the Source the Roote the Sun from whence the Authority of Bishops is derived But by the Law of Nature which is a better Principle of Right and Wrong than the word of any Doctor that is but a man the Civill Soveraign in every Common-wealth is the Head the Source the Root and the Sun from which all Jurisdiction is derived And therefore the Jurisdiction of Bishops is derived from the Civill Soveraign The fourth is taken from the Inequality of their Jurisdictions For if God saith he had given it them immediately he had given aswell Equality of Jurisdiction as of Order But wee see some are Bishops but of own Town some of a hundred Towns and some of many whole Provinces which differences were not determined by the command of God their Jurisdiction therefore is not of God but of Man and one has a greater another a lesse as it pleaseth the Prince of the Church Which argument if he had proved before that the Pope had had an Universall Jurisdiction over all Christians had been for his purpose But seeing that hath not been proved and that it is notoriously known the large Jurisdiction of the Pope was given him by those that had it that is by the Emperours of Rome for the Patriarch of Constantinople upon the same title namely of being Bishop of the Capitall City of the Empire and Seat of the Emperour claimed to be equall to him it followeth that all other Bishops
not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin but that they died in their sins that is that their sins against the Laws to which they owed obedience were not pardoned And those Laws were the Laws of Nature and the Civill Laws of the State whereto every Christian man had by pact submitted himself And therefore by the Burthen which the Apostles might lay on such as they had converted are not to be understood Laws but Conditions proposed to those that sought Salvation which they might accept or refuse at their own perill without a new sin though not without the hazard of being condemned and excluded out of the Kingdome of God for their sins past And therefore of Infidels S. John saith not the wrath of God shall come upon them but the wrath of God remaineth upon them and not that they shall be condemned but that they are condemned already Nor can it be conceived that the benefit of Faith is Remission of sins unlesse we conceive withall that the dammage of Infidelity is the Retention of the same sins But to what end is it may some man aske that the Apostles and other Pastors of the Church after their time should meet together to agree upon what Doctrine should be taught both for Faith and Manners if no man were obliged to observe their Decrees To this may be answered that the Apostles and Elders of that Councell were obliged even by their entrance into it to teach the Doctrine therein concluded and decreed to be taught so far forth as no precedent Law to which they were obliged to yeeld obedience was to the contrary but not that all other Christians should be obliged to observe what they taught For though they might deliberate what each of them should teach yet they could not deliberate what others should do unless their Assembly had had a Legislative Power which none could have but Civil Soveraigns For though God be the Soveraign of all the world we are not bound to take for his Law whatsoever is propounded by every man in his name nor any thing contrary to the Civill Law which God hath expressely commanded us to obey Seeing then the Acts of Councell of the Apostles were then no Laws but Counsells much lesse are Laws the Acts of any other Doctors or Councells since if assembled without the Authority of the Civill Soveraign And consequently the Books of the New Testament though most perfect Rules of Christian Doctrine could not be made Laws by any other authority then that of Kings or Soveraign Assemblies The first Councell that made of the Scriptures we now have Canon is not extant For that Collection of the Canons of the Apostles attributed to Clemens the first Bishop of Rome after S. Peter is subject to question For though the Canonicall books bee there reckoned up yet these words Sint vobis omnibus Clericis Lâ—…icis Libri venerandi c. containe a distinction of Clergy and Laity that was not in use so neer St. Peters time The first Councell for setling the Canonicall Scripture that is extant is that of Laodicea Can. 59. which forbids the reading of other Books then those in the Churches which is a Mandate that is not addressed to every Châ—…istian but to those onely that had authority to read any thing publiquely in the Church that is to Ecclesiastiques onely Of Ecclesiasticall Officers in the time of the Apostles some were Magisteriall some Ministeriall Magisteriall were the Offices of preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to Infidels of administaing the Sacraments and Divine Service and of teaching the Rules of Faith and Manners to those that were converted Ministeriall was the Office of Deacons that is of them that were appointed to the administration of the secular necessities of the Church at such time as they lived upon a common stock of mony raised out of the voluntary contributions of the faithfull Amongst the Officers Magisteriall the first and principall were the Apostles whereof there were at first but twelve and these were chosen and constituted by our Saviour himselfe and their Office was not onely to Preach Teach and Baptize but also to be Narâ—…yrs Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection This Testimony was the specificall and essentiall mark whereby the Apostleship was distinguished from other Magistracy Ecclesiasticall as being necessary for an Apostle either to have seen our Saviour after his Resurrection or to have conversed with him before and seen his works and other arguments of his Divinity whereby they might be taken for sufficient Witnesses And therefore at the election of a new Apostle in the place of Judas Iscariot S. Peter saith Acts 1. 21 22. Of these men that have companyed with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out among us beginning from the Baptisme of Iohn unto that same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a Witnesse with us of his Resurrection where by this word must is implyed a necessary property of an Apostle to have companyed with the first and prime Apostles in the time that our Saviour manifested himself in the flesh The first Apostle of those which were not constituted by Christ in the time he was upon the Earth was Matthias chosen in this manner There were assembled together in Jerusalem about 120 Christians Acts 1. 15. These appointed two Ioseph the Iust and Matthias ver 23. and caused lots to be drawn and ver 26. the Lot fell on Matthias and he was numbred with the Apostles So that here we see the ordination of this Apostle was the act of the Congregation and not of St. Peter nor of the eleven otherwise then as Members of the Assembly After him there was never any other Apostle ordained but Paul and Barnabas which was done as we read Acts 13. 1 2 3. in this manner There were in the Church that was at Antioch certaine Prophets and Teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul As they ministred unto the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said Separate mee Barnabas and Saul for the worke whereunto I have called them And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away By which it is manifest that though they were called by the Holy Ghost their Calling was declared unto them and their Mission authorized by the particular Church of Antioch And that this their calling was to the Apostleship is apparent by that that they are both called Acts 14. 14. Apostles And that it was by vertue of this act of the Church of Antioch that they were Apostles S. Paul declareth plainly Rom. 1. 1. in that hee useth the word which the Holy Ghost used at his calling For hee stileth himself An Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God alluding to the words of
The same is also confirmed by the continuall practise even to this day in the Election of the Bishops of Rome For if the Bishop of any place had the right of choosing another to the succession of the Pastorall Office in any City at such time as he went from thence to plant the same in another place much more had he had the Right to appoint his successour in that place in which he last resided and dyed And we find not that ever any Bishop of Rome appointed his successor For they were a long time chosen by the People as we may see by the sedition raised about the Election between Damasus and Vrsicinus which Ammianus Marcellinus saith was so great that Iuventius the Praefect unable to keep the peace between them was forced to goe out of the City and that there were above an hundred men found dead upon that occasion in the Church it self And though they afterwards were chosen first by the whole Clergy of Rome and afterwards by the Cardinalls yet never any was appointed to the succession by his predecessor If therefore they pretended no right to appoint their own successors I think I may reasonably conclude they had no right to appoint the successors of other Bishops without receiving some new power which none could take from the Church to bestow on them but such as had a lawfull authority not onely to Teach but to Command the Church which none could doe but the Civill Soveraign The word Minister in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth one that voluntarily doth the businesse of another man and differeth from a Servant onely in this that Servants are obliged by their condition to what is commanded them whereas Ministers are obliged onely by their undertaking and bound therefore to no more than that they have undertaken So that both they that teach the Word of God and they that administer the secular affairs of the Church are both Ministers but they are Ministers of different Persons For the Pastors of the Church called Acts 6. 4. The Ministers of the Word are Ministers of Christ whose Word it is But the Ministery of a Deacon which is called verse 2. of the same Chapter Serving of Tables is a service done to the Church or Congregation So that neither any one man nor the whole Church could ever of their Pastor say he was their Minister but of a Deacon whether the charge he undertook were to serve tables or distribute maintenance to the Christians when they lived in each City on a common stock or upon collections as in the first times or to take a care of the House of Prayer or of the Revenue or other worldly businesse of the Church the whole Congregation might properly call him their Minister For their employment as Deacons was to serve the Congregation though upon occasion they omitted not to Preach the Gospel and maintain the Doctrine of Christ every one according to his gifts as S. Steven did and both to Preach and Baptize as Philip did For that Philip which Act. 8. 5. Preached the Gospell at Samaria and verse 38. Baptized the Eunuch was Philip the Deacon not Philip the Apostle For it is manifest verse 1. that when Philip preached in Samaria the Apostles were at Jerusalem and verse 14. when they heard that Samaria had received the Word of God sent Peter and Iohn to them by imposition of whose hands they that were Baptized verse 15. received which before by the Baptisme of Philip they had not received the Holy Ghost For it was necessary for the conferring of the Holy Ghost that their Baptisme should be administred or confirmed by a Minister of the Word not by a Minister of the Church And therefore to confirm the Baptisme of those that Philip the Deacon had Baptized the Apostles sent out of their own number from Jerusalem to Samaria Peter and John who conferred on them that before were but Baptized those graces that were signs of the Holy Spirit which at that time did accompany all true Beleevers which what they were may be understood by that which S. Marke saith chap. 16. 17. These signes follow them that beleeve in my Name they shall cast out Devills they shall speak with new tongues They shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover This to doe was it that Philip could not give but the Apostles could and as appears by this place effectually did to every man that truly beleeved and was by a Minister of Christ himself Baptized which power either Christs Ministers in this age cannot conferre or else there are very few true Beleevers or Christ hath very few Ministérs That the first Deacons were chosen not by the Apostles but by a Congregation of the Disciples that is of Christian men of all sorts is manifest out of Acts 6. where we read that the Twelve after the number of Disciples was multiplyed called them together and having told them that it was not fit that the Apostles should leave the Word of God and serve tables said unto them verse 3. Brethren looke you out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and of Wisdome whom we may appoint over this businesse Here it is manifest that though the Apostles declared them elected yet the Congregation chose them which also verse the fift is more expressely said where it is written that the saying pleased the multitude and they chose seven c. Under the Old Testament the Tribe of Levi were onely capable of the Priesthood and other inferiour Offices of the Church The land was divided amongst the other Tribes Levi excepted which by the subdivision of the Tribe of Joseph into Ephraim and Manasses were still twelve To the Tribe of Levi were assigned certain Cities for their habitation with the suburbs for their cattell but for their portion they were to have the tenth of the fruits of the land of their Brethren Again the Priests for their maintenance had the tenth of that tenth together with part of the oblations and sacrifices For God had said to Aaron Numb 18. 20. Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land neither shalt thou have any part amongst them I am thy part and thine inheritance amongst the Children of Israel For God being then King and having constituted the Tribe of Levi to be his Publique Ministers he allowed them for their maintenance the Publique revenue that is to say the part that God had reserved to himself which were Tythes and Offerings and that is it which is meant where God saith I am thine inheritance And therefore to the Levites might not unfitly be attributed the name of Clergy from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Lot or Inheritance not that they were heirs of the Kingdome of God more than other but that Gods inheritance was their maintenance Now seeing in this time
have their Jurisdiction from the Soveraigns of the place wherein they exercise the same And as for that cause they have not their Authority de Iure Divino so neither hath the Pope his de Iure Divino except onely where hee is also the Civill Soveraign His fift argument is this If Bishops have their Iurisdiction immediately from God the Pope could not take it from them for he can doe nothing contrary to Gods ordination And this consequence is good and well proved But saith he the Pope can do this and has done it This also is granted so he doe it in his own Dominions or in the Dominions of any other Prince that hath given him that Power but not universally in Right of the Popedome For that power belongeth to every Christian Soveraign within the bounds of his owne Empire and is inseparable from the Soveraignty Before the People of Israel had by the commandment of God to Samuel set over themselves a King after the manner of other Nations the High Priest had the Civill Government and none but he could make nor depose an inferiour Priest But that Power was afterwards in the King as may be proved by this same argument of Bellarmine For if the Priest be he the High Priest or any other had his Jurisdiction immediately from God then the King could not take it from him for he could doe nothing contrary to Gods ordinance But it is certain that King Solomon 1 Kings 2. 26. deprived Abiathar the High Priest of his Office and placed Zadok verse 35. in his room Kings therefore may in the like manner Ordaine and Deprive Bishops as they shall thinke fit for the well governing of their Subjects His sixth argument is this If Bishops have their Jurisdiction de Iure Divino that is immediately from God they that maintaine it should bring some Word of God to prove it But they can bring none The argument is good I have therefore nothing to say against it But it is an argument no lesse good to prove the Pope himself to have no Jurisdiction in the Dominion of any other Prince Lastly hee bringeth for argument the testimony of two Popes Innocent and Leo and I doubt not but hee might have alledged with as good reason the testimonies of all the Popes almost since S. Peter For considering the love of Power naturally implanted in mankind whosoever were made Pope he would be tempted to uphold the same opinion Neverthelesse they should therein but doe as Innocent and Leo did bear witnesse of themselves and therefore their witnesse should not be good In the fift Book he hath four Conclusions The first is That the Pope is not Lord of all the world The second That the Pope is not Lord of all the Christian world The third That the Pope without his owne Territory has not any Temporall Jurisdiction DIRECTLY These three Conclusions are easily granted The fourth is That the Pope has in the Dominions of other Princes the Supreme Temporall Power INDIRECTLY which is denyed unlesse hee mean by Indirectly that he has gotten it by Indirect means then is that also granted But I understand that when he saith he hath it Indirectly he means that such Temporall Jurisdiction belongeth to him of Right but that this Right is but a Consequence of his Pastorall Authority the which he could not exercise unlesse he have the other with it And therefore to the Pastorall Power which he calls Spirituall the Supreme Power Civill is necessarily annexed and that thereby hee hath a Right to change Kingdomes giving them to one and taking them from another when he shall think it conduces to the Salvation of Souls Before I come to consider the Arguments by which hee would prove this Doctrine it will not bee amisse to lay open the Consequences of it that Princes and States that have the Civill Soveraignty in their severall Common-wealths may bethink themselves whether it bee convenient for them and conducing to the good of their Subjects of whom they are to give an account at the day of Judgment to admit the same When it is said the Pope hath not in the Territories of other States the Supreme Civill Power Directly we are to understand he doth not challenge it as other Civill Soveraigns doe from the originall submission thereto of those that are to be governed For it is evident and has already been sufficiently in this Treatise demonstrated that the Right of all Soveraigns is derived originally from the consent of every one of those that are to bee governed whether they that choose him doe it for their common defence against an Enemy as when they agree amongst themselves to appoint a Man or an Assembly of men to protect them or whether they doe it to save their lives by submission to a conquering Enemy The Pope therefore when he disclaimeth the Supreme Civill Power over other States Directly denyeth no more but that his Right cometh to him by that way He ceaseth not for all that to claime it another way and that is without the consent of them that are to be governed by a Right given him by God which hee calleth indirectly in his Assumption to the Papacy But by what way soever he pretend the Power is the same and he may if it bee granted to be his Right depose Princes and States as often as it is for the Salvation of Soules that is as often as he will for he claimeth also the Sole Power to Judge whether it be to the Salvation of mens Souls or not And this is the Doctrine not onely that Bellarmine here and many other Doctors teach in their Sermons and Books but also that some Councells have decreed and the Popes have accordingly when the occasion hath served them put in practise For the fourth Councell of Lateran held under Pope Innocent the third in the third Chap. De Haereticis hath this Canon If a King at the Popes admonition doe not purge his Kingdome of Haeretiques and being Excommunicate for the same make not satisfaction within a yeer his Subjects are absolved of their Obedience And the practise hereof hath been seen on divers occasions as in the Deposing of Chilperique King of France in the Translation of the Roman Empire to Charlemaine in the Oppression of Iohn King of England in Transferring the Kingdome of Navarre and of late years in the League against Henry the third of France and in many more occâ—…rrences I think there be few Princes that consider not this as Injust and Inconvenient but I wish they would all resolve to be Kings or Subjects Men cannot serve two Masters They ought therefore to ease them either by holding the Reins of Government wholly in their own hands or by wholly delivering them into the hands of the Pope that such men as are willing to be obedient may be protected in their obedience For this distinction of Temporall and Spirituall Power is but words Power is as really divided and as
the sustaining of the same when it is set up or to the worldly Riches Honour and Authority of those that sustain it And therefore by the aforesaid rule of Cui bono we may justly pronounce for the Authors of all this Spirituall Darknesse the Pope and Roman Clergy and all those besides that endeavour to settle in the mindes of men this erroneous Doctrine that the Church now on Earth is that Kingdome of God mentioned in the Old and New Testament But the Emperours and other Christian Soveraigns under whose Government these Errours and the like encroachments of Ecclesiastiques upon their Office at first crept in to the disturbance of their possessions and of the tranquillity of their Subjects though they suffered the same for want of foresight of the Sequel and of insight into the designs of their Teachers may neverthelesse bee esteemed accessaries to their own and the Publique dammage For without their Authority there could at first no seditious Doctrine have been publiquely preached I say they might have hindred the same in the beginning But when the people were once possessed by those spirituall men there was no humane remedy to be applyed that any man could invent And for the remedies that God should provide who never faileth in his good time to destroy all the Machinations of men against the Truth wee are to attend his good pleasure that suffereth many times the prosperity of his enemies together with their ambition to grow to such a height as the violence thereof openeth the eyes which the warinesse of their predecessours had before sealed up and makes men by too much grasping let goe all as Peters net was broken by the struggling of too great a multitude of Fishes whereas the Impatience of those that strive to resist such encroachment before their Subjects eyes were opened did but encrease the power they resisted I doe not therefore blame the Emperour Frederick for holding the stirrop to our countryman Pope Adrian for such was the disposition of his subjects then as if hee had not done it hee was not likely to have succeeded in the Empire But I blame those that in the beginning when their power was entire by suffering such Doctrines to be forged in the Universities of their own Dominions have holden the Stirrop to all the succeeding Popes whilest they mounted into the Thrones of all Christian Soveraigns to ride and tire both them and their people at their pleasure But as the Inventions of men are woven so also are they ravelled out the way is the same but the order is inverted The web begins at the first Elements of Power which are Wisdom Humility Sincerity and other vertues of the Apostles whom the people converted obeyed out of Reverence not by Obligation Their Consciences were free and their Words and Actions subject to none but the Civill Power Afterwards the Presbyters as the Flocks of Christ encreased assembling to consider what they should teach and thereby obliging themselves to teach nothing against the Decrees of their Assemblies made it to be thought the people were thereby obliged to follow their Doctrine and when they refused refused to keep them company that was then called Excommunication not as being Infidels but as being disobedient And this was the first knot upon their Liberty And the number of Presbyters encreasing the Presbyters of the chief City or Province got themselves an authority over the Parochiall Presbyters and appropriated to themselves the names of Bishops And this was a second knot on Christian Liberty Lastly the Bishop of Rome in regard of the Imperiall City took upon him an Authority partly by the wills of the Emperours themselves and by the title of Pontifex Maximus and at last when the Emperours were grown weak by the priviledges of St. Peter over all other Bishops of the Empire Which was the third and last knot and the whole Synthesis and Construction of the Pontificiall Power And therefore the Analysis or Resolution is by the same way but beginneth with the knot that was last tyed as wee may see in the dissolution of the praeterpoliticall Church Government in England First the Power of the Popes was dissolved totally by Queen Elizabeth and the Bishops who before exercised their Functions in Right of the Pope did afterwards exercise the same in Right of the Queen and her Successours though by retaining the phrase of Iure Divino they were thought to demand it by immediate Right from God And so was untyed the first knot After this the Presbyterians lately in England obtained the putting down of Episcopacy And so was the second knot dissolved And almost at the same time the Power was taken also from the Presbyterians And so we are reduced to the Independency of the Primitive Christians to follow Paul or Cephas or Apollos every man as he liketh best Which if it be without contention and without measuring the Doctrine of Christ by our affection to the Person of his Minister the fault which the Apostle reprehended in the Corinthians is perhaps the best First because there ought to be no Power over the Consciences of men but of the Word it selfe working Faith in every one not alwayes according to the purpose of them that Plant and Water but of God himself that giveth the Increase and secondly because it is unreasonable in them who teach there is such danger in every little Errour to require of a man endued with Reason of his own to follow the Reason of any other man or of the most voices of many other men Which is little better then to venture his Salvation at crosse and pile Nor ought those Teachers to be displeased with this losse of their antient Authority For there is none should know better then they that power is preserved by the same Vertues by which it is acquired that is to say by Wisdome Humility Clearnesse of Doctrine and sincerity of Conversation and not by suppression of the Naturall Sciences and of the Morality of Naturall Reason nor by obscure Language nor by Arrogating to themselves more Knowledge than they make appear nor by Pious Frauds nor by such other faults as in the Pastors of Gods Church are not only Faults but also scandalls apt to make men stumble one time or other upon the suppression of their Authority But after this Doctrine that the Church now Militant is the Kingdome of God spoken of in the Old and New Testament was received in the World the ambition and canvasing for the Offices that belong thereunto and especially for that great Office of being Christs Lieutenant and the Pompe of them that obtained therein the principall Publique Charges became by degrees so evident that they lost the inward Reverence due to the Pastorall Function in so much as the Wisest men of them that had any power in the Civill State needed nothing but the authority of their Princes to deny them any further Obedience For from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten