The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

19. BUT without the Popes Consent at least (some may think) these things ought not to have been attempted, because he is the Bond that unites the Christ an Society; he is that one Priest whom God means in Deuteronomy, from whom Counsel was to be expected in all difficult Cases, and from whom the Judgment of Truth was to be fetched; and if any man should dare to disobey him, he was to be put to death in the sight of his Brethren; and whatsoever he doth, he can be judged by no mortal Man, that as Christ reigns in Heaven, so he rules on Earth; that be can do whatever Christ or God himself can do; that his Consistory and Christs are one and the same; that without him there is no Faith, no Hope, no Church; that he who forsakes him, rejects his own Salvation. For thus the Canonists the Flatterers of the Pope, write not very modestly of him, for they could scarce say more, and certainly not greater things of Christ himself. As for us, we have not forsaken the Pope for any humane Pleasure or worldly Profit, and we wish passionately, he would behave himself so, that there should be no need of a ⟨p. 133⟩Departure from him; but so it was, except we left him, there was no coming to Christ. Nor will he now enter a League with us upon any other terms than those proposed by Nahash King of Ammon, ¹to the men of Jabeth-gilead, that he may thrust out all our right Eyes; for he will deprive us of the Holy Scriptures, the Gospel of our Salvation, and of all that Hope we have in Christ Jesus, for upon other Conditions no Peace with him can be had.

1. 11 Sam. 11. 2.

20. AND as to that which so many of them accustom themselves to extol so very much, that the Pope only is St. Peters Successor, as if upon that account, he always carried the Holy Ghost in his Bosom, and so could not err; it is an airy and a silly Pretence. The Grace of God is promised to pious Souls, and to those that fear God, and not affixed to Chairs and Successions. Riches (saith St. Jerome) may render one Bishop more powerful than another; but yet all Bishops, what ever they are, are the Successors of the Apostles. But if the Place and Inauguration be it they so much rely on, both Manasseh succeeded David, and Caiaphas, Aaron, and an Idol hath often stood in the House of God. Long since one Archidamus a Lacedaemonian, made a mighty boasting that he was descended from Hercules; one Nicostratus chastised his Insolence, by telling him it did not seem probable that he could be descended from Hercules, because Hercules made it his Business to rid the World of bad Men, but (saith he) you make all the good men you can bad. And when the Pharisees boasted of their Succession and Linage,