THE ALLEGIANCE OF THE CLERGY. A Sermon preached, at the meeting of the whole Clergy of the diocese of Rochester, to take the Oath of Allegiance to his most excellent Majesty, at Greenwich, Novem. 2. 1610.  
By SAMVEL PAGE, Doctor in Divinity.  
LONDON Printed by Nicholas Okes for Simon Waterson, dwelling in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Crown. 1616.   

¶ TO THE MOST Reverend Father in God, my most Honourable good Lord, the Lord Bishop of London.  
MOst reverend, and my honourable good Lord, in these fruitful times wherein so many painful in God's husbandry, do make daily Presents to the Church, of their profitable Labours: I thought myself behinde-hand too much, to sit out so long, without giving some testimony of my equal desire, to advance so good a work. I am too conscious of my insufficiencies, to press in with the first, and I fear to do nothing. These days afford plenty of readers, if plenty of writers overcharge, variety may delight. These my meditations have hope of welcome from the Argument, which is our own loyal Allegiance to his Majesty, who are the Preachers of Loyalty to our People: and from your Honourable protection and countenance, to whom the Church of God here owes many acknowledgements of honourable service by you performed to her, & to whom I best know how much myself in particulars do stand obliged. I pray God for the increase of his best blessings, on you and yours, and rest wishing your Lordsh:  
S. P.   

THE ALLEGIANCE OF THE CLERGY. The first Sermon.  ROME 13.2. 
And they that resist, shall receive to themselves judgement.  
GOD is a God of Order, against the anabaptistical doctrine of Anarchy; and confusion: he hath made men on earth, as he hath distinguished the stars in the firmament, one star differing from another in glory: he hath taken the advancement of men into his own hands: his wisdom saith, By me Princes reign, Pro. 8.15. and David saith, Preferment cometh not from the Est, etc. he confesseth that God's hand is in that work, as Paul in this chap. saith, the powers that be, are ordained of God. The Relative to these Powers, is Submission; Extent of this Submission, omnis anima, every Soul. I think Saint Paul preventingly, and by prophetical spirit, provided in this caution against all Aequinocators and Mentalists, who are ready to tender their Sovereign's some outward and formal Submission, without the Soul, and inward affection, therefore he saith, Let every soul submit.  
The foundation of this Law of Loyalty, is laid in the conscience of a Christian man, not because of wrath only, but for conscience sake. The illation following on the premises, is my Text. The proposition whereof is indefinite, & equivalent to an universal; They that resist, all they shall receive judgement. If any ask, what is the Extent of this power, which God giveth to his anointed servants the Kings & Princes of the earth; let them learn of Israel, who tendered this Allegiance to joshua:  
All that thou hast commanded us, we will do, and whither-soever thou sendest us, we will go: as we obeyed Moses in all things, so will we obey thee: only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses, Josh. 1.16.17. So far then, as GOD is with our Princes, and that their commands, be no prejudice to the superior ordinances of God: every soul doth owe them submission, and must swear them their obedience: for whatsoever the person of the Prince is, the power is of God: even pilate's power is of God, though he armed it against Christ, by our saviours own testimony, john 19 11. saying, Thou couldst have no power against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore Christ submitted himself to that power, even he that could say, To me is given all power in heaven and in earth, Matt. 28.18.  
Our gracious, sovereign King, reading in the bloody practices of his rebel-Popish-subiects, the danger of his own royal person, & of his hopeful posterity, hath with the most honourable Parliament devised a shibboleth, even this oath of Allegiance (which is how tendered to us of his Clergy of this Diocese) to distinguish betwixt his Israelites and his Ephraimites, between his faithful, loving, and peaceable Protestants, and the tumultuous, factious, and Popish Incendiaries, who desire to see our jerusalem turned to dust and ashes. This Oath will show him who hath most disciples in his kingdom: this Paul our Apostle that taught the Romans, omnis anima, let every soul submit; or Paul the fifth that now teacheth the Romans, and all his Romish Catholics, the Contradictory to his doctrine. Non omnis anima, let not every soul be so obliged. I wonder at Burgese of Rome, that being so opposite to Saint Paul, he would usurp his name, at his investiture in the Papacy, except he meant to set Paul against Palu, Romans against Romans, his Breves against Saint Paul's Epistles; our Apostle cast off a name upon his conversion, that would become his Holiness of Rome much better.  
But concerning the power of Secular Princes, by this Paul the fifth, and his usurping Predecessors strangely restrained to make their peace with S. Paul, they do thus understand my Text; They that resist; that is, They of the Laity that resist: for saith their Gloss, Ecclesiastical persons, and Ecclesiastical causes are exempt.  
The quarrel is well known between the Pope, and the State of Venice, for their judicial process pursued to the execution, and death of a soul malefactor of their Clergy, and the Pope (if he had been strong enough to revenge such a quarrel) would have made it known much better. Therefore it concerneth his most excellent Majesty, to understand how his Clergy affect his government, and what subjection and Allegiance they will perform to him: which shall discover, whether we follow the example of the old Romans, who in their purer, and Primitive times gave unto Caesar that which was Caesar's, or whether we resist with the late Roman Catholics, turning Caesar all into Name, and divesting him of all his Royalties.  
Saint Bernard epist. 42. to the Archbishop of Senona urgeth that place of Saint Paul, omnis anima, Let every soul be subject: thus, Si omnis, & vestra, quis vos excipit ab universitate? Si quis tentat excipere, conatur decipere. If every soul must be subject, then yours, that is, those persons who are Ecclesiastical: who excepteth you when he nameth All? he that assays to except you (of the Church) goeth about to deceive you.  
Therefore to sort this Preface to the occasion, and to the present hearing more properly, I learn of S. Bernard thus to limit to myself; they of the Clergy, Ecclesiastical persons, that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation. And herein we have our high Priest for an example, of whom S. Bernard saith, Conditor Caesaris non cunctatus est reddere censum Caesari, exemplum enim dedit vobis, ut & vos ita faciatis. He that made Caesar, paid tribute to Caesar, for therein he gave ensample to you, (to you of the Clergy) that you should also do the like: thus did Saint Bernard teach, who flourished eleven hundred years after Christ.  
Origen interpreting this Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans, upon this Chapter lib. 9 giveth a reason, why the Apostle in an Epistle to the Brethren in Antiochia, Syria, and Cilicia, Acts 15.29 doth only admonish them to abstain from things sacrificed to Idols, from the strangled, and from blood, not adding any prohibition of adultery, murder, theft, etc. Superfluum videbatur, ea divina lege prohibere, quae sufficienter humana lege plectuntur: It seemed to him more than needed by divine decrees to inhibit those things which human laws did sufficiently punish. His collection from hence is very notable, and sorteth with my present Argument: Ex quo apparet, judices mundi partem maximam Dei legis implere, omnia enim crimina quae vindicari vult Deus, non per antistites, & principes Ecclesiarum, sed per mundi judices voluit vindicari. Hence it appeareth, that the Secular judges do fulfil the greatest part of the Law of GOD; for all crimes which GOD will have punished, he referreth to the vindication of these, and not of the Prelates, and chief Priests in his Church. And herein he hath met with the Church of Rome, in an evasion learned of the Donatists, and detected, and despised by Saint Augustine, contra Parmenianum Donatistam Episcopum. libr. 1. saying; Nisi fort (quemadmodum nonnulli eorum sane imperitissimi intelligere solent) de honoribus Ecclesiasticis dictum esse velint, ut gladius intelligatur vindicta spiritualis: cum providentissimus Apostolus satis aperiat; quid loquatur, dicens, propter hoc tributa praestatis. Unless perchance (as some most foolishly are wont to interpret these words) they would understand Saint Paul, as speaking of Ecclesiastical powers, that by the Sword is meant Excommunication: whereas the Apostle wisely provided, to prevent any such interpretation, and expresseth himself plainly, when he saith, For this cause pay you tribute, and Tribute is not due but to Secular powers.  
And Saint Ambrose maketh good this interpretation Tom. 5. upon this place, saying; Principes hos reges dicit, qui propter corrigendam vitam, & prohibenda adversa creantur, Dei habentes imaginem, ut sub uno sint caeteri. The Apostle Paul in this place meaneth Kings, who are created for the correction of men's lives, and the defending of them from adversity, bearing the Image of God, that one should sit above the rest.  
And Theophilact (as for the most part he doth) followeth Saint Chrysostome, in the interpretation of this Text, saying; Vniversos erudit, sive Sacerdos sit ille, sive Monachus, sive Apostolus, ut se principibus subdant.  
He teacheth all sorts of men, whether he be Priest, Monk, or Apostle, he must submit himself to his Sovereign Prince. And the holy Apostle Saint Peter whom the Roman Usurpers boast to succeed, taught the same general doctrine, 1. Pet. 2.13. etc. Submit yourselves to all manner ordinance of man, for the Lords sake, whether to the King as superior, or unto governors as sent of him, etc. for so is the will of God.  
Saint Gregory the great who sat Bishop of Rome six hundred years after our Lord and Saviour Christ, knew no other, nor taught none other doctrine: for hereof, his Epistles give good witness.  
Mauritius the Emperor had made a Decree, That no old Soldiers should be admitted or received into any of the Monasteries, because he perceived that many of them used this as a shift to shun and escape from going to the wars, and he was thereby likely to be the worse served: such power had that Christian Emperor to decree in matters concerning the Church, and Gregory then Bishop of Rome, grieved at this constitution of the Emperor, did not convent the Emperor to his Consistory, drew not out against him the sword of Excommunication, did not menace him with interdiction, deprivation, or any other show of Papal jurisdiction, but as an humble and dutiful subject, addressed to him his earnest petition, by an Epistle, wherein he pleadeth for the Church, and as if it became him ill to contest with his Sovereign, he bringeth in Christ jesus, thus expostulating with him. Ego te de notario comitem excubitorum, de comite Caesarem de Caesare imperatorem, & patrem imperatorum feci: In a word, I have advanced thee from low to high degree; Sacerdotes meos tuae manni commisi. I have given thee charge and government of my Priests, Registr. lib. 3. epist. 61.  
And to make his suit more possible, he wrote an earnest Letter to Theodorus the emperors Physician, to entreat him, who might best choose an opportune time, to solicit this request, in which he complaineth, saying; Epist. 64. Valde mihi durum videtur, ut ab eius seruitio milites prohibeat, qui dominari illum, non solum militibus, sed etiam Sacerdotibus concessit. It seemeth hard to me, that he whom God hath made to rule, not only Soldiers, but Priests also, should restrain Soldiers from doing service to that GOD: So making Theodorus his competitor to the Emperor, for repeal of that Law.  
But this Gregory the first of that name, was so far from the present Antichristian pride of his successor, as that he would not suffer the Title of Ecumenical Bishop to be put upon him; herein following Pelagius his most worthy predecessor. He writ an angry reprehension to Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria, for styling him Universal Bishop, in an Epistle sent to him: And when john Patriarch of Constantinople, had usurped that title, he wrote to him to rebuke him for it. And to Mauritius the Emperor, whose love to him and the Church could have afforded him so honourable a title, he said, whosoever assumeth to himself, or admitteth of any such title, Elatione sua Antichristum praecurrit, he doth forerun Antichrist in his pride. He calleth that title, Ne fandum, stultum, superbum vocabulum, a wicked, foolish, and proud title. He saith that the counsel of Chalcedon offered it to his predecessors, to be so styled, sed tamen nullus sibi hoc temerarium nomen arripuit: none of them took this rash and in considerate name upon him.  
He would have stayed the pride of that Roman See at the first: for when in respect of the Empire seated at Rome, the chamber of that great Monarchy, there was given the first place in Counsels to the Bishop of Rome: the next ambition was to be chief Bishop: and then to be universal over all the Church, as heart saith, the Pope cannot be non resident, for all the world is his Diocese. and what was then left, but to intrude upon the rights of temporal Princes, as in succeeding times they did, and at this day do? But we hear God promising, Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and Queens thy nurses; not Bishops, not Popes, and Prelates, Esay 49.23. Two proofs let me but name, because we have them fully pressed by most learned and judicious Divines, which express the power of Princes over the Church.  
First, their invention of general Counsels, so Pighius himself confesseth, Constantinus primus auth●r fuit convocandi generalia consilia: Constantine was the first who devised to assemble general Counsels, but the power hereof was by GOD himself given to Moses, to whom he committed the making and using of the two silver Trumpets, and from him derived to all Princes and States imperial. And the Church story since Christ maketh it plain, how Emperors and Kings in their several dominions, have both called Counsels, and sat Precedents, to order the meeting, to censure and punish offenders, to keep them to the point that would digress, and in their absence to depute secular judges in their places, and at last to dissolve their meeting at their pleasure. Yea sometimes the great Bishop of Rome hath made request to the Emperor, as Leo for example, for the calling a Counsel in Italy, and prevailed not. And lastly, the Canons of Counsels were by the imperial power ratified, and without that sovereign approbation had no strength.  
Secondly, for Appeals, the Princes have been in the Church, the end of them all, even in causes Ecclesiastical. More, Socrates reporteth libr. 5. cap. 10. That many Bishops differing in judgement, concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity, Theodosius the Emperor convented them before himself, he took the several Copies of their Doctrines; and praying first to God to assist him, in that holy business, that he might choose and maintain his truth against all heretical opinions: after mature advice, he resolved upon the truth of Doctrine, and in the presence of all the Assembly, he tore in pieces all the rest: and this truth he did not measure by the depth of his own judgement, but by comparison with that Canon of Faith, which both holy Scriptures, and former Counsels had sufficiently maintained. And this was in a matter merely Ecclesiastical. And for Ecclesiastical persons; the law of Appeals in our Land, when Popery passed for true religion, in the reign of King Henry the second, had this Process, from the Archdeacon, to the Bishop of the Diocese, from the Bishop of the Diocese to the Archbishop of the Province, and from him to the King, which was the final hearing and determination, beyond which there was no further provocation, but to leave all to God. Therefore we determine, that our Causes and our Persons are all vassals, and subject to our Sovereigns; and the immunities and liberties which we possess, we hold them of the indulgence, and gracious favour of our most worthy, and loving Princes, and our Solomon, our Ecclesiastes requireth of his Clergy, no undue obedience, that the judgement remaineth most just. They that resist (even of the Clergy) shall receive unto themselves damnation.  
They resist this power, who refuse this Oath of Loyalty to his most excellent Majesty, as all Popish Recusants do, who set up a demi-god, as Bellarmine his Parasite fawneth, and feigneth, De Pontif. 5.6. qui potest mutare, confer, & auferre principibus regna: who hath power to change, to give, and take away Kingdoms from Princes.  
Our Sovereign doth not set up an Inquisition, to find out Papists, as Rome doth to discover Protestants: he doth not make bare suspicion quarrel enough to apprehend, convent, imprison, rack, and torture men, to force them to selfe-accusation: he only deviseth to know sheep from goats, loyal subjects from heretical rebels; he is the Image of that King of whom we read, Matt. 21.5. Ecce, rextuus venit tibi mansuetus: Thy King cometh to thee meek, and gracious. It is the glory of a King to pass by an offence. How many Princes of the earth would have put up such an attempt as the Gunpowder treason was, with such patience? Might not Christian Princes have thought his anger just, if it had drawn his Sword against all of that Religion, till none of them had been left, and it had been no more than the equity of my Text, for they that resist must receive judgement here, by just Magistrates, who bear not the Sword in vain, and hereafter damnation, by the Sentence of the great judge of Quick and Dead. The Israelites thought this Sentence just; for thus they say to joshua; 
joshua 1.18.  Whosoever will rebel against thy Commandments, let him be put to death: And God gave a fearful example hereof in the rebellion of Corah. The reason is given by the Almighty himself in this case of opposition to sovereign dominion, why he taketh it so to heart: For he said to Samuel, They have not cast thee away, but they have cast me away, that I should not reign over them. 
1. Sam. 8.7.   
In these cases of resisting, GOD is most sensible, for his own Sceptre of Rule is touched in them: For by me Princes reign, saith his Wisdom. Therefore the usurping pride of Rome, struggling and wrestling with the Holy one of Israel for the Sceptre of Regiment, may now look, that the censure of Saint Gregory the Great than Bishop, given upon the Patriarch of constantinople's ambition of the name of Ecumenical, may turn into a prophesy of these times, and then Elatio tanto citius rumpitur, quanto magis inflatur. And we may all expect the breaking of the head of Leviathan in the great waters. David said, they that hate thee have lifted up the head. Saint Augustine upon that place saith, Nec capita, sed caput quando eo perventuri sunt, ut etiam illud caput habeant, quod extollitur super omne quod dicitur Deus, & quod colitur, quod Deus interficiet spiritu oris sui: that is, he saith not their heads, but they shall lift up the head, seeing they shall come to that pass, that they shall have that head which is lifted up above all that is called God, or is worshipped, which GOD shall destroy with the breath of his mouth.  
The time of my warning to this place, and the time limited to this short Preface to a long business, are both impatient of prolixity. Let me therefore address my speech to you my reverend Brethren, in the holy Ministry of the word of God, to stir you up, not only to express and approve your own undoubted loyalty to your Sovereign, by your oath publicly given for the same, but further, to employ the uttermost of your wits, and tongues, and pens, to recover so many of our recusant brethren, as are not frozen in their dregs of superstition, but led in blindness, for want of light, to the unity of our Church, and the obedience of our Sovereign: and withal, to stir up the Magistrate to zeal and fervour in the cause of God, to detect, and pursue recusant Papists, and to lay them at the foot of our gracious Lord the King: For Solomon saith right well; A King that sitteth in the throne of judgement, chaseth away all evil with his eye, Prou. 20.8. or if they be so grounded in their disloyalty, that they dread not the power of that Sword which he beareth, and not in vain: if they be so blinded with superstition, that they cannot see in the Majesty of Sovereign government, the ordinance, and Vicegerencle of God. A wise King (as a wise King saith) scattereth the wicked, and maketh the wheel to turn over them: verse 26. Our King hath Wisdom like an Angel of God, to dispute with them, and confute them: Even a divine Sentence is in the mouth of our King, Prover. 16.19. He hath justice like the Deputy of of the most High, to punish them that are obstinate, he hath mercy like the Son of God, to manage justice, with moderation, and to pardon those that offend, not of malicious and precipitate rebellion, but of ignorant and misled oversight. And his search tending to the detection of God's enemies, I wish my Text written by the finger of God's spirit, in the royal heart and hand of our most gracious Lord the King, that all his faithful subjects may read it in his practice; They which resist, shall receive to themselves judgement.  
For, what greater discouragement to our Ministry, than this, to see the bold freedom of recusant Papists, daring to affront our Church, to impugn our doctrine, to despise our Bishops, to scorn our Ministry, and to pronounce; us all damned to the second death without hope of redemption; and all this with such assurance, as if they had no law to contradict them, or no Magistrate to see the law executed upon them. God himself hath written a law against such, in their blood, and let Gods subordinate Deputies on earth from the King that sitteth upon the throne, to the lowest Magistrate trusted with the Sword of justice, lay to heart the speech of God by his Prophet to Ahab, 1. Reg. 20.42. Because thou hast let go out of thy hand, a man whom I appointed to die, thy life shall go for his life. Let this sentence fall upon the King's enemies, and rather than one hair should fall from the head of the Lords anointed for his remissness herein to those whom God hath appointed to die: let his milk-white mercy be died into a crimson tincture of judgement. Exurgat Deus, dissipentur inimici. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered. What their mercy is, the day shall declare it, the fifth of November shall declare it to posterity, their vault, their powder, their bars of iron, their logs, and billets of wood, even all their instruments of sudden and cruel death, which if men should forgot, God would remember, for though men wink and sleep, the holy one of Israel seeth, and God the avenger will arise, and They that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation. The Pope that absolveth others, herein cannot be absolved. Saint Paul hath sealed Paul the fifth, now living & dying in his present Religion, to condemnation: and my Text is sufficient proof, that no Romish Catholic, living and dying in the obedience of the Bishop of Rome, and in disloyal rebellion, and resistance to their lawful Sovereigns, can hope by the revealed will of God to be saved: for his sin is resistance to God's ordinance, which is flat theomachy.  
Let us all therefore be instant and earnest in the maintenance of this truth: our tepidity and lukewarmness in religion maketh us justly tataxed to resemble the church of Laodicea, which is threatened to be cast out of God's mouth. It is the cause of God, it is the cause of jesus Christ, the cause of the Church, the cause of the Commonwealth. It is the cause of the supreme head of the Church and Commonwealth next under jesus Christ, our wise, learned, gracious, and peaceable Solomon. He is neither good Christian, nor good subject, that is not stowe, and confident, in so religious, and loyal a quarrel.  
I presume I have but spoken the thoughts and affections of all my reverend and learned brethren in the holy ministery; and I say no more but Amen. Let God ratify and confirm it: even so be it for jesus Christ his sake: to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit, be given all glory, and power, and dominion, now and evermore. AMEN.  
Laus Deo.