As for some other texts to prove the Pope's power over civil sovereigns (besides those of Bellarmine),as that the two swords that Christ and his Apostles had amongst them were the spiritual and the temporal sword,which they say St.Peter had given him by Christ;and that of the two luminaries,the greater signifies the Pope,and the lesser the king;one might as well infer out of the first verse of the Bible that by heaven is meant the Pope,and by earth the king:which is not arguing from Scripture,but a wanton insulting over princes that came in fashion after the time the popes were grown so secure of their greatness as to contemn all Christian kings;and treading on the necks of emperors,to mock both them and the Scripture,in the words of the ninety-first Psalm,"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder;the young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under thy feet."As for the rites of consecration,though they depend for the most part upon the discretion and judgement of the governors of the Church,and not upon the Scriptures;yet those governors are obliged to such direction as the nature of the action itself requireth;as that the ceremonies,words,gestures be both decent and significant,or at least conformable to the action.When Moses consecrated the tabernacle,the altar,and the vessels belonging to them,he anointed them with the oil which God had commanded to be made for that purpose:and they were holy.There was nothing exorcized,to drive away phantasms.The same Moses (the civil sovereign of Israel),when he consecrated Aaron (the high priest)and his sons,did wash them with water (not exorcized water),put their garments upon them,and anointed them with oil;and they were sanctified,to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office,which was a simple and decent cleansing and adorning them before he presented them to God,to be His servants.
When King Solomon (the civil sovereign of Israel)consecrated the temple he had built,he stood before all the congregation of Israel;and having blessed them,he gave thanks to God for putting into the heart of his father to build it,and for giving to himself the grace to accomplish the same;and then prayed unto Him,first,to accept that house,though it were not suitable to His infinite greatness,and to hear the prayers of His servants that should pray therein,or (if they were absent)towards it;and lastly,he offered a sacrifice of peace offering,and the house was dedicated.Here was no procession;the King stood still in his first place;no exorcized water;no Asperges me,nor other impertinent application of words spoken upon another occasion;but a decent and rational speech,and such as in making to God a present of his new-built house was most conformable to the occasion.
We read not that St.John did exorcize the water of Jordan;nor Philip the water of the river wherein he baptized the eunuch;nor that any pastor in the time of the Apostles did take his spittle and put it to the nose of the person to be baptized,and say,in odorem suavitatis,that is,"for a sweet savour unto the Lord";wherein neither the ceremony of spittle,for the uncleanness;nor the application of that Scripture,for the levity,can by any authority of man be justified.
To prove that the soul,separated from the body,liveth eternally,not only the souls of the elect,by especial grace,and restoration of the eternal life which Adam lost by sin,and our Saviour restored by the sacrifice of himself to the faithful;but also the souls of reprobates,as a property naturally consequent to the essence of mankind,without other grace of God but that which is universally given to all mankind;there are diverse places which at the first sight seem sufficiently to serve the turn:but such as when Icompare them with that which I have before (Chapter thirty-eight)alleged out of the fourteenth of Job seem to me much more subject to a diverse interpretation than the words of Job.
