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.
Consequent to this claim of the Pope to 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 is he 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 (Chapter 3,De Haereticis),"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."Whereby 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.
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 realms 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 everywhere 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.
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 dominions.Which canons,though they were but canons,that is,rules propounded,and but voluntarily received by Christian princes,till the translation of the Empire to 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,inasmuch 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.
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 Ihave already proved at large in the thirty-fifth 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.