sacred History and times of Reformation that the Kings of this World have both ever hated and instinctively fear'd the Church of God Whether it be for that thir Doctrin seems much to favour two things to them so dreadful Liberty and Equality or because they are the Children of that Kingdom which as ancient Prophesies have foretold shall in the end break to peeces and dissolve all thir great power and Dominion And those Kings and Potentates who have strove most to ridd themselves of this feare by cutting off or suppressing the true Church have drawn upon themselves the occasion of thir own ruin while they thought with most policy to prevent it Thus Pharaoh when once he began to feare and wax jealous of the Israelites least they should multiply and fight against him and that his feare stirr'd him up to afflict and keep them under as the onely remedy of what he feard soon found that the evil which before slept came suddenly upon him by the preposterous way he took to shun it Passing by examples between not shutting wilfully our eyes we may see the like story brought to pass in our own Land This King more then any before him except perhapps his Father from his first entrance to the Crown harbouring in his mind a strange feare and suspicion of men most religious and thir Doctrin which in his own language he heer acknowledges terming it the seditious exorbitancie of Ministers tongues and doubting least they as he not Christianly expresses it should with the Keys of Heav'n let out Peace and Loyaltie from the peoples hearts though they never preacht or attempted aught that might justly raise in him such apprehensions he could not rest or think himself secure so long as they remain'd in any of his three Kingdoms unrooted out But outwardly professing the same Religion with them he could not presently use violence as Pharaoh did and that course had with others before but ill succeeded He chooses therfore a more mystical way a newer method of Antichristian fraud to the Church more dangerous and like to Balac the Son of Zippor against a Nation of Prophets thinks it best to hire other esteemed Prophets and to undermine and weare out the true Church by a fals Ecclesiastical policy To this drift he found the Goverment of Bishops most serviceable an order in the Church as by men first corrupted so mutually corrupting them who receave it both in judgement and manners He by conferring Bishoprics and great Livings on whom he thought most pliant to his will against the known Canons and universal practice of the ancient Church wherby those elections were the peoples right sought as he confesses to have greatest influence upon Church-men They on the other side finding themselves in a high Dignity neither founded by Scripture nor allow'd by Reformation nor supported by any spiritual gift or grace of thir own knew it thir best cours to have dependence onely upon him and wrought his fansie by degrees to that degenerat and unkingly perswasion of No Bishop no King When as on the contrary all Prelats in thir own suttle sense are of another mind according to that of Pius the fourth rememberd in the Trentine storie that Bishops then grow to be most vigorous and potent when Princes happ'n to be most weak and impotent Thus when both Interests of Tyrannie and Episcopacie were incorporat into each other the King whose principal safety and establishment consisted in the righteous execution of his civil power and not in Bishops and thir wicked counsels fatally driv'n on set himself to the extirpating of those men whose Doctrin and desire of Church Discipline he so fear'd would bee the undoing of his Monarchie And because no temporal Law could touch the innocence of thir lives he begins with the persecution of thir consciences laying scandals before them and makes that the argument to inflict his unjust penalties both on thir bodies and Estates In this Warr against the Church if he hath sped so as other haughty Monarchs whom God heertofore hath hard'nd to the like enterprize we ought to look up with praises and thanksgiving to the Author of our deliverance to whom victorie and power Majestie Honour and Dominion belongs for ever In the mean while from his own words we may perceave easily that the special motives which he had to endeere and deprave his judgement to the favouring and utmost defending of Episcopacie are such as heer wee represent them and how unwillingly and with what mental reservation he condescended against his interest to remove it out of the Peers house hath bin shown alreadie The reasons which he affirmes wrought so much upon his judgement shall be so farr answerd as they be urg'd Scripture he reports but distinctly produces none and next the constant practice of all Christian Churches till of late yeares tumult faction pride and covetousness invented new models under the Title of Christs Goverment Could any Papist have spoke more scandalously against all Reformation Well may the Parlament and best-affected People not now be troubl'd at his calumnies and reproaches since he binds them in the same bundle with all other the reformed Churches who also may now furder see besides thir own bitter experience what a Cordial and well meaning helper they had of him abroad and how true to the Protestant cause As for Histories to prove Bishops the Bible if we mean not to run into errors vanities and uncertainties must be our onely Historie Which informs us that the Apostles were not properly Bishops next that Bishops were not successors of Apostles in the function of Apostleship And that if they were Apostles they could not be preciselie Bishops if Bishops they could not be Apostles this being Universal extraordinarie and immediat from God that being an ordinarie fixt particular charge the continual inspection over a certain Flock And although an ignorance and deviation of the ancient Churches afterward may with as much reason and charity be suppos'd as sudden in point of Prelatie as in other manifest corruptions yet that no example since the first age for 1500 yeares can be produc'd of any setled Church wherin were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishops above them the Ecclesiastical storie to which he appeals for want of Scripture proves cleerly to be a fals and over-confident assertion Sczomenus who wrote above Twelve hundred years agoe in his seventh Book relates from his own knowledge that in the Churches of Cyprus and Arabia places neer to Jerusalem and with the first frequented by Apostles they had Bishops in every Village and what could those be more then Presbyters The like he tells of other Nations and that Episcopal Churches in those daies did not condemn them I add that many Western Churches eminent for thir Faith and good Works and settl'd above four hundred years agoe in France in Piemont and Bohemia have both taught and practis'd the same Doctrin and not admitted of
raines down new expressions into our hearts in stead of being fit to use they will be found like reserv'd Manna rather to breed wormes and stink Wee have the same duties upon us and feele the same wants yet not alwayes the same nor at all times alike but with variety of Circumstances which ask varietie of words Wherof God hath giv'n us plenty not to use so copiously upon all other occasions and so niggardly to him alone in our devotions As if Christians were now in a wors famin of words fitt for praier then was of food at the seige of Jerusalem when perhaps the Priests being to remove the shew bread as was accustom'd were compell'd every Sabbath day for want of other Loaves to bring again still the same If the Lords Prayer had bin the warrant or the pattern of set Liturgies as is heer affirm'd why was neither that Prayer nor any other sett forme ever after us'd or so much as mention'd by the Apostles much less commended to our use Why was thir care wanting in a thing so usefull to the Church So full of danger and contention to be left undon by them to other mens Penning of whose autority we could not be so certain Why was this forgott'n by them who declare that they have reveal'd to us the whole Counsel of God who as he left our affections to be guided by his sanctifying spirit so did he likewise our words to be put into us without our premeditation not onely those cautious words to be us'd before Gentiles and Tyrants but much more those filial words of which we have so frequent use in our access with freedom of speech to the Throne of Grace Which to lay aside for other outward dictates of men were to injure him and his perfet Gift who is the spirit and the giver of our abilitie to pray as if his ministration were incomplete and that to whom he gave affections he did not also afford utterance to make his Gift of prayer a perfet Gift to them especially whose office in the Church is to pray publicly And although the gift were onely natural yet voluntary prayers are less subject to formal and superficial tempers then sett formes For in those at least for words matter he who prays must consult first w th his heart which in likelyhood may stirr up his affections in these having both words and matter readie made to his lips which is anough to make up the outward act of prayer his affections grow lazy and com not up easilie at the call of words not thir own the prayer also having less intercours and sympathy with a heart wherin it was not conceav'd saves it self the labour of so long a journey downward and flying up in hast on the specious wings of formalitie if it fall not back again headlong in stead of a prayer which was expected presents God with a sett of stale and empty words No doubt but ostentation and formalitie may taint the best duties we are not therfore to leave duties for no duties and to turne prayer into a kind of Lurrey Cannot unpremeditated babling be rebuk'd and restraind in whom we find they are but the spirit of God must be forbidd'n in all men But it is the custom of bad men and Hypocrits to take advantage at the least abuse of good things that under that covert they may remove the goodness of those things rather then the abuse And how unknowingly how weakly is the using of sett forms attributed here to constancy as if it were constancie in the Cuckoo to be alwaies in the same liturgie Much less can it be lawfull that an Englisht mass-Mass-Book compos'd for ought we know by men neither lerned nor godly should justle out or at any time deprive us the exercise of that Heav'nly gift which God by special promise powrs out daily upon his Church that is to say the spirit of Prayer Wherof to help those many infirmities which he reck'ns up rudeness impertinencie flatness and the like we have a remedy of Gods finding out which is not Liturgie but his own free spirit Though we know not what to pray as we ought yet he with sighs unutterable by any words much less by a stinted Liturgie dwelling in us makes intercession for us according to the mind and will of God both in privat and in the performance of all Ecclesiastical duties For it is his promise also that where two or three gather'd together in his name shall agree to ask him any thing it shall be granted for he is there in the midst of them If then ancient Churches to remedie the infirmities of prayer or rather the infections of Arian and Pelagian Heresies neglecting that ordain'd and promis'd help of the spirit betook them almost four hundred yeares after Christ to Liturgie thir own invention wee are not to imitate them nor to distrust God in the removal of that Truant help to our Devotion which by him never was appointed And what is said of Liturgie is said also of Directory if it be impos'd although to forbidd the Service Book there be much more reason as being of it self superstitious offensive and indeed though Englisht yet still the Mass-Book and public places ought to be provided of such as need not the help of Liturgies or Directories continually but are supported with Ministerial gifts answerable to thir Calling Lastly that the Common-Prayer Book was rejected because it prayd so oft for him he had no reason to Object for what large and laborious Prayers were made for him in the Pulpits if he never heard t is doubtful they were never heard in Heav'n Wee might now have expected that his own following Prayer should add much credit to sett Forms but on the contrary we find the same imperfections in it as in most before which he lays heer upon Extemporal Nor doth he ask of God to be directed whether Liturgies be lawful but presumes and in a manner would perswade him that they be so praying that the Church and he may never want them What could be prayd wors extempore unless he mean by wanting that they may never need them XVII Of the differences in point of Church-Goverment THE Goverment of Church by Bishops hath bin so fully prov'd from the Scriptures to be vitious and usurp'd that whether out of Piety or Policy maintain'd it is not much material For Pietie grounded upon error can no more justifie King Charles then it did Queen Mary in the sight of God or Man This however must not be let pass without a serious observation God having so dispos'd the Author in this Chapter as to confess and discover more of Mysterie and combination between Tyranny and fals Religion then from any other hand would have bin credible Heer we may see the very dark roots of them both turn'd up and how they twine and interweave one another in the Earth though above ground shooting up in two sever'd Branches We may have learnt both from
Episcopacie among them And if we may beleeve what the Papists themselves have writt'n of these Churches which they call Waldenses I find it in a Book writt'n almost four hundred years since and set forth in the Bohemian Historie that those Churches in Piemont have held the same Doctrin and Goverment since the time that Constantine with his mischeivous donations poyson'd Silvester and the whole Church Others affirme they have so continu'd there since the Apostles and Theodorus Belvederensis in his relation of them confesseth that those Heresies as he names them were from the first times of Christianity in that place For the rest I referr me to that famous testimonie of Jerom who upon this very place which he onely roaves at heer the Epistle to Titus declares op'nly that Bishop and Presbyter were one and the same thing till by the instigation of Satan partialities grew up in the Church and that Bishops rather by custom then any ordainment of Christ were exalted above Presbyters whose interpretation we trust shall be receav'd before this intricate stuffe tattl'd heer of Timothy and Titus and I know not whom thir Successors farr beyond Court Element and as farr beneath true edification These are his fair grounds both from Scripture-Canons and Ecclesiastical examples how undivinelike writt'n and how like a worldly Gospeller that understands nothing of these matters posteritie no doubt will be able to judge and will but little regard what he calls Apostolical who in his Letter to the Pope calls Apostolical the Roman Religion Nor let him think to plead that therfore it was not policy of State or obstinacie in him which upheld Episcopacie because the injuries and losses which he sustain'd by so doing were to him more considerable then Episcopacie it self for all this might Pharaoh have had to say in his excuse of detaining the Israelites that his own and his Kingdoms safety so much endanger'd by his denial was to him more deer then all thir building labours could be worth to Aegypt But whom God hard'ns them also he blinds He endeavours to make good Episcopacie not only in Religion but from the nature of all civil Government where parity breeds confusion and faction But of faction and confusion to take no other then his own testimony where hath more bin ever bred then under the imparitie of his own Monarchical Goverment Of which to make at this time longer dispute and from civil constitutions and human conceits to debate and question the convenience of Divine Ordinations is neither wisdom nor sobrietie and to confound Mosaic Preisthood with Evangelic Presbyterie against express institution is as far from warrantable As little to purpose is it that we should stand powling the Reformed Churches whether they equalize in number those of his three Kingdoms of whom so lately the far greater part what they have long desir'd to doe have now quite thrown off Episcopacie Neither may we count it the language or Religion of a Protestant so to vilifie the best Reformed Churches for none of them but Lutherans retain Bishops as to feare more the scandalizing of Papists because more numerous then of our Protestant Brethren because a handful It will not be worth the while to say what Scismatics or Heretics have had no Bishops yet least he should be tak'n for a great Reader he who prompted him if he were a Doctor might have rememberd the foremention'd place in Sozomenus which affirmes that besides the Cyprians and Arabians who were counted Orthodoxal the Novatians also and Montanists in Phrygia had no other Bishops then such as were in every Village and what Presbyter hath a narrower Diocess As for the Aërians we know of no Heretical opinion justly father'd upon them but that they held Bishops Presbyters to be the same Which he in this place not obscurely seems to hold a Heresie in all the Reformed Churches with whom why the Church of England desir'd conformitie he can find no reason with all his charity but the comming in of the Scots Army Such a high esteem he had of the English He tempts the Clergie to return back again to Bishops from the feare of tenuity and contempt and the assurance of better thriving under the favour of Princes against which temptations if the Clergie cannot arm themselves with thir own spiritual armour they are indeed as poor a Carkass as he terms them Of Secular honours and great Revenues added to the dignitie of Prelats since the subject of that question is now remov'd we need not spend time But this perhaps will never bee unseasonable to beare in minde out of Chrysostome that when Ministers came to have Lands Houses Farmes Coaches Horses and the like Lumber then Religion brought forth riches in the Church and the Daughter devour'd the Mother But if his judgement in Episcopacie may be judg'd by the goodly chois he made of Bishops we need not much amuse our selves with the consideration of those evils which by his foretelling will necessarily follow thir pulling down untill he prove that the Apostles having no certain Diocess or appointed place of residence were properly Bishops over those Presbyters whom they ordain'd or Churches they planted wherein ofttimes thir labours were both joint and promiscuous Or that the Apostolic power must necessarily descend to Bishops the use and end of either function being so different And how the Church hath flourisht under Episcopacie let the multitude of thir ancient and gross errors testifie and the words of some learnedest and most zealous Bishops among them Nazianzen in a devout passion wishing Prelaty had never bin Basil terming them the Slaves of Slaves Saint Martin the enemies of Saints and confessing that after he was made a Bishop he found much of that grace decay in him which he had before Concerning his Coronation Oath what it was and how farr it bound him already hath bin spok'n This we may take for certain that he was never sworn to his own particular conscience and reason but to our conditions as a free people which requir'd him to give us such Laws as our selves shall choose This the Scots could bring him to and would not be baffl'd with the pretence of a Coronation Oath after that Episcopacy had for many years bin settl'd there Which concession of his to them and not to us he seeks heer to put off with evasions that are ridiculous And to omit no shifts he alleges that the Presbyterian manners gave him no encouragement to like thir modes of Government If that were so yet certainly those men are in most likelihood neerer to amendment who seek a stricter Church Discipline then that of Episcopacy under which the most of them learnt thir manners If estimation were to be made of Gods Law by their manners who leaving Aegypt receav'd it in the Wilderness it could reap from such an inference as this nothing but rejection and disesteem For the Prayer wherwith he closes it had bin good som safe Liturgie which he so