e on all sides
granted to be Laws: if any else can make a Law besides himselfe, all
Common-wealth, and consequently all Peace, and Justice must cease; which
is contrary to all Laws, both Divine and Humane. Nothing therefore can
be drawn from these, or any other places of Scripture, to prove the
Decrees of the Pope, where he has not also the Civill Soveraignty, to be
Laws.
The Question Of Superiority Between The Pope And Other Bishops The last
point hee would prove, is this, "That our Saviour Christ has committed
Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction immediately to none but the Pope." Wherein
he handleth not the Question of Supremacy between the Pope and Christian
Kings, but between the Pope and other Bishops. And first, he sayes it is
agreed, that the Jurisdiction of Bishops, is at least in the generall
De Jure Divino, that is, in the Right of God; for which he alledges S.
Paul, Ephes. 4.11. where hee sayes, that Christ after his Ascension
into heaven, "gave gifts to men, some Apostles, some Prophets, and some
Evangelists, and some Pastors, and some Teachers:" And thence inferres,
they have indeed their Jurisdiction in Gods Right; but will not grant
they have it immediately from God, but derived through the Pope. But if
a man may be said to have his Jurisdiction De Jure Divino, and yet not
immediately; what lawfull Jurisdiction, though but Civill, is there in a
Christian Common-wealth, that is not also De Jure Divino? For Christian
Kings have their Civill Power from God immediately; and the Magistrates
under him exercise their severall charges in vertue of his Commission;
wherein that which they doe, is no lesse De Jure Divino Mediato, than
that which the Bishops doe, in vertue of the Popes Ordination. All
lawfull Power is of God, immediately in the Supreme Governour, and
mediately in those that have Authority under him: So that either hee
must grant every Constable in the State, to hold his Office in the Right
of God; or he must not hold that any Bishop holds his so, besides the
Pope himselfe.
But this whole Dispute, whether Christ left the Jurisdiction to the Pope
onely, or to other Bishops also, if considered out of these places where
the Pope has the Civill Soveraignty, is a contention De Lana Caprina:
For none of them (where they are not Soveraigns) has any Jurisdiction
at all. For Jurisdiction is the Power of hearing and determining Causes
between man and man; and can belong to none, but him that hath the Power
to pres
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