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The third Chapter. Whether two heads may be in the Church, one visible and another inuisible.
* 1.1 THey doe not (sayeth God vnto Samuel) re∣iect thee but mee. And Gedeon in the Booke of Iudges, when the kingdom was offered vnto him: I (saith he) will not raigne ouer you, but the Lord shall raigne ouer you. Here it may be demanded whether when he was chosen King, God seased to gouerne his peo∣ple, or whether he perseuered to gouerne to∣gether with kings, that there should be one king to be looked vppon, and another that might not be séene? Hereof also ariseth ano∣ther question: For if this be true, why also can there not be two heads in the Church. For if God maie be king together with a vi∣sible king, why maie he not together with a visible head be an inuisible head? But these two questions cannot be resolued both after one maner. As to the first: the rule of a king doeth not exclude the Empire of God: nay rather a king is the minister of God and ex∣ecuteth his office: * 1.2 for God ruleth together with good kings, why then doeth the Lorde saie: They haue not reiected thee, but mee? Wherefore said Gedeon, I will not raigne o∣uer you, but the Lord shall raigne ouer you. These things are therefore said, because the people would innouate the state of the com∣mon weale by God prescribed. For this was to despise God himselfe. For if God described this state of the common weale, why should the same be changed by the people? But yet God did not for that cause depart with his gouernance which he before had ouer the people. On the other part they séemed to re∣iect God, because they went about to change the common weale without the commande∣ment of God. Further God raigneth toge∣ther with good kings, because they no where else receiue the forme of gouerning the com∣mon weale than by the lawe of God. Againe, because they be not onelie carefull that the bodies and goods of subiects should be well prouided for: (For that is the office of a herd∣man and shepheard, not of a king) but that men maie liue rightlie and with vertue and godlinesse. But they be not alwaies godlie, nor they doe not alwaies desire the rule of gouerning by the lawe of God. Whether doeth God raigne also with these mē? These things it behooueth to distinguish wiselie. There is no gouernment so euill, * 1.3 that hath not also manie goods things. Who was euer worse than Nero? yet publike peace was maintained vnder him: there were presi∣dents in the prouinces. The lawe was exe∣cuted. Paul by vsing of Neroes name, * 1.4 brought to passe, that he was not deliuered to the will of the Iewes. When he was to be beaten with roddes, He cried out that he was a Citi∣zen of Rome, and so he escaped: He was also dismissed out of prison. * 1.5 These things being good, cannot be denied to be of God: For eue∣rie good thing is of the father of light from aboue. But if thou aske of the wickednesse of vngodlie kings, those things they haue of themselues, neither is there anie néede that because of them men shoulde complaine of God. For God doeth blame, reprooue, punish and condemne those things, yet as they be punishments of sinnes, it cannot be denyed but that they are of God. For they haue a re∣spect of Iustice. For so doth God oftentimes for the sinnes of the people raise vp an vn∣godlie Prince. But although he be vngodlie he must be obeyed, * 1.6 howbeit so farre forth as Religion shall permit. And if he shall com∣mand vngodlie things, he must not be heard. Neither is it lawfull with silence to dissem∣ble anie thing that the King doeth peruerslie and vngodlie. We ought to warne, counsell, reprooue, chasten and amend him, for so did the Prophetes. Also for defence of the com∣mon weale we must obey without excep∣tion. Therefore Cicero, Cato, Pompeius, and others must not be blamed who tooke warres in hand against Caesar. But when he had once attained to the Empire, no pri∣uate man ought to haue takē armes against him. Therefore when Augustus Caesar, had heard railing wordes to be spoken against Marcus Cato being nowe dead, because he dealt tyrannouslie against Iulius, answered, that Cato was a good Citizen in that he would not haue the present state of the com∣mon weale to be changed. So that God raig∣neth together with kings, whether they be good or euill. * 1.7 And kings maie be called the heads of the Common weale. For so Dauid writeth of himselfe. Thou hast set mee to be the head of the Nations. Yet are they not properlie but Metaphoricallie called heads. For euen as from the head is deriued all the sense and motion into the bodie, so the senses by good lawes, and motions, by edictes and commandements are deriued from the prince vnto the people. And this strength excéedeth not the naturall power.
2 Now as touching the other question,