made Bishops by authority from God and left their Successours power to do the like And to this they all subscribed in the Necessary Erudition Much more might be added from some publick Writings of that Age of which I shall name but one or two as first the Book called Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum a design first begun by King Henry the Eighth prosecuted by Edward the Sixth as by their two Orders prefixed to that Book doth appear and committed to the care of thirty two Divines and Civilians the Arch-Bishop being the chief wherein it is ordered That to the Bishop all are to give Obedience according to the Word of God p. 98. Episcope qui Ecclesiae praeficitur non solum Decanus Archidiaconus Archipresbyter reliqui Ministri parebunt c. And cap. 10. Episcopi quoniam inter caeteros Ecclesiae Ministros locum principem tenent ideo sana Doctriná gravi authoritate atque provido consilio debent inferiores Ordines Cleri regere ac pascere Dr. Burnet p. 71. of the second part says It is plain that Cranmer had quite laid aside those singular Opinions which he formerly held of the Ecclesiastical Functions for now in a Work of his own without the concurrence of any other speaking of his Catechism he fully sets forth their Divine Institution And now I shall consider how agreeable their Design is to the Ancient Constitution of our Government about matters Ecclesiastical which as they say is very excellently described in the Book called The necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian-man composed by several Bishops and other great Doctors and approved by Authority in the days of King Henry the Eighth The Dissenters cannot have a greater Reverence for that Book than the Conformists have as to the Constitution of our Church And to corroborate this Authority they add that of another excellent Book viz. Dr. Burnet 's History of the Reformation for which as they observe the whole Kingdom have given the Doctor thanks And I shall think the worse of these Dissenters if they will not do the same P. 16. From these Books they attempt to prove that the establishing a Parochial or Congregational Church-Discipline the great thing which the Dissenters desire may be done consistently with the Ancient Constitution of the Government of this Realm to the fixing the desired firm and lasting Vnion P. 11. If this appear the Dissenters may well boast that they are the Genuine Sons of the Church of England as it was setled by the first Reformers and that they have been as they complain misrepresented as Enemies both to Church and State as if the adhering to old Protestant Principles about Church-Discipline had been the Overt Act of a Spirit seditious and phanatical p. 17. To these two they have appealed for the truth of their Assertion and I hope they will not shew themselves such double-minded men as to be unstable in all their ways and not stand to the Evidence and Arbitration of these two Authorities produced by themselves And if the reducing of us to the Ancient Constitution of Church-Government and Discipline in this Realm may fix the desired firm and lasting Union it will be still the Dissenters fault that we are not all agreed In that Judicious Tract 't is manifest say the Dissenters p. 2. 1. That Church-Government is Jure Divino Be it so 2. That to the constituting such a Church-Government those Church-Officers onely are necessary who are mentioned in the New Testament This is also granted 3. That in the New Testament there is mention made of no other Church-Officers but Priests and Deacons This is sub judice 4. That Bishops or Priests the sole Governours of the Church are of one and the same Order This also is to be determined To all this I shall oppose a short Syllogism viz. That Church-Government which is mentioned in the New Testament by the Compilers of the Necessary Erudition is Jure Divino But the Church Government mentioned c. is by Bishops Priests and Deacons Ergo the Church-Government by Bishops Priests and Deacons is Jure Divino according to the Necessary Erudition It chanced that on reading this Preface I had at hand that ancient Book printed in English 1543. and set forth by the King's Authority as appears by the Preface I had also a Translation of the same Book into elegant Latine printed the following year viz. 1544. This Latine Book hath a Preface more than I find in the English which seems to be compiled by the Arch-Bishop and the rest of the Reforming Clergy who give us this reason of the translating it into Latine Quam Institutionem Lector Carissime Illustrissimi simul Religiosissimi Principis industriâ primum vernaculo sermone editam nos nunc in Latinum versam in lucem damus Quòd indignum duximus ut hoc pacificandae Ecclesiae studium exemplum quo Regia Majestas immortalem sibi gloriam promerita est in obscuro lateret ac non potius orbi universo quo caeteri Principes ad similem componendae Religionis zelum excitentur innotesceret i. e. Which Erudition first published in English by the Industry of our most Illustrious and Religious Prince we now publish in Latine as thinking it an unworthy thing that the care and good Example of pacifying the Church whereby His Majesty hath deserved immortal Glory should lie hid and not be known to the World to stir up other Princes to the like Zeal From whence I desire the Reader to observe that this Book being set forth a year after the English one and being somewhat explained and inlarged as intended to inform the Foreign Churches with the matter and order of our Reformation is of the two the more exact and perfect as containing their second Thoughts and final Resolutions The place quoted out of that Book is that which concerns The Sacrament of Orders which say they are given of God to Christian men by the Consecration and Imposition of the Bishops hands And doubtless King Henry would have been very much in wrath with any that should have denied the Order of Bishops to be Sacramental when by their hands and by a power given them of God as is their asserted other Orders were to be conveyed But secondly I observe that whereas that Book nameth Bishops And Priests as two distinct Orders these Dissenters by a little trick learnt of the Jesuits of changing a small syllable would alter the sense of the whole Chapter for four or five times in the second and third pages the Dissenters name Bishops Or Priests making them one and the same thing which the Reformers in that Chapter of Orders do distinguish as two distinct Orders and eight times at least read Bishops And not Or Priests in sensu diviso In the first place it is said that St. Paul did consecrate and order Priests and Bishops for which they quote 1 Tim. 4. i. e. Jure Divino And again as the Apostles themselves did
they have considered things who are so far carried with their Zeal against the established Government of this Church as to make much use of some passages of the Schoolmen and Canonists that deny them to be distinct Orders for these are the very dregs of Popery N. B. the one raising the Priests higher for the sake of Transubstantiation the other pulling the Bishops lower for the sake of the Popes Supremacy and by such means bringing them almost to an equality So partial are some men to their particular Conceits that they make use of the most mischievous Topicks when they can serve their turn not considering how much farther these Arguments will run if they ever admit them So that although the Phrase of Priests or Bishops might have been used in former times as it was in a Paper printed among the Addenda to the first part of the Doctor 's History p. 324. which Paper was written about six years before the Necessary Erudition as is proved p. 365. of the first part Yet when our Dissenters read as no doubt they did these Remarks of the Doctor 's concerning the rise and mischievous tendences of it their presumption in urging it from that Paper where it is so shamefully condemned is as unpardonable as their endeavour to fasten it on the Necessary Erudition where the contrary is evidently asserted And is this the great Reverence that our Dissenters have for the first Reformers thus to wrest and abuse their Writings by altering their Words curtailing their Sentences and representing them as contradicting themselves as well as the Universal Church in all Ages before them in such an excellent Book and to object that against them which their Adversaries who watched for such an advantage could never find This is no otherwise to honour them than to call them to a second Martyrdom more inglorious and hateful to them than the first And yet these Dissenters could not but know that all they who had a hand in compiling that Book were either Diocesan Bishops or such Divines as lived in a willing submission to them And these things are sufficient to shew that the Dissenters are more genuine Sons of some other Church than of the Church of England according to its Primitive Constitution And thus the Declaration mentioned by our Author to be subscribed by Tho. Cromwell c. which says That in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinctions in Orders but only of Deacons or Ministers Priests or Bishops as also the Opinions of Tindal Lambert and Dr. Barnes must be submitted to the more mature and authorized Judgment of the State Civil and Ecclesiastical expressed in the Necessary Erudition And the private Sentiments of such Divines as have written from the days of Edward VI. until now must be adjudged to be conformable to the Judgment and Determination of the Church which hath been established by Law in their days to which also they generally subscribed and then I need say no more but that the Forms of Ordaining and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons will determine the Question whether from the beginning of our Reformation the Church of England hath acknowledged three Orders viz. of Bishops Priests and Deacons or two only And whether the Church-Government established by Law ever since the days of Edward VI. hath not been by Diocesan Bishops But I would ask these men Could they have conformed to Episcopacy and Liturgy under King Henry the Eighth or Edward the Sixth and can they not now Was not Episcopacy the same then as it is now and the Liturgie much better now than it was then Could you conform to Henry the Eighth's Primer to his six Articles and seven Sacraments Or to the Liturgie established by King Edward the Sixth wherein were many things that were deservedly accounted Ineptias As in the Communion-Office where they commend to the mercy of God all his Servants departed hence from us And that God would command our Prayers and Supplications by the ministry of his holy Angels to be brought up into his holy Tabernacle The commending Auricular and Secret Confession to the Priest And in the Office of Baptism enjoyning a great part of that Office to be performed the people standing at the Church-door and then to take the Child by the right hand and lead it towards the Font To sign it with the sign of the Cross on the Breast as well as the Forehead The use of Exorcism in these words I command thee thou unclean Spirit in the Name of the Father c. to come out and depart from this Infant The dipping the Child three times in the Water except in case of weakness first on the right side then on the left and then with the Face towards the Water Then to put on it the Crysom saying Take thou this white Vesture for a Token of the Innocency c. Then to anoint the Infant on the head praying God to anoint him with the Vnction of the Spirit And to omit many other things anointing the sick and signing his breast with the sign of the Cross Commending at the time of Burial into the hands of God's mercy the Souls of the departed As for the Book of consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons it was added to the Liturgie by King Edward as it is received now with some few alterations mentioned by Dr. Burnet for the better p. 144. His Articles and Acts for Vniformity were as severe as any that are now And all these were established in Arch-bishop Cranmer's time and with his good Approbation In the Articles of Religion printed 1552. one concerning the Liturgy declares thus The Book of Prayers which of very late time was given to the Church of England by the Authority of Parliament containing the Manner and Form of praying and ministring the Sacraments and the Book of ordering Ministers of the Church set forth by the afore said Authority are godly and in no point repugnant to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel but agreeing thereunto furthering and beautifying the same not a little and therefore of all faithful Ministers of the Church of England and chiefly of the Ministers of the Lord ought to be received and allowed with all readiness of mind and thanksgiving and to be commended to the people of God. Besides the Discourse concerning Ceremonies retained in our Book was then set forth as also a Proclamation against those that innovate alter or leave down any Rite or Ceremony in the Church and that preach without License printed in the second year of Edward the Sixth to which the Form for Bidding of Prayers may be added See p. 128. of Dr. Burnet's second part All which notwithstanding Bucer and Peter Martyr approved of Conformity And Mr. Calvin himself both perswaded and approved all that was done in the second Liturgy of King Edward in an Epistle of his to the then Protector being the forty first Epistle in the Edition at Amsterdam 1667. to this effect Let there
the Ordinary of the place where he had such knowledge or to any of her Majesty's Privy Council the same person shall not for his former concealment be hereafter molested or troubled Given at her Majesty's Palace at Westminster the thirteenth of February 1588. In the One and thirtieth Year of her Highness Reign GOD SAVE THE QUEEN Arch-bishop Grindall exprest in a Letter of his his great fear of two things viz. Atheism and Popery and both arising out of our needless Divisions by these means the Enemies of our Religion gain this that nothing can be established by Law in the Protestant Religion whose every part is not opposed by one or other of her own Professors so that things continuing loose and confused the Papists have their Opportunity to urge their way which is attended with Order and Government And our Religion continuing thus distracted and divided some vile wretches lay hold on the Argument on one side to confute the other and so at last to destroy all And it is observed in the Life of Mr. Hooker p. 9. they perswaded men to believe that the Bishops were Antichrist and Antichrist was to be destroyed by the Sword and beginning with Petitions they proceeded to Admonitions then to Remostrances then to numbring their Party then to that boldness that one told the Queen in a Sermon She was like an untamed Heifer that would not be ruled by God's people but obstructed his Discipline And we have heard and seen worse things in our days Arch-bishop Whitgift in his Defence of the Answer to T. C. p. 605. tells the Puritans That the Papists could not have met with better Proctors than they And 55. That they did the Pope very good Service and that he would not miss them for any thing for what is his desire but to have this Church of England which he hath accursed utterly defaced and discredited to have it by any means overthrown if not by Foreign means yet by Domestical Dissention And what fitter Instruments could he have had for that purpose who under pretence of Zeal overthrow that which other men have builded under colour of Purity seek to bring in Deformity and under the Cloak of Equality and Humility would usurp as great Tyranny and lofty Lordliness over their Parishes as ever the Pope did over the whole Church and that they were made the Engines of the Roman Conclave whereby they intend to overthrow this Church even by these mens Folly which they could not compass by all their Policy The Epistle of the Arch-bishop to the Reader before his Defence of the Answer to T. C's Admonition is worth pernsal As for Bishop Bancroft the whole design of his Book is to manifest what disturbance the endeavours of the Presbyterians to establish their Eldership did create in the Nation by such dangerous Positions and Practices as were in his time with equal violence and malice carried on for the destruction of the Church as it was then established There are some other of the mentioned Divines whose Writings I have not nor is there need to enquire farther into them seeing there is nothing alledged from them by Mr. J. H. but what being compared with their other sayings and practices doth fully frustrate his designs And when the Bishops of our Church do so ingenuously mention all that may be said for their Adversaries with so much Veracity Candor and Moderation what a Reproach is it to their Opponents to deal with them with so much Scorn and Contempt such Bitterness and Passion such Slanders and Falshoods as too many do and as T. C. did with the Archbishop Whitgift whom Queen Elizabeth called her black Husband and upheld him against the Contrivances and contrary Designs of Lechester and those Conformists whom he favoured to promote his own Sacrilegious ends As for Mr. Hooker whom Bishop King calls Malleum Hereticorum who was as meek and modest a man as well as judicious as any in his Generation he did profess to the Arch-bishop See p. 17. of his Life That he believed his Adversary Mr. Travers to be a good man and that occasioned him to examine his own Conscience concerning his Opinions and to satisfie that he consulted the Holy Scripture and other Laws Humane and Divine whether the Conscience of him and others of his judgment ought so far to be complyed with as to alter the frame of Church-Government and manner of Worship and Ceremonies as oft as their tender Consciences shall require it in which examination he had not only satisfied himself but begun his Ecclesiastical Polity for the satisfaction of others which he justly calls a Demonstration of the Reasonableness of our Ecclesiastical Laws and a hopeful Foundation for the Churches Peace and not to provoke either Mr. T. C. the Arch-bishop's Adversary nor Mr. Travers whom saith Mr. Hooker I take to be mine not mine Enemy God knows this to be my meaning Yet his Adversaries that could not answer his Arguments contrived to blot his Reputation and accused him of Incontinency which by a Trepan as the Author of his Life relates p. 22. they endeavoured to fasten on him he kept this Grief to himself many Months with great anxiety until he revealed it to Mr. Edwin Sands and George Cranmer who had been his Pupils who enquiring into the Imposture so followed it that they brought his Accusers to open Confession and Punishment which Punishment he endeavoured to prevent but was denied at which he replyed That however he would Fast and Pray that God would give them Repentance and Patience to undergo their Punishment and the first part was granted if we may believe saith my Author the penitent Behaviour and open Confession of his Accuser How his Adversaries dealt with his Books after his Death is thus related That one Mr. Clark and another Minister desired of his Widow a Month after his Death to search his Study for some Papers wherof they burnt some and tore others but Dr. Jackson having transcribed some draught of his three last Books they were compleated by Dr. Spencer who was acquainted with the Design of those Books The Doctor left them with Dr. King Bishop of Londo and he to his Son Bishop of Chichester he to Dr. Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury in whose Library they continued till the Death of Arch-bishop Laud and then the Library was given to Hugh Peters for his good Services and then many alterations and additions were made in them to make them speak for the power of the People above the King for which when the Lord Say quoted Hooker's Authority to King Charles the First he replyed That the Books were not Hooker's but however he would consent to what was proposed out of those doubted Books if that Lord would consent to Mr. Hooker 's Judgment in those Books which were undoubted The same may I say concerning the Judgment of such Divines as Mr. J. H. hath quoted we will stand to what is but weakly and impertinently quoted from those Divines