Christian world that their attestation hath ever since been reverenced and accepted in momentous matters of Religion such as the religious observation of the Lord's day the number and integrity of the Canonical Books of holy Scripture the Baptism of Infants c. Episcopacy at least stands upon the same grounds with these if these upon the true measures of Piety and Religion be not alterable neither is it The most learned of the Dissenters have been forced to use the same proofs for these which we do for Episcopacy when they have not done so they have been baffled in a good cause as hereafter may be exemplified The Conclusion then is to attempt a Reformation of Episcopacy by its extermination is contrary to the sure and standing Rules of Christianity CHAP. III. THIS is farther to be discussed in point of prudence whether the change or standing thereof will conduce more to the publick interest which may be dispatched by these observations SECT 1. They who to the diminution or abolition of Episcopacy have or would set up new models of Church Government are either the Erastians the Presbyterians the Independents or the Pontificians The three former were hatched since an 1510. the last was long of hammering but was never rightly cast till Julius the Second moulded it at Lateran and of a crackt piece made it whole Now every of these will prefer Episcopacy caeteris paribus before any of the other Platforms but their own espoused Darling which they would have all to accept because complying with and favouring their wordly designs and interests But ask seriously any of the more observing and understanding men which of the Claimers they would rather incline to provided they could not possibly procure their own to bear the sway they will fairly take to Episcopacy Num. 1. The Erastians will by no means joyn with the Pontificians because they challenge and usurp a power to take cognizance in causes merely Civil in ordine ad spiritualia Not with the Presbyterians because they also claim the same sub formalitate Scandali both of them maintain the power both of make and confirm Ecclesiastical Laws as originally and radically in their supreme Judicatures the Civil Magistrate is onely to execute them which he must doe upon their Significavit's and Writs of Requisition at his peril otherwise he shall be clogged with their Sentences of Excommunication Nor do they much fansie the Independents because they will not endure the Civil Magistrate to interpose in Church matters nor have the least stroke in externals of Religion As for the Bishops though it be a grievance that they sometimes meddle in matters of a mixt nature yet because they know that what they act in these cases is by authority derived from the Civil Magistrate according to the known standing Laws they esteem Episcopacy as the most safe and expedient form and so Bishops may stand for the present till they can by rebellion grasp again all Civil and Ecclesiastical power in their clutches Num. 2. Independents utterly dislike both Erastians and Pontificians and though they can associate with the Presbyterians at present yet they hold no good opinion of them In a Book entituled Saint John Baptist they heavily declaim against them saying They had established a Dagon in Christ's Throne had stinted the whole worship of God c. at last it came to this they had rather the French King yea the Great Turk should rule over them In a Book called The Arraignment of Persecution they declared If ever the Presbyterians rule in chief an higher persecuting spirit would be found in them than they had felt from the Bishops J. O. hath excellently decyphered these Num. 3. The Presbyterians grin at them all Beza is as angry at Erastus Socinus and Morellius as the Pope Mr. Henderson's tender Conscience started at the thought of them The Books are commonly to be had wherein they oft and sadly complained all that they could expect for their expences of Bloud and Treasure none of their own was to be recompensed with greater grievances and more dangerous licentiousness which is too true than they ever mourned for which is very false for most of them were colloguing compliers under the Government of King and Bishops At last they cried out Matters were come to that pass they had exchanged a bad Religion for none at all See Excom Excom p. 18. inde And Edwards his Gangrene Num. 4. The Papists of all men had the advantage but the more sober considering men among them have expressed That all their purchases of Proselytes were no compensation for those miseries they had sustained and still feared from the Junto's and that they were much more happy under the former Government which secured their civil Liberties and Birth-rights SECT 2. But let it be for once presumed that each of those Models had somewhat good yet withall recollect that the Constitution of this Church is of so excellent a mixture with the choicest ingredients that it will effect those great ends so much pretended by them more strongly and obligingly if it may attain its just value and respect For Num. 1. The Erastians are to be commended for their pretended care and endeavours that the power of the Civil Magistrate be not infringed by any Ecclesiastical Usurpation So far good if they were not possessed or rather pretend onely to be with fears and jealousies that this Church approved some principle to the diminution of the Civil Power which what it is none can with any colour of reason conjecture unless this be it that whilst she fully renders to Caesar the things that are Caesar's she is still cautious to reserve to God the things that are God's Erastus the first Founder of that Order had no prejudice against any thing determined in this Church upon that score if we respect either the motives which induced him to quarrel the Allobrogian Model or the Arguments he framed against it The Motives were 1. He had observed that Calvin had so cunningly contrived it that he and his assisting Ministers could upon every occasion overtop the Statesmen The artifice lay herein he took for a blind onely six Ministers but twelve Syndicks yet so that the Ministers were to continue for life but the Statesmen to be annually chosen whereby he conceived these changling Officers would be so wary as not to cross the standing Moderatours which so happened as he himself signified in his Epistle to Bulling Semper fuimus in ist a promiscua colluvie superiores We had always the better in that rifraff Junto 2. He knew those chosen Officers had neither age or experience nor judgment nor manners a full description of the late Lay-Elders to enable them to sustain so great an employment with credit and honour 3. He was provoked that a Malecontent English fugitive had liberty to discuss this Thesis viz. That in every well-ordered Church this Government was to be retained in which the Ministers with the concurrence of
invented Remonst Dec. 41. This was smartly urged against them by E. M. a long imprisoned Malignant an 1647. p. 3. of his Address I cannot said he submit to any new Government either in Church or Kingdom because all our late Parliaments and the Long Parliament most of all have still professed great severity and made strict inquisition against all men that should intend practise or endeavour any alteration of Religion or innovation in Doctrine or Worship as a capital offence But for all their solemn protestations to the contrary the Root and Branch design went on and when it was first set on foot Petitions were presented to prevent and stifle it The total of Subscribers in onely seven Counties and those none of the greatest amounted to 482 Lords and Knights 1740 Esquires and Gentlemen 44559 Freeholders and 631 Ministers number enough to shew how generally well affected the people of best rank and quality were for this Government but their reasons are rather to be weighed which were these by drawing them methodically 1. They desire they may left in that state the Apostles settled and left in the Church in that the three Ages of Martyrs were governed by in that the thirteen Ages since have always gloried in proving themselves by their succession of Bishops members of the Catholick Church A Government as certainly Apostolical as the observation of the Lord's day or distinction of Books Canonical from Apocryphal or that such Books were written by such Evangelists c. This they thus farther prosecuted either Christ left his Church without a lasting Government which we fear to say lest it might seem to accuse the wisedom of the father and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in not providing for his Family which we believe he did from Saint Luke's Testimony Luk. 12. 42. and if he lest no Rulers he left no Pastour Ruler and Pastour in Scripture being all one in person office and expression And if he did not leave such as we desire viz. Bishops the Church which we fear also to suppose hath been Apostate from her Lord for 1500 years she having no other but these for Rulers for that whole space of time Or else Christ did leave a lasting Government if so then every motion and attempt of alteration is Antichristian 2. Most of the reformed Churches have Bishops all that have any Protestant Princes with Sovereignty have them the rest which have them not highly approve and value the Order and heartily affect and wish it 3. The Removal of Bishops will be a great Scandal 1. To the weak who if they be really such and withall well-meaning suspect all innovations as some design upon their Consciences to ensnare them which makes them to suspect and dislike our whole Religion as we have found by sad experience yea the grievous Scandal of our Religion as unstable hath caused many to revolt from it 2. To the strongest who are not to be offended for this reason because they are not apt to be scandalized with umbrages and impertinences but real inconveniences and mischiefs 4. The unspeakable advantages given to our Enemies of Rome by this change which in the event proved so 5. The sad effects and consequences which we foresee and in part feel 1. Which we foresee We desire said they the continuance of this Government for that strange fears possess our hearts that Schisms Factions and Seditions will overwhelm us order peace and unity will be far removed from us reformation and suppression of wickedness and vice as is pretended will be totally cashiered and extinguished nor will ever take place or effect among us For we suspect and believe the sudden mutation of a Government so long settled and so well known cannot with any proportionable utility recompence the disturbances and disorders which it may work by novelty therefore we cannot without trembling and perplexity of mind entertain a thought of a change and of innovation in a matter of so high concernment For if the design go on we shall be reduced to such a desperate condition that we shall not know how to settle our selves or form our obedience in such distractions and sometimes repugnancies of commands as will unavoidably ensue 2. What they then felt in part since this Government is traduced and despised the Houses of God are profaned the Ministers of Christ contemned the Liturgy depraved that absolute model the Lord's Prayer vilified the Sacraments in some places unduly administred in others profanely neglected Marriages illegally solemnized Burials uncharitably performed and the very fundamentals of our Religion by the publication of a new Creed teaching the abrogation of the moral Law All the Religion we can hope for must be a movable Creed repealable by privileges and to be made suitable to the designs of any prevailing Faction whereby God is provoked his sacred Majesty dishonoured the Consciences of the people disquieted the Ministery disheartned and the Enemies of the Church emboldned in their enterprizes 6. We cannot hearken to such a change because for many years we have found the comfort and benefit of Episcopacy which as it hath been eminently serviceable to this Kingdom so it is most compliable with the civil Government into the Fabrick whereof it is incorporate that we must conclude it as the most pious so the most safe and prudent Wherefore to call it a Vassalage and intolerable burthen and thereupon to endeavour its removal relisheth not of piety prudence justice or charity This we are the rather induced to present both because our Fathers have told us of the great convenience and moderation of this Government and we have felt the comfortable experience thereof Certain it is this Kingdom is much indebted to the Bishops for their piety wisedom zeal and sufferings which we trust shall never be forgotten Thus far they It may not be amiss to subjoyn the later opinion of a great name with the Erastians who once indeed had declared before he was no such fool as to be a Puritan yet it is well known how c. but at last was forced to express his great esteem of Catholick Order The words are reported Fair Warning Part. 2. p. 4. and thus are set out It is a wonderfull thing that c. after that passage he gives his opinion I should much fear that our most excellent Religion so miserably confounded by its distracted followers would one day give place to the two grand mischiefs of the world Popery and Profaneness against which there are no other remedies besides the mercifull assistence of heaven than sound Doctrine settled severe Discipline established a decent and holy Worship secured and a grand establishment enjoyned which may fence in truth and virtue and keep out errour and sin whereby the Orthodox good part of the Nation may be known and encouraged as the Heterodox may be discovered and awed SECT 4. The little good which can be expected from Presbyterianism and Independency is that the Professours of the one Sect
and misfortunes thereof to amuse and distract the populacy and alienate their affections from it so do these Those told us the Sectaries were innocent harmless Creatures so do these Those boasted of their numbers and interest these much more and higher In brief what those pleaded for themselves and their unaccountable actings these do with virulent and pernicious improvements Now may these drive on their designs in the same way they always first set out to harden the people against their lawfull Superiours and shall not the true Sons of the Church endeavour to undeceive them and endear them to love honour and obey the King and all respectively that are in authority under him If we may not discourse of their former actings why was the King's Book published and appointed to be kept in all Churches or why do we observe annually the 30th of January Is it onely to tell stories of the barbarous villanies that day committed and not rather to encline and effectually move us to repent of those wicked principles and practices preparatory to them If the Sectarian Rebels may talk of the Papists and their Plots notwithstanding the Act of Oblivion and Indemnity why not the affectionate Royal use the same freedom against the Puritans The endeavours of both Papists and Puritans when invisible and under ground are equally dangerous when visible and acted above board equally mischievous Never was there a Rebellion contrived with greater hypocrisie begun upon less provocations ubi minus motivum majus peccatum nor managed with more savage barbarities than that of the late Schismatical Sectaries and Republican Atheists even that most execrable Popish Rebellion in Ireland seems not to exceed it scarce to equal it The differences of both are laid down by a very knowing excellent person in his Tract formerly mentioned entituled Serpent Salve p. 193. inde Indeed the Kirk Traitours professed they were grieved they were compared with Papists in point of allegiance and fidelity and that therein they suffered an hard construction from all the Reformed Churches ergo the Reformed Churches thought them Rebels Petit. of Commis of the Kirk of Scotland presented to his Majesty at Oxon by Mr. Alex. Henderson Jan. 4. 1643. his Majesty's answer thereto is most remarkable particularly what he declared in reference to the Irish viz. We profess our dislike of their Religion but though we think them worse Christians because they are Rebels yet we think them not worse Rebels because they are Papists A Protestant Rebel in the same degree hath far more to answer as having more light and it being more expressly against the Religion he professeth whereof heretofore it hath been a Maxime though now it be taken for Apocryphal Doctrine not to take up Arms against their Prince upon any pretence whatsoever The Statesmen of the Faction and the Presbyterian Pol's declared as traiterously as the Jesuits did No man could better evidence this than his late Sacred Majesty who hath fully done it in his Proclamation against levying of Forces Jun. 8. 1642. and in his Declaration Aug. 12. 1642. How the Presbyterian Ministers held it forth may be seen in the Book called Evangelium Armatum and in another entituled Dissenters Sayings To whose Collections I shall add viz. a Book called Scripture and Reason published by divers Divines and ordered by the Committee to be printed Apr. 14. 1643. Jus Populi 1644. p. 1. Souldiers Catech. passim Polit. Catech. Licensed by Mr. White May 20. 1643. L. S. in his Book called Natures Dowry c. 10. in the title Mr. Dury's Considerations with Caryl's Imprim 1649. Mr. Price one of their quondam Brethren says As the Constitutions of publick affairs vary among us so do the Constitutions of these mens Sermons viz. Presb. alter and change c. Pulpit Incendiary p. 7. and in his Clero Classicum p. 17 18. Can you presume we are so dull as not to observe your partial and crafty handling of the word of God do not your practices settle and establish Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness c. and p. 53. You told the people that the King was a man of bloud and took hold of all whisperings and hear-says of his wickedness to make him odious to the people and p. 40. You took the Covenant and having taken it you turned and winded it making it look East and West North and South as your interest wrought c. and from p. 32. to 35. he proves the horrid Regicide to be an act agreeable enough to their declared judgments quoting several passages out of Presbyterian Authours Mr. Philips in his Veritas inconcussa assures us when the business of the Treaty that of 1647 as I suppose came into discourse the Assembly of Divines quickly resolved all of them but four to be against it See for this also Considerations touching the present Factions in the King's Dominions p. 6. Add to all these the Edenbourgh Remonstrance Mar. 1. 1648. the Declaration of the General Assembly in Scotland Jan. 10. 1648. Dr. Owen's Fast Sermon Jan. 31. 1648. p. 5 15. Brooks Cockraine c. But the Newcastle * Woolfall Presbyterian who was after his death honoured with a Monument with high Elogies in Hebrew Greek and Latin was more than Jesuitical in his Doctrines which were these 1. All Government is derived from the People 2. The Governours appointed by them in case of male-administration are to be questioned by them 3. If the preservation of the King's person be incompatible with the preservation of our selves and our Religion then the deposition was no breach of Covenant 4. In the Oath of Allegiance a condition is implied viz. to be true to the King so long and so far as he is true to his trust otherwise the obligation ceaseth 5. In the deposition of the King his Posterity ceaseth as to that right 6. We justifie not the persons proceeding against the King but we justifie the fact so that upon the point Presbyterians might proceed against the King but not Papists so old Goodman nor the Independents nor other Sectaries but onely the Presbyterians by this man's opinion which justifies Mr. Price's censure in his answer to the London Ministers Letter to the general Council of War Jan. 8. 1648. that they thought the taking away the King's Life in that manner for that 's their phrase was unjustifiable but it might be done warrantably enough in another manner and it justifies what Noll said of them Presbyterians are not so much troubled at the King's death as that they had not the chief hand and stroke in it Lastly before these troubles broke out a secular Priest Watson quodl secund Art 1. to that question Whether the Jesuits or Puritans were more dangerous passes this censure That the Jesuits are more dangerous not that their intent against the Church and State is more malitious than that of the Puritans but because their manner of proceeding is more covert substantial and orderly in it self their grounds more firm