Jeroboams policy he made Religion conform to his politick interests this was the sin that watcht over theIsraelites till their final captivity If this State principle come from the Prelates as they affect to be counted statists let them look back to Elutherius Bishop of Rome and see what he thought of the policy of England being requir'd by Lucius the first Christian King of this Iland to give his counsel for the founding of Religious Laws little thought he of this sage caution but bids him betake himselfe to the old and new Testament and receive direction from them how to administer both Church and Common-wealth that he was Gods Vicar and therfore to rule by Gods Laws that the Edicts of Caesar we may at all times disallow but the Statutes of God for no reason we may reject Now certaine if Church-goverment be taught in the Gofpel as the Bishops dare not deny we may well conclude of what late standing this Position is newly calculated for the altitude of Bishop elevation and lettice for their lips But by what example can they shew that the form of Church Discipline must be minted and modell'd out to secular pretences The ancient Republick of the Jews is evident to have run through all the changes of civil estate if we survey the Story from the giving of the Law to the Herods yet did one manner of Priestly government serve without inconvenience to all these temporal mutations it serv'd the mild Aristocracy of elective Dukes and heads of Tribes joyn'd with them the dictatorship of the Judges the easie or hard-handed Monarchy's the domestick or forrain tyrannies Lastly the Roman Senat from without the Jewish Senat at home with the Galilean Teâ—…rarch yet the Levites had some right to deal in civil affairs but seeing the Euangelical precept forbids Church-men to intermeddle with worldly imployments what interweavings or interworkings can knit the Minister and the Magistrate in their several functions to the regard of any precise correspondency Seeing that the Churchmans office is only to teach men the Christian Faith to exhort all to incourage the good to admonish the bad privately the lesse offender publickly the scandalous and stubborn to censure and separate from the communion of Christs flock the contagious and incorrigible to receive with joy and fatherly compassion the penitent all this must be don and more then this is beyond any Church autority What is all this either here or there to the temporal regiment of Wealpublick whether it be Popular Princely or Monarchical Where doth it intrench upon the temporal governor where does it come in his walk where does it make inrode upon his jurisdiction Indeed if the Ministers part be rightly discharg'd it renders him the people more conscionable quiet and easie to be govâ—…'d if otherwise his life and doctrine will declare him If therfore the Constitution of the Church be already set down by divine prescript as all sides confesse then can she not be a handmaid to wait on civil commodities and respects and if the nature and limits of Church Discipline be such as are either helpfull to all political estates indifferently or have no particular relation to any then is there no necessity nor indeed possibility of linking the one with the other in a speciall conformation Now for their second 〈◊〉 That no form of Church government is agreeable to Monarchy but that of Bishops although it fall to pieces of it selfe by that which hath 〈◊〉 sayd yet to give them play front and 〈◊〉 it shall be my task to prove that Episcopacy with that Autority which it challenges in England is not only not agreeable but tending to the destruction of Monarchy While the Primitive Pastors of the Church of God labour'd faithfully in their Ministery tending only their Sheep and not seeking but avoiding all worldly matters as clogs and indeed derogations and debasements to their high calling little needed the Princes and potentates of the earth which way soever the Gospel was spread to study ways how to make a coherence between the Churches politic and theirs therfore when Pilate heard once our Saviour Christ professing that his Kingdome was not of this world he thought the man could not stand much in Caesars light nor much indammage the Roman Empire for if the life of Christ be hid to this world much more is his Scepter unoperative but in spirituall things And thus liv'd for 2 or 3 ages the Successors of the Apostles But when through Constantines lavish Superstition they forsook their first love and set themselvs up two Gods instead Mammon and their Belly then taking advantage of the spiritual power which they had on mens consciences they began to cast a longing eye to get the body also and bodily things into their command upon which their carnal desires the Spirit dayly quenching and dying in them they knew no way to keep themselves up from falling to nothing but by bolstering and supporting their inward rottenes by a carnal and outward strength For a while they rather privily sought opportunity then hastily disclos'd their project but when Constantine was dead and 3 or 4 Emperors more their drift became notorious and offensive to the whole world for while Theodosius the younger reign'd thus writes Socrates the Historian in his 7th Book 11. chap. now began an ill name to stick upon the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria who beyond their Priestly bounds now long agoe had stept into principality and this was scarse 80. years since their raising from the meanest worldly condition Of courtesie now let any man tell me if they draw to themselves a temporall strength and power out of Caesars Dominion is not Caesars Empire thereby diminisht but this was a stolne bit hitherto hee was but a Caterpiller secretly gnawing at Monarchy the next time you shall see him a Woolfe a Lyon lifting his paw against his raiser as Petrarch exprest it and finally an open enemy and subverter of the Greeke Empire Philippicus and Leo with divers other Emperours after them not without the advice of their Patriarchs and at length of a whole Easterne Counsell of 3. hundred thirty eight Bishops threw the Images out of Churches as being decreed idolatrous Upon this goodly occasion the Bishop of Rome not only seizes the City and all the Territory about into his owne hands and makes himselfe Lord thereof which till then was govern'd by a Greeke Magistrate but absolves all Italy of their Tribute and obedience due to the Emperour because hee obey'd Gods Commandement in abolishing Idolatry Mark Sir here how the Pope came by S. Peters Patrymony as he feigns it not the donation of Constantine but idolatry and rebellion got it him Yee need but read Sigonius one of his owne Sect to know the Story at large And now to shroud himselfe against a storme from the Greek Continent and provide a Champion to beare him out in these practises hee takes upon him by Papall sentence to unthrone Chilpericus
strook through the black and settled Night of Ignornnce and Antichristian Tyranny me thinks a soveraigne and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosome of him that reads or heares and the sweet Odour of the returning Gospell imbath his Soule with the fragrancy of Heaven Then was the Sacred BIBLE sought out of the dusty corners where prophane Falshood and Neglect had throwne it the Schooles opened Divine and Humane Learning rak't out of the embers of forgotten Tongues the Princes and Cities trooping apace to the new erected Banner of Salvation the Martyrs with the unresistable might of Weaknesse shaking the Powers of Darknesse and scorning the fiery rage of the old red Dragon The pleasing pursuit of these thoughts hath oft-times led mee into a serious question and debatement with my selfe how it should come to passe that England having had this grace and honour from GOD to bee the first that should set up a Standard for the recovery of lost Truth and blow the first Evangelick Trumpet to the Nations holding up as from a Hill the new Lampe of saving light to all Christendome should now be last and most unsettl'd in the enjoyment of that Peace whereof we taught the way to others although indeed our Wicklefs preaching at which all the succeding Reformers more effectually lighted their Tapers was to his Countrey-men but a short blaze soone dampt and stifl'd by the Pope and Prelates for sixe or seven Kings Reignes yet me thinkes the Precedencie which GOD gave this Iland to be the first Restorer of buried Truth should have beene followed with more happy successe and sooner attain'd Perfection in which as yet we are amongst the last for albeit in purity of Doctrine we agree with our Brethren yet in execution and applying of Doctrine home and laying the salve to the very Orifice of the wound yea tenting and searching to the Core without which Pulpit Preaching is but shooting at Rovers in this we are no better then a Schisme from all the Reformation and a sore scandall to them for while wee hold Ordination to belong onely to Bishops as our Prelates doe wee must of necessity hold also their Ministers to be no Ministers and shortly after their Church to be no Church Not to speake of those sencelesse Ceremonies which wee onely retaine as a dangerous earnest of sliding back to Rome and serving meerely either as a mist to cover nakednesse where true grace is extinguisht or as an Enterlude to set out the pompe of Prelatisme Certainly it would be worth the while therefore and the paines to enquire more particularly what and how many the che◅We causes have been that have still hindred our Vniforme Con◅ to the rest of the Churches abroad at this time especially when the Kingdome is in a good propensity thereto and all Men in Prayers in Hopes or in Disputes either for or against it Yet will I not insist on that which may seeme to be the cause on GODS part as his judgement on our sinnes the tryall of his owne the unmasking of Hypocrites nor shall I stay to speake of the continuall eagernes and extreame diligence of the Pope and Papists to stop the furtherance of Reformation which know they have no hold or hope of England their lost Darling longer then the government of Bishops bolsters them out and therefore plot all they can to uphold them as may bee seene by the Booke of Santa Clara the Popish Preist in defence of Bishops which came out piping hot much about the time that one of our own Prelats out of an ominous feare had writ on the same Argnment as if they had joyn'd their forces like good Confederates to support one falling Babel But I shall cheifly indeavour to declare those Causes that hinder the forwarding of true Discipline which are among our selves Orderly proceeding will divide our inquirie into our Fore-Fathers dayes and into our Times HENRY the 8. was the first that rent this Kingdome from the Popes Subjection totally but his Quarrell being more about Supremacie then other faultinesse in Religion that he regarded it is no marvell if hee stuck where he did The next default was in the Bishops who though they had renounc't the Pope they still hugg'd the Popedome and shar'd the Authority among themselves by their sixe bloody Articles persecuting the Protestants no slacker then the Pope would have done And doutles when ever the Pope shall fall if his ruine bee not like the sudden down-come of a Towre the Bishops when they see him tottering will leave him and fall to scrambling catch who may hee a Patriarch-dome and another what comes next hand as the French Cardinall of late and the See of Canterbury hath plainly affected In Edward the 6. Dayes why a compleate Reform was not effected to any considerate man may appeare First he no sooner entred into his Kingdome but into a Warre with Scotland from whence the Protector returning with Victory had but newly put his hand to repeale the 6. Articles and throw the Images out of Churches but Rebellions on all sides stir'd up by obdurate Papists and other Tumults with a plaine Warre in Norfolke holding tack against two of the Kings Generals made them of force content themselves with what they had already done Hereupon follow'd ambitious Contentions among the Peeres which ceas'd not but with the Protectors death who was the most zealous in this point and then Northumberland was hee that could doe most in England who little minding Religion as his Apostacie well shew'd at his death bent all his wit how to bring the Right of the Crowne into his owne Line And for the Bishops they were so far from any such worthy Attempts as that they suffer'd themselvs to be the commō stales to coun tenance with their prostituted Gravities every Politick Fe◅ch that was then on foot as oft as the Potent Statists pleas'd to employ them Never do we read that they made use of their Authority and high Place of accesse to bring the jarring Nobility to Christian peace or to withstand their di◅oyall Projects but if a Toleration for Masse were to be beg'd of the King for his Sister MARY lest CHARLES the Fifth should be angry who but the grave Prelates Cranmer and Ridley must be sent to extort it from the young King But out of the mouth of that godly and Royall Childe Christ himselfe return'd such an awfull repulse to those halting and time-serving Prelates that after much bold importunity they went their way not without shame and teares Nor was this the first time that they discover'd to bee followers of this World for when the Protectors Brother Lord Sudley the Admirall through private malice and mal-engine was to lose his life no man could bee found fitter then Bishop Latimer like another Doctor Shaw to divulge in his Sermon the forged Accusations laid to his charge thereby to defame him with the People who else was thought would take ill the innocent mans death unlesse the
Physick't And surely they were moderate Divines indeed neither hot nor cold 〈◊〉 Grindall the best of them afterwards Arch Bishop of Canterbury lost favour in the Court and I think was discharg'd the goverment of his See for favouring the Ministers though Camden seeme willing to finde another Cause therefore about her second Yeare in a Parliament of Men and Minds some scarce well grounded others belching the soure Crudities of yesterdayes Poperie those Constitutions of EDW. 6. which as you heard before no way satisfi'd the men that made them are now establish't for best and not to be mended From that time follow'd nothing but Imprisonments troubles disgraces on all those that found fault with the Decrees of the Convâ—…cation and strait were they branded with the Name of Puritans As for the Queene her selfe shee was made beleeve that by putting downe Bishops her Prerogative would be infring'd of which shall be spoken anon as the course of Method brings it in And why the Prelats labour'd it should be so thought ask not them but ask their Bellies They had found a good Tabernacle they sate under a spreading Vine their Lot was fallen in a faire Inheritance And these perhaps were the cheife impeachments of a more sound rectifying the Church in the Queens Time From this Period I count to begin our Times which because they concerne us more neerely and our owne eyes and eares can give us the ampler scope to judge will require a more exact search and to effect this the speedier I shall distinguish such as I esteeme to be the hinderers of Reformation into 3. sorts Antiquitarians for so I had rather call them then Antiquaries whose labours are usefull and laudable 2. Libertines 3. Polititians To the votarists of Antiquity I shall think to have fully answer'd if I shall be able to prove out of Antiquity First that if they will conform our Bishops to the purer times they must mew their feathers and their pounces and make but curttail'd Bishops of them and we know they hate to be dockt and clipt as much as to be put down outright Secondly that those purer times were corrupt and their Books corrupted soon after Thirdly that the best of those that then wrote disclaim that any man should repose on them and send all to the Scriptures First therfore if those that over-affect Antiquity will follow the square therof their Bishops must be elected by the hands of the whole Church The ancientest of the extant Fathers Ignatius writing to the Philadelphians saith that it belongs to them as to the Church of God to choose a Bishop Let no man cavill but take the Church of God as meaning the whole consistence of Orders and Members as S. Pauls Epistles expresse and this likewise being read over Besides this it is there to be mark'd that those Philadelphians are exhorted to choose a Bishop of Antioch Whence it seems by the way that there was not that wary limitation of Dioces in those times which is confirm'd even by a fast friend of Episcopacie Camden who cannot but love Bishops as well as old coins and his much lamented Monasteries for antiquities sake He writes in his description of Scotland that over all the world Bishops had no certaine Dioces till Pope Dionysius about the yeare 268. did cut them out and that the Bishops of Scotland executed their function in what place soever they came indifferently and without distinction till King Malcolm the third about the yeare 1070. whence may be guest what their function was was it to goe about circl'd with a band of rooking Officials with cloke bagges full of Citations and Processes to be serv'd by a corporalty of griffonlike Promooters and Apparitors Did he goe about to pitch down his Court as an Empirick does his banck to inveigle in all the mony of the ConÌ„trey no certainly it would not have bin permitted him to exercise any such function indifferently wherever he came And verily some such matter it was as want of a fat Dioces that kept our Britain Bishops so poore in the Primitive times that being call'd to the Councell of Ariminum in the yeare 359. they had not wherewithall to defray the charges of their journey but were fed and lodg'd upon the Emperors cost which must needs be no accidentall but usuall poverty in them for the author Sulp. Severus in his 2 Booke of Church History praises them and avouches it praise-worthy in a Bishop to be so poore as to have nothing of his own But to return to the ancient election of Bishops that it could not lawfully be without the consent of the people is so expresse in Cyprian and so often to be met with that to cite each place at large were to translate a good part of the volume therfore touching the chief passages I referre the rest to whom so list peruse the Author himselfe in the 24. Epist. If a Bishop saith he be once made and allow'd by the testimony and judgement of his collegues and the people no other can be made In the 55. When a Bishop is made by the suffrage of all the people in peace In the 68. marke but what he saies The people chiefly hath power either of choosing worthy ones or refusing unworthy this he there proves by authorities out of the old and new Testament and with solid reasons these were his antiquities This voyce of the people to be had ever in Episcopal elections was so well known before Cyprians time even to those that were without the Church that the Emperor Alexander Severus desir'd to have his governours of Provinces chosen in the same manner as 〈◊〉 can tell So little thought it he offensive to Monarchy and if single authorities perswade not hearken what the whole generall Councel of Nicaea the first and famousest of all the rest determines writing a Synodal Epist. to the African Churches to warn them of Arrianisme it exhorts them to choose orthodox Bishops in the place of the dead so they be worthy and the people choose them whereby they seem to make the peoples assent so necessary that merit without their free choyce were not sufficient to make a Bishop What would ye say now grave Fathers if you should wake and see unworthy Bishops or rather no Bishops but Egyptian task-masters of Ceremonies thrust purposely upon the groaning Church to the affliction and vexation of Gods people It was not of old that a Conspiracie of Bishops could frustrate and fob off the right of the people for we may read how S. Martin soon after Constantine was made Bishop of Turon in France by the peoples consent from all places thereabout mâ—…ugre all the opposition that the Bishops could make Thus went matters of the Church almost 400. yeare after Christ and very probably farre lower for Nicephorus Phocas the Greek Emperour whose reign fell neare the 1000. year of our Lord having done many things tyrannically is said by Cedrenus to have done nothing more grievous and
displeasing to the people then to have in-acted that no Bishop should be chosen without his will so long did this right remain to the people in the midst of other palpable corruptions Now for Episcopall dignity what it was see out of Ignatius who in his Epistle to those of Trallis confesseth that the Presbyters are his fellow Counsellers and fellow benchers And Cyprian in many places as in the 6. 41. 52. Epist. speaking of Presbyters calls them his Compresbyters as if he deem'd himself no other whenas by the same place it appeares he was a Bishop he calls them Brethren but that will be thought his meeknesse yea but the Presbyters and Deacons writing to him think they doe him honour enough when they phrase him no higher then Brother Cyprian and deare Cyprian in the 26. Epist. For their Authority 't is evident not to have bin single but depending on the counsel of the Presbyters as from 〈◊〉 was ere while alledg'd and the same Cyprian acknowledges as much in the 6 Epist. and addes therto that he had determin'd from his entrance into the Office of Bishop to doe nothing without the consent of his people and so in the 31. Epist for it were tedious to course through all his writings which are so full of the like assertions insomuch that ev'n in the womb and center of Apostacy Rome it selfe there yet remains a glimps of this truth for the Pope himselfe as a learned English writer notes well performeth all Eâ—…clesiasticall jurisdiction as in Consistory amongst his Cardinals which were originally but the Parish Priests of Rome Thus then did the Spirit of unity and meeknesse inspire and animate every joynt and sinew of the mysticall body but now the gravest and worthiest Minister atrue Bishop of his fold shall be revil'd and ruffl'd by an insulting and only-Canon-wise Prelate as if he were some slight paltry companion and the people of God redeem'd and wash'd with Christs blood and dignify'd with so many glorious titles of Saints and sons in the Gospel are now no better reputed then impure ethnicks and lay dogs stones Pillars and Crucifixes have now the honour and the almes due to Christs living members the Table of Communion now become a Table of separation stands like an exalted platforme upon the brow of the quire fortifi'd with bulwark â—…and barricado to keep off the profane touch of the Laicks whilst the obscene and surfered Priest scruples not to paw and mammock the sacramentall bread as familiarly as his Tavern Bisket And thus the people vilifi'd and rejected by them give over the earnest study of vertue and godlinesse as a thing of greater purity then they need and the search of divine knowledge as a mystery too high for their capacity's and only for Church-men to meddle with which is that the Prelates desire that when they have brought us back to Popish blindnesse we might commit to their dispose the whole managing of our salvation for they think it was never faire world with them since that time But he that will mould a modern Bishop into a primitive must yeeld him to be elected by the popular voyce undiocest unrevenu'd unlorded and leave him nothing but brotherly equality matchles temperance frequent fasting incessant prayer and preaching continual watchings and labours in his Ministery which what a rich bootie it would be what a plump endowment to the many-benefice-gaping mouth of a Prelate what a relish it would give to his canary-sucking and swan-eating palat let old Bishop Mountain judge for me How little therfore those ancient times make for moderne Bishops hath bin plainly discours'd but let them make for them as much as they will yet why we ought not stand to their arbitrement shall now appeare by a threefold corruption which will be found upon them times were spreadingly infected men of those times fouly tainted writings of those men dangerously adulterated These Positions are to be made good out of those times witnessing of themselves First Ignatius in his early dayes testifies to the Churches of Asia that even then Heresies were sprung up and rife every where as Eusebius relates in his 3. Book 35. chap. after the Greek number And Hegesippus a grave Church writer of prime Antiquity affirms in the same Book of Euseb. c. 32. that while the Apostles were on earth the depravers of doctrine did but lurk but they once gon with open forehead they durst preach down the truth with falsities yea those that are reckon'd for orthodox began to make sad and shamefull rents in the Church about the trivial celebration of Feasts not agreeing when to keep Easter day which controversie grew so hot that Victor the Bishop of Rome Excommunicated all the Churches of Asia for no other cause and was worthily therof reprov'd by Irenaeus For can any sound Theologer think that these great Fathers understood what was Gospel or what was Excommunication doubtlesse that which led the good men into fraud and error was that they attended more to the neer tradition of what they heard the Apostles somtimes did then to what they had left written not considering that many things which they did were by the Apostles themselves profest to be done only for the present and of meer indulgence to some scrupulous converts of the Circumcision but what they writ was of firm decree to all future ages Look but a century lower in the 1. cap. of Eusebius 8. Book What a universal tetter of impurity had invenom'd every part order and degree of the Church to omit the lay herd which will be little regarded those that seem'd to be our Pastors saith he overturning the Law of Gods worship burnt in contentions one towards another and incresing in hatred and bitternes outragiously sought to uphold Lordship and command as it were a tyranny Stay but a little magnanimous Bishops suppresse your aspiring thoughts for there is nothing wanting but Constantine to reigne and then Tyranny her selfe shall give up all her cittadels into your hands and count ye thence forward her trustiest agents Such were these that must be call'd the ancientest and most virgin times between Christ and Constantine Nor was this general contagion in their actions and not in their writings who is ignorant of the foul errors the ridiculous wresting of Scripture the Heresies the vanities thick sown through the volums of Justin Marâ—…yr Clemens Origen 〈◊〉 and others of eldest time Who would think him fit to write an Apology for Christian Faith to the Roman Senat that would tell them how of the Angels which he must needs mean those in Gen. call'd the Sons of God mixing with Women were begotten the Devills as good Justin Martyr in his Apology told them But more indignation would it move to any Christian that shall read Tertullian terming S. Paul a novice and raw in grace for reproving S. Peter at Antioch worthy to be blam'd if we beleeve the Epistle to the Galatians perhaps from this hint the blasphemous