Church supposed to be that Kingdom of his to which we are addressed in the Gospel is the Doctrine that it is necessary for a Christian King to receive his Crown by a Bishop as if it were from that Ceremony that he derives the clause of Dei gratiâ in his title and that then onely he is made King by the favour of God when he is crowned by the authority of Gods universall Vicegerent on earth and that every Bishop whosoever be his Soveraign taketh at his Consecration an oath of absolute Obedience to the Pope Consequent to the same is the Doctrine of the fourth Councell of Lateran held under Pope Innocent the third Chap. 3. de Haereticis That if a King at the Popes admonition doe not purge his Kingdome of Haeresies and being excommunicate for the same doe not give satisfaction within a year his Subjects are absolved of the bond of their obedience Where by Haeresies are understood all opinions which the Church of Rome hath forbidden to be maintained And by this means as often as there is any repugnancy between the Politicall designes of the Pope and other Christian Princes as there is very often there ariseth such a Mist amongst their Subjects that they know not a stranger that thrusteth himself into the throne of their lawfull Prince from him whom they had themselves placed there and in this Darknesse of mind are made to fight one against another without discerning their enemies from their friends under the conduct of another mans ambition From the same opinion that the present Church is the Kingdome of God it proceeds that Pastours Deacons and all other Ministers of the Church take the name to themselves of the Clergy giving to other Christians the name of Laity that is simply People For Clergy signifies those whose maintenance is that Revenue which God having reserved to himselfe during his Reigne over the Israelites assigned to the tribe of Levi who were to be his publique Ministers and had no portion of land set them out to live on as their brethren to be their inheritance The Pope therefore pretending the present Church to be as the Realme of Israel the Kingdome of God challenging to himselfe and his subordinate Ministers the like revenue as the Inheritance of God the name of Clergy was sutable to that claime And thence it is that Tithes and other tributes paid to the Levites as Gods Right amongst the Israelites have a long time been demanded and taken of Christians by Ecclesiastiques Iure divino that is in Gods Right By which meanes the people every where were obliged to a double tribute one to the State another to the Clergy whereof that to the Clergy being the tenth of their revenue is double to that which a King of Athens and esteemed a Tyrant exacted of his subjects for the defraying of all publique charges For he demanded no more but the twentieth part and yet abundantly maintained therewith the Commonwealth And in the Kingdome of the Iewes during the Sacerdotall Reigne of God the Tithes and Offerings were the whole Publique Revenue From the same mistaking of the present Church for the Kingdom of God came in the distinction betweene the Civill and the Canon Laws The Civil Law being the Acts of Soveraigns in their own Dominions and the Canon Law being the Acts of the Pope in the same Dominions Which Canons though they were but Canons that is Rules Propounded and but voluntarily received by Christian Princes till the translation of the Empire to Charlemain yet afterwards as the power of the Pope encreased became Rules Commanded and the Emperours themselves to avoyd greater mischiefes which the people blinded might be led into were forced to let them passe for Laws From hence it is that in all Dominions where the Popes Ecclesiasticall power is entirely received Jewes Turkes and Gentiles are in the Roman Church tolerated in their Religion as farre forth as in the exercise and profession thereof they offend not against the civill power whereas in a Christian though a stranger not to be of the Roman Religion is Capitall because the Pope pretendeth that all Christians are his Subjects For otherwise it were as much against the law of Nations to persecute a Christian stranger for professing the Religion of his owne country as an Infidell or rather more in as much as they that are not against Christ are with him From the same it is that in every Christian State there are certaine men that are exempt by Ecclesiasticall liberty from the tributes and from the tribunals of the Civil State for so are the secular Clergy besides Monks and Friars which in many places bear so great a proportion to the common people as if need were there might be raised out of them alone an Army sufficient for any warre the Church militant should imploy them in against their owne or other Princes A second generall abuse of Scripture is the turning of Consecration into Conjuration or Enchantment To Consecrate is in Scripture to Offer Give or Dedicate in pious and decent language and gesture a man or any other thing to God by separating of it from common use that is to say to Sanctifie or make it Gods and to be used only by those whom God hath appointed to be his Publike Ministers as I have already proved at large in the 35. Chapter and thereby to change not the thing Consecrated but onely the use of it from being Profane and common to be Holy and peculiar to Gods service But when by such words the nature or qualitie of the thing it selfe is pretended to be changed it is not Consecration but either an extraordinary worke of God or a vaine and impious Conjuration But seeing for the frequency of pretending the change of Nature in their Consecrations it cannot be esteemed a work extraordinary it is no other than a Conjuration or Incantation whereby they would have men to beleeve an alteration of Nature that is not contrary to the testimony of mans Sight and of all the rest of his Senses As for example when the Priest in stead of Consecrating Bread and Wine to Gods peculiar service in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which is but a separation of it from the common use to signifie that is to put men in mind of their Redemption by the Passion of Christ whose body was broken and blood shed upon the Crosse for our transgressions pretends that by saying of the words of our Saviour This is my Body and This is my Blood the nature of Bread is no more there but his very Body notwithstanding there appeareth not to the Sight or other Sense of the Receiver any thing that appeared not before the Consecration The Egyptian Conjurers that are said to have turned their Rods to Serpents and the Water into Bloud are thought but to have deluded the senses of the Spectators by a false shew of things yet are esteemed Enchanters But what should wee have thought
Egypt and in the New Testament the celebrating of the Lords Supper by which we are put in mind of our deliverance from the bondage of sin by our Blessed Saviours death upon the crosse The Sacraments of Admission are but once to be used because there needs but one Admission but because we have need of being often put in mind of our deliverance and of our Alleagance the Sacraments of Commemoration have need to be reiterated And these are the principall Sacraments and as it were the solemne oathes we make of our Alleageance There be also other Consecrations that may be called Sacraments as the word implyeth onely Consecration to Gods service but as it implies an oath or promise of Alleageance to God there were no other in the Old Testament but Circumcision and the Passeover nor are there any other in the New Testament but Baptisme and the Lords Supper CHAP. XXXVI Of the WORD OF GOD and of PROPHETS WHen there is mention of the VVord of God or of Man it doth not signifie a part of Speech such as Grammarians call a Nown or a Verb or any simple voice without a contexture with other words to make it significative but a perfect Speech or Discourse whereby the speaker affirmeth denieth commandeth promiseth threatneth wisheth or interrogateth In which sense it is not Vocabulum that signifies a Word but Sermo in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is some Speech Discourse or Saying Again if we say the Word of God or of Man it may bee understood sometimes of the Speaker as the words that God hath spoken or that a Man hath spoken In which sense when we say the Gospel of St. Matthew we understand St. Matthew to be the Writer of it and sometimes of the Subject In which sense when we read in the Bible The words of the days of the Kings of Israel or Iudah 't is meant that the acts that were done in those days were the Subject of those Words And in the Greek which in the Scripture retaineth many Hebraismes by the Word of God is oftentimes meant not that which is spoken by God but concerning God and his government that is to say the Doctrine of Religion Insomuch as it is all one to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Theologia which is that Doctrine which wee usually call Divinity as is manifest by the places following Acts 13. 46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everiasting life loe we turn to the Gentiles That which is here called the Word of God was the Doctrine of Christian Religion as it appears evidently by that which goes before And Acts 5. 20. where it is said to the Apostles by an Angel Go stand and speak in the Temple all the VVords of this life by the Words of this life is meant the Doctrine of the Gospel as is evident by what they did in the Temple and is expressed in the last verse of the same Chap. Daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Christ Iesus In which place it is manifest that Jesus Christ was the subject of this Word of life or which is all one the subject of the VVords of this life eternall that our Saviour offered them So Acts 15. 7. the Word of God is called the Word of the Gospel because it containeth the Doctrine of the Kingdome of Christ and the same Word Rom. 10. 8 9. is called the Word of Faith that is as is there expressed the Doctrine of Christ come and raised from the dead Also Mat. 13. 19. VVhen any one heareth the VVord of the Kingdome that is the Doctrine of the Kingdome taught by Christ. Again the same Word is said Acts 12. 24. to grow and to be multiplyed which to understand of the Evangelicall Doctrine is easie but of the Voice or Speech of God hard and strange In the same sense the Doctrine of Devils signifieth not the Words of any Devill but the Doctrine of Heathen men concerning Daemons and those Phantasms which they worshipped as Gods Considering these two significations of the WORD OF GOD as it is taken in Scripture it is manifest in this later sense where it is taken for the Doctrine of Christian Religion that the whole Scripture is the Word of God but in the former sense not so For example though these words I am the Lord thy God c. to the end of the Ten Commandements were spoken by God to Moses yet the Preface God spake these words and said is to be understood for the Words of him that wrote the holy History The Word of God as it is taken for that which he hath spoken is understood sometimes Properly sometimes Metaphorically Properly as the words he hath spoken to his Prophets Metaphorically for his Wisdome Power and eternall Decree in making the world in which sense those Fiats Let their be light Let there be a firmament Let us make man c. Gen. 1. are the Word of God And in the same sense it is said Iohn 1. 3. All things were made by it and without it was nothing made that was made And Heb. 1. 3. He upholdeth all things by the VVord of his Power that is by the Power of his Word that is by his Power and Heb. 11. 3. The worlds were framed by the VVord of God and many other places to the same sense As also amongst the Latines the name of Fate which signifieth properly The word spoken is taken in the same sense Secondly for the effect of his Word that is to say for the thing it self which by his Word is Affirmed Commanded Threatned or Promised as Psalm 105. 19. where Joseph is said to have been kept in prison till his VVord was come that is till that was come to passe which he had Gen. 40. 13. foretold to Pharaohs Butler concerning his being restored to his office for there by his word was come is meant the thing it self was come to passe So also 1 King 18. 36. Elijah saith to God I have done all these thy VVords in stead of I have done all these things at thy Word or commandement and Ier. 17. 15. VVhere is the VVord of the Lord is put for VVhere is the Evill he threatned And Ezek. 12. 28. There shall none of my VVords be prolonged any more by words are understood those things which God promised to his people And in the New Testament Mat. 24. 35. heaven and earth shal pass away but my VVords shal not pass away that is there is nothing that I have promised or foretold that shall not come to passe And in this sâ—…nse it is that St. John the Evangelist and I think St. John onely calleth our Saviour himself as in the flesh the VVord of God as Ioh. 1. 14. the Word was made Flesh that is to
say the Word or Promise that Christ should come into the world who in the beginning was with God that is to say it was in the purpose of God the Father to send God the Son into the world to enlighten men in the way of Eternall life but it was not till then put in execution and actually incarnate So that our Saviour is there called the Word not because he was the promise but the thing promised They that taking occasion from this place doe commonly call him the Verbe of God do but render the text more obscure They might as well term him the Nown of God for as by Nown so also by Verbe men understand nothing but a part of speech a voice a sound that neither affirms nor denies nor commands nor promiseth nor is any substance corporeall or spirituall and therefore it cannot be said to bee either God or Man whereas our Saviour is both And this VVord which St. Iohn in his Gospel saith was with God is in his 1 Epistle verse 1. called the VVord of life and verse 2. the Eternall life which was with the Father so that he can be in no other sense called the Word then in that wherein he is called Eternall life that is he that hath procured us Eternall life by his comming in the flesh So also Apocalypse 19. 13. the Apostle speaking of Christ clothed in a garment dipt in bloud saith his name is the VVord of God which is to be understood as if he had said his name had been He that was come according to the purpose of God from the beginning and according to his Word and promises delivered by the Prophets So that there is nothing here of the Incarnation of a Word but of the Incarnation of God the Son therefore called the VVord because his Incarnation was the Performance of the Promise In like manner as the Holy Ghost is called the Promise There are also places of the Scripture where by the Word of God is signified such Words as are consonant to reason and equity though spoken sometimes neither by Prophet nor by a holy man For Pharaoh Necho was an Idolater yet his Words to the good King Josiah in which he advised him by Messengers not to oppose him in his march against Carchemish are said to have proceeded from the mouth of God and that Josiah not hearkning to them was slain in the battle as is to be read 2 Chron. 35. vers 21 22 23. It is true that as the same History is related in the first Book of Esdras not Pharaoh but Jeremiah spake these words to Josiah from the mouth of the Lord. But wee are to give credit to the Canonicall Scripture whatsoever be written in the Apocrypha The VVord of God is then also to be taken for the Dictates of reason and equity when the same is said in the Scriptures to bee written in mans heart as Psalm 36. 31. Ierem. 31. 33. Deut. 30. 11 14. and many other like places The name of PROPHET signifieth in Scripture sometimes Prolocutor that is he that speaketh from God to Man or from man to God And sometimes Praedictor or a foreteller of things to come And sometimes one that speaketh incoherently as men that are distracted It is most frequently used in the sense of speaking from God to the People So Moses Samuel Elijah Isaiah Ieremiah and others were Prophets And in this sense the High Priest was a Prophet for he only went into the Sanctum Sanctorum to enquire of God and was to declare his answer to the people And therefore when Caiphas said it was expedient that one man should die for the people St. John saith chap. 11. 51. that He spake not this of himselfe but being High Priest that year he prophesied that one man should dye for the nation Also they that in Christian Congregations taught the people 1 Cor. 14. 3. are said to Prophecy In the like sense it is that God saith to Moses Exod. 4. 16. concerning Aaron He shall be thy Spokes-man to the People and he shall be to thee a mouth and thou shalt be to him instead of God that which here is Spokes-man is chap. 7. 1. interpreted Prophet See saith God I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet In the sense of speaking from man to God Abraham is called a Prophet Genes 20. 7. where God in a Dream speaketh to Abimelech in this manner Now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and shall pray for thee whereby may be also gathered that the name of Prophet may be given not unproperly to them that in Christian Churches have a Calling to say publique prayers for the Congregation In the same sense the Prophets that came down from the High place or Hill of God with a Psaltery and a Tabret and a Pipe and a Harp 1 Sam. 10. 5 6. and vers 10. Saul amongst them are said to Prophecy in that they praised God in that manner publiquely In the like sense is Miriam Exod. 15. 20. called a Prophetesâ—…e So is it also to be taken 1 Cor. 11. 4 5. where St. Paul saith Every man that prayeth or prophecyeth with his head covered c. and every woman that prayeth or prophecyeth with her head uncovered For Prophecy in that place signifieth no more but praising God in Psalmes and Holy Songs which women might doe in the Church though it were not lawfull for them to speak to the Congregation And in this signification it is that the Poets of the Heathen that composed Hymnes and other sorts of Poems in the honor of their Gods were called Vates Prophets as is well enough known by all that are versed in the Books of the Gentiles and as is evident Tit. 1. 12. where St. Paul saith of the Cretians that a Prophet of their owne said they were Liars not that St. Paul held their Poets for Prophets but acknowledgeth that the word Prophet was commonly used to signifie them that celebrated the honour of God in Verse When by Prophecy is meant Praediction or foretelling of future Contigents not only they were Prophets who were Gods Spokesmen and foretold those things to others which God had foretold to them but also all those Impostors that pretend by the helpe of familiar spirits or by superstitious divination of events past from false causes to foretell the like events in time to come of which as I have declared already in the 12. chapter of this Discourse there be many kinds who gain in the opinion of the common sort of men a greater reputation of Prophecy by one casuall event that may bee but wrested to their purpose than can be lost again by never so many failings Prophecy is not an Art nor when it is taken for Praediction a constant Vocation but an extraordinary and temporary Employment from God most often of Good men but sometimes also of the Wicked The woman of
that the end of Miracles was to beget beleef not universally in all men elect and reprobate but in the elect only that is to say in such as God had determined should become his Subjects For those miraculous plagues of Egypt had not for end the conversion of Pharaoh For God had told Moses before that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh that he should not let the people goe And when he let them goe at last not the Miracles perswaded him but the plagues forced him to it So also of our Saviour it is written Mat. 13. 58. that he wrought not many Miracles in his own countrey because of their unbeleef and in Marke 6. 5. in stead of he wrought not many it is he could work none It was not because he wanted power which to say were blasphemy against God nor that the end of Miracles was not to convert incredulous men to Christ for the end of all the Miracles of Moses of the Prophets of our Saviour and of his Apostles was to adde men to the Church but it was because the end of their Miracles was to adde to the Church not all men but such as should be saved that is to say such as God had elected Seeing therefore our Saviour was sent from his Father hee could not use his power in the conversion of those whom his Father had rejected They that expounding this place of St. Marke say that this word Hee could not is put for He would not do it without example in the Greek tongue where Would not is put sometimes for Could not in things inanimate that have no will but Could not for Would not never and thereby lay a stumbling block before weak Christians as if Christ could doe no Miracles but amongst the credulous From that which I have here set down of thenature and use of a Miracle we may define it thus A MIRACLE is a work of God besides his operation by the way of Nature ordained in the Creation done for the making manifest to his elect the mission of an extraordinary Minister for their salvation And from this definition we may inferre First that in all Miracles the work done is not the effect of any vertue in the Prophet because it is the effect of the immediate hand of God that is to say God hath done it without using the Prophet therein as a subordinate cause Secondly that no Devil Angel or other created Spirit can do a Miracle For it must either be by vertue of some naturall science or by Incantation that is vertue of words For if the Inchanters do it by their own power independent there is some power that proceedeth not from God which all men deny and if they doe it by power given them then is the work not from the immediate hand of God but naturall and consequently no Miracle There be some texts of Scripture that seem to attribute the power of working wonders equall to some of those immediate Miracles wrought by God himself to certain Arts of Magick and Incantation As for example when we read that after the Rod of Moses being east on the ground became a Serpent the Magicians of Egypt did the like by their Enchantments and that after Moses had turned the waters of the Egyptian Streams Rivers Ponds and Pooles of water into blood the Magicians of Egypt did so likewise with their Enchantments and that after Moses had by the power of God brought frogs upon the land the Magicians also did so with their Enchantments and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt will not a man be apt to attribute Miracles to Enchantments that is to say to the efficacy of the sound of Words and think the samâ—… very well proved out of this and other such places and yet there is no place of Scripture that telleth us what an Enchantment is If therefore Enchantment be not as many think it a working of strange effects by spells and words but Imposture and delusion wrought by ordinary means and so far from supernaturall as the Impostors need not the study so much as of naturall causes but the ordinary ignorance stupidity and superstition of mankind to doe them those texts that seem to countenance the power of Magick Witcheraft and Enchantment must needs have another sense than at first sight they seem to bear For it is evident enough that Words have no effect but on those that understand them and then they have no other but to signifie the intentions or passions of them that speak and thereby produce hope fear or other passions or conceptions in the hearer Therefore when a Rod seemeth a Serpent or the Waters Bloud or any other Miracle seemeth done by Enchantment if it be not to the edification of Gods people not the Rod nor the Water nor any other thing is enchanted that is to say wrought upon by the Words but the Spectator So that all the Miracle consisteth in this that the Enchanter has deceived a man which is no Miracle but a very easie matter to doe For such is the ignorance and aptitude to error generally of all men but especially of them that have not much knowledge of naturall causes and of the nature and interests of men as by innumerable and easie tricks to be abused What opinion of miraculous power before it was known there was a Science of the course of the Stars might a man have gained that should have told the people This hour or day the Sun should be darkned A Juggler by the handling of his goblets and other trinkets if it were not now ordinarily practised would be thought to do his wonders by the power at least of the Devil A man that hath practised to speak by drawing in of his breath which kind of men in antient time were called Ventriloqui and so make the weaknesse of his voice seem to proceed not from the weak impulsion of the organs of Speech but from distance of place is able to make very many men beleeve it is a voice from Heaven whatsoever he please to tell them And for a crafty man that hath enquired into the secrets and familiar confessions that one man ordinarily maketh to another of his actions and adventures past to tell them him again is no hard matter and yet there be many that by such means as that obtain the reputation of being Conjurers But it is too long a businesse to reckon up the severall sorts of those men which the Greeks called Thaumaturgi that is to say workers of things wonderfull and yet these do all they do by their own single dexterity But if we looke upon the Impostures wrought by Confederacy there is nothing how impossible soever to be done that is impossible to bee beleeved For two men conspiring one to seem lame the other to cure him with a charme will deceive many but many conspiring one to seem lame another so to cure him and all the rest to bear witnesse will
power to Baptize Baptized none himselfe but sent his Apostles and Disciples to Baptize So also S. Paul by the necessity of Preaching in divers and far distant places Baptized few Amongst all the Corinthians he Baptized only Crispus Cajus and Stephanus and the reason was because his principall Charge was to Preach Whereby it is manifest that the greater Charge such as is the Government of the Church is a dispensation for the lesse The reason therefore why Christian Kings use not to Baptize is evident and the same for which at this day there are few Baptized by Bishops and by the Pope fewer And as concerning Imposition of Hands whether it be needfull for the authorizing of a King to Baptize and Consecrate we may consider thus Imposition of Hands was a most ancient publique ceremony amongst the Jews by which was designed and made certain the person or other thing intended in a mans prayer blessing sacrifice consecration condemnation or other speech So Jacob in blessing the children of Joseph Gen. 48. 14. Laid his right Hand on Ephraim the younger and his left Hand on Manasseh the first born and this he did wittingly though they were so presented to him by Joseph as he was forced in doing it to stretch out his arms acrosse to design to whom he intended the greater blessing So also in the sacrificing of the Burnt offering Aaron is commanded Exod. 29. 10. to Lay his Hands on the head of the bullock and ver 15. to Lay his Hand on the head of the ramme The same is also said again Levit. 1. 4. 8. 14. Likewise Moses when he ordained Joshua to be Captain of the Israelites that is consecrated him to Gods service Numb 27. 23. Laid his Hands upon him and gave him his Charge designing and rendring certain who it was they were to obey in war And in the consecration of the Levites Numb 8. 10. God commanded that the Children of Israel should Put their Hands upon the Levites And in the condemnation of him that had blasphemed the Lord Levit. 24. 14. God commanded that all that heard him should Lay their Hands on his head and that all the Congregation should stone him And why should they only that heard him Lay their Hands upon him and not rather a Priest Levite or other Minister of Justice but that none else were able to design and demonstrate to the eyes of the Congregation who it was that had blasphemed and ought to die And to design a man or any other thing by the Hand to the Eye is lesse subject to mistake than when it is done to the Eare by a Name And so much was this ceremony observed that in blessing the whole Congregation at once which cannot be done by Laying on of Hands yet Aaron Levit. 9. 22. did lift up his Hand towards the people when he blessed them And we read also of the like ceremony of Consecration of Temples amongst the Heathen as that the Priest laid his Hands on some post of the Temple all the while he was uttering the words of Consecration So naturall it is to design any individuall thing rather by the Hand to assure the Eyes than by Words to inform the Eare in matters of Gods Publique service This ceremony was not therefore new in our Saviours time For Jairus Mark 5. 23. whose daughter was sick besought our Saviour not to heal her but to ay h is Hands upon her that shee might bee healed And Matth. 19. 13. they brought unto him little children that hee should Put his Hands on them and Pray According to this ancient Rite the Apostles and Presbyters and the Presbytery it self Laid Hands on them whom they ordained Pastors and withall prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost and that not only once but sometimes oftner when a new occasion was presented but the end was still the same namely a punctuall and religious designation of the person ordained either to the Pastorall Charge in general or to a particular Mission so Act. 6. 6. The Apostles Prayed and Laid their Hands on the seven Deacons which was done not to give them the Holy Ghost for they were full of the Holy Ghost before they were chosen as appeareth imdiately before verse 3. but to design them to that Office And after Philip the Deacon had converted certain persons in Samaria Peter and John went down Act 8. 17. and Laid their Hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost And not only an Apostle but a Presbyter had this power For S. Paul adviseth Timothy 1 Tim. 5. 22. Lay Hands suddenly on no man that is designe no man rashly to the Office of a Pastor The whole Presbytery Laid their Hands on Timothy as we read 1 Tim. 4. 14. but this is to be understood as that some did it by the appointment of the Presbytery and most likely their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prolocutor which it may be was St. Paul himself For in his 2 Epist. to Tim. ver 6. he saith to him Stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the Laying on of my Hands where note by the way that by the Holy Ghost is not meant the third Person in the Trinity but the Gifts necessary to the Pastorall Office We read also that St. Paul had Imposition of Hands twice once from Ananias at Damascus Acts 9. 17 18. at the time of his Baptisme and again Acts 13. 3. at Antioch when he was first sent out to Preach The use then of this ceremony considered in the Ordination of Pastors was to design the Person to whom they gave such Power But if there had been then any Christian that had had the Power of Teaching before the Baptizing of him that is the making him a Christian had given him no new Power but had onely caused him to preach true Doctrine that is to use his Power aright and therefore the Imposition of Hands had been unnecessary Baptisme it selfe had been sufficient But every Soveraign before Christianity had the power of Teaching and Ordaining Teachers and therefore Christianity gave them no new Right but only directed them in the way of teaching Truth and consequently they needed no Imposition of Hands besides that which is done in Baptisme to authorize them to exercise any part of the Pastorall Function as namely to Baptize and Consecrate And in the Old Testament though the Priest only had right to Consecrate during the time that the Soveraignty was in the High Priest yet it was not so when the Soveraignty was in the King For we read 1 Kings 8. That Solomon Blessed the People Consecrated the Temple and pronounced that Publique Prayer which is the pattern now for Consecration of all Christian Churches and Chappels whereby it appears he had not only the right of Ecclesiasticall Government but also of exercising Ecclesiasticall Functions From this consolidation of the Right Politique and Ecclesiastique in Christian Soveraigns it is evident they
for the Churches Salvation because he hath commanded her to follow the Popes directions But this Reason is invalid unlesse he shew when and where Christ commanded that or took at all any notice of a Pope Nay granting whatsoever was given to S. Peter was given to the Pope yet seeing there is in the Scripture no command to any man to obey St. Peter no man can bee just that obeyeth him when his commands are contrary to those of his lawfull Soveraign Lastly it hath not been declared by the Church nor by the Pope himselfe that he is the Civill Soveraign of all the Christians in the world and therefore all Christians are not bound to acknowledge his Jurisdiction in point of Manners For the Civill Soveraignty and supreme Judicature in controversies of Manners are the same thing And the Makers of Civill Laws are not onely Declarers but also Makers of the justice and injustice of actions there being nothing in mens Manners that makes them righteous or unrighteous but their conformity with the Law of the Soveraign And therefore when the Pope challengeth Supremacy in controversies of Manners hee teacheth men to disobey the Civill Soveraign which is an erroneous Doctrine contrary to the many precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles delivered to us in the Scripture To prove the Pope has Power to make Laws he alledgeth many places as first Deut. 17. 12. The man that will doe presumptuously and will not he arken unto the Priest that standeth to Minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Iudge even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evill from Israel For answer whereunto we are to remember that the High Priest next and immediately under God was the Civill Soveraign and all Judges were to be constituted by him The words alledged sound therefore thus The man that will presume to disobey the Civill Soveraign for the time being or any of his Officers in the execution of their places that man shall die c. which is cleerly for the Civill Soveraignty against the Universall power of the Pope Secondly he alledgeth that of Matth. 16. Whatsoever yee shall bind c. and interpreteth it for such binding as is attributed Matth. 23. 4. to the Scribes and Pharisees They bind heavy burthens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders by which is meant he sayes Making of Laws and concludes thence that the Pope can make Laws But this also maketh onely for the Legislative power of Civill Soveraigns For the Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses Chaire but Moses next under God was Soveraign of the People of Israel and therefore our Saviour commanded them to doe all that they should say but not all that they should do That is to obey their Laws but not follow their Example The third place is Iohn 21. 16. Feed my sheep which is not a Power to make Laws but a command to Teach Making Laws belongs to the Lord of the Family who by his owne discretion chooseth his Chaplain as also a Schoolmaster to Teach his children The fourth place Iohn 20. 21. is against him The words are As my Father sent me so send I you But our Saviour was sent to Redeeem by his Death such as should Beleeve and by his own and his Apostles preaching to prepare them for their entrance into his Kingdome which he himself saith is not of this world and hath taught us to pray for the coming of it hereafter though hee refused Acts 1. 6 7. to tell his Apostles when it should come and in which when it comes the twelve Apostles shall sit on twelve Thrones every one perhaps as high as that of St. Peter to judge the twelve tribes of Israel Seeing then God the Father sent not our Saviour to make Laws in this present world wee may conclude from the Text that neither did our Saviour send S. Peter to make Laws here but to perswade men to expect his second comming with a stedfast faith and in the mean time if Subjects to obey their Princes and if Princes both to beleeve it themselves and to do their best to make their Subjects doe the same which is the Office of a Bishop Therefore this place maketh most strongly for the joining of the Ecclesiasticall Supremacy to the Civill Soveraignty contrary to that which Cardinall Bellarmine alledgeth it for The fift place is Acts 15. 28. It hath seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that yee abstain from meats offered to Idoles and from bloud and from things strangled and from fornication Here hee notes the word Laying of burdens for the Legislative Power But who is there that reading this Text can say this stile of the Apostles may not as properly be used in giving Counsell as in making Laws The stile of a Law is VVe command But VVe think good is the ordinary stile of them that but give Advice and they lay a Burthen that give Advice though it bee conditionall that is if they to whom they give it will attain their ends And such is the Burthen of abstaining from things strangled and from bloud not absolute but in case they will not erre I have shewn before chap. 25. that Law is distinguished from Counsell in this that the reason of a Law is taken from the designe and benefit of him that prescribeth it but the reason of a Counsell from the designe and benefit of him to whom the Counsell is given But here the Apostles aime onely at the benefit of the converted Gentiles namely their Salvation not at their own benefit for having done their endeavour they shall have their reward whether they be obeyed or not And therefore the Acts of this Councell were not Laws but Counsells The sixt place is that of Rom. 13. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God which is meant he saith not onely of Secular but also of Ecclesiasticall Princes To which I answer first that there are no Ecclesiasticall Princes but those that are also Civill Soveraignes and their Principalities exceed not the compasse of their Civill Soveraignty without those bounds though they may be received for Doctors they cannot be acknowledged for Princes For if the Apostle had meant we should be subject both to our own Princes and also to the Pope he had taught us a doctrine which Christ himself hath told us is impossible namely to serve two Masters And though the Apostle say in another place I write these things being absent lest being present I should use sharpnesse according to the Power which the Lord hath given me it is not that he challenged a Power either to put to death imprison banish whip or fine any of them which are Punishments but onely to Excommunicate which without the Civill Power is no more but a leaving of their company and having no more to doe with them than
of them if there had appeared in their Rods nothing like a Serpent and in the Water enchanted nothing like Bloud nor like any thing else but Water but that they had faced down the King that they were Serpents that looked like Rods and that it was Bloud that seemed Water That had been both Enchantment and Lying And yet in this daily act of the Priest they doe the very same by turning the holy words into the manner of a Charme which produceth nothing new to the Sense but they face us down that it hath turned the Bread into a Man nay more into a God and require men to worship it as if it were our Saviour himself present God and Man and thereby to commit most grosse Idolatry For if it bee enough to excuse it of Idolatry to say it is no more Bread but God why should not the same excuse serve the Egyptians in case they had the faces to say the Leeks and Onyons they worshipped were not very Leeks and Onyons but a Divinity under their species or likenesse The words This is my Body are aequivalent to these This signifies or represents my Body and it is an ordinary figure of Speech but to take it literally is an abuse nor though so taken can it extend any further than to the Bread which Christ himself with his own hands Consecrated For hee never said that of what Bread soever any Priest whatsoever should say This is my Body or This is Christs Body the same should presently be transubstantiated Nor did the Church of Rome ever establish this Transubstantiation till the time of Innocent the third which was not above 500. years agoe when the Power of Popes was at the Highest and the Darknesse of the time grown so great as men discerned not the Bread that was given them to eat especially when it was stamped with the figure of Christ upon the Crosse as if they would have men beleeve it were Transubstantiated not onely into the Body of Christ but also into the Wood of his Crosse and that they did eat both together in the Sacrament The like Incantation in stead of Consecration is used also in the Sacrament of Baptisme Where the abuse of Gods name in each severall Person and in the whole Trinity with the sign of the Crosse at each name maketh up the Charm As first when they make the Holy water the Priest saith I Conjure thee thou Creature of Water in the name of God the Father Almighty and in the name of Iesus Christ his onely Son our Lord and in vertue of the Holy Ghost that thou become Conjured water to drive away all the Powers of the Enemy and to eradicate and supplant the Enemy c. And the same in the Benediction of the Salt to be mingled with it That thou become Conjured Salt that all Phantasmes and Knavery of the Devills fraud may fly and depart from the place wherein thou art sprinkled and every unclean Spirit bee Conjured by Him that shall come to judg the quicke and the dead The same in the Benediction of the Oyle That all the Power of the Enemy all the Host of the Devill all Assaults and Phantasmes of Satan may be driven away by this Creature of Oyle And for the Infant that is to be Baptized he is subject to many Charms First at the Church dore the Priest blows thrice in the Childs face and sayes Goe out of him unclean Spirit and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter As if all Children till blown on by the Priest were Daemoniaques Again before his entrance into the Church he saith as before I Conjure thee c. to goe out and depart from this Servant of God And again the same Exorcisme is repeated once more before he be Baptized These and some other Incantations are those that are used in stead of Benedictions and Consecrations in administration of the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper wherein every thing that serveth to those holy uses except the unhallowed Spittle of the Priest hath some set form of Exorcisme Nor are the other rites as of Marriage of Extreme Unction of Visitation of the Sick of Consecrating Churches and Church-yards and the like exempt from Charms in as much as there is in them the use of Enchanted Oyle and Water with the abuse of the Crosse and of the holy word of David Asperges me Domine Hyssopo as things of efficacy to drive away Phantasmes and Imaginary Spirits Another generall Error is from the Misinterpretation of the words Eternall Life Everlasting Death and the Second Death For though we read plainly in holy Scripture that God created Adam in an estate of Living for Ever which was conditionall that is to say if he disobeyed not his Commandement which was not essentiall to Humane Nature but consequent to the vertue of the Tree of Life whereof hee had liberty to eat as long as hee had not sinned and that hee was thrust out of Paradise after he had sinned lest hee should eate thereof and live for ever and that Christs Passion is a Discharge of sin to all that beleeve on him and by consequence a restitution of Eternall Life to all the Faithfull and to them onely yet the Doctrine is now and hath been a long time far otherwise namely that every man hath Eternity of Life by Nature in as much as his Soul is Immortall So that the flaming Sword at the entrance of Paradise though it hinder a man from coming to the Tree of Life hinders him not from the Immortality which God took from him for his Sin nor makes him to need the sacrificing of Christ for the recovering of the same and consequently not onely the faithfull and righteous but also the wicked and the Heathen shall enjoy Eternall Life without any Death at all much lesse a Second and Everlasting Death To salve this it is said that by Second and Everlasting Death is meant a Second and Everlasting Life but in Torments a Figure never used but in this very Case All which Doctrine is founded onely on some of the obscurer places of the New Testament which neverthelesse the whole scope of the Scripture considered are cleer enough in a different sense and unnecessary to the Christian Faith For supposing that when a man dies there remaineth nothing of him but his carkasse cannot God that raised inanimated dust and clay into a living creature by his Word as easily raise a dead carkasse to life again and continue him alive for Ever or make him die again by another Word The Soule in Scripture signifieth alwaies either the Life or the Living Creature and the Body and Soule jointly the Body alive In the fift day of the Creation God said Let the waters produce Reptile animae viventis the creeping thing that hath in it a Living Soule the English translate it that hath Life And again God created Whales omnem animam viventem which in the English is
The same difficulty is also in the place of St. Marke And if it be lawfull to conjecture at their meaning by that which immediately followes both here and in St. Luke where the same is againe repeated it is not unprobable to say they have relation to the Transfiguration which is described in the verses immediately following where it is said that After six dayes Iesus taketh with him Peter and Iames and Iohn not all but some of his Disciples and leadeth them up into an high mountaine apart by themselves and was transfigured before them And his rayment became shining exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses and they were talking with Iesus c. So that they saw Christ in Glory and Majestie as he is to come insomuch as They were sore afraid And thus the promise of our Saviour was accomplished by way of Vision For it was a Vision as may probably bee inferred out of St. Luke that reciteth the same story ch 9. ve 28. and saith that Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep But most certainly out of Matth. 17. 9. where the same is again related for our Saviour charged theÌ„ saying Tell no man the Vision untill the Son of man be Risen from the dead Howsoever it be yet there can from thence be taken no argument to prove that the Kingdome of God taketh beginning till the day of Judgement As for some other texts to prove the Popes Power over civill Soveraignes besides those of Bellarmine as that the two Swords that Christ and his Apostles had amongst them were the Spirituall and the Temporall Sword which they say St. Peter had given him by Christ And that of the two Luminaries the greater signifies the Pope and the lesser the King One might as well inferre out of the first verse of the Bible that by Heaven is meant the Pope and by Earth the King Which is not arguing from Scripture but a wanton insulting over Princes that came in fashion after the time the Popes were growne so secure of their greatnesse as to contemne all Christian Kings and Treading on the necks of Emperours to mocke both them and the Scripture in the words of the 91. Psalm Thou shalt Tread upon the Lion and the Adder the young Lion and the Dragon thou shalt Trample under thy feet As for the rites of Consecration though they depend for the most part upon the discretion and judgement of the governors of the Church and not upon the Scriptures yet those governors are obliged to such direction as the nature of the action it selfe requireth as that the ceremonies words and gestures be both decent and significant or at least conformable to the action When Moses consecrated the Tabernacle the Altar and the Vessels belonging to them Exod. 40. he anointed them with the Oyle which God had commanded to bee made for that purpose and they were holy There was nothing Exorcized to drive away Phantasmes The same Moses the civill Soveraigne of Israel when he consecrated Aaron the High Priest and his Sons did wash them with Water not Exorcized water put their Garments upon them and anointed them with Oyle and they were sanctified to minister unto the Lord in the Priests office which was a simple and decent cleansing and adorning them before hee presented them to God to be his servants When King Solomon the civill Soveraigne of Israel consecrated the Temple hee had built 2 Kings 8. he stood before all the â—…ongregation of Israel and having blessed them he gave thankes to God for putting into the heart of his father to build it and for giving to himselfe the grace to accomplish the same and then prayed unto him first to accept that House though it were not sutable to his infinite Greatnesse and to hear the prayers of his Servants that should pray therein or if they were absent towards it and lastly he offered a sacrifice of Peace-offering and the House was dedicated Here was no Procession the King stood still in his first place no Exorcised Water no Asperges me nor other impertinent application of words spoken upon another occasion but a decent and rationall speech and such as in making to God a present of his new built House was most conformable to the occasion We read not that St. John did Exorcize the Water of Jordan nor Philip the Water of the river wherein he baptized the Eunuch nor that any Pastor in the time of the Apostles did take his spittle and put it to the nose of the person to be Baptized and say In odorem suavitatis that is for a sweet savour unto the Lord wherein neither the Ceremony of Spittle for the uncleannesse nor the application of that Scripture for the levity can by any authority of man be justified To prove that the Soule separated from the Body liveth eternally not onely the Soules of the Elect by especiall grace and restauration of the Eternall Life which Adam lost by Sinne and our Saviour restored by the Sacrifice of himself to the Faithfull but also the Soules of Reprobates as a property naturally consequent to the essence of mankind without other grace of God but that which is universally given to all mankind there are divers places which at the first sight seem sufficiently to serve the turn but such as when I compare them with that which I have before Chapter 38. alledged out of the 14 of Iob seem to mee much more subject to a divers interpretation than the words of Iob. And first there are the words of Solomon Ecclesiastes 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to Dust as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Which may bear well enough if there be no other text directly against it this interpretation that God onely knows but Man not what becomes of a mans spirit when he expireth and the same Solomon in the same Book Chap. 3. ver 20 21. delivereth the same sentence in the sense I have given it His words are All goe man and beast to the same place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again who knoweth that the spirit of Man goeth upward and that the spirit of the Beast goeth downward to the earth That is none knows but God Nor is it an unusuall phrase to say of things we understand not God Knows what and God Knows where That of Gen. 5. 24. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him which is expounded Heb. 13. 5. He was translated that he should not die and was not found because God had translated him For before his Translation he had this testimony 〈◊〉 he pleased God making as much for the Immortality of the Body as of the Soule proveth that this his translation was peculiar to them that please God not common to them with the wicked and depending on Grace not on Nature But