BISHOP AYLMER. 169 



When some quoted Scripture for directing matters of CHAP, 

 worldly policy and government, as who were to govern 

 kingdoms, and how qualified they were to be, he shewed 

 the false divinity thereof by the practice of Christ, &quot; who 

 &quot; knowing the bounds of his office,&quot; as he said, &quot; would not 

 &quot; meddle with extern policies,- translating of realms, de- 

 &quot; priving of true inheritors. No ; when he was desired to 

 &quot; be arbiter between two brethren, he asked not how the 

 &quot; plea stood, but who made him an officer. Divines, me- 

 u thinks, 1 as he added, &quot; should by this example not give 

 &quot; themselves too much the bridle, and to enlarge a scope to 

 &quot; meddle too far with matters of policy; as that is, wherc- 

 &quot; upon dependeth either the welfare or illfare of the whole 

 &quot; realm. If those two offices, viz. ecclesiastical and civil, be 

 &quot; so jumbled together, as it may be lawful for both parties 

 &quot; to meddle in both functions, there can be no quiet, nor 

 &quot; any well-ordered commonwealth.&quot; 



And again, thus did he learnedly explain the foresaid 

 words of our Saviour, Who made me a judge between you ? 

 as a rule, tending not to teach Christian subjects to dispose 

 of governments, but to obey them. &quot; As though Christ 

 &quot; should have said, Mine office is not to determine matters 

 &quot; of policy, of succession, and inheritance: for that belongs 

 &quot; to the civil magistrate. If he had thought that it had been 

 &quot; within the compass of his function, why, and with what 

 &quot; consequence, refused he to set those brethren at one which 

 &quot; were at strife, and to put that out of doubt which was in 

 &quot; suit, if he ought to do it ? and would he not have lacked 

 &quot; charity, and not done his duty ? If it belonged not to 

 &quot; him, how belonged it to any of his apostles, disciples, or 

 &quot; successors ? Had he not as large commission as he gave ? 

 &quot; or could he give that he had not ? But knowing his office, 

 &quot; as the Prophet Esay had forespoken of him, to preach 

 &quot; the Gospel, to heal the broken, &c. he would do nothing 

 &quot; without warrant. And therefore being asked whether he 

 &quot; were a [secular] king, he answered simply by a plain ne- 

 &quot; gative, My kingdom is not of this world. If his kingdom 

 &quot; were not here, neither the ordering of policy was his. All 



