death, for saying he was king: that the cause of his condemnation written on the cross was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. All which tend to no other end than this, that men should believe that _Jesus is the Christ_. Such therefore was the scope of St. Matthew’s Gospel. But the scope of all the evangelists, as may appear by reading them, was the same. Therefore the scope of the whole Gospel was the establishing of that only article. And St. John expressly makes it his conclusion, (_John_ xx. 31), _These things are written, that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God_.
[Sidenote: From the sermons of the apostles:] My second argument is taken from the subjects of the sermons of the apostles, both whilst our Saviour lived on earth, and after his ascension. The apostles, in our Saviour’s time, were sent, (_Luke_ ix.
2) _to preach the kingdom of God_. For neither there, nor, _Matth._ x.
7, giveth he any commission to them other than this, _As ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand_; that is, that Jesus is the _Messiah_, the _Christ_, the _King_ which was to come. That their preaching also after his ascension was the same, is manifest out of _Acts_ xvii. 6, 7, _They drew_, saith St. Luke, _Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying, that there is another king, one Jesus_. And out of the 2nd and 3rd verses of the same chapter, where it is said, that St. Paul, _as his manner was, went in unto them; and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures; opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom he preached, is Christ_.
[Sidenote: From the easiness of the doctrine:] The third argument is from those places of Scripture, by which all the faith required to salvation is declared to be easy. For if an inward assent of the mind to all the doctrines concerning Christian faith now taught, whereof the greatest part are disputed, were necessary to salvation, there would be nothing in the world so hard as to be a Christian. The thief upon the cross, though repenting, could not have been saved for saying, _Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom_; by which he testified no belief of any other article, but this, that _Jesus was the king_. Nor could it be said (as it is, _Matth._ xi. 30), that _Christ’s yoke is easy, and his burthen light_: nor that _little children believe in him_, as it is _Matth._ xviii. 6.
Nor could St. Paul have said, (_1 Cor._ i. 21), _It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe_. Nor could St. Paul himself have been saved, much less have been so great a doctor of the Church so suddenly, that never perhaps thought of transubstantiation nor purgatory, nor many other articles now obtruded.
[Sidenote: From formal and clear texts.]
The fourth argument is taken from places express, and such as receive no controversy of interpretation; as first, _John_ v. 39; _Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they that testify of me_. Our Saviour here speaketh of the Scriptures only of the Old Testament; for the Jews at that time could not search the Scriptures of the New Testament, which were not written. But the Old Testament hath nothing of Christ, but the marks by which men might know him when he came; as that he should descend from David; be born at Bethlehem, and of a Virgin; do great miracles, and the like. Therefore to believe that this Jesus was He, was sufficient to eternal life: but more than sufficient is not necessary; and consequently no other article is required. Again, (_John_ xi. 26) _Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall not die eternally_. Therefore to believe in Christ, is faith sufficient to eternal life; and consequently no more faith than that is necessary. But to believe in Jesus, and to believe that Jesus is the Christ, is all one, as appeareth in the verses immediately following.
For when our Saviour (verse 26) had said to Martha, _Believest thou this?_ she answereth (verse 27), _Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world_. Therefore this article alone is faith sufficient to life eternal; and more than sufficient is not necessary. Thirdly, _John_ xx. 31: _These things are written that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name_. There, to believe that _Jesus is the Christ_, is faith sufficient to the obtaining of life; and therefore no other article is necessary. Fourthly, _1 John_ iv. 2: _Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God_. And _1 John_ v. 1: _Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God_. And verse 5, _Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?_ Fifthly, _Acts_ viii. 36, 37: _See_, saith the Eunuch, _here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayst. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God._ Therefore this article believed, _Jesus is the Christ_, is sufficient to baptism, that is to say, to our reception into the kingdom of God, and by consequence, only necessary. And generally in all places where our Saviour saith to any man, _Thy faith hath saved thee_, the cause he saith it, is some confession, which directly, or by consequence, implieth a belief, that _Jesus is the Christ_.
[Sidenote: From that it is the foundation of all other articles.]
The last argument is from the places, where this article is made the foundation of faith: for he that holdeth the foundation, shall be saved.
Which places are first, _Matth._ xxiv. 23, 24: _If any man shall say unto you, Lo here is Christ, or there, believe it not; for there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, &c._ Here we see this article, _Jesus is the Christ_, must be held, though he that shall teach the contrary should do great miracles.
The second place is, _Gal._ i. 8: _Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed_. But the gospel which Paul, and the other apostles, preached, was only this article, that _Jesus is the Christ_: therefore for the belief of this article, we are to reject the authority of an angel from heaven; much more of any mortal man, if he teach the contrary. This is therefore the fundamental article of Christian faith.
A third place is, _1 John_, iv. 1, 2: _Beloved, believe not every spirit: hereby ye shall know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God_. By which it is evident, that this article, is the measure and rule, by which to estimate and examine all other articles; and is therefore only fundamental. A fourth is _Matth._ xvi. 16, 18, where after St. Peter had professed this article, saying to our Saviour, _Thou art Christ the Son of the living God_, our Saviour answered, _Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church_; from whence I infer, that this article is that, on which all other doctrines of the Church are built, as on their no man lay, than that which is laid, Jesus is the Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire._ Which words, being partly plain and easy to understand, and partly allegorical and difficult; out of that which is plain, maybe inferred, that pastors that teach this foundation, that _Jesus is the Christ_, though they draw from it false consequences, which all men are sometimes subject to, they may nevertheless be saved; much more that they may be saved, who being no pastors, but hearers, believe that which is by their lawful pastors taught them. Therefore the belief of this article is sufficient; and by consequence, there is no other article of faith necessarily required to salvation.
Now for the part which is allegorical, as _that the fire shall try every man’s work_, and that _they shall be saved, but so as by fire_, or _through fire_, (for the original is διὰ πυρὸς,) it maketh nothing against this conclusion which I have drawn from the other words, that are plain. Nevertheless, because upon this place there hath been an argument taken, to prove the fire of purgatory, I will also here offer you my conjecture concerning the meaning of this trial of doctrines, and saving of men as by fire. The apostle here seemeth to allude to the words of the prophet _Zechariah_, (xiii. 8, 9), who speaking of the restoration of the kingdom of God, saith thus; _Two parts therein shall be cut off, and die, but the third shall be left therein; and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on the name of the Lord, and I will hear them_. The day of judgment is the day of the restoration of the kingdom of God; and at that day it is, that St.
Peter tells us (_2 Pet._ iii. 7, 10, 12) shall be the conflagration of the world, wherein the wicked shall perish; but the remnant which God will save, shall pass through that fire unhurt, and be therein, (as silver and gold are refined by the fire from their dross,) tried, and refined from their idolatry, and be made to call upon the name of the true God. Alluding whereto, St. Paul here saith, that _the day_, that is, the day of judgment, the great day of our Saviour’s coming to restore the kingdom of God in Israel, shall try every man’s doctrine, by judging which are gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; and then they that have built false consequences on the true foundation, shall see their doctrines condemned; nevertheless they themselves shall be saved, and pass unhurt through this universal fire, and live eternally, to call upon the name of the true and only God. In which sense there is nothing that accordeth not with the rest of Holy Scripture, or any glimpse of the fire of purgatory.
[Sidenote: In what sense other articles may be called necessary.]
But a man may here ask, whether it be not as necessary to salvation, to believe, that God is omnipotent; Creator of the world; that Jesus Christ is risen; and that all men else shall rise again from the dead at the last day; as to believe that _Jesus is the Christ_. To which I answer, they are; and so are many more articles: but they are such, as are contained in this one, and may be deduced from it, with more or less difficulty. For who is there that does not see, that they who believe Jesus to be the Son of the God of Israel, and that the Israelites had for God the Omnipotent Creator of all things, do therein also believe, that God is the Omnipotent Creator of all things? Or how can a man believe, that Jesus is the king that shall reign eternally, unless he believe him also risen again from the dead? For a dead man cannot exercise the office of a king. In sum, he that holdeth this foundation, _Jesus is the Christ_, holdeth expressly all that he seeth rightly deduced from it, and implicitly all that is consequent thereunto, though he have not skill enough to discern the consequence. And therefore it holdeth still good, that the belief of this one article is sufficient faith to obtain remission of sins to the _penitent_, and consequently to bring them into the kingdom of heaven.
[Sidenote: That faith and obedience are both of them necessary to salvation.]
Now that I have shown, that all the obedience required to salvation, consisteth in the will to obey the law of God, that is to say, in repentance; and all the faith required to the same, is comprehended in the belief of this article, _Jesus is the Christ_; I will further allege those places of the Gospel, that prove, that all that is necessary to salvation is contained in both these joined together. The men to whom St. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, next after the ascension of our Saviour, asked him, and the rest of the apostles, saying, (_Acts_ ii. 37), _Men and brethren, what shall we do?_ To whom St. Peter answered (in the next verse) _Repent, and be baptized every one of you, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost_. Therefore repentance, and baptism, that is, believing that _Jesus is the Christ_, is all that is necessary to salvation. Again, our Saviour being asked by a certain ruler (_Luke_ xviii. 18), _What shall I do to inherit eternal life?_ answered, (verse 20) _Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honour thy father and thy mother_. Which when he said he had observed, our Saviour added, (verse 22) _Sell all thou hast, give it to the poor, and come and follow me_: which was as much as to say, rely on me that am the king. Therefore to fulfil the law, and to believe that Jesus is the king, is all that is required to bring a man to eternal life. Thirdly, St. Paul saith (_Rom._ i. 17), _The just shall live by faith_; not every one, but the _just_; therefore _faith_ and _justice_ (that is, the _will to be just_, or _repentance_) are all that is necessary to life eternal. And (_Mark_ i. 15) our Saviour preached, saying, _The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the evangile_, that is, the good news that the Christ was come. Therefore, to repent, and to believe that Jesus is the Christ, is all that is required to salvation.
[Sidenote: What each of them contributes thereunto] Seeing then it is necessary that faith and obedience, implied in the word repentance, do both concur to our salvation; the question by which of the two we are justified, is impertinently disputed. Nevertheless, it will not be impertinent, to make manifest in what manner each of them contributes thereunto; and in what sense it is said, that we are to be justified by the one, and by the other. And first, if by righteousness be understood the justice of the works themselves, there is no man that can be saved; for there is none that hath not transgressed the law of God. And therefore when we are said to be justified by works, it is to be understood of the will, which God doth always accept for the work itself, as well in good, as in evil men. And in this sense only it is, that a man is called _just_, or _unjust_; and that his justice justifies him, that is, gives him the title, in God’s acceptation, of _just_; and renders him capable of _living by his faith_, which before he was not.
So that justice justifies in that sense, in which to _justify_, is the same as that to _denominate a man just_; and not in the signification of discharging the law; whereby the punishment of his sins should be unjust.
But a man is then also said to be justified, when his plea, though in itself insufficient, is accepted; as when we plead our will, our endeavour to fulfil the law, and repent us of our failings, and God accepteth it for the performance itself. And because God accepteth not the will for the deed, but only in the faithful; it is therefore faith that makes good our plea; and in this sense it is, that faith only justifies. So that _faith_ and _obedience_ are both necessary to salvation; yet in several senses each of them is said to justify.
[Sidenote: Obedience to God and to the civil sovereign not inconsistent, whether Christian, or infidel.]
Having thus shown what is necessary to salvation; it is not hard to reconcile our obedience to God, with our obedience to the civil sovereign; who is either Christian, or infidel. If he be a Christian, he alloweth the belief of this article, that _Jesus is the Christ_; and of all the articles that are contained in, or are by evident consequence deduced from it: which is all the faith necessary to salvation. And because he is a sovereign, he requireth obedience to all his own, that is, to all the civil laws; in which also are contained all the laws of nature, that is all the laws of God: for besides the laws of nature, and the laws of the Church, which are part of the civil law, (for the Church that can make laws is the commonwealth), there be no other laws divine.
Whosoever therefore obeyeth his Christian sovereign, is not thereby hindered, neither from believing, nor from obeying God. But suppose that a Christian king should from this foundation _Jesus is the Christ_, draw some false consequences, that is to say, make some superstructions of hay or stubble, and command the teaching of the same; yet seeing St.
Paul says he shall be saved; much more shall he be saved, that teacheth them by his command; and much more yet, he that teaches not, but only believes his lawful teacher. And in case a subject be forbidden by the civil sovereign to profess some of those his opinions, upon what just ground can he disobey? Christian kings may err in deducing a consequence, but who shall judge? Shall a private man judge, when the question is of his own obedience? Or shall any man judge but he that is appointed thereto by the Church, that is, by the civil sovereign that representeth it? Or if the pope, or an apostle judge, may he not err in deducing of a consequence? Did not one of the two, St. Peter or St.
Paul, err in a superstructure, when St. Paul withstood St. Peter to his face? There can therefore be no contradiction between the laws of God, and the laws of a Christian commonwealth.
[Sidenote: Or infidel.]
And when the civil sovereign is an infidel, every one of his own subjects that resisteth him, sinneth against the laws of God, (for such are the laws of nature), and rejecteth the counsel of the apostles, that admonisheth all Christians to obey their princes, and all children and servants to obey their parents and masters in all things. And for their _faith_, it is internal, and invisible; they have the license that Naaman had, and need not put themselves into danger for it. But if they do, they ought to expect their reward in heaven, and not complain of their lawful sovereign; much less make war upon him. For he that is not glad of any just occasion of martyrdom, has not the faith he professeth, but pretends it only, to set some colour upon his own contumacy. But what infidel king is so unreasonable, as knowing he has a subject, that waiteth for the second coming of Christ, after the present world shall be burnt, and intendeth then to obey him, (which is the intent of believing that Jesus is the Christ,) and in the mean time thinketh himself bound to obey the laws of that infidel king, (which all Christians are obliged in conscience to do), to put to death or to persecute such a subject?
[Sidenote: Conclusion.]
And thus much shall suffice, concerning the kingdom of God, and policy ecclesiastical. Wherein I pretend not to advance any position of my own, but only to show what are the consequences that seem to me deducible from the principles of Christian politics, (which are the holy Scriptures,) in confirmation of the power of civil sovereigns, and the duty of their subjects. And in the allegation of Scripture, I have endeavoured to avoid such texts as are of obscure or controverted interpretation; and to allege none, but in such sense as is most plain, and agreeable to the harmony and scope of the whole Bible; which was written for the re-establishment of the kingdom of God in Christ. For it is not the bare words, but the scope of the writer, that giveth the true light, by which any writing is to be interpreted; and they that insist upon single texts, without considering the main design, can derive nothing from them clearly; but rather by casting atoms of Scripture, as dust before men’s eyes, make every thing more obscure than it is; an ordinary artifice of those that seek not the truth, but their own advantage.
PART IV.
OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS.
------- CHAPTER XLIV.
OF SPIRITUAL DARKNESS, FROM MISINTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE.
[Sidenote: The kingdom of Darkness, what.]
Besides these sovereign powers, _divine_, and _human_, of which I have hitherto discoursed, there is mention in Scripture of another power, namely, (_Eph._ vi. 12) that of _the rulers of the darkness of this _the principality of Beelzebub over demons_, that is to say, over phantasms that appear in the air: for which cause Satan is also called, (_Eph._ ii. 2) _the prince of the power of the air_; and, because he ruleth in the darkness of this world, (_John_ xvi. 11) _the prince of this world_: and in consequence hereunto, they who are under his dominion, in opposition to the faithful, (who are the _children of the light_,) are called the _children of darkness_. For seeing Beelzebub is prince of phantasms, inhabitants of his dominion of air and darkness, the children of darkness, and these demons, phantasms, or spirits of illusion, signify allegorically the same thing. This considered, the kingdom of darkness, as it is set forth in these and other places of the Scripture, is nothing else but a _confederacy of deceivers, that to obtain dominion over men in this present world, endeavour by dark and erroneous doctrines, to extinguish in them the light, both of nature, and of the gospel; and so to disprepare them for the kingdom of God to come_.
[Sidenote: The Church not yet fully freed of darkness.]
As men that are utterly deprived from their nativity, of the light of the bodily eye, have no idea at all of any such light; and no man conceives in his imagination any greater light, than he hath at some time or other perceived by his outward senses: so also is it of the light of the gospel, and of the light of the understanding, that no man can conceive there is any greater degree of it, than that which he hath already attained unto. And from hence it comes to pass, that men have no other means to acknowledge their own darkness, but only by reasoning from the unforeseen mischances, that befall them in their ways. The darkest part of the kingdom of Satan, is that which is without the Church of God; that is to say, amongst them that believe not in Jesus Christ. But we cannot say, that therefore the Church enjoyeth, as the land of Goshen, all the light, which to the performance of the work enjoined us by God, is necessary. Whence comes it, that in Christendom there has been, almost from the time of the Apostles, such justling of one another out of their places, both by foreign and civil war; such stumbling at every little asperity of their own fortune, and every little eminence of that of other men; and such diversity of ways in running to the same mark, _felicity_, if it be not night amongst us, or at least a mist? We are therefore yet in the dark.
[Sidenote: Four causes of spiritual darkness.]
The enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance, and sown the tares of spiritual errors; and that, first, by abusing, and putting out the light of the Scriptures: for we err, not knowing the Scriptures.
Secondly, by introducing the demonology of the heathen poets, that is to say, their fabulous doctrine concerning demons, which are but idols, or phantasms of the brain, without any real nature of their own, distinct from human fancy; such as are dead men’s ghosts, and fairies, and other matter of old wives’ tales. Thirdly, by mixing with the Scripture divers relics of the religion, and much of the vain and erroneous philosophy, of the Greeks, especially of Aristotle. Fourthly, by mingling with both these, false, or uncertain traditions, and feigned, or uncertain history. And so we come to err, _by giving heed to seducing spirits_, and the demonology of such _as speak lies in hypocrisy_; or as it is in the original, (_1 Tim._ iv. 1, 2) _of those that play the part of liars, with a seared conscience_, that is, contrary to their own knowledge.
Concerning the first of these, which is the seducing of men by abuse of Scripture, I intend to speak briefly in this chapter.
[Sidenote: Errors from misinterpreting the Scriptures, concerning the kingdom of God:] The greatest and main abuse of Scripture, and to which almost all the rest are either consequent or subservient, is the wresting of it, to prove that the kingdom of God, mentioned so often in the Scripture, is the present Church, or multitude of Christian men now living, or that being dead, are to rise again at the last day: whereas the kingdom of God was first instituted by the ministry of Moses, over the Jews only; who were therefore called his peculiar people; and ceased afterward, in the election of Saul, when they refused to be governed by God any more, and demanded a king after the manner of the nations; which God himself consented unto, as I have more at large proved before in chapter XXXV.
After that time, there was no other kingdom of God in the world, by any pact, or otherwise, than he ever was, is, and shall be king of all men, and of all creatures, as governing according to his will, by his infinite power. Nevertheless, he promised by his prophets to restore this his government to them again, when the time he hath in his secret counsel appointed for it shall be fully come, and when they shall turn unto him by repentance and amendment of life. And not only so, but he invited the Gentiles to come in, and enjoy the happiness of his reign, on the same conditions of conversion and repentance; and he promised also to send his Son into the world, to expiate the sins of them all by his death, and to prepare them by his doctrine, to receive him at his second coming. Which second coming not yet being, the kingdom of God is not yet come, and we are not now under any other kings by pact, but our civil sovereigns; saving only, that Christian men are already in the kingdom of grace, in as much as they have already the promise of being received at his coming again.
[Sidenote: As that the kingdom of God is the present Church] Consequent to this error, that the present Church is Christ’s kingdom, there ought to be some one man, or assembly, by whose mouth our Saviour, now in heaven, speaketh, giveth law, and which representeth his person to all Christians; or divers men, or divers assemblies that do the same to divers parts of Christendom. This power regal under Christ, being challenged, universally by the Pope, and in particular commonwealths by assemblies of the pastors of the place, (when the Scripture gives it to none but to civil sovereigns,) comes to be so passionately disputed, that it putteth out the light of nature, and causeth so great a darkness in men’s understanding, that they see not who it is to whom they have engaged their obedience.
[Sidenote: And that the Pope is his vicar general:] Consequent to this claim of the Pope to be vicar-general of Christ in the present 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 gratia_ in his title; and that then only he is made king by the favour of God, when he is crowned by the authority of God’s universal vicegerent on earth; and that every bishop, whosoever be his sovereign, taketh at his consecration an oath of absolute obedience to the Pope. Consequent to the same, is the doctrine of the fourth Council of Lateran, held under Pope Innocent the Third, (chap. III. _De Hereticis_), _that if a king at the Pope’s admonition, do not purge his kingdom of heresies, and being excommunicate for the same, do not give satisfaction within a year, his subjects are absolved of the bond of their obedience_. Where, by heresies 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 political designs 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 lawful prince, from him whom they had themselves placed there; and in this darkness of mind, are made to fight one against another, without discerning their enemies from their friends, under the conduct of another man’s ambition.
[Sidenote: And that the pastors are the clergy.]
From the same opinion, that the present Church is the kingdom of God, it proceeds that pastors, 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 himself during his reign over the Israelites, assigned to the tribe of Levi, (who were to be his public 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 realm of Israel, the kingdom of God, challenging to himself and his subordinate ministers, the like revenue, as the inheritance of God, the name of clergy was suitable to that claim. And thence it is, that tithes, and other tributes paid to the Levites, as God’s right, amongst the Israelites, have a long time been demanded, and taken of Christians, by ecclesiastics, _jure divino_, that is, in God’s right. By which means, 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 public charges: for he demanded no more but the twentieth part, and yet abundantly maintained therewith the commonwealth. And in the kingdom of the Jews, during the sacerdotal reign of God, the tithes and offerings were the whole public revenue.
[Sidenote: And that the pastors are the clergy.]
From the same mistaking of the present Church for the kingdom of God, came in the distinction between the _civil_ and the _canon_ laws: the civil law being the acts of _sovereigns_ in their own dominions, and the canon law being the acts of the _Pope_ in the same dominion. 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 Charlemagne; yet afterwards, as the power of the Pope increased, became _rules commanded_, and the emperors themselves, to avoid greater mischiefs, which the people blinded might be led into, were forced to let them pass for laws.
From hence it is, that in all dominions where the Pope’s ecclesiastical power is entirely received, Jews, Turks, and Gentiles, are in the Roman Church tolerated in their religion, as far forth, as in the exercise and profession thereof they offend not against the civil power: whereas in a Christian, though a stranger, not to be of the Roman religion, is capital; 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 own country, as an infidel; 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 certain men, that are exempt, by ecclesiastical 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 war the Church militant should employ them in, against their own, or other princes.
[Sidenote: Error from mistaking consecration for conjuration.]
A second general 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 sanctify, or make it God’s, and to be used only by those, whom God hath appointed to be his public ministers, (as I have already proved at large in the XXXVth chapter,) and thereby to change, not the thing consecrated, but only the use of it, from being profane and common, to be holy, and peculiar to God’s service. But when by such words, the nature or quality of the thing itself, is pretended to be changed, it is not consecration, but either an extraordinary work of God, or a vain 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 believe an alteration of nature that is not, contrary to the testimony of man’s sight, and of all the rest of his senses. As for example, when the priest, instead of consecrating bread and wine to God’s peculiar service in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, (which is but a separation of it from the common use, to signify, that is, to put men in mind of their redemption, by the passion of Christ, whose body was broken, and blood shed upon the cross 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 blood, are thought but to have deluded the senses of the spectators, by a false show of things, yet are esteemed enchanters. But what should we have thought of them, if there had appeared in their rods nothing like a serpent, and in the water enchanted, nothing like blood, nor like any