WHat the danger of the Law is , for refusing this Oath , hath beene sufficiently opened by my Lords the Iudges ; and the qualitie and quantitie of that offence hath been aggravated to the full by those that have spoken after them . The part which is most proper for me to deale in , is the information of the Conscience , touching the truth and equitie of the matters contained in the Oath : which I also have made choice the rather to insist upon , because both the forme of the Oath it selfe requireth herein a full resolution of the conscience ( as appeareth by those words in the very beginning thereof ; I doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience , &c. ) and the persons that stand here to be censured for refusing the same , have alledged nothing in their owne defence but only the simple plea of Ignorance .

That this point therefore may bee cleared , and all needlesse scruples removed out of mens minds : two maine branches there bee of this Oath , which require speciall consideration . The one positive : acknowledging the Supremacy of the governement of these Realmes , in all causes whatsoever , to rest in the Kings Highnesse onely . The other negative : renouncing all iurisdictions and authorities of any forreine Prince or Prelate within his Maiesties dominions .

For the better understanding of the former , we are in the first place to call unto our remembrance that exhortation of St. Peter . a a 1 Per. 2. 13 , 14. Submit your selves unto every ordinance of man for the Lords sake : whether it bee unto the King , as having the preheminence ; or unto Governours , as unto them that are sent by him , for the punishment of evill doers , and for the praise of them that doe well . By this we are taught to respect the King , not as the only governour of his dominions simply ( for wee see there bee other Governours placed under him ) but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as him that excelleth , and hath the preeminence over the rest , that is to say , ( according to the tenure of the Oath ) as him that is the onely supreme Governour of his Realmes . Vpon which ground we may safely build this conclusion ; that whatsoever power is incident unto the King by vertue of his place , must be acknowledged to be in him supreme : there being nothing so contrary to the nature of Soveraigntie , as to have another superiour power to over-rule it .

Qui Rex est , Regem ( Maxime ) non habeat .

In the second place wee are to consider , that God for the better settling of piety and honesty among men , and the repressing of prophanenesse and other vices , hath established two distinct powers upon earth : the one of the Keyes , committed to the Church ; the other of the Sword , committed to the Civill Magistrate . That of the Keyes is ordained to worke upon the inner man ; having immediate relation to the b b Iohn 20. 23. remitting or retaining of sins . That of the Sword is appointed to work upon the outward man ; yeelding protection to the obedient , and inflicting externall punishment upon the rebellious and disobedient . By the former , the spirituall officers of the Church of Christ are inabled to c c ● . Tim. 5. 17. governe well , to d d Tit. 2. 15. speak and exhort and rebuke with all authoritie , to e e Matth. 16. 19. & 18. 18. loose such as are penitent , to commit others unto the Lords prison , untill their amendment , or to binde them over unto the iudgment of the great day , if they shal persist in their wilfulnesse and obstinacie . By the other , Princes have an imperious power assigned by God unto them , for the defence of such as doe well , and executing f f Rom. 13. 4. revenge and wrath upon such as doe evill ; whether g g Ezra 7. 26. by death , or banishment , or confiscation of goods , or imprisonment , according to the qualitie of the offence .

When St. Peter , that had the Keyes committed unto him , made bold to draw the Sword ; he was commanded to h h Matt. 26. 52. put it up , as a weapon that he had no authoritie to meddle withall . And on the other side , when Vzziah the King would venture upon the execution of the Priests office , it was said unto him ; i i 2. Chr. 26. 18. It pertaineth not unto thee , Uzziah , to burn incense unto the Lord , but to the Priests the sons of Aaron , that are consecrated to burne incense . Let this therefore be our second conclusion : that the power of the Sword and of the Keyes are two distinct ordinances of God ; and that the Prince hath no more authoritie to enter upon the execution of any part of the Priests function , than the Priest hath to intrude upon any part of the office of the Prince .

In the third place we are to observe , that the power of the civill sword , ( the supreme managing wherof belongeth to the King alone ) is not to bee restrained unto temporall causes only ; but is by Gods ordinance to be extended likewise unto all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things and causes . that as the spirituall Rulers of the Church doe exercise their kinde of governement , in bringing men unto obedience , not of the duties of the first Table alone ( which concerneth piety and the religious service which man is bound to performe unto his Creator ) but also of the second ( which respecteth morall honesty , and the offices that man doth owe unto man : ) so the civill Magistrate is to use his authority also in redressing the abuses committed against the first Table , aswell as against the second , that is to say , aswell in punishing of an heretick , or an idolater , or a blasphemer , as of a thiefe , or a murtherer , or a traytor ; and in providing by all good meanes , that such as live under his government k k 1 Tim. 2. 2. may leade a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and honesty .

And howsoever by this meanes we make both Prince and Priest to bee in their severall places Custodes utriusque tabulae , Keepers of both Gods tables : yet do we not hereby any way confound both of their offices together . for though the matter wherein their government is exercised may be the same ; yet is the forme and manner of governing therein alwaies different . the one reaching to the outward man onely , the other to the inward : the one binding or loosing the soule , the other laying hold on the body and the things belonging thereunto : the one having speciall reference to the iudgement of the world to come , the other respecting the present retaining or loosing of some of the comforts of this life .

That there is such a * * As on the other side , that a spirituall or ecc●esiasticall government is exercised in causes civill or temporall . For is not Excommunication a maine part of Ecclesiasticall government , and Forest lawes a speciall branch of causes Temporall ? yet we see in Sententiâ latâ super chartas , anno 12. R. H. ; that the Bishops of England pronounce a solemne sentence of Excommunication against the infringers of the liberties contained in chartâ de Forestâ . civill government as this in causes spirituall or Ecclesiasticall , no man of iudgement can deny . For must not Heresie ( for example ) bee acknowledged to be a cause meerly spirituall or Ecclesiasticall ? and yet by what power is an Hereticke put to death ? The officers of the Church have no authority to take away the life of any man : it must be done therefore per brachium seculare ; and consequently it must bee yeelded without contradiction , that the temporall Magistrate doth exercise therein a part of his civill government , in punishing a crime that is of it owne nature spirituall or Ecclesiasticall .

But here it will be said . The words of the Oath being generall ; that the King is the only supreme governour of this Realme and of all other his highnesse dominions and countries : how may it appeare that the power of the civill sword only is meant by that government , and that the power of the Keyes is not comprehended therein ? I answere : first , that where a civill Magistrate is affirmed to bee the governour of his owne dominions and countryes ; by common intendement this must needs be understood of a civill governement , and may in no reason be extended to that which is meerely of another kinde . Secondly I say , that where an ambiguitie is conceived to bee in any part of an Oath ; it ought to bee taken according to the understanding of him for whose satisfaction the Oath was ministred . Now in this case it hath been sufficiently declared by publick authority , that no other thing is meant by the governement here mentioned ; but that of the civill sword onely .

For in the booke of Articles agreed upon by the Archbishops & Bishops & the whole Clergie in the Convocation holden at London anno 1562. thus we read . Where we attribute to the Queenes Majesty the chiefe government , ( by which titles wee understand the minds of some slanderous folkes to be offended : ) we give not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments ( the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queene doth most plainly testifie : ) but that onely prerogative which we see to have beene given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himselfe , that is , that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their Charge by God , whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall , and restraine with the Civill sword the stubborne and evill doers .

If it be here objected that the authority of the Convocation is not a sufficient ground for the exposition of that which was enacted in Parliament : I answer , that these Articles stand confirmed not onely by the Royall assent of the Prince , ( for the establishing of whose Supremacy the Oath was framed ) but also by a speciall Act of Parliament ; which is to be found among the statutes in the thirteenth yeare of Queene Elizabeth , chap. 12. Seeing therfore the makers of the Law have full authority to expound the Law ; and they have sufficiently manifested , that by the supreme government given to the Prince they understand that kind of government only which is exercised with the Civill sword : I conclude , that nothing can be more plaine than this ; that without all scruple of conscience , the Kings Majesty may be acknowledged in this sense to bee the only supreme governour of all his Highnesse dominions and countries , as well in all spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as temporall . And so have I cleered the first maine branch of the Oath .

I come now unto the second ; which is propounded negatively : that no forrein Prince , Person , Prelate , State or Potentate , hath or ought to have any jurisdiction , power , superiority , preheminence or authority , Ecclesiasticall or spirituall within this Realme . The forreiner that challengeth this Ecclesiasticall or spirituall jurisdiction over us , is the Bishop of Rome : and the title whereby he claimeth this power over us , is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole world ; because he is S. Peters successor , forsooth . And indeed , if S. Peter himselfe had beene now alive , I should freely confesse , that hee ought to have spirituall authoritie and superioritie within this kingdome . But so would I say also , if S. Andrew , S. Bartholmew , S. Thomas , or any of the other Apostles had beene alive . For I know that their commission was verie large ; to l l Mark . 16. 15. goe into all the world , and to preach the Gospel unto every creature . so that in what part of the world soever they lived , they could not bee said to be out of their charge ; their Apostleship being a kind of an Universall Bishoprick . If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himselfe to bee one of this ranke : the Oath must be amended ; and wee must acknowledge that hee hath Ecclesiasticall authoritie within this Realme .

True it is , that our Lawyers in their Year-bookes by the name of the Apostle do usually designe the Pope . But if they had examined his title to that Apostleship , as they would try an ordinary mans title to a piece of land : they might easily have found a number of flawes and maine defects therein . For first it would be enquired , whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a speciall Commission ; which being personall onely , was to determine with the death of the first Apostles . For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this commission , we finde that m m Acts 1. 25 , 26. Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the roome of Iudas : yet afterwards when Iames the brother of Iohn was slaine by Herod , wee doe not reade that any other was substituted in his place . Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no successors in this kinde : neither did any of the Bishops ( he of Rome only excepted ) that sate in those famous Churches , wherein the Apostles exercised their ministery , challenge an Apostleship or an Universall Bishoprick , by vertue of that succession .

It would secondly therefore bee inquired , what sound evidence they can produce , to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleshipp as it were in fee , for him and his successors for ever ; and that the other eleven should hold the same for terme of life only . Thirdly , if this state of perperuity was to be cast upon one : how came it to fall upon S. Peter , rather than upon S. Iohn ; who outlived all the rest of his fellowes , and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retaine the same in himself & his successors for ever ? Fourthly , if that state were wholly settled upon S. Peter : seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome ; we require them to shew , why so great an inheritance as this , should descend unto the yonger brother ( as it were by Burrough-english ) rather than to the elder , ( according to the ordinary manner of descents . ) Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment , but only that S. Peter was crucified in it : which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it . Seeing therfore the grounds of this great claime of the Bishop of Rome appeare to be so vaine and frivolous : I may safely conclude , that he ought to have no Ecclesiasticall or spirituall authority within this Realme ; which is the principall point contained in the second part of the Oath .