Imprimatur Junii 24. 1689. W. CANT Bishop OVERALL's Convocation-Book MDC VI. Concerning the GOVERNMENT OF God's CATHOLICK CHVRCH AND THE KINGDOMS OF THE Whole WORLD LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. AN Advertisement TO THE READER THat Convocation in which the Acts and Canons now Printed pass'd was first call'd An. 1603. 1 mo Jac. and continued by Adjournments and Prorogations to 1610. The Three following Books are publish'd from a Copy carefully and faithfully transcribed from the Original MS. which was Bishop Overall's and drawn up by him after whose Decease it came into the Possession of D r John Cosin sometime his Secretary and after Lord Bishop of Duresm who bequeathed it with other his Books both Printed and Manuscript to the Publick Library by him founded at Duresm for the use of that Church where it is suppos'd it is yet to be seen The First of these Three Books was also heedfully compar'd and in some casual defects supply'd from another MS which from the Attestation of Archbishop Bancroft who there presided at the end thereof under his own hand seems to have been the Original that then pass'd the Upper-House of Convocation And after his Decease it came to his Successors the Archbishops of Canterbury And among them to Archbishop Laud as appears under his own hand-writing in the last Page of it And is now or was lately in the Possession of D r Barlow the present Lord Bishop of Lincoln In the First and Second of these Books there were several Amendments made by the Upper-House of Convocation all placed at the end of Bishop Overall's MS. and according to such Amendments inserted in their proper places is the following Book Printed NOte That the Numeral Letters in the Margin throughout the First Book refer to the Pages in Bishop Overall's Original MS. at Duresm as in the second Page following ii p. in MS. means the second Page in that MS. sic de caeteris In the first Book of that MS. Placet is set at the bottom of every Page and in the Printed Copy that word is sometimes misplaced by a line or two as on the Margin p. 10. Placet is set against l. 8. which should have been against l. 10. ERRATA PAge 3. line 8. it be called read it be not called p. 15. marg r. Deut. 33. p. 17. marg r. Num. 27. p. 21. l. 26. expelled r. repelled p. 25. marg 1 K. 2. 9. p. 60. l. 25. our pleasure r. their pleasure p. 63. marg Joseph Antiq. l. 11. r. l. 2. p. 65. Artic. l. 7. of their r. other p. 75. marg Jos Ant. l. 15. r. l. 18. p. 77. l. 5. quia r. qui p. 88. l. 19. Priest r. Priests p. 103. marg r. Luc. 2. 51. p. 122. l. 21. unless r. and least p. 149. l. 13. were assured r. we are assured p. 165. l. 25. after did not add only p. 252. l. 27. But r. that p. 278. l. 19. Rulers r. rules p. 282. l. 14. Vrsinus r. Vrsicinus p. 296. l. 7. above r. about p. 297. l. 22. Charls's r. Charles p. 302. l. 21. deprived r. depraved p. 324. marg Cassan in catalog pro censid 28. r. consid 29. p. 332. l. 4. revenge our r. revenge thy p. 337. l. 7. ridiculous Joyes r. ridiculous Toies Bishop OVERALL's CONVOCATION-BOOK 1606. CONCERNING The Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole WORLD LIB I. CAP. I. AMongst those Attributes and Names of God which are common in the Scripture to all the blessed Trinity are these To be the Creator and Governour of the World the Lord of lords and King of kings which be there applied as well to the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ the second Person in the sacred Trinity as to God the Father and God the Holy Ghost Agreeably whereunto and not otherwise our chief purpose being to imitate the Scriptures in setting out and describing the Deity and Dignity of our Saviour Christ by his Almighty Power and universal Government of all the World as Heir of all things and Head of his Church we hold it fit to begin with his Divine Power of Creation and thereupon in the sense aforesaid do affirm That He in the beginning did create both Heaven and Earth and that amongst the rest of the Creatures which he then made he Created our first Parents Adam and Eve from whose Loins Mankind is descended CANON I. IF any Man therefore shall affirm with any Pagan Heretick Atheist or any other profane Persons which know not or believe not the Scriptures either that Heaven and Earth had no beginning or that the World was made by Angels or the Devil that the World was not otherwise made by Christ than as he was an Instrument of God the Father for the making of it or that he did not as God create our said Parents Adam and Eve he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. II. TO him that shall duly read the Scripture it will be plain and evident That the Son of God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their Seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Off-spring to rule and govern them Ordaining by the very Law of Nature That their said Children and Off-spring begotten and brought up by them should fear reverence honour and obey them Which power and Authority before the Flood resting in the Patriarchs and in the chief Fathers because it had a very large extent not only for the Education of their said Children and Off-spring whilst they were young but likewise for the ordering ruling and governing of them afterwards when they came to Mens Estate And for that also it had no superiour Authority or power over or above it on Earth appearing in the Scriptures although it be called either Patriarchal Regal or Imperial and that we only term it Potestas Patria yet being well considered how far it did reach we may truly say that it was in a sort Potestas Regia as now in a right and true construction Potestas Regia may justly be called Potestas Patria CAN. II. IF any Man shall therefore affirm that Men at the first without all good Education or Civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild Creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no superiority one over another until they were taught by Experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Iurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the people and disorder'd multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduced by their consents naturally
and for that they took great pains in teaching of their Children professing that they would refuse none that had any desire to be virtuously brought up and did thereupon draw unto them many Disciples and the rather for that they pretended themselves to be propugnatores pietatis The Issue of which godly pretence was that having thereby got a number to follow them they stirred them up to Sedition against the civil Magistrate under colour that in contempt of their Laws he had made some Innovation But they were presently vanquished Matthias and divers others were put to death and the High-Priest himself as having his part in that sedition was deprived from that Dignity When Herod upon occasion caused his Subjects to bind themselves by an Oath quòd non decessuri essent à fide officio the Pharisees refused to take that Oath whom he forbare at that time because he favour'd greatly one Pollio a chief Man of that Sect. But about fifteen years after when it was again thought fit to have the like Oath ministred and that all the whole Nation of the Jews did accordingly take the same and thereby bound their Faith and Allegiance both to Herod and unto Caesar saving the Pharisees being then in number six thousand who would not yet be induced to take it they were censured and fined for their offence and divers of them thereupon entring into some traiterous Courses and Conspiracies with sundry Courtiers against their Prince they were as they deserv'd put in like manner to death Not long after another Sect sprung up whereof the chief heads were Judas Gaulonites Sadoc a Pharisee Judas Galilaeus and one Simon of Galilee who profest themselves to be propugnatores libertatis publicae These men were so far from moving the people to obedience as they stirred them up as much as they could possibly to Rebellion telling them that to undergo any Impositions or Taxes was manifest acknowledgment of their servitude and that it was a shame for them to pay Tribute to the Romans or Dominos post Deum ferre mortales by which means they perturbed the whole Nation and filled every place with their Robberies and Slaughters under pretence indeed of defending their Countries sed reverâ privatorum lucrorum studio Also it was Eleazarus the Son of Ananias the High-Priest who would not suffer the inferiour Priests to offer Sacrifices and Prayers as formerly had been accustomed for the long life and prosperity of the Emperour nor could be drawn by any perswasion from his obstinacy therein but proceeded from evil to worse and so excited the people to Arms as his rebellious course therein was held to be the Seminary and matter of those Roman Wars which overthrew that Nation It is true that the High-Priests were not themselves so busie as the inferiour Priests that lived under them For the Romans suspecting of likelihood that if the Priesthood should have been held by Succession and for term of Life by the chief Persons of Aaron's Posterity the same might have grown dangerous unto their Government did thereupon take order that the Princes and Presidents which ruled in that Country should have the appointing of such as should be High Priests to be chosen by them out of Aaron's Kindred and that they should also have Authority to alter and change them from time to time as they found occasion Whereby the High Priesthood came to be but an annual Dignity and sometimes it was not held so long which caused them for the most part to keep themselves from entring into any actual Rebellion against their Governours though otherwise they were in effect as hollow-hearted unto them as any other of the Priests For albeit in their hatred and malice against Christ they could say We have no King but Caesar and tell Pilate flatly that if he delivered Christ he was not Caesar's Friend yet what their private opinions were doth plainly appear by their sending of the Pharisees unto Christ with their entangling Questions to know of him Whether it were lawful to give Tribute unto Caesar or not supposing if he were not a Dissembler as they themselves were that he would deny it to be lawful and so should incur the danger thereunto appertaining or if he answer'd that it was lawful he might thereby bring upon him the hatred of the People whom they suffer'd for ought that we find to the contrary to be brought up in the rebellious Doctrine of some of the Pharisees and to hold it unlawful to pay Tribute unto Caesar Besides what a false ignorant and wicked Generation they were is manifest by the whole course which they held with our Saviour Christ It being agreeable to the just Judgment of God that the most impious Hypocrites who then lived should be the chief Actors in the Crucifying of Christ which was the most horrible fact that ever was committed CAN. XXXIV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that because the civil Magistrate had made some Innovation which they liked not or for any other respect the said Judas and Matthias might lawfully move the People to Rebellion though otherwise they taught Mens Children never so diligently or that the Pharisees in refusing to bind their Allegiance and Faith to Caesar by an Oath did not thereby shew themselves to be traiterously affected toward him or that it was not a seditious Doctrine to be detested of all good Subjects which Judas Gaulonites and his Fellows delivered to the People in teaching them to refuse all Taxations imposed by the Romans their lawful Magistrates and rather to rebel than to pay any tribute unto them or that they did not very grievously sin both the High-Priest's Son and the rest who either refused to offer Sacrifice or to pray for Caesar or that the High-Priests then were not a wicked Brood degenerated far from their first Institution or that they did not greatly offend God in permitting the People to be infected by their inferiour Priests and other religious Persons with any of the said false positions and traiterous conceits or that they the said High-Priests did not most grosly erre in all those points and particulars wherein they opposed themselves against the Person and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXV WE have followed thus far that mild and moderate Form of civil Government which God himself established and preserved in the Lines of Seth and Sem until through the obstinate Rebellion from time to time of the Jews the Fame and the Authority thereof were first greatly diminished and afterward taken wholly away from them But it is further to be considered that as in the first Chapter we have shewed the Creation of all the World to be ascribed to the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity so is the Government of it in the same sense attributed to him The
your selves unto all manner of Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be unto the King as unto the Superiour or unto Governours as unto them that are sent of him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well For so is the will of God that by well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men as free and not as having the liberty for a Cloak of Maliciousness but as the Servants of God Honour all Men love Brotherly Fellowship Fear God Honour the King And the same Apostle describing the nature of false Teachers which in times to come would thrust themselves into the Church and by feigned words make a Merchandise of their Followers amongst other impieties he noteth them with these That commonly they are despisers of Government presumptuous Persons and such as stand in their own conceits Men that fear not to speak evil of them that are in dignity but as brute Beasts led with sensuality and made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of those things which they know not And with St. Peter in this point the Apostle St. Jude doth concur where speaking of those who in future times should be Makers of Sects He termeth them Mockers and Men that had not the Spirit of God And speaking also of such like wicked Persons as were crept into the Church in the Apostles days he saith they did despise Government and speak evil of them that were in Authority In all which places thus by us noted concerning as well the dignity and Authority of Sovereign Kings and Princes as the fear duty and obedience which all their Subjects were truly and sincerely without murmuring or repining to yield and perform unto them though they were then Ethnicks When we consider the manner of their delivery of that Evangelical Doctrine and their grounds thereof as also how vehemently they have written against all such Persons as either did then or should afterward oppose themselves unto it by despising of civil Magistrates speaking evil of them or in any other sort whatsoever We are fully perswaded that they neither commanded taught or writ any thing therein but what they knew to be the will of God and did accordingly believe to be true for we hold it resolutely That whatsoever the Apostles did either write teach or command they writ taught and commanded it as they were inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost because when our Saviour Christ was to leave the World he promised to send unto them the Holy Ghost the Comforter and spirit of truth which should lead them not into any By-ways or shifting conceits but into the direct and plain paths of all truths and did very shortly after perform that his Promise when upon the day of Pentecost they were all filled with the Holy Ghost as St. Luke witnesseth Besides the Apostle St. Paul himself doth profess both in his own name and in the behalf of the rest of the Apostles his Fellows that their Master being the truth it self after he had so mercifully and liberally perform'd his said Promise unto them they did not deal with the word of God as Vintners Regraters or Merchants do with their mixed Wines and adulterated Wares that is mingle it with any untruths or superstitious conceits or vent it out otherwise than the truth did therein warrant them or did apply it with fraud either to serve their own or any other mens designments or deliver'd it with any such inward Reservations and mental Evasions as when they did most seem to their hearers to speak one thing directly they had such another meaning as when time should serve they might make use of But whatsoever they said they spake it sincerely sicut ex Deo as God did guide them by the Holy Ghost coram Deo as in the sight of God unto whom one day they were to give an account of their said sincerity in Christo as their blessed Saviour himself had preached taught them and had commanded them CAN. IV. THerefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Deity of our Saviour Christ doth not since his Resurrection and Ascension otherwise execute the Majesty and Glory thereof in his Humanity than it did before his Passion or that Christ now in Glory is not actually the Heir of all things as he is Man so highly exalted and both King of kings and Lord of lords or that he now sitting at the right hand of God in Glory and Majesty as he is Man hath made an alteration in the manner of temporal Government ordain'd by himself long before as he is God or that now all the Kingdoms in the World being but one Kingdom in respect of himself he doth not allow the distributing of that his one Vniversal Kingdom into divers Principalities and Kingdoms to be ruled by so many Kings and absolute Princes under him or that such Kings and Sovereign Governours as were Ethnicks were deprived by Christ's Ascension into Heaven and most glorious Estate there from the true Interest and lawful Possession of the Kingdoms which before they enjoyed or that the ancient Fathers were deceived in holding and maintaining that all Christians in the Primitive Church were bound to obey such Kings and Princes as were then Pagans or that the Subjects of all the Temporal Princes in the World were not as much bound in St. Paul's time to be subject unto them as the Romans were to be subject to the Empire not only for Fear but even for Conscience Sake or that St. Paul's Commandment by virtue of his Apostleship and assistance of the Holy Ghost of Obedience to Princes then Ethnicks is not of as great force to bind the Conscience of all true Christians as if he had been then Summus Pontifex or that any Pope now hath power to dispense with the said Doctrine of St. Paul as the said Canonist by us quoted doth seem to affirm where after he hath said That the Apostle St. Paul commanding all Men to be obedient to superiour Powers was not the highest Bishop he addeth these words Papa major est administratione Paulo Papa dispensat contra Apostolum in his quae non concernunt Articulos fidei The Pope is greater in Authority than Paul the Pope doth dispense against the Apostle in those things that do not concern the Articles of Faith or that the Primitive Church was not as well restrain'd de jure by the Doctrine of Christ's Apostles as de facto from bearing Arms against such Princes as were then Ethnicks and transferring of their Kingdoms from them unto any others or that St. Peter himself who our Adversaries would make the World believe was then the highest Bishop concurring with the Apostle St. Paul when he commanded the Christians in those days to submit themselves unto the King as unto the Superiour they both of them were assured commanding therein as they
Timothy of of his Epistle to Titus though they are found in the ancient Copies of the Greek Testament are of no Credit or Authority or that such an Impeachment and Discredit laid upon them is not very prejudicial to the Books and Writings of the Holy Ghost or that it is not great presumption for Men in these days to take upon them to know better Whether Timothy and Titus were Bishops than the Churches and godly Fathers did which were planted and lived either in the Apostle's times or presently after them except they have some especial Revelations from God or that whilst Men do labour to bring into discredit the ancient Fathers and Primitive Churches they do not derogate from themselves such credit as they hunt after and as much as in them lieth bring many parts of Religion into a wonderful uncertainty or that it is probable or was possible for Timothy to have observ'd those Rules that St. Paul gave him unto the coming of Christ except as the Fathers expound some of them he meant to have them first observed by himself and other Bishops in that Age and that afterward they should so likewise be observed by all Bishops for ever or that the ancient Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories when they Record it to all Posterity that these Men and those Men were made by the Apostles Bishops of such and such places are not to be held to be of more credit than any other Historiographers or Writers or that when the ancient Fathers did collect out of the Scriptures and practice of the Apostles the continuance for ever of that Form of Church-Government which was then in use they were not so throughly illuminated with the Holy Ghost as divers Men of late have been or that it was an idle course held by the Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers to keep the Catalogues of their Bishops or to ground Arguments in some Cases upon their Succession in that they were able to deduce their beginnings either from the Apostles or from some Apostolical Persons or that the Form of Government used in the Apostle's times for the planting and ordering of Churches was not in many respects as necessary to be continued in the Church afterward especially considering that many Churches were not left fully ordered nor in some places were at all planted when the Apostles died or that true and perfect Order grounded upon the very Laws of Nature and Reason and established by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles times was not fit for the Churches of God afterward to embrace and observe or that any Church since the Apostles time till of late years when it received the Gospel had not likewise Archbishops and Bishops for the Government of it or that divers of the ancient Fathers did not hold and that very truly for ought that appeareth to the contrary that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in establishing the Form of Church-Government amongst the Gentiles had an especial respect to that Form which God had setled amongst the Jews and did no way purpose to abrogate or abolish it or that any since the Apostles times till of late days was ever held to be a lawful Minister of the Word and Sacraments who was not Ordain'd Priest or Minister by the Imposition of the hands of some Bishop or that it is with any probability to be imagin'd that all the Churches of Christ and ancient Fathers from the beginning would ever have held it for an Apostolical Rule That none but Bishops had any Authority to make Priests had they not thought and judged that the same Authority had been derived unto them the said Bishops from the same Apostolical Ordination that was committed unto Timothy and Titus their Predecessors or that the Apostles and all the ancient Fathers were deceived when they judged the Authority of Bishops necessary at all times for the suppressing of Schisms and that without Bishops there would be in the Churches as many Sects as Ministers or that when Men find themselves in regard of their disobedience to their Bishops so fully and notably described and censured by all the ancient Fathers for Schismaticks and contentious Persons they have not just cause to fear their own Estates if they continue in such their willfulness and obstinacy or that the Church-Government by us above treated of is truly to be said to savour of Judaism more than the observation by godly Kings and Princes of the Equity of the Iudicial Law given to the Jews may truly be said to savour thereof or that it doth proceed from any other than the wicked Spirit for any sort of Men what godly shew soever they can pretend to seek to discredit as much as in them lieth that Form of Church-Government which was established by the Apostles and left by them to continue in the Church to the end of the World under Archbishops and Bishops such as were Timothy and Titus and some others then called to those Offices by the said Apostles and ever since held by the Primitive Churches and all the ancient Fathers to be Apostolical Functions or to term the same or any part of it to be Anti-Christian He doth greatly Erre CAP. IX The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ upon his Ascension into Heaven did not commit the Temporal Government of the whole World unto St. Peter That the Apostles and whole Ministry did succeed Christ not as he was a Person immortal and glorious after his Resurrection but as he was a Mortal Man here upon the Earth before his Passion That Christ left neither to St. Peter nor to the Bishops of Rome nor to any other Archbishops or Bishops any temporal Possessions all that since any of them have gotten being bestowed upon them by Emperours Kings and Princes and other their good Benefactors And that the Imagination of St. Peter's Temporal Sovereignty is very idle the same being never known unto himself for ought that appeareth and argueth great Ignorance of the true nature of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ for the erecting whereof the spiritual working of the Holy Ghost with the Apostles and the rest of the Ministry of the Gospel was and is only necessary IT hath been shewed by us before that our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension became actually in the State of the Heir of all things Governour of all the World and King of kings even as he was Man his divine Nature working more gloriously in his Humanity than formerly it had done Howbeit although we also made it plain that notwithstanding the said Glory Power Rule Dominion and Majesty wherewith Christ is really possest sitting in Heaven at the right hand of his Father he made no alteration in the Form and manner of Temporal Government but left the whole World to be ruled by Kings and Soveraign Princes under him as it had been before himself retaining still in his own hands the Scepter and chiefest Ensigns of Royal and highest Majesty to direct and
us and the Sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross vanquish both the Devil Death and Hell to the end that as many as believed in him might not perish but have life everlasting And therefore knowing Faith to be the Means of so unspeakable a Benefit he vouchsafed not only to be our Priest but our heavenly Prophet labouring by Preaching and Miracles to beget Faith in the Hearts of his Hearers that Satan being expel'd thence he himself with his Father might abide and make their Mansion in them To the performance of which most admirable work how our Saviour Christ being equal with his Father became a Servant for our sakes as it was the will of God whereunto of his own accord he conform'd himself and what a poor Estate he held whilst he was upon the Earth how he was born in Poverty lived in Poverty and died in Poverty how maliciously and scornfully he was oftentimes entreated how as when he spake the truth his Enemies said he blasphemed So when he cast out Devils they told him that he cast them out by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils how in the whole course of his Life he was so far from being a temporal King or having possession of any Regal State as he had not so much as an House of his own to rest his head in but was glad to lodge now with one man and then with another as the Occasions and Times served and how in the end he was content to satisfie the Malice of his Enemies by submitting himself for our sakes unto the Death of the Cross it were a needless labour for us to pursue the Evangelists have so plainly set down all these particulars and many more besides to that purpose Likewise it shall be sufficient for us sparingly to recount how our Saviour Christ was not only content to preach and work Miracles himself for the conversion o◠those that heard him but did to the same end as well before his Passion as after authorize likewise his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples to preach and work strange Miracles and furthermore ordain a Succession of the Ministry for the encreasing of this his Kingdom unto the end of the World himself never forsaking his Church and Ministers but still assisting them in that their spiritual Charge which he had committed unto them For although that he himself by his Death and Passion hath vanquished Satan and ruleth in the Hearts of the Faithful yet by reason of our Infirmities and Weakness of Faith and through the Malice of the Devil who never ceaseth like a roaring Lyon to seek whom he may devour this spiritual Kingdom of Christ is but now begun in us and upheld in us by the most merciful hand of our Saviour Christ through the operation of the Holy Ghost and by the labour of the Ministry But in the end through the Virtue of Christ's Passion shall be brought to pass that which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be unto God who hath given us victory thrô our Lord Jesus Christ And again Death Hell and the Devil shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone In the mean while and during the time of this our Pilgrimage we are for the continuance of Christ's dwelling in our Hearts to follow the Counsel and Direction of the Holy Ghost That in no sort we give any place to the Devil but that we resist him with all the force we are able for in so doing he will fly from us And for our better Resistance that we might be able to stand against the Assaults of Satan we have a notable and compleat armour appointed us by the said Holy Spirit which is agreeable to the Nature of the Enemies we have to fight with For saith the holy Apostle we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers and against worldly governors the princes of darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses which are in the high places And thus we have a brief and short Idea of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ Whereof when the Apostles after they were replenished with the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost had full understanding and notice they never dreamed for ought that appeareth to the contrary in the Scriptures of any Worldly preheminence or Principalities who should sit here and who should sit there but contented themselves with the same estate and condition of life that their Master had led before them remembring how he had described the same unto them when he first sent them to preach amongst the Jews Behold saith he unto them I send you as sheep in the midst of Wolves Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and will scourge you in the Synagogues And ye shall be brought to the Governours and Kings for my sake in witness to them and the Gentiles And ye shall be hated of all Men for my sake When they persecute you in this City flee into another the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more them of his Houshold Whosoever will be a perfect Disciple shall be as his Master Verily Verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament and the World shall rejoice The time shall come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service And as Christ did thus foretel them so it came to pass For no sooner did they begin to Preach the Gospel after the Ascension of Christ but they were whipped scourged cast into Prison bound with Chains and most cruelly entreated St. Paul doth testify somewhat hereof when writing in the name both of himself and of the rest of the Apostles and Ministers he saith thus In all things we approve our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in prisons in tumults in labours by watchings by fastings by long sufferings by dishonour by evil report as Deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet known as dying and behold we live Besides that which he speaketh of his own particular condition doth argue the estate and condition of his Fellows though one would have thought that little more could have been added to the barbarous Cruelty last mentioned to have been Executed upon them For comparing himself and his pains with certain false Brethren that were crept into the Church amongst the Apostles and sought for their own commendation to impair the credit of this our Apostle he writeth in this manner They are Ministers of Christ I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in Prison more plenteously Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one I was thrice beaten
that in all likelyhood he hath received any greater commendation for his plain dealing in answer to another Objection which is grounded upon the Authority of Pope Nicholas Who in an Epistle of his to Michael the Emperour of Constantinople doth write thus Christus B. Petro vitae aeternae clavigero terreni simul coelestis Imperii Jura commisti Christ did commit to St. Peter the Key bearer of Everlasting Lise the right and interest both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire To which saying of Pope Nicholas the Cardinal maketh two answers Ad testimonium Nicolai dico Imprimis illud citari à Gratiano d. 22. Can. Omnes sed non inveniri inter Epistolas Nicolai Papae To the testimony of Pope Nicholas I answer First that the said is cited by Gratian but it is not to be found amongst the Epistles of Pope Nicholas As if he should have said That testimony is forged And the effect of his second Answer is That if any Man shall urge that Testimony of Pope Nicholas in the sense objected they make him directly repugnant to himself in the rest of the said Epistle And concerning the other Argument by our said Canonist alledged of the Death of Ananias and Sapphira the ancient Fathers in the Primitive Church would certainly have scorn'd it if ever they had heard of it Peter knowing by the instinct of the Holy Ghost that Satan had possessed both their hearts and how they lied not to Men but to God did only pronounce that Sentence of Death upon them which the holy Spirit did suggest unto him Wherein although there may appear what force the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God had when it was brandished by St. Peter through the Operation of the Holy Ghost there was assuredly no use of any material and civil Sword for if there had another manner of Form of outward Justice would first have been held before they had been Executed And to conclude this point We do freely profess That the nature of Christ his Spiritual Kingdom being throughly weighed we cannot find to what purpose either St. Peter or any of his Successors should have been made temporal Monarchs over all the Civil Magistrates in the World because all their temporal Forces and Swords joined together had not been able to have vanquished one wicked Spirit of the Air or have open'd the door of any one Man's heart for Christ or the Holy Ghost to have entered and have made their habitation in it CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ hath otherwise committed the World to be governed under him by Kings and Soveraign Princes but so as he himself with his Regal Scepter doth rule and govern them all according to his Divine Pleasure or that it is not a sound Argument that the Bishops of Rome in taking upon them to be temporal Kings have wholly perverted the Institution of Christ in that behalf in that they are driven to justify their facts therein by the Examples of the Maccabees and those times of so great confusion or that our Saviour Christ whilst he was here upon the Earth did not fully content himself to be only a Spiritual King to rule in Mens hearts or that to the end he might erect such a Spiritual Kingdom he did not conquer the Devil Sin Death and Hell and thereby took possession in the hearts of all true Believers or that before our Saviour Christ doth begin to reign in Man's heart he doth not first by the Ministry of his Word beget a lively Faith in it or that whilst he lived here in the World he did not satisfy himself for our sakes with a very mean and poor Estate being in himself most rich because he was God and in his humanity the Heir of all things or that he did not Institute and Ordain a Priesthood or Ministry to continue to the end of the World for the continuance and augmenting of his Spiritual Kingdom or that the Children of God notwithstanding that they are redeemed through Faith by Christ and delivered out of the Iaws of Hell and Satan are not still to take heed and beware of him and to arm themselves accordingly against his Forces or that our Saviour Christ when he told his Apostles and Disciples That the Servant is not above his Lord but that whosoever would be a perfect Disciple should be as his Master did not mean that his Apostles and after them their Successors Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Ministry should hold their Services and Offices under him to do as he did when he was a Mortal Man of poor Estate and subject to many bad Vsages and Injuries or that because our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension when he was become a Man Immortal and Glorious did then enlarge the Commission of his Apostles and ordain'd by them a succession of the Ministry for the government of the Church he did thereby make them any more partakers of his Regal Authority whereof his humane nature was then actually possessed for the state and exercise thereof by reason of the free and unrestrained Operation of his Deity than he made their natural and corruptible Bodies incorrupt and spiritual Bodies or endowed them in this life with any of that Glory Power and Heavenly Estate which they were to enjoy after their Deaths and blessed Resurrection or that the Apostles after Christ's Death not exempting St. Peter did not find their Estates in this World very suitable to their Master's whilst he lived with them all things happening unto them as he had foretold them or that either St. Peter or any of the Apostles or of their Successors either then or since that time could challenge so much as this or that one temporal farm by virtue of their Ecclesiastical Functions more than their Master had or that either they were themselves possessed with as their own before they were called to that Ministration or than was afterward given unto them by godly Emperors Kings and Princes and other devout and religious Persons or that if St. Peter had known himself to have been under Christ the sole temporal Monarch of the World it had not been his duty to have made the same known at least to the Apostles and such as were converted to Christ to the end they might have honour'd him accordingly as his dutiful and loyal Subjects or that it had not in all probability if St. Peter meant to shew himself to be a temporal King by the Deaths of Ananias and Sapphira been much more expedient for the success of the Gospel in those days if he had used such his Regal Authority against those civil Magistrates which were Enemies to Christ and to all that Preached in his name or that it may be rightly imagin'd with our dutiful regard of St. Peter's Sincerity that ever he would have been so earnest with the
to an House to a Ship and that therefore she must have but one Captain one humane Head one King one Pastor one Housholder and one Pilot that although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless that although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself but being absent doth usually appoint another under him who is called his Vice-Roy that every Diocess and Province hath her Bishops and Archbishops to govern the particular Churches under them within their several Charges and that therefore there must be one Bishop of the whole Catholick Church to rule and govern them all Lastly That as there is but one God one Faith and one Baptism so there must be in the Catholick Church but one chief Bishop and Judge upon whom all Men ought to depend Many more are the reasons grounded upon divers other similitudes which our Adversaries have heaped up together to uphold the Pope's Authority all of them being as vain and frivolous as the former For it is certain and manifest that as the Catholick Church is resembled in the Scriptures to an Host well ordered to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock of Sheep to an House and to a Ship so Christ only is intended thereby to be her only General her only Head her only King her only Shepherd her only Housholder and her only Pilot. Neither can any other thing be inforced from the words mentioned of one Faith and one Baptism but that as we are only justified through a lively Faith in Christ so there is but one Baptism ordain'd whereby we have our first entrance into his Spiritual Kingdom and are made particular Members of his Catholick Church Besides in the like sense that the Catholick Church is resembled to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock to an House to a Ship so may the Universal Kingdom of Christ over the whole World as he is the Creator of it be resembled to them all and the aforesaid Titles respectively attributed unto him The whole World is an Host under him well order'd and he is the General of it The whole World is but as one Body whereof he is the Head being the Life of all Men from whom as from their Head they have their Sense Understanding and Motion The whole Universal World is but his Kingdom and he is the King of it ruling and disposing it as seemeth best to his divine Wisdom The whole World is with him but one Flock and he is the Shepherd of it all Men in it being the Sheep of his Pasture to whom he giveth food and sustentation in due season Also he ordereth all the affairs in the World as a good Housholder doth order and direct all the businesses and troubles appertaining to his Family Likewife the whole World may aptly be compared to a Ship in that the State of all Mankind living in it is subject as a Ship on the Sea unto all manner of contrary Winds Tempests and Storms of which Ship were not Christ as he is the Creator of the World the only Pilot the World could not subsist And as the Catholick Church is resembled to a Fold which containeth in it all that believe in Christ so may the universal Kingdom of Christ over all the World be compared unto a Fold in that it containeth in it all Mankind generally his Heavenly Care and Providence evermore protecting them Moreover as there is but one Catholick Church one Head or Spiritual Ruler of it Christ our Redeemer one Christian Faith one Baptism one Gospel one Truth one and the self-same Form or Nature of all the several Theological Virtues and one Inheritance which are all of them to be taught embraced and expected by all that are true Members of the Catholick Church So there is but one Universal Kingdom in all the World the Creator of it being the sole Emperour and Governour of it one moral Faith one Nature of Truth to be observed amongst all one rule and nature of Justice one moral Law one nature of Equity one Kind Form or Nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual which are to be put in practice as occasion requireth in this one Empire by as many as expect from Christ their Emperour any happy success in their Worldly affairs But as all these Unities in the temporal Monarchy of Christ are no sufficient grounds to warrant this assertion that there ought to be one temporal King or Emperour under Christ to govern the whole World so the aforesaid Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Unities are not able to establish or uphold this Inference That one Pope must of necessity have the Government under Christ of the whole Catholick Church Also from the authority of Scripture that God made all Mankind of one Adam to signify that he would have all Men to depend upon one why may it not as well be collected that he meant that all the Men in the World should depend upon one Emperour for causes Temporal as upon one Pope in Causes Ecclesiastical Likewise it is a very absurd conceit that our Jesuit maintaineth when he saith That although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself and when he is absent appoint his Vice-Roy Of likelyhood this Fellow would perswade us that Christ is sometimes absent from his Church to the end that the Pope may be his grand Deputy For otherwise by his own Example Christ may govern the Catholick Church without the Pope as the King ruling himself in his own Kingdom needeth no Vice-Roy That Christ is never absent from his Church but doth by his Power Grace and Virtue of the Holy Ghost still defend and protect it It is plain by his own words where he saith Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World It is true that he told his Apostles that he was to depart from them meaning that they must be deprived of his Corporal presence but did he signify unto them that for their comfort he would leave St. Peter in his place and after him the Bishops of Rome St. Peter's Successors to govern his Church to the end of the World No such matter These are our Saviour Christ's words It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you Again When he is come which is the Spirit of truth he will lead you into all truth Again I will pray to my Father and he
CAN. XXXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that during the continuance of the Old Testament the Merits of Christ's Death actually to come were not sufficient to save all true Believers or that there was then no Catholick Church or that at any time there was any other Rock but Jesus Christ the blessed Seed upon whom the Catholick Church was then built or that many of the Gentiles were not always for ought that is known to the contrary true Members of the Catholick Church or that Christ himself was not the sole Head or Monarch all that while of the whole Catholick Church or that the said Catholick Church after the Members of it were dispersed into all the places of the World was otherwise visible than per partes or that Noah did appoint any Man to be the visible Head of the said Catholick Church or that the High-Priest among the Jews had any more Authority over the Catholick Church of God than King David had over the Vniversal Kingdom of God or that the said High-Priest had not greatly sinn'd if he had taken upon him or usurped any such infinite Authority He doth greatly Erre Placet eis The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have passed with one Consent both the Convocation-Houses and so are approved R. Cant. The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have been diligently read and deliberately examin'd and thereupon have likewise passed with one Consent in the Convocation-House of the Province of York Jo. Bristol praeses Convocat Eborac LIB II. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended course through the Old Testament and until the Destruction of Jerusalem we over-slipped and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said course as we find the true Grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our entrance into which course we confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange Impediments and mighty Stumbling-blocks which through long Practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successours For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit Project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better ordered polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successours We can see no Authentical Ground nor sufficient Warrant in those Writings which ought to be the true Rule of every Christian Man's Conscience as not being there to be found for any Apostolical Priest or Bishop either to pretend that all the particular Churches in the World are under his Government or to tell the Subjects of any Christian King opposite in some points unto him That they are no longer bound to obey him their said King but until they shall be able by force of Arms or by some secret Practice to subdue him or to challenge to himself an Absolute and Universal Authority and Power over all Kings and Kingdoms in the World to bestow them in some cases under pretence of Religion when he shall think the same to be most available for the strengthning and upholding of such his pretended Universal Power and Dominion To the Proof whereof before we address our selves because the same doth much depend upon the admirable Humiliation of the Son of God in taking our Nature upon him and performing the Work of our Salvation in such a manner as he did We have thought it our Duties lest otherwise we might be mistaken either through Weakness Simplicity or Malice first briefly to observe notwithstanding our Saviour's said Humiliation the most wonderful Dignity Preheminency and Royalty of his Person It is many ways apparent that the mean Estate and Condition of our Saviour Christ here upon Earth was one especial Motive both to the Jews and Gentiles why in their carnal Judgments he was to the one sort a Scandal and to the other a Scorn as if he had been a Man out of his Wits and preached he knew not what In which respect partly not only the People of the Jews the Priests of all sorts the Scribes and Pharisees with the rest of their Hypocritical Orders but likewise the civil Governours as well Romans as Jews did utterly despise him hate him deride him beat him and put him to death Since which time sundry sorts of Hereticks have stumbled at the same stone labouring by all the means they could to impeach and dishonour the Person of Christ in regard of the mean shew of his humane Nature notwithstanding the many Arguments which they might have found in the Scriptures had not their Hearts been hardned of his Divinity On the other side we are not ignorant how the Bishop of Rome and his Adherents supposing it would too much impeach their Credits and worldly Reputations if they should be too much pressed to deduce the principal strength of their Estates and Callings from the said mean Condition of our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in this World do thereupon attribute sundry Virtues Powers and Branches of Authority unto his humane Nature which do not in Truth belong properly unto it but are rather appertaining to his Person being both God and Man as hoping thereby to get some fair Pretences and Colours for the upholding of their usurped Greatness and pretended uncontroulable Sovereignty For the avoiding therefore of these Extremities and because such as deny the Pope's Supremacy are most falsly charged by sundry passionate and inconsiderate Persons to be Men that believe no one Article of the Christian Faith We have thought it meet to make it known to all the Christian World how detestable to the Church of England all such false Doctrine is as doth any way not only impeach the Sacred Person of our Saviour
Christ but likewise the other two Persons of the Blessed Trinity God the Father and God the Holy Ghost in that the dishonouring of One of them is the dishonouring of them all Three We do therefore for our selves and in the Name of all the rest of the Church of England acknowledge and profess from the bottom of our hearts the Truth of all that is written in the Sacred Scriptures and consequently and in more particular manner whatsoever is written in the same that doth appertain to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity Out of the Doctrine of which Sacred Writings because the Apostles and Churches of God moved thereunto by sundry sorts of Hereticks have long since most faithfully and learnedly deduced into certain Summaries rightly termed Creeds all those Points of true Doctrine which do concern God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and are necessarily to be believed under pain of condemnation We do resolutely embrace and stedfastly believe all and every one the Articles of the Apostles Creed and all and every one the Articles of the other Creeds made by sundry Councils for the further Declaration of the Christian Faith and Apostolick Creed as of the Nicene Creed made by the Council of Nice against Arius who denied the Divinity of the Son of God and of the next Creed made in the first Council of Constantinople ratifying and further declaring the Nicene Creed against Eudoxius the Arian and Macedonius who denied the Holy Ghost to be God and of the Creed made in the first Council of Ephesus against Nestorius who taught that the two Natures in Christ were not united together personally but that the Word which did take our Nature upon him for our Redemption did only assist Christ our Saviour as one Friend may assist another and of the Creed made in the Council of Chalcedon against Eutyches who did confound the two Natures of Christ Against any of which Articles whosoever doth oppose himself and doth willfully continue in such his Opposition we hold and judge them to be worthily subject to all those Censures and Anathematisms which the several Constitutions and Canons of the said Councils have justly laid upon them Also with the same Resolution and Faith before-mentioned we receive and believe all and every one the several Points and Articles of the Athanasian Creed made a little after the Council of Nice against such blasphemous Opinions as in those times were either directly or indirectly published in Corners and spread here and there to the seducing of many According to some Articles of the which Creed that do more nearly concern our Course We stedfastly believe and confess That our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is both God and Man God of the substance of the Father begotten before all Worlds and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane flesh subsisting Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferiour to the Father as touching his Manhood who although he be both God and Man yet he is not two but One Christ One not by Conversion of the Godhead into Flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God One altogether not by Confusion of substance but by Unity of Person In respect of which Personal Union of the two Natures of our Saviour Christ without confusion or mixture of either of them thus described in the said Creed whatsoever is affirmed in the Scriptures as well of the one Nature as of the other the same is also truly to be affirmed de toto Composito that is of his most sacred Person being both God and Man the Essential Properties of them both remaining notwithstanding distinguished For as the said personal or hypostatical Union of the said two Natures doth not make the one Nature to be the other the divine Nature to be the humane Nature or the humane Nature to be the Divine Nature so doth it not make the Essential Proprieties of the one Nature to be the Essential Proprieties of the other Nature but as well the Proprieties and actions as the Natures themselves do remain distinguished though united in one Person both of them concurring together the Deity in working that which appertaineth to the Deity and the Humanity executing those Essential Proprieties and actions which do belong unto the Humanity For Example the Divine Nature appear'd in Christ by Miracles when his humane Nature was subject to many opprobries and injuries In that our Saviour Christ did satisfie 5000. Persons with 5. loaves did give Water of Life to the Woman of Samaria did walk upon the Sea dry-foot did by his Commandment calm the Winds he shewed thereby some effects and works of his Divine Nature because they were as one well saith verbi propria non carnis the Proprieties of the Word and not of the Flesh Again in that Christ brake Bread this was an Office of his humane Nature but in that he multiplied it the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that he cried out Lazarus come forth that was the office of his humane Nature but in that he quickned him and raised him from Death that did belong unto his Divine Nature In that he said Thy sins are forgiven thee that was an office of his humane Nature but in that such sins were indeed remitted the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that our Saviour Christ died the same did proceed from the Flesh but in that by his Death he did expiate our Sins that did proceed from the Spirit In that he was Buried did proceed from the Flesh but in that he did raise himself from the dead that was he Office of his Divinity In that he gave Bread to his Apostles in his last Supper he did it as Man but in that he made them partakers of his blessed Body he did the same as he was God In that now being in Heaven he doth possess that Kingdom in the name and behalf of his Elect that doth appertain to his humane Nature but that he doth now remain with us and dwell in our hearts that is an Office of his Divine Nature In that he maketh Intercession for us that doth belong to his humane Nature but in that he doth justifie us regenerate us work in us both to will and to perform in that he ruleth us and leadeth us in the way of his Commandments all these Offices do appertain unto his Divinity Lastly In that he shall come in the Clouds and say unto one sort of Persons Come ye blessed and unto the other sort Depart ye Cursed he shall do the same according to his humane Nature but in that he shall judge every Man according to his knowledge of all Mens hearts their cogitations desires and works that he shall do as God Nevertheless any thing by us thus affirmed notwithstanding Christ himself is not divided though the Proprieties and actions of his two Natures are in this