have been invested with I shall not now trouble the Reader with a particular recitation of those disturbances and molestations wherewith our Kings and Nobles as well as Commons have suffered under Popish Bishops Nor yet the Practices of our late Bishops of the Reformation how they oppressed the Subjects and overthrew all Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom to set up their own Power and satisfie the lust of tyrannous and absolute Dominion abusing the goodness of our Kings to this purpose which things have been shewed already by others It shall be sufficient to observe that when by the Reformation the Scriptues were opened and put into every mans hands for their Direction there were found very few whose minds were dis-engaged from the Superstition of Popery but manifested an inclination to embrace the Scripture in the true and native plainness of it and to yield obedience to the sincere practical Duties therein contained And at that time it seemed to have an Influence upon the Clergy as well as others who minding the calling the People off from Popery or Confirming them in the Reformed Religion or building them up in Faith and good Works were not much sollicitous of Dominion and Jurisdiction but depended upon the Kings Grace not only for any Authority to be exercised by them but also for their very Lands and Revenues And he that had so boldly spoiled Abbies and Monasteries bringing down proud and stately Fabricks to the dust and Confiscating their Revenues could also upon the least occasion offer'd or tending to oppose his Projects have caused them to taste of the same Lot with their Brethren These two things were concurring the Truth of Christ and Fear of the Prince to whom they were subject must needs make tolerable Bishops though it is probable they were good men notwithstanding But as it was in the Bishops of Rome who of tollerable Bâ—shops at the first when their Fortunes were small and the Secular Authority too Potent to be resisted became intolerable Usurpers of uncontrollable Power when once they had settled their Foot and enlarged their Dominions So likewise the old Serpent had the same Game to play with us For after a little time having settled themselves by Law they began to look about and think of amplifying their Power making all men submit thereto and to suppress all opposition and root it out And now they held no longer of the Kings Grace but Jure Divino still augmenting and riveting themselves by degrees in Secular Authority and exceeding therewth from the Light and Purity of Scripture to a hatred thereof and the Preaching of it and all such as owned it in Publick declaring and teaching it or in private Till at length no Remonstrances or Petitions to the contrary notwithstanding They had erected a Court of Commission and had brought a Spanish Inquisition amongst us and proceeded to other acts by corrupting or delaying Justice that it was hard to say whether the Subject was more opprest by being deprived of the Priviledges the Law allows him or the Bishops more Tirants Usurpers in going so far beyond the limits that the Law had set them every where acting with such a Power as the Effects made appear to be unlimited They having been thus seduced by Riches and Greatness to abandon the Truth and Purity of Christian Religion Yet other Persons wanting that Temptation had no reason to submit to a domineering Lust against the Testimony of Truth and Religion nor lend their assistance to maintain a laizy and usurped authority So that animosities must needs be kindled and as the Bishops grew more in Authority and Dominion and farther departed from this Truth the Malice and Rage of the one increased which added stubborness and resolution to the other These Causes of dissention were kindling and somenting a long while till the Bishops at last so far abused the good nature of K. Charles I. so far to the oppression of the Truth and the mantainers of it and it was but the Name of a Puritan that must make a Man lyable to all the Inconveniences of a tyranical Court to be susspended from his Office and the Benefits of it to have his Study and House ransack'd forced to accuse himself by an Oath Ex Officio and besides waiting upon Vexatious and Dilatory Suits without liberty of Pleading or answering to any thing that was objected against him He must thus spend his Time and his Estate to the Ruine of Himself and his Family These and other things became so general a burden that there was no redress but by taking up Arms against those unjust Invaders of their Liberty whose original Greatness being establisht by Deceit and Falshood their Authority a Usurpation their Government though it had been Legal yet so unreasonably abused to the disturbance of the Peace and Liberty of the Subject It were not in the Kings power though they decoy'd him to their Party nor was it just and right in him to defend or abett them much less to esteem what was done against them to be done against Himself His Royal Crown or Sacred Authority He is to be the Minister of Justice and this must be adherd to though with the loss of whatsoever is most dear to him T is He acts against his own Life Crown He betrays his Scepter and Authority and is guilty of Treason against himself when he takes part with the unrighteous with cruel and blood-thirsty men to disturb the Peace of his true and Loyal Subjects to spoil them of their Lives and Fortunes and leave the Children of Innocent Men to the extremity of Sorrow and Distress Thus were we at length engaged in a Civil War and by a soul and reproachful Disaster contrary to the desires and wishes of the Nation The Hand of the Subject was imbrued in the Blood of his King and shall we think these Men Innocent in all this Then may it be said that he who shall all manner of ways exagitate his enemie and leave no part of malice unattempted to hasten the destruction of him who hath no other quarrel to his Persecutor but the desire of his amendment if he shall drive him to the utmost and last extremity so that he knows not which way to turn and finds no possible means of Recovery and safety but by disarming his Persecutor and captivating that Power that was so unjustly drawn out against him This Person thus disarmed may then complain he is abused and set upon his Life and Fortune assaulted upon no ground or reason he is Innocent and only guilty if that be guilt of endeavouring to bring his Enemy to a right mind that is to be his Vassal that he may set his foot upon the neck of his Enemy and make him know that HE also is a God that ruleth in the Earth The same imbittered Spirit seems to continue still with us and has not been without its Essays of disturbing that Peace and repose which we at present enjoy
serving the Lord our God with one heart and one mind rejoycing before him continually Now it should methinks shame these Teachers of what denom nation soever that set up a Doctrine of their own framing though out of the Litteral Word if they consider that after all their contrivances and designes their study and labour and spending so much sweat and words in the Pulpit it is as impossible for them to make men Believe or Holy or Powerful to resist the least Temptation as it was in the Priests of Baall after their Bellowings and howlings to obtain the pure fire from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice and I wish they would no longer with them halt between two opinions But if God be to be Worshiped let him be only Worshiped and entirely Worshiped and made not only the object but to fill all Circumstances of his Worship Thus I have endeavoured according to my Talent to shew with what plainness I could the nature of Christian Religion and to preserve it from the mistakes it lyes under at this day by Episcopal Government and shewn that the necessity of the Affairs of the Nation conspire with Religion to abolish it and let us understand the voice of God and what he requires when he has thus hedged in our way that we cannot divert to any other path but with great Detriment He hath proclaimed the Truth of his Religion and Worship which he will no longer suffer to be opprest with unjust usurpation If the Government shall think good to interest themselves in his cause it will be well for them but if not he will find other means and make way for the accomplishment of his will And let not the Bishops and their Party say that every dangerous change in the Common-wealth still makes them the first objects of the assault and begins through their sides to ruine the Common-wealth For the thing is contrary and he that will bring any Reformation in Church or State must begin with them who generally have been the disturbers of both and alwayes the strongest opposers of any thing that tended much to the benefit of either so that any thing that is good and truly Profitable must needs call for their removal as its first step to advancement How great the benefit would be of casting off the Bishops Courts and that unsupportable Yoke the Subject is enslaved to by means thereof though all men are in some measure sensible yet those only can fully understand who have felt the Lash of it and I think there is no man that considers the abominable Corruption in those Courts that any thing is carried which way the man desires that gives the most Money that all such persons as are of any Rank or Fortune or Esteem in the World are freed from the molestations of these Courts only such as are poor and have little must have this addition to their Misery to maintain the Credit of this unjust Authority by the expence of their time and that little lively-hood they have whereby it is plainly to be seen that they are not keept to rectifie Disorders or ill Manners as they pretend but purely for support of Episcopal Authority without any farther end or which is worse to Grind the poor and to rob such as are ready to starve And after all that has been said shall we imagine that the Magistrate does ill to take away Bishops Lands or is their any cause to doubt what he ought or what is his duty to do in this case rather do not the rules of Justice and Conscience oblidge him thereto with the strongest obligation for what greater obligation can there happen to a Magistrate than to honour his Creatour to obey him from whom he has received that trust he is invested with and to take away all remainders of an unsavory Idolatrous Worship What can oblige him more then to procure the Happiness and welfare of his Subject in all cases where it may be done with safely to himself and his Government with Justice and Piety and without injury to any ought he not in Conscience to establish a Harmony and Concord amongst his people tending to their peace and settlement and manifold satisfaction Ought he not like a good Physitian to take away that ill humour that has layne so long corroding upon their Bowells Or is there any other or better means of laying a solid foundation of durable empire and undisturbed Government then in the prosperity and contentment of the people Do not all our Laws and degrees of Magistracy and even Civil Society it self tend to this end is not this that bond that at first linked men into Civility made them reasonable and sociable and void of this they slide insensibly into confusion and return to the Savage nature of such as Prey upon their own kind For such is said to be the condition of our Ancestors before they understood the benefit of concord and usefulness of well ordered Government which restrains Injustice by Laws and gives Life to whatever may benefit mankind But I cannot think that barbarous Age so bad when force prevailed and strength of Arme bore down all before it when nothing could be called a mans own longer then the absence of a more puissant Champion gave him leave to enjoy it when weakness and innocence was the greatest calamity and occasion and suffering continual Insolences and outrages When Robbery and Stealing gave a just Title to all things a man could Possess and the security thereof lay only in the strength of Possessour if we compare these times with what has succeeded under Episcopal Jurisdiction we shall find the same exorbitances but perhaps more grievous coming upon the Stage the Scene only altered since unrighteousness was established by a Law and backed with Religion since Piety and the fear of God was thought worthy the greatest Punishment Innocence and Humility the greatest guilt to open the mouth against vanity and wickedness was the greatest Heresie Since men have acted Lyes with Applause and Deceit with Honour and Remuneration professing Christ yet trampling him under their feet renouncing the World yet insatiable in their desires after it pretending Humility yet insulting over the greatest Princes Encouraging a contempt of the Almighty their Creatour and Redeemer filling their Coffers by Indulgences and Pardons thereof and in the mean time the violation of the least Punctilio enjoyned by them must be worthy of death I could enlarge upon these things but why should I do it To thee O Lord Vengeance belongeth Shew thy self O God of our Salvation There are two things more which are wanting to give us a vigorous and lasting health one is the Regulating the Laws and the abuses of the numerous pretenders to it For the first in my Apprehension it were necessary that the beginning of every Kings Reigne should be accompanied with a Cleansing Digesting and Gompiling a certain Perfect Body of the Law that it might be something certain and that it might not be
lyable to the Quirkes and Fallacies of so many busie Deceivers and also that it may be brought as near as may be to the present Genius and Humour of men by that means that we be not governed by an Antique Humour as we would not be clothed in their fashion To Regulate the abuses therein and hinder Multiplicity of Suites the means may be to appoint Arbitrations that no Suit shall be in any of the Kings Courts under a hundred Pounds But that the Parties at variance for any value under that be made to chuse each his Arbitratour and to enter into bond to approve the Arbitrators shall determine only this bond in case Covenants be not performed to be brought into the higher Courts and Sentence strictly passed thereupon also in case one Party refuse this Arbitration that then the other proceed in the Kings Court and that the refuser be proceeded against upon Evidence given as Non-suited Some such effectal application the Corruption of Judicature and increase of Law Suites do seem to require The Benefits whereof will be 1. That people shall in a manner decide themselves their disagreements it being done by those whom themselves chuse 2. The Case may be more fully known being near the place and Justice more exactly rendered by that means 3. It saves great Expences and long Journeys 4. It may be a means that men run not out of their Estates by long Suits 5. It may keep a good Ballance of Money in the Pockets of meaner men which tends to the advancement of Trade and so Lawyers may be prevented of drawing too much thereof into their Pockets where it is either useless to the publick or manifestly prejudicial by Usury and exaction Likewise it were highly requisite the Universities were looked into which are become Seminaries of Debauchery rather then good Learning or good Manners to the Nation They have too great a Temptation to Debauchery from the too large Beneficence of their Founders which would be Retrenched and part of the Revenues and also of their Colledges better setled upon another designe viz. for maintaining Professors in all manner of Gentile Heroick exercises that young Gentlemen may not only know Arts and Sciences but also to Fence Ride Marshall an Army and the like continual reading flats and deads the mind makes it unfit for Action But this exercise will whet and inlarge it and make men capable of being imployed in the Common-wealth and I perswade my self that these two being conjoyned Reading and Exercise would make a wise active people It were advisable that Tutours trouble not their Pupills with an uncertain and Pedantick Philosophy and with the Fabulous and Futilous Authors of Hethenisme But rather wiâ—h History Sacred and Profane Mathematicks Sacred Philology Languages Policy c. But above all to instruct them in Religion and matters of the Bible and of Salvation The difference of Habit in their degrees serve to puff them up and cause them to carry a Magisterial Pride throughout their Lives every little adds to a mind already corrupted For a Conclusion let Politicians enquire whether it be safe and requisite in a Common-wealth to allow of two Authorities and two distinct orders of Government in the same body Politick I suppose they will find it noxious if the consider that the Stability and Perpetuity of a Common wealth depends upon its oneness or unity which is like the straight line of the Mathematicians the foundation of all other their operations now this oneness is so near the foundation of a Common-wealth that any receding from it most needs have a dangerous influence upon the whole Fabrick being a weakning and loosning the Foundations and the effects must follow that a violent Push of Storm and Wind will through this defect endanger its overthrow For this Episcopal Government being established upon on different principles and different Interest to the rest of the Government with another Authority then that of the supream Authority it will follow that though it may agree well for a time in subordination to the supream Authority yet there is a gap open for Division which will not be without its evil effects when any unusual accident shall happen in the Common-wealth to its disturbance thus we know by vertue of this Authority and from this principle of Division in the Government our Kings to have been thrown off the whole Kingdom disturbed and made Feudatary to a Forreigne Authority as in King John In those times it played with its Batteries upon our Kings but since the Reformation it has turned the Engines of Malice upon the People and cause them to begin a War In briefe Episcopacy being a Government of it self distinct from the supream and lawful Authority without any just Title or pretensions all which come within the verge of the Civil Magistrate it must needs to support it self for it cannot be idle trouble the Waters that it may have the better Fishing If you say it is necessary for Maintaining Religion the Answer is I have shewed before that Religion needs no such supports And further that the first Instituters of our Religion never used nor claimed any such Authority but with the greatest submission yeilded to the Secular Power in all things The Christian Religion tends to benefit mankind with all good things temporal and eternal it is perfect goodness and perfect unity and it is impossible a principle of Division should proceed from it And therefore those Divisions in Common-wealths can proceed from no other cause then the author of Division who having at first separated from the Holy God makes it his business to fill all things with the effects of that Division But you will say the Church under Christ and his Apostles was persecuted and hated The Answer is that the Tempter made the first proffer the Kingdoms of the earth and the Glories of them to our Saviour if he would fall down and Worship him which our Saviour refusing to do and his Apostles he was forced to keep them till he met such as admiring the beguiling Temptation would submit to the Condition But Politicians will tell us that all mutation in Government goes not unaccompanied with danger to which we may Answer That this happens when Circumstantials are changed for other Circumstantialls as I may call them As the danger is nothing so much in taking away any thing in a Common-wealth that is superfluous but in the bringing in a thing superfluous Thus the taking away the Ceremonies in Scotland at the Reformation was without any great noise but the obtruding a new Lyturgy was not without Tumult and War the like we have seen in England the pulling down of Abbies and Monasteryes in the time of Henry the 8th and alienating the Lands of the Church was done with safety and silence enough But the practises of bringing in new Ceremonies in the time of Charles the first was followed with a Bloody War wonderful change of Affairs whereas the