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

and yet I hear that there are some good men at this time, who not well considering what they say, tho they condemn the Pride of the Pope and his Persian State and Magnificence, and his Epicurean Contempt of all Religion, yet they would preserve for all that, his Authority safe and entire; and tho sometimes they confess him to be Antichrist, yet for all that, as soon as he ⟨p. 180⟩ascends that Chair, they do not question but he is the universal Bishop, and the Head of the universal Church of Christ; and here they please themselves, as if the Holy Ghost were necessarily fixed to the Pope Court in the Adrian Mole; but there is a Proverb, that the Place doth not sanctify the Man, but the Man the Place. And St. Jerome, as he is cited by them, saith, they are not the Children of the Saints, who hold their Places, but those who imitate their good Actions; for otherwise, as Christ said, the Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses his Chair, and he commanded his Disciples to acknowledge and submit to their Authority, so far as they answered out of the Word of God. What (saith St. Augustin) hath Christ said more here, than that the Voice of the Shepherd was heard out of the Mouth of a mercenary Servant? for sitting in that Chair, they teach the Law of God, therefore God teacheth by them; but if they will teach their own things, do not hear them, do not do them; for St. Paul saith, Antichrist the Man of Sin shall sit in the Holy Place; and therefore St. Jerome doth well admonish us, thou dost attend St. Peter, but then consider Judas; thou submitest to Stephen, but cast an Eye towards Nicholas as the same time; Church Dignity doth not make a Christian. Thus St. Jerome, and certainly it is said that Marcellinus the Pope did sacrifice to Idols: Pope Liberius was an Arian, Pope John the XXII. was a Heretic, in the point of the immortality of the Soul; Pope John the VIII. was a Woman, and in her Popedom, by a lewd Lust, committed Adultery, and ⟨p. 181⟩in a Procession, in the midst of the Pomp, before the Eyes of the Bishops and Cardinals, she brought forth a Child; and Liranus saith, that many Roman Popes apostized from the Faith of Christ; and therefore we must not trust too much to Places, Successions, and vain Titles of Dignity. The impious Nero was descended from Metellus the Pious, and Annas and Caiaphas succeeded to Aaron, and an Idol hath often been put in the place of God.