came out in some years succeeding for the taking away of Images and Reliques with all the Ornaments of the same and all the Monumens and writings of feigned Miracles and for restraint of offering or setting up Lights in any Churches but only to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar in which he was directed chiefly by Arch-Bishop Cranmer as also those for eating of white meats in the time of Lent the abolishing the Fast on St. Marks day and the ridiculous but superstitious sports accustomably used on the days of St. Clement St. Katherine and St. Nicholas All which and more was done in the said Kings Reign without help of Parliament For which I shall refer you to the Acts and Mon. fol. 1385 1425 1441. The like may also be affirmed of the Injunctions published in the name of K. E. 6. An. 1547. and printed also then for the Use of the Subjects And of the several Letters missive which went forth in his Name prohibiting the bearing of Candles on Candlemas-day of Ashes in Lent and of Palms on Palm-sunday for the taking down of all the Images throughout the Kingdom for administring the Communion in both kinds dated March 13 1548. for abrogating of private Masses June 24 1549. for bringing in all Missals Graduals Processionals Legends and Ordinals about the latter end of December of the same year for taking down of Altars and setting up Tables instead thereof An. 1550. and the like to these All which particulars you have in Foxes Book of Acts and Mon. in King Edwards life which whether they were done of the Kings meer motion or by advice of his Council or by consultation with his Bishops for there is little left upon Record of the Convocations of that time more than the Articles of the year 1552 certain I am that there was nothing done nor yet pretended to be done in all these particulars by the Authority of Parliament Thus also in Q. Elizabeths time before the new Bishops were well settled and the Queen assured of the affections of her Clergy she went that way to work in the Reformation which not only her two Predecessors but all the Godly Kings and Princes in the Jewish State and many of the Christian Emperours in the Primitive times had done before her in the well ordering of the Church and People committed to their care and government by Almighty God and to that end she published her Injunctions An. 1559. A Book of Orders An. 1561. Another of Advertisements An. 1562. All tending unto Reformation unto the building up of the new Jerusalem with the advice and counsel of the Metropolitan and some other Godly Prelates who were then a-about her by whom they were agreed on and subscribed unto before they were presented to her without the least concurrence of her Court of Parliament But when the times were better settled and the first difficulties of her Reign passed over she left Church-work to the disposing of Church-men who by their place and calling were most proper for it and they being met in Convocation and thereto Authorised as the Laws required did make and publish several Books of Canons as viz. 1571. An. 1584. An. 1597. Which being confirmed by the Queen under the broad Seal of England were in force of Laws to all intents and purposes which they were first made but being confirmed without those formal words Her Heirs and Successors are not binding now but expired together with the Queen No Act of Parliament required to confirm them then nor never required ever since on the like occasion A fuller evidence whereof we cannot have than in the Canons of year 1603. being the first year of King James made by the Clergy only in the Convocation and confirmed only by the King for though the old Canons were in force which had been made before the submission of the Clergy as before I shewed you which served in all these wavering and unsettled times for the perpetual standing rule of the Churches Government yet many new emergent cases did require new rules and whilst there is a possibility of Mali mores there will be a necessity of bonae Leges Now in the confirmation of these Canons we shall find it thus That the Clergy being met in their Convocation according to the Tenour and effect of his Majesties Writ his Majesty was pleased by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in causes Ecclesiastical to give and grant unto them by his Letters Patents dated April 12. and June 25. full free and lawful liberty licence power and authority to convene treat debate consider consult and agree upon such Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they should think necessary fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better government thereof from time to time c. to be kept by all persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being members of the Church it may concern them which being agreed on by the Clergy and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his Royal assent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25 of K. H. 8. and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for himself his Heirs and lawful Successors straightly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjects diligently to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they do or may concern all or any of them No running to the Parliament to confirm these Canons nor any question made till this present by temperate and knowing men that there wanted any Act for their confirmation which the law could give them 7. An Answer to the main Objections of either Party BUT against this all which hath been said before it will be objected That being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more Authority and Jurisdiction nisi à Parliamentis derivatum but that which is conferred upon them by the power of Parliaments as both Sanders and Schultingius do expresly say whatsoever they shall do or conclude upon either in Convocation or in more private conferences may be called Parliamentarian also And this last calumny they build on the several Statutes 24 H. 8. c. 12. touching the manner of Electing and Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops that of the 1 E. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what Seals they shall use these of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. 5. 6 E. 6. for Authorizing of the Book of Ordination But chiefly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in Consecrating any Arch Bishop or bishop within this Realm To give a general answer to each several cavil you may please to know that the Bishops as they now stand in the Church of England derive their Calling together with
should be sanctified when it was ordered and appointed by the Law of Moses And this he calls Commentum ineptum contra literam ipsam contra ipsius Moseos declarationem A foolish and absurd conceit contrary unto Moses words and to his meaning Yet the same Catharin doth affirm in the self-same Book Scripturis frequentissimum esse multa per anticipationem narrare that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures than these anticipations And in particular that whereas it is said in the former Chapter male and female created he them per anticipationem dictum esse non est dubitandum that without doubt it is so said by anticipation the Woman not being made as he is of opinion till the next day after which was the Sabbath For the Anticipation he cites St. Chrysostom who indeed tells us on that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold saith he how that which was not done as yet is here related as if done already He might have added for that purpose Origen on the first of Genesis and Gregory the Great Moral lib. 32. cap. 9. both which take notice of a Prolepsis or Anticipation in that place of Moses For the creation of the Woman he brings in St. Jerom who in his Tract against the Jews expresly saith mulierem conditam fuisse die septimo that the Woman was created on the seventh day or Sabbath to which this Catharin assents and thinks that thereupon the Lord is said to have finished all his works on the seventh day that being the last that he created This seems indeed to be the old Tradition if it be lawful for me to digress a little it being supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixth day in the end whereof he was created did fall that night into a deep and heavy sleep and that upon the Sabbath or the seventh day morning his side was opened and a rib took thence for the creation of the Woman Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend And this I have the rather noted to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon For whereas he concludes from the rest of God that without doubt the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day wherein God rested it seems by him God did not rest on that day and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all or else it will be lawful for us by the Lords example to do whatever works we have to do upon that day and after sanctifie the remainder And yet I needs must say withal that Catharinus was not the only he that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath Aretius also so conceived it Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete transacta Problem loc 55. sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit ut Hebraeus contextus habet Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew denieth not but the Hebrew Text will bear that meaning Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the translation of that place did purposely translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on the sixth day God finished all the work that he had made and after rested on the seventh And this they did saith he ut omnem dubitandi occasionem tollerent to take away all hint of collecting thence that God did any kind of work upon that day For if he finished all his works on the seventh day it may be thought faith he that God wrought upon it Saint Hierom noted this before that the Greek Text was herein different from the Hebrew and turns it as an argument against the Jews and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath Artabimus igitur Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur Q◠Hebraicae in Gen. quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipst diei quia in ipso universa compleverat If so if God himself did break the Sabbath as St. Hierom turns upon the Jews we have small cause to think that he should at that very time impose the Sabbath as a Law upon his creatures But to proceed Others that have took part with Catharinus against Tostatus have had as ill success as he in being forced either to grant the use of Anticipation in the holy Scripture or else to run upon a Tenet wherein they are not like to have any seconds I will instance only in two particulars both Englishmen and both exceeding zealous in the present cause The first is Doctor Bound who first of all did set afoot these sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England 2. Edit p. 10. wherewith the Church is still disquieted He determines thus I deny not saith he but that the Scripture speaketh often of things as though they had been so before because they were so then when the things were written As when it is said of Abraham that he removed unto a Mountain Eastward of Bethel whereas it was not called Bethel till above a hundred years after The like may be said of another place in the Book of Judges called Bochin c. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so And why not so in this as well as those Because saith he Moses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath not only because it was so then when he wrote that Book but specially because it was so even from the Creation Medulla Theol. l. 2. c. 15. § 9. Which by his leave is not so much a reason of his opinion as a plain begging of the question The second Doctor Ames the first I take it that sowed Bounds doctrine of the Sabbath in the Netherlands Who saith expresly first and in general terms hujusmodi prolepseos exemplum nullum in tota scriptura dari posse that no example of the like anticipation can be found in Scripture the contrary whereof is already proved After more warily and in particular de hujusmodi institutione Proleptica that no such institution is set down in Scripture by way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation either in that Book or in any other And herein as before I said he is not like to find any seconds We find it in the sixteenth of Exodus that thus Moses said This is the thing which the Lord commandeth Verse 32 Fill an Omer of it of the Mannah to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt It followeth in the Text that as the Lord commanded Moses Verse 34 so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Here is an Ordinance of Gods an institution of the Lords and this related in the same manner by anticipation as the former was Lyra upon the place affirms expresly that it is spoken there per anticipationem and so doth Vatablus too in his Annotations on that Scripture But
Counties that under the pretence of taking away abuses there had been a general forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes to ratifie and publish the Declaration of his Majesties Father before remembred adding That all those Feasts with others should be observed and that all neighbourhood and freedom with manlike and lawful exercises be therein used Commanding all the Justices of Assize in their several Circuits to see that no man do trouble or molest any of his loyal and dutiful People in or for their lawful Recreations having first done their duty to God and continuing in obedience unto him and his Laws and further that publication thereof be made by order from the Bishops through all the Parishes of their several Diocesses respectively Thus did it please his excellent and sacred Majesty to publish his most pious and religious purpose of opening to his loyal people that liberty of the day which the day allowed of and which all Christian States and Churches in all times before had never questioned withal of shutting up that door whereat no less than Judaism would in fine have entred and so in time have over-run the fairest and most beautiful Church at this day in Christendom And certainly it was a pious and Princely act nothing inferiour unto that of Constantine or any other Christian King or Emperour before remembred it being no less pious in it self considered to keep the Holy-days free from Superstition than to preserve them from Prophaneness especially considering that permission of lawful Pleasures is no less proper to a Festival than restraint from labour Nay of the two it is more ancient For in his time Tertullian tells us that they did diem solis laetitiae indulgere devote the Sunday partly unto Mirth and Recreation not to Devotion altogether when in an hundred years after Tertullians time there was no Law or Constitution to restrain men from labour on this day in the Christian Church Yet did not his most excellent Majesty find such obedience in some men and such as should have been examples unto their flocks as his most Christian purpose did deserve there being some so setled in the opinion of a Sabbath day a day not heard of in the Church of Christ 40 years agoe that they chose rather to deprive the Church of their pains and ministry than yield unto his Majesties most just commands For whose sakes specially next to my duty unto God my Soveraign and the Church my Mother I have employed my time and studies to compose this History that they may see therein in brief the practice of Gods Church in the times before them and frame themselves to do thereafter casting aside those errours in the which they are and walking in the way which they ought to travel Which way when all is done will be via Regia the Kings high way as that which is most safe and of best assurance because most travelled by Gods people Our private paths do lead us often into errour and sometimes also into danger And therefore I beseech all those who have offended in that kind to lay aside their passions and their private interests if any are that way misguided as also not to shut their eyes against those truths which are presented to them for their information that so the King may have the honour of their due obedience the Church the comfort of their labours and conformable ministry For to what purpose should they hope to be ennobled for their sufferings in so bad a cause that neither hath the doctrine of the Scripture to authorize it or practice of the Church of God the best Expositor of the Scripture to confirm and countenance it or to be counted constant to their first Conclusions having such weak and dangerous premisses to support the same since constancy not rightly grounded is at best but obstinacy and many times doth end in Heresie Once again therefore I exhort them even in Gods name whose Ministers they are and unto whom they are to give up an account of their imployment and in the Kings Name whom as Gods deputy they are bound to obey not for wrath only but for conscience sake and in the Churches name whose peace they are to study above all things else and their own names lastly whom it most concerns that they desist and go not forwards in this disobedience lest a worse business fall upon them For my part I have done my best so far to give them satisfaction in the present point so far forth as the nature of an History would permit as they might think it no disparagement to alter their opinions and desert their errors and change their resolutions since in so doing they shall conform themselves unto the practice of Gods Church in all times and Ages The greatest Victory which a man can get is to subdue himself and triumph over sin and errour De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 30. I end as I began in S. Augustins language Quibus hoc nimium vel quibus parum est mihi ignoscant quibus satis est non mihi sed Domino mecum congratulantes gratias agant Let such as shall conceive this Treatise to be too little or too much excuse my weakness And as for those whom it may satisfie in the smallest measure let them not unto me but to God with me ascribe all the honour to whom belongs all praise and glory even for evermore Pibrac Quadr. 5. Ne va disant ma main a faict cest oeuure Ou ma vertu ce bel oeuure a parfaict Mais dis ainsi Dieu par moy l'oeuuee a faict Dieu est l'Autheur du peu de bien que l'oeuure Say not my hand this Work to end hath brought Nor this my vertue hath attain'd unto Say rather thus this God by me hath wrought God's Author of the little good I do FINIS Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the WESTERN CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND IN The Five Controverted Points Reproached in these Last times by the Name of ARMINIANISM Collected in the way of an Historical Narration Out of the Publick Acts and Monuments and most approved Authors of those several Churches By PETER HEYLYN D. D. Jer. 6.16 State super vias videte interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona ambulate in ea invenietis refrigerium animabus vestris Macrob. in Saturnal Omne meum nihil meum LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. TO THE READER IT is well known to some in London and elsewhere that these Papers were finished for the Press before August last But the first breaking out in Cheshire and the unsetledness of affairs which ensued upon it proved such discouragements to all Engagings of this kind that Michaelmas was past before the undertakers would adventure on it And what distractions have since followed
great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de vita Mosis or Court of Sanhedrim And this is that which Casaubon doth also tell us from the most learned and expert of the Jewish Rabbins Non nisi nobilissimos è sacerdotibus Levitis caeteroque populo in lege peritissimos in Sanhedrim eligi Casaub Exercit in Baron 1. Sect. 3. that is to say that none but the most eminent of the Priests the Levites and the rest of the People and such as were most conversant in the Book of the Law were to be chosen into the Sanhedrim But to return again to the Book of God the power and reputation of this Court and Consistory having been much diminished in the times of the Kings of Judah was again revived by Jehosaphat Of whom we read that he not only did appoint Judges in the Land throughout all the fenced Cities of Judah 2 Chron. 19.5 but that he established at Hierusalem a standing Council consisting of the Levites and of the Priests and of the chief of the Fathers of Israel for the judgments of the Lord Ibid. r. 8. and for controversies according to the model formerly laid by God himself in the Book of Deuteronomy Which Court or Council thus revived continued in full force authority and power during the time of the captivity of Babilon as appears plainly by that passage in the Prophesie of Ezekiel where it is said of the Priests even by God himself Ezek. 44. v. 24. in controversie they shall stand in judgment compared with another place of the same Prophet where he makes mention of the Seventy of the Antients of the House of Israel Id. c. 8. v. 11. and Jaazaniah the Son of Shaphan standing in the midst as Prince of the Senate And after their return from that house of bondage they were confirmed in this authority by the Edict and Decree of Artaxerxes who gave Commission unto Ezra to set Magistrates and Judges over the People not after a new way of his own devising Ezra 6.7 v. 25. but after the wisdom of his God declared in the foregoing Ages by his Servant Moses In which estate they stood all the times succeeding until the final dissolution of that State and Nation with this addition to the power of the holy Priesthood that they had not only all that while their place and suffrage in the Court of Sanhedrim as will appear to any one who hath either read Josephus or the four Evangelists but for a great part of that time till the Reign of Herod the Supream Government of the State was in the hands of the Priests In which regard besides what was affirmed from Synesius formerly it is said by Justin Morem esse apud Judaeos ut eosdem Reges sacerdotes haberent that it was the custom of the Jews for the same men to be Kings and Priests Justin hist l. 36. and Tacitus gives this general note Judaeis Sacerdotu honorem firmamentum potentiae esse that the honour given unto the Priesthood amongst the Jews did most espeeially conduce to the establishment of their power and Empire And yet I cannot yield to Baronius neither Tacit. hist l. 3. where he affirms the better to establish a Supremacy in the Popes of Rome Summum Pont. arbitrio suo moderari magnum illud Concilium Baron Annal. An. 57. c. that the High Priest was always President of the Council or Court of Sanhedrim it being generally declared in the Jewish Writers that the High Priest could challenge no place at all therein in regard of his offence and descent but meerly in respect of such personal abilities as made himself to undergo such a weighty burden for which see Phagius in his notes on the 16 of Deuteronomy Thus have we seen of what authority and power the Priests were formerly as well amongst the Jews as amongst the Gentiles we must next see whether they have not been employed in the like affairs under the Gospel of Christ and that too in the best and happiest times of the Christian Church In search whereof it is not to be looked for by the ingenuous Reader that we should aim so high as the first 300 years after Christs Nativity The Prelates of the Church were suspected then to have their different aims and interesses from those who had the government of the Civil State and therefore thought uncapable of trust and imployment in it But after that according to that memorable maxim of Optatus Deschismat Donatist l. 3. Ecclesia erat in Republicâ the Church became a part of the Common-wealth and had their ends and aims united there followed these two things upon it first that the Supream Government of the Church depended much upon the will and pleasure of the Supream Magistrate Scorat Eccl. hist lib. 5. c. 1. insomuch as Socrates observeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the greatest Councils have been called by their authority and appointment And 2ly That the Governours and Rulers of the Church of God came to have place and power in disposing matter that appertained to the well ordering of the Civil State And this they did not our of any busie or pragmatical desire to draw the cognizance of secular causes into their own hands or to increase their power and reputation with the common People but meerly for the ease and benefit of those who did repair unto them for their help and counsel and to comply with the command of the Apostle who imposed it on them S. Austin tells us of S. Ambrose with how great difficulty he obtained an opportunity of conversing with him privately and at large as his case required Secludentibus eum ab ejus aure atque ore catervis negociosorum hominum August Confes l. 6. c. 3. the multitude of those who had business to him and suits to be determined by him debarring him from all advantages of access and conference Which took up so much of his time that he had little leisure to refresh his body with necessary food or his mind with the reading of good Authors And Posidonius tells us of S. Austin causas audisse diligenter pie that he diligently and religiously attended such businesses as were brought before him not only spending all the morning in that troublesome exercise Posidon in vita August c. 19. but sometimes fasting all day long the better to content the suitor and dispatch the business The like S. Austin tells us of himself and his fellow Prelates first that the Christians of those times pro secularibus causis suis nos non raro quaererent August in Psal 118. serm 74 Epist 147. did ordinarily apply themselves unto them for the determining of secular causes and chearfully submitted unto their decisions next that the Prelates did comply with their earnest solicitations and desires therein Tu multuosissimas eausarum alienarum perplexitates patiendo Id. de opere Monach. c. 29. by
held on the 25th of June 1622. were severally condemned to be erroneous scandalous and destructive of Monarchical Government Upon which Sentence or determination the King gave order that as many of those books as could be gotten should solemnly and publickly be burnt in each of the Universities and St. Pauls Church-yard which was done accordingly An accident much complained of by the Puriten party for a long time after who looked upon it as the funeral pile of their Hopes and Projects till by degrees they got fresh courage carrying on their designs more secretly by consequence more dangerously than before they did The terrible effects whereof we have seen and felt in our late Civil Wars and present confusions But it is time to close this point and come to a conclusion of the whole discourse there be no other Objections that I know of but what are easily reduced unto those before or not worth the answering 15. Thus have we taken a brief survey of those insinuations grounds or principles call them what you will which Calvin hath laid down in his book of Institutions for the incouragement of the Subjects to rebellious courses and putting them in Arms against their Sovereign either in case of Tyranny Licentiousness or Mal-administration of what sort soever by which the Subject may pretend that they are oppressed either in point of Liberty or in point of Property And we have shewn upon what false and weak foundations he hath raised his building how much he hath mistaken or abused his Authors but how much more he hath betrayed and abused his Readers For we have clearly proved and directly manifested out of the best Records and Monuments of the former times that the Ephori were not instituted in the State of Sparta to oppose the Kings nor the Tribunes in the State of Rome to oppose the Consuls nor the Demarchi in the Common-wealth of Athens to oppose the Senate or if they were that this could no way serve to advance his purpose of setting up such popular Officers in the Kingdoms of Christendom those Officers being only found in Aristocraties or Democraties but never heard or dreamt of in a Monarchical Government And we have shewn both who they are which constitute the three Estates in all Christian Kingdoms and that there is no Christian Kingdom in which the three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever they do call them have any authority either to regulate the person of the Sovereign Prince or restrain his power in case he be a Sovereign Prince and not meerly titular and conditional and that it is not to be found in Holy Scripture that they are or were ordained by God to be the Patrons and Protectors of the common people and therefore chargeable with no less a crime than a most perfidious dissimulation should they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly abuse that power which the Lord hath given them to the oppression of their Subjects In which last points touching the designation of the three Estates and the authority pretended to be vested in them I have carried a more particular eye on this Kingdom of England where those pernicious Principles and insinuations which our Author gives us have been too readily imbraced and too eagerly pursued by those of his party and opinion If herein I have done any service to supream Authority my Countrey and some misguided Zealots of it I shall have reason to rejoyce in my undertaking If not posterity shall not say that Calvins memory was so sacred with me and his name so venerable as rather to suffer such a Stumbling-block to be laid in the Subjects way without being censured and removed than either his authority should be brought in question or any of his Dictates to a legal tryal Having been purchased by the Lord at so dear a price we are to be no longer the Servants of men or to have the truth of God with respect of persons I have God to be my Father and the Church my Mother and therefore have not only pleaded the cause of Kings and Supream Magistrates who are the Deputies of God but added somewhat in behalf of the Church of England whose rights and priviledges I have pleaded to my best abilities The issue and success I refer to him by whom Kings do Reign and who appointed Kings and other Supream Magistrates to be nursing Fathers to his Church that as they do receive authority and power from the hands of God so they may use the same in the protection and defence of the Church of God and God even their own God will give them his Blessing and save them from the striving of unruly people whose mouth speaketh proud words and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity FINIS De Jure Paritatis Episcoporum OR A BRIEF DISCOURSE ASSERTING THE Bishops Right of Peerage WHICH EITHER By Law or Ancient Custom DOTH Belong unto them WRITTEN By the Learned and Reverend PETER HEYLYN D. D. In the Year 1640. When it was Voted in the Lords House That no Bishop should be of the Committee for the preparatory Examination of the EARL of STRAFFORD He being dead yet speaketh Heb. xi 4. LONDON Printed by M. Clark for C. Harper 1681. A PREFACE ALthough there are Books enough writ to vindicate the Honours and Priviledges of Bishops yet to those that are fore-stalled with prejudice and passion all that can be said or done will be little enough to make them wise unto sobriety to prevail with them not to contradict the conviction of their mind with absurd and fond reasonings but that Truth may conquer their prepossessions and may find so easie an access and welcome unto their practical judgments that they may profess their faith and subjection to that order which by a misguided zeal they once endeavoured to destroy Many are the methods that have been and are still used to rase up the foundation of Episcopacy and to make the Name of Bishop to be had no more in remembrance For first some strike at the Order and Function it self And yet St. Paul reckons it among his faithful sayings 1 Tim. 3.1 that the Office of a Bishop is a good work And the order continued perpetually in the Church without any interruption of time or decrees of Councils to the contrary for the space of many Centuries after the Ascension of Christ and the Martyrdom of the Apostles For they ordained Bishops and approved them Before St. John died Rome had a succession of no less than four viz. Linus Anacletus Clemens and Evaristus Jerusalem had James the just and Simeon the Son of Cleophas Antioch had Euodius and Ignatius and St. Mark Anianus Abilius and Cerdo successively fill'd the See of Alexandria All these lived in St. Johns days and their order obeyed by Christians and blessed by God throughout the whole world for the Conversion of Jews and Gentiles for the perfecting of the Saints and the edifying of
their Authority and power in Spiritual matters from no other hands than those of Christ and his Apostles their Temporal honours and possessions from the bounty and affection only of our Kings and Princes their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in causes Matrimonial Testamentary and the like for which no action lieth at the common Law from continual usage and prescription and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm and owe no more unto the Parliament than all sort of Subjects do besides whose Fortunes and Estates have been occasionally and collaterally confirmed in Parliament And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon that of the 24 H. 8. doth only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and consecrated without recourse to Tome for a confirmation which formerly had put the Prelates to great charge and trouble but for the form and manner of their Consecration the Statute leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was performed and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were Lawfully and Canonically ordained and consecrated the Bishops of that time not only being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawful and Canonical Bishops but called on to assist at the Consecration of such other Bishops Cardinal Pool himself for one as were promoted in her Reign whereof see Masons Book de Minist Ang. l. c. Next for the Statute 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer as it relates to their Canonical Consecrations it was repealed in Terminis in the first of Queen Maries Reign and never stood in force nor practice to this day That of the Authorizing of the Book of Ordination in two several Parliaments of that King the one à parte ante and the other à parte post as before I told you might indeed seem somewhat to the purpose if any thing were wanting in it which had been used in the formula's of the Primitive times or if the Book had been composed in Parliament or by Parliament-men or otherwise received more Authority from them then that it might be lawfully used and exercised throughout the Kingdom But it is plain that none of these things were objected in Queen Maries days when the Papists stood most upon their points the Ordinal being not called in because it had too much of the Parliament but because it had too little of the Pope and relished too strongly of the Primitive piety And for the Statute of 8 of Q. Elizabeth which is chiefly stood on all that was done therein was no more than this and on this occasion A question had been made by captious and unquiet men and amongst the rest by Dr. Bonner sometimes Bishop of London whether the Bishops of those times were lawfully ordained or not the reason of the doubt being this which I marvel Mason did not see because the book of Ordination which was annulled and abrogated in the first of Queen Mary had not been yet restored and revived by any legal Act of Queen Elizabeths time which Cause being brought before the Parliament in the 8th year of her Reign the Parliament took notice first that their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and then declare that by the Statute 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been added to the Book of Common-prayer and Administration of the Sacraments as a member of it at least as an Appendant to it and therefore by the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 2. was restored again together with the said Book of Common-prayer intentionally at the least if not in Terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubts they therefore did revive now and did accordingly Enact That whatsoever had been done by virtue of that Ordination should be good in Law This is the total of the Statute and this shews rather in my judgment that the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them than that they were conceived to have had too much And so I come to your last Objection which concerns the Parliament whose entertaining all occasions to manisest their power in Ecclesiastical matters doth seem to you to make that groundless slander of the Papists the more fair and plausible 'T is true indeed that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times have been very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil into their own hands And some there are who being they cannot hope to have their sancies Authorized in a regular way do put them upon such designs as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments nor the Authority of the King nor with the privileges of the Clergy nor to say truth with the esteem and reputation of the Church of Christ And this hath been a practice even as old as Wickliffe who in the time of K. R. 2. addressed his Petition to the Parliament as we read in Walsingham for the Reformation of the Clergy the rooting out of many false and erroneous Tenets and for establishing of his own Doctrines who though he had some Wheat had more Tears by odds in the Church of England And lest he might be thought to have gone a way as dangerous and unjustifiable as it was strange and new he laid it down for a position That the Parliament or Temporal Lords where by the way this ascribes no Authority or power at all to the House of Commons might lawfully examine and reform the Disorders and Corruptions of the Church and a discovery of the errors and corruptions of it devest her of all Tithes and Temporal endowments till she were reformed But for all this and more than this for all he was so strongly backed by the Duke of Lancaster neither his Petition nor his Position found any welcome in the Parliament further than that it made them cast many a longing eye on the Churches patrimony or produced any other effect towards the work of Reformation which he chiefly aimed at than that it hath since served for a precedent to Penry Pryn and such like troublesome and unquiet spirits to disturb the Church and set on foot those dreams and dotages which otherwise they durst not publish And to say truth as long as the Clergy were in power and had Authority in Convocation to do what they would in matters which concerned Religion those of the Parliament conceived it neither safe nor fitting to intermeddle in such business as concerned the Clergy for fear of being questioned for it at the Churches Bar. But when that Power was lessened though it were not lost by the submission of the Clergy to K. H. 8. and by the Act of the Supremacy which ensued upon it then did the Parliaments
themselves had seen the Twelve had a preheminence above the rest of the Disciples in those three particulars first in their nearness of access unto him when he was alive Secondly in the latitude of their commission when he was to leave them And thirdly in the height of their authority after his departure For first the twelve Apostles and no others were the continual constant and domestical Auditors of all his Sermons the diligent beholders and observers of all his Miracles With them did he discourse familiarly propounding questions answering their demands and satifying all their scruples The Twelve and none but they were present with him when he did institute his holy Supper and they alone participated of those Prayers and Promises which he made to them from himself or for them to his heavenly Father Many there were of his retinue of his Court not few the Twelve were only of his Council and of those too some more especially admitted to his privacies and of his Cabinet-council as it were than others whereof see Matth. 17.1 Mark 14.33 Luke 8.51 And on this ground doth Clemens tell us Clemens Alex. ap Euseb l. 2. c. 1. that Christ imparted many things unto these three after his Ascension which they communicated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the rest of the Apostles the rest of the Apostles to the 70. As they were nearer in access so were they furnished with a more liberal Commission Mark 16. when he was to leave them Ite in universum mundum He said unto them Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature No such commission granted to any others who had their several precincts and bounds a limited Commission when it was at best To the Eleven for unto them alone did he give that charge the whole World went but for a Diocess Chrys Tom. 8. p. 110. edit Savill For this cause Chrysostom doth honour them with the stile of Princes and Princes of a great command over all the Universe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Apostles were ordained Princes by the hand of God Princes which have not only under them some Towns and Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but such unto whose care the whole World was trusted So far that Father And if we doubt that their authority fell short in any thing of their Commission the same good Father in the same place will inform us otherwise For making a comparison between Spiritual and Civil Dignities Chrys ibid. he calleth the Office of an Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual Consulship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most spiritual of all Powers or Governments and finally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head the root nay the foundation of all spiritual Dignities of what sort soever Doubtless the Father had good reason for so high an Eulogie When Christ affirmed Sicut misit me Pater John 20.21 that as his Father sent him so sent he them He said enough to intimate that supreme authority which he had given them in the Church whether it were in preaching of the Gospel in founding Churches constituting and ordaining Pastors or whatsoever else was necessary for the advancement of his Kingdom For by these words as Cyril hath right well observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did ordain them for to be Guides and Teachers unto all the World Chrys in Joh. Evang. l. 12. and the dispensers of his holy Mysteries commanding them not only to enlighten the land of Jewrie but all the people of the Universe as also giving them to understand that it was their duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to call the sinners to repentance to heal all those that were afflicted either in body or in soul in the dispensing of Gods blessings not to follow their own will but his that sent them and in a word as much as in them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to save the World by wholsom dictrines for to that purpose was he sent by his Heavenly Father And so we are to understand Saint Chrysostom when he tells us this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom in Joh. c. 20.21 Calv. in Job that Christ invested his Apostles with the like authority as he received from his Father Calvin affirms as much or more upon those words of our Redeemer Quare non abs re Christus cum Apostolis suis communicat quam à Patre autoritatem acoeperat c. But this authority of theirs will be seen more clearly when we behold it in the practice and execution Five things then of necessity were to concur in the making or constituting of an Apostle truly and properly so called first an immediate Call from Christ himself secondly an Autopsie or Eye-witnessing of those things which they were afterwards to preach or publish of him thirdly their nearness of access fourthly the latitude of their Commission fifthly and finally the eminence of their authority Of these the first were common with them unto the rest of the Disciples save that the calling of the Apostles to that charge and function doth seem to be more solemn and immediate But in the rest which are indeed the special or specifical differences they had no co-partners This made them every way superiour unto the rest of the Disciples although all equal in themselves Though in the calling of those blessed Spirits to that great imployment there was a prius and posterius yet in regard of power and authority there was neither Summum nor Subalternum And howsoever Peter be first named in that sacred Catalogue yet this entitleth him to no more authority above the rest of the Apostles than Stephen might challenge in that regard above the residue of the Seven Saint Cyprian did resolve this cause many hundreds since assigning unto all the twelve a parity of power and honour Cyprian lib. de unitate Eccles Hoc erant utique caeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis sed exordium ab unitate proficiscitur Where clearly there is nothing given to Peter but a priority of Order a primacy if you will but no supremacy Neither doth Barlaam give him more though he inscribe his book de Papae Principatu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Apostles all of them saith he Barlaam de Papae principatu in matter which concerned the Church were of equal honour If Peter had preheminence in any thing it was that in their sacred meetings he first brake the business 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and peradventure also had the upper place in the assemblies of that goodly fellowship But what need Cyprian or Barlaam come in for evidence when as we find this parity so clearly evidenced in holy Scripture In the immediateness of their Calling and their access unto our Lord and Saviour they were all alike He that called Peter from his Nets called also Matthew from the receit of custom If only Peter and the sons of Zebedee
neque Diaconus jus habeat baptizandi that without lawful mission from the Bishop neither the Presbyter nor Deacons might Baptize Not that I think there was required in Hieroms time a special Licence from the Bishop for every ministerial act that men in either of those Orders were to execute but that they had no more interest therein than what was specially given them by and from the Bishop in their Ordination As for the Act of Preaching which was at first discharged by the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists according to the gifts that God had given them for the performance of the same when as the Church began to settle it was conferred by the Apostles on the several Presbyters by themselves ordained as doth appear by Saint Pauls exhortation to the Presbyters 2 Tim. 4.5 which he called from Ephesus unto Miletum To this as Timothy had been used before doing the work of an Evangelist so he was still required to ply it being called unto the Office of a Bishop Saint Paul conjuring him before God and Christ that notwithstanding the diversions which might happen to him by reason of his Episcopal place and jurisdiction 2. Tim. 4.2 he should Preach the Word and not to Preach it only in his own particular 2 Tim. 2.15 shewing himself a Workman that needed not to be ashamed dividing the word of truth aright But seeing that others also did the like according to the trust reposed in them whether they had been formerly ordained by the Apostles or might be by himself ordained in times succeeding Those that discharge this duty both with care and conscience 1 Tim. 5.17 guiding and governing that portion of the Church aright wherewith they are intrusted and diligently labouring in the word and doctrine by the Apostle are accounted worthy of double honour Which questionless S. Paul had never represented unto Timothy but that it did belong unto him as a part of his Episcopal power and Office to see that men so painful in their calling and so discreet in point of government should be rewarded and encouraged accordingly By honour in this place the Apostle doth not only mean respect and reverence but support and maintenance as appears plainly by that which is alledged from holy Scripture viz. Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn And the Labourer is worthy of his hiâ—e Chrysost hom 15. in 1 Tim. 5. Ambros in locum Calvin in 1 ad Tim. c. 5. Chrysostom so expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By honour here is meant both reverence and a supply of all things necessary with whom agree the Commentaries which pass under the name of Ambrose Calvin affirms the like for our modern Writers Victum praecipue suppeditari jubet Pastoribus qui docendo sunt occupati Paul here commandeth that necessary maintenance be allowed the Pastor who laboureth in the Word and Doctrin And hereto Beza agreeth also in his Annotations on the place Now we know well that in those times wherein Paul wrote to Timothy and a long time after the dispensation of the Churches Treasury was for the most part in the Bishop and at his appointment For as in the beginnings of the Gospel the Faithful sold their Lands and Goods Act. 4. v. ult and laid the money at the Apostles feet by them to be distributed as the necessities of the Church required So in succeeding times all the Oblations of the faithful were returned in unto the Bishop of the place and by him disposed of We need not stand on many Authors in so clear a business Zonaras telling plainly that at the first the Bishop had the absolute and sole disposing of the revenues of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zonaras in Concil Chalcedâ—n Ca. 26. no man whoever being privy to their doings in it And that they did accordingly dispose thereof to every man according to his parts and industry doth appear by Cyprian where he informeth us that he having advanced Celerinus a Confessor of great renoun amongst that people and no less eminent indeed for his parts and piety unto the office of a Reader he had allotted unto him Cypr. Ep. 34. vel l. 4. ep 5. and to Aurelius one of equal vertue then a Reader also Vt sportulis iisdem cum Presbyteris honorentur that they should have an equal share in the distribution with the Priests or Presbyters But many times so fell out that those to whom the Ministry of the word was trusted Preached other doctrin to the People than that which had been taught by the Apostles 1 Tim. 1.3 Tit. 1.10 11. Vain talkers and deceivers which subverted whole houses teaching things they should not and that for filthy lucres sake What must the Bishop do to them He must first charge them not to Preach such doctrins which rather minister questions than godly edifying 1 Tim. 1.4 And if they will not hearken to nor obey this charge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.9 he must stop their mouths let them be silenced in plain English The silencing of such Ministers as deceive the People and Preach such things they should not even for lucres sake to the subverting of whole Families is no new matter as we see in the Church of God Saint Paul here gives it as in charge to Titus and to all Bishops in his person Certain I am that Chrysostom doth so expound it If thou prevailest not saith he by admonitions Chrysost tom 2. n. Tit. 1. be not afraid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silentium iis impone the Translator reads it but silence them that others may the better be preserved by it Hierom doth so translate it also quibus oportet silentium indici such men must be commanded silence Hieron in Can. Tit. And for the charge of Paul to Timothy that he should charge those false Apostles which he speaks of not to Preach strange doctrines it carries with it an Authority that must be exercised For this cause I required thee to abide at Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not that thou shouldst intreat but command such men to Preach no other doctrines than they had from me Theophylact on those words Theophyl in 1. ad Tim. c. 1. puts the question thus in the words of Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be asked saith he whether that Timothy were then Bishop when Paul wrote this to him To which he answereth of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is most probable giving this reason of the same because he is to charge those men not to teach other doctrines Oecumen in locum Oecumenius is more positive in the point and affirms expresly on these words that Paul had made him Bishop there before that time And Lyra if he may be heard Lyra in 1 Tim. c. 1. make this general use of the Apostles exhortation that the first Act here recommended to a Bishop is falsae doctrinae
some of these viz. the second and the three last there is good constat in Antiquity whether there be the like of all the residue I am not able to determine So for the Bishops or Arch-bishops of York of the British line besides Faganus the first Arch-bishop of this See as before was said and besides Eborius formerly remembred amongst the Subscribers to the Council of Arles Godw. in Archiep Ehoracen our Stories tell us of one Sampson said to be made the Bishop of the place in the time of Lucius Galfrid Monumet hist l. 9. c. 8. of one Pyramus preferred unto this honour by King Arthur whose domestick Chaplain he then was and finally of Tadiacus who together with Theonus the last Bishop of London of this line or Race fled into Wales the better to avoid the tyranny of the Saxons Math. westmon Matth. Florilegus in An. 586. Liber Eccles Landavens who then made havock of the Church And for the Bishops or Arch-bishops of Caerleon upon Vsk which was the third Metropolitical City in the account and estimate of those times we have assurance of Dubritius a right godly man ordained Bishop of the same by Germanus and Lupus two French Prelates at such time as they came to Britain for the suppressing of the Pelagian Heresie whose Successours we have upon Record under the Title of Llandaffe to this very day That Gloucester also in those times was a Bishops See besides what did appear before is affirmed by Cambden Cambden in dedescript Brit. in Dobunis who tells us that the Bishops of the same occur in the subscriptions to some ancient Councils under the name of Cluvienses for by the name of Clevum or Caer-Glowy was it called of old But not to wander into more particulars either Sees or Bishops Athanas Apo. 2. in initio we find in Athanasius that in the Council of Sardica holden in Anno 358. some of the British Bishops were assembled amongst the rest concurring with them in the condemnation of the Arian Heresies As also that in the Council of Ariminum Sulpit. Severus in hist sacr l. 2. held the next year after the British Bishops were there present three of the which were so necessitous and poor that they were fain to be maintained at the publick charge Sanctius putantes fiscum gravare quà m singulos thinking it far more commendably honest to be defraied out of the Exchequer than to be burdensom unto their Friends And when Pope Gregory sent Austin hither for the conversion of the Saxons Beda Ecc. hist l. 2. cap. 2. he found no fewer than seven Bishops in the British Churches viz. Herefordensis Tavensis Paternensis Banchorensis Elwiensis Wiccensis and Morganensis or rather Menevensis as Balaeus counts them Balaeus Cent. 1. c. 70. All of which that of Paternensis excepted only do still remain amongst us under other names Now if I should be asked whom I conceive to have been the Primate of the British Church during the time it flourished and stood upright neither oppressed by the tyranny of Dioclesian nor in a sort exterminated by the Saxons fury I answer that it is most likely to be the Metropolitan or Arch-bishop of York And this I do upon these reasons Tacit. Annal. lib. 14. For first however it appears by Tacitus that London was a Town of the greatest Trade copia negotiorum commeatuum maxime celebris as that Author hath it Id. ibid. yet neither was it ever made a Roman Colony nor made the seat at any time of the Roman Emperours But on the other side York was a Colony of the Romans even of long continuance as appears not only by the testimony of Ptolomy and Antoninus Cambden in Brit. descript but by this ancient inscription vouched by Mr. Cambden and by an old Coin of Severus the Roman Emperour bearing this inscription COL EBORACUM LEG VI. VICTRIX And as it was a Colony of the Roman people so was it also for a time the seat of the Roman Emperours For here the Emperour Severus before remembred yielded up his Soul and here Constantius Chlorus deceased also Id. ibid. having both kept their seat there a good time before here Constantine the great advancer of the Faith and Gospel Id. ibid. was first brought forth into the World and here did he first take upon him together with the name of Caesar the Government of that part of the Roman Empire which had belonged unto his Father So that Eboracum or York being the ancient seat of the Roman Emperours what time they pleased to be resident in the Isle of Britain was questionless the seat of their Vicarii or Lieutenants General when they were absent from the same and so by consequence the seat of the British Primate according to the Rules and Platform before laid down Add here that for the time the Romans held this Island in their possession they setled their Praetorium for the administration of Justice in the City of York drawing thither the resort of all the subjects which had any business of that kind for dispatch thereof in which regard it is called by Spartianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spartian in vita Severi the City as by way of excellence Veniens in Civitatem primùm in templum Bellonae ductus est speaking of the entrance which Severus made into the City of York But that which most of all confirms me is the subscription of the British Bishops to the Council of Arles as it is published amongst the Gallick Councils by Sirmundus thus Eborius Episcopus de Civitate Eboracensi Provincia Britannia Restitutus Episcopus de civitate Londinensi Provincia supradicta Adelphius Episcopus de civitate Colonia Londinensium exinde Sacerdos Presbyter Arminius Diaconus By which subscription it is plain that the Bishop or Archbishop of York having place of London was Primate of the British Church there being otherwise no reason why he should have precedence in the Subscription And so much for the setling of Episcopacy in the Church of Britain at this reception of the Gospel from the See of Rome being the first time that the Faith of Christ was publickly received and countenanced not in this Island only but any other part of the World whatever All which I have laid down together that I might keep my self the closer to my other businesses to which now I hasten CHAP. III. The Testimony given unto Episcopal Authority in the last part of this second Century 1. The difference betwixt Pope Victor and the Asian Bishops about the feast of Easter 2. The interpleading of Polycrates and Irenaeus two renowned Prelates in the aforesaid cause 3. Several Councils called about it by the Bishops of the Church then being with observations on the same 4. Of the Episcopal succession in the four prime Sees for this second Century 5. An Answer to some Objections made against the same 6. The great authority and esteem of the said
Closet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of Kings and Princes Or if the Seat or Throne here spoken of were a Tribunal as it is said by Cassiodore we must not look upon him in the Church but in the Consistory in which he would have nothing ordinary like to other Bishops but all things suted and adorned like the Bench or Judgment-seat of a Civil Magistrate As for the men to whom the execution of the Sentence was committed which is the next thing here to be considered Eusebius tells us that they were the Bishops of Rome and Italy And possibly the Emperour might commit the judgment of the cause to them because being strangers to the place and by reason of their absence not ingaged in the business or known to either of the two Pretenders they might with greater equity and indifference determine in it This is more like to be the reason than that the Emperour should take such notice of the Popes authority as to conceive the Judgments and Decrees of other Bishops to be no further good and valid quam eas authoritas Romani Pontificis confirmasset Baron in Annal Anno 272. n. 18. than as they were confirmed by the Bishop of Rome as fain the Cardinal would have it If so what needed the Italian Bishops to be joyned with him The Pope might do it of himself without their advice indeed without the Emperours Authority This was not then the matter whatsoever was and what was like to be the matter we have said already And more than that I need not say as to the reason of the reference why the Emperour made choice rather of the Western than the Eastern Bishops to cognisance the cause and give possession on the same accordingly But there is something else to be considered as to the matter of the reference to the point referred as also to the persons who by this Sovereign Authority were enabled to determine in the cause proposed And first as for the point referred whereas there were two things considerable in the whole proceedings against Paulus viz. his dangerous and heretical Doctrine and next his violent and unjust possession the first had been adjudged before in the Council and he deposed for the same With that the Bishops either of Rome or Italy had no more to do than to subscribe unto the judgment of the Synod or being being a matter meerly of spiritual cognizance might in a like Synodical meeting without the Emperors Authority as their case then stood have censured and condemned the Heresie though with his person possibly they could not meddle as being of another Patriarchat But that which here I find referred unto them was a mere Lay-fee a point of title and possession and it was left unto them to determine in it whether the Plaintiff or Defendant had the better right to the house in question This was the point in issue between the parties and they upon the hearing of the cause gave sentence in behalf of Domnus who presently upon the said award or sentence was put into possession of the house and the force removed by the appointment of the Emperour And it is worth our notice also that as they did not thrust themselves into the imployment being a matter meerly of a secular nature so when the Emperor required their advice therein or if you will make them his Delegates and High Commissioners they neither did delay or dispute the matter nor pleaded any Ancient Canons by which they might pretend to be disabled from intermedling in the same A thing which questionless some one or other of them would have done there being so many Godly and Religious Prelates interessed therein had they conceived that the imployment had been inconsistent with their holy calling A second thing to be considered in this delegation concerns the parties unto whom it was committed which were as hath been said before the Bishops of Italy and of the City of Rome In which it will not be impertinent to examine briefly why the Bishops of Italy Niceph. hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 29. and the Bishops of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by Nicephorus it is given us in the plural number should be here reckoned as distinct since both the City of Rome was within the limits and bounds of Italy and Italy subordinate or rather subject to the City of Rome the Queen and Empress of the World For resolution of which Quaere we may please to know that in the distribution of the Roman Empire the continent of Italy together with the Isles adjoyning was divided into two parts viz. the Prefecture of the City of Rome conteining Latium Tuscia and Picenum the Realm of Naples Vide chap. 3. of this 2. Part. and the three Islands of Sicily Corsica and Sardinia as before was said the head City or Metropolis of the which was the City of Rome And secondly the Diocess of Italy containing all the Western and broader part thereof from the River Magra to the Alpes in which were comprehended seven other Provinces and of the which the Metropolis or prime City was that of Millain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Athanasius Athanas in Epist iad solitar vitam agentes Optat. de Schis Dona. l. 2. So that that Church being in the Common-wealth according to that maxim of Optatus and following the pattern of the same in the proportion and fabrick of her publick Government the Bishops of the Diocess of Italy were no way under the command of the Patriarch or Primate of the Church of Rome but of their own Primate only which was he of Millain And this division seems to be of force in the times we speak of because that in the subscriptions to the Council of Arles Conc. Tom. 1. being about 40 years after that of Antioch the Bishops of Italy stand divided into two ranks or Provinces that is to say Provincia Italiae and Provincia Romana the Province of Italy of which Orosius the Metropolitan of Millain subscribeth only and then the Province of the City of Rome for which Gregorius Bishop of Porto subscribeth first In after Ages the distinction is both clear and frequent as in the Epistle of the Council of Sardica extant in Athanasius In Athanas Apolog. 2. Atha ad solitar vitam agentes and an Epistle of the said Athanasius written unto others So that according to the Premisses this conclusion followeth that the Popes or Patriarchs of Rome had no Authority in the Church more than other Primates no not in Italy it self more than the Metropolitan of Millain as may appear should all proofs else be wanting by this place and passage by which the Bishops of the Diocess of Italy taking the word Diocess in its civil sense were put into a joynt commission with the Bishops of the Patriarchat of Rome with the Pope himself Which tending so expresly to the overthrow of the Popes Supremacy as well Christopherson in his Translation of Eusebius as
as soon as he was made a living creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it But neither he nor any other did ever tell us that the Sabbath was a part of this Law of Nature nay In Ezech. c. 20. some of them expresly have affirmed the contrary Theodoret for example that these Commandments Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal and others of that kind alios quoque homines natura edocuit were generally implanted by the law of Nature in the minds of men But for the keeping of the Sabbath it came not in by Nature but by Moses Law At Sabbati observandi non natura magistra sed latio legis So Theodoret. And answerably thereunto Sedulius doth divide the Law into three chief parts In Rom. 3. Whereof the first is de Sacramentis of signs and Sacraments as Circumcision and the Passeover the second is quae congruit legi naturali the body of the Law of Nature and is the summary of those things which are prohibited by the words of God the third and last factorum of Rites and Ceremonies for so I take it is his meaning as new Moons and Sabbaths which clearly doth exempt the Sabbath from having any thing to do with the Law of Nature And Damascen assures too De Orthod fide l. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law enacted nor any Scripture inspired by God that then there was no Sabbath neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which three Ancients we might add many more of these later times In Decalog Medulla theol l. 2. cap. 15. Rivet and Ames and divers others who though they plead hard for the antiquity of the Sabbath dare not refer the keeping of it to the Law of Nature but only as we shall see anon unto positive Laws and divine Authority But hereof we shall speak more largely when we are come unto the promulgating of this Law in the time of Moses where it will evidently appear to be a positive Constitution only fitted peculiarly to the Jews and never otherwise esteemed of than a Jewish Ordinance It 's true that all men generally have agreed on this that it is consonant to the Law of Nature to set apart some time to Gods publick service but that this time should rather be the seventh day than any other that they impute not unto any thing in Nature but either to Divine Legal or Ecclesiastical institution The School-men Papists Protestants men of almost all persuasions in Religion have so resolved it And for the Ancients our venerable Bede assures us that to the Fathers before the Law all days were equal the seventh day having no prerogative before the others and this he calls naturalis Sabbati libertatem In Luc. 19. the liberty of the Natural Sabbath which ought saith he to be restored at our Saviours coming If so if that the Sabbath or time of rest unto the Lord was naturally left free and arbitrary then certainly it was not restrained more unto one day than another or to the seventh day more than to the sixth or eighth Even Ambrose Catharin as stout a Champion as he was for the antiquity of the Sabbath finds himself at a loss about it For having took for granted as he might indeed that men by the prescript of Nature were to assign Peculiar times for the service of God and adding that the very Gentiles used so to do is fain to shut up all with an Ignoramus Nescimus modo quem diem praecipue observarunt priscà illi Dei cultores We cannot well resolve saith he what day especially was observed by those who worshipped God in the times of old Wherein he doth agree exactly with Abulensis against whom principally he took up the Bucklers who could have taught him this if he would have learnt of such a Master that howsoever the Hebrew people or any other before the giving of the Law were bound to set apart some time for religious Duties In Exod. 20. Qu. 11. non tamen magis in Sabbato quam in quolibet aliorum dierum yet were they no more bound to the Sabbath day than to any other So for the Protestant Writers two of the greatest Advocates of the Sabbath have resolved accordingly Quod dies ille solennis unus debeat esse in septimana hoc positivi juris est that 's Amesius doctrine And Ryvet also saith the same Lege de Sabbato positivam non naturalem agnoscimus The places were both cited in the former Section and both do make the Sabbath a meer positive Law But what need more be saidin so clear a case or what need further Witnesses be produced to give in evidence when we have confitentem reum For Dr. Bound who first amongst us here endeavoured to advance the Lords day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath and feigned a pedigree of the Sabbath even from Adams infancy hath herein said enough to betray his cause and those that since have either built upon his foundation or beautified their undertakings with his collections Indeed saith he this Law was given in the beginning not so much by the light of Nature as the rest of the nine Commandments were but by express words when God sanctified it For though this be in the Law of Nature that some days should be separated to Gods worship 2. Edit p. 11. 16. as appears by the practice of the Gentiles yet that it should be every seventh day the Lord himself set down in express words which otherwise by the light of Nature they could never have found So that by his confession there is no Sabbath to be found in the Law of Nature no more than by the testimony of the Fathers in any positive Law or divine appointment until the Decalogue was given by Moses Nay Doctor Bound goeth further yet and robs his friends and followers of a special Argument For where Danaeus asks this question Why one of seven rather than one of eight or nine and thereunto makes answer that the number of seven doth signifie perfection and perpetuity First saith the Doctor I do not see that proved that there is any such mystical signification Ib. p. 60. rather than of any other And though that were granted yet do I not find that to be any cause at all in Scripture why the seventh day should be commanded to be kept holy rather than the sixth or eighth And in the former page The special reason why the seventh day should be rather kept than any other is not the excellency or perfection of that number or that there is any mystery in it or that God delighteth more in it than in any other Though I confess saith he that much is said that way both in divine and humane Writers Much hath been said therein indeed so much that we may wonder at the strange niceties of some men and the unprofitable pains they have taken amongst them in fearching
of Abraham and his Posterity Which is no more than what we shall see shortly out of Eusebius Hospinian next De festis 1. cap. 3. who though he fain would have the sanctifying of the Sabbath to be as old as the beginning of the world yet he confesseth at the last Patres idcirco Sabbatum observasse ante legem that for all that it cannot be made good by the Word of God that any of the Fathers did observe it before the Law These two I have the rather cited because they have been often vouched in the publick controversie as men that wished well to the cause and say somewhat in it We are now come unto particulars And first we must begin with the first man Adam The time of his Creation as the Scriptures tell us the sixth day of the week being as Scaliger conjectured in the first Edition of his work Emend temp l. 5. the three and twentieth day of April and so the first Sabbath Sabbatum primum so he calls it was the four and twentieth Doctrina temp l. 4. c. 6. Petavius by his computation makes the first Sabbath to be the first day of November and Scaliger in his last Edition the five and twentieth of October more near to one another than before they were Yet saith not Scaliger that that primum Sabbatum had any reference to Adam though first he left it so at large that probably some might so conceive it for in his later thoughts he declares his meaning to be this Sabbatum primum in quo Deus requievit ab opere Hexaemeri Indeed the Chaldee paraphrase seems to affirm of Adam that he kept the Sabbath For where the 92 Psalm doth bear this title A Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day the Authors of that Paraphrase do expound it thus Laus Canticum quod dixit homo primus pro die Sabbati the Song or Psalm which Adam said for the Sabbath day Somewhat more wary in this point was Rabbi Kimchi who tells us how that Adam was created upon Friday about three of the Clock fell at eleven was censured and driven out of Paradise at twelve that all the residue of that day and the following night he bemoaned his miseries was taken into grace next morning being Sabbath day and taking then into consideration all the works of God brake out into such words as those although not the same A tale that hath as much foundation as that narration of Zanchy before remembred Who though he seem to put the matter out of doubt with his three non dubito's that Christ himself did sanctifie the first Sabbath with our Father Adam and did command him ever after to observe that day yet in another place he makes it only a matter of probability In 4. Mandatum that the commandment of the Sabbath was given at all to our first Parents Quomodo autem sanctificavit Non solum decreto voluntate sed reipsa quia illum diem ut non pauci volunt probabile est mandavit primis parentibus sanctificandum So easily doth he overthrow his former structure But to return unto the Rabbins and this dream of theirs besides the strangeness of the thing that Adam should continue not above eight hours in Paradise and yet give names to all the â—â—atures fall into such an heavy sleep and have the Woman taken out of him that the must be instructed tempted and that both must sin and both must suffer in so short a time Besides all this the Christian Fathers are express that Adam never kept the Sabbath Justin the Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho a learned Jew makes Adam one of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being neither circumcised nor keeping any Sabbath Adv. Judaeos were yet accepted by the Lord. And so Tertullian in a Treatise written against the Jews affirms of Adam quod nec circumcisum nec sabbatizantem Deus eum instituerit Nay which is more he makes a challenge to the Jews to prove unto him if they could that Adam ever kept the Sabbath Doceant Adamum sabbatizasse as he there hath it Which doubtless neither of them would have done considering with whom the one disputed and against whom the other wrote had they not been very well assured of what they said The like may be affirmed both of Eusebius and Epiphanius De Praepar Evang l. 7. c. 8. and most learned Fathers Whereof the first maintaining positively that the Sabbath was first given by Moses makes Adam one of those which neither troubled himself with Circumcision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any of the Law of Moses Adv. haereses l. 1. n. 5. The other reckoneth him amongst those also who lived according to that faith which when he wrote was generally received in the Christian Church Therefore no Sabbath kept by our Father Adam But whatsoever Adam did Abel I hope was more observant of this duty Thus some have said indeed but on no authority It is true the Scriptures tell us that he offered Sacrifice but yet the Scriptures do not tell us that in his Sacrifices he had more regard unto the seventh day than to any other To offer Sacrifice he might learn of Adam or of natural reason which doth sufficiently instruct us that we ought all to make some publick testimony of our subjection to the Lord. But neither Adam did observe the Sabbath nor could Nature teach it as before is shewn And howsoever some Modern Writers have conjectured and conjectured only that Abel in his Sacrifices might have respect unto the Sabbath yet those whom we may better trust have affirm'd the contrary For Justin Martyr disputing against Trypho brings Abel in for an example that neither Circumcision nor the Sabbath the two great glories of the Jews were to be counted necessary For if they were saith he God had not had so much regard to Abels Sacrifice being as he was uncircumcised and then he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that though he was no Sabbath-keeper yet was he acceptable unto God Adv. Judaeos And so Tertullian that God accepted of his Sacrifice though he were neither circumcised nor kept the Sabbath Abelem offerentem sacrificia incircumcisum neque sabbatizantem laudavit Deus accepta ferens quae in simplicitate cordis offerebat Yea and he brings him also into his challenge Doceant Abel hostiam Deo sanctam offerentem Sabbati religionem placuisse which is directly contrary to that which is conjectured by some Modern Writers Adv. haeres l. 1. n. 5. So Epiphanius also makes him one of those who lived according to the tendries of the Christian Faith The like he also saith of Seth whom God raised up instead of Abel to our Father Adam Therefore no Sabbath kept by either It is conceived of Abel that he was killed in the one hundred and thirtieth year of the Worlds Creation
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
able of our selves so much as to think well and where in giving the cause why some have revolted from the Faith and some stand firm he said it was because the Foundation of God standeth sure and hath this seal the Lord knoweth who are his They added divers passages of the Gospel of S. John and infinite Anthorities of S. Augustine because the Saint wrote nothing in his old Age but in favour of this Doctrine But some others though of Iess esteem opposed this opinion calling it hard cruel inhumane horrible impious and that it shewed partiality in God if without any motive cause he elected one and rejected another and unjust if he damned men for his own will and not for their faults and had created so great a multitude to condemn it They said it destroyed Free-will because the Elect cannot finally do evil nor the Reprobate good that it casteth men into a gulph of desperation doubting that they be Reprobates That it giveth occasion to the wicked of bad thoughts not caring for Pennance but thinking if they be elected they shall not perish if Reprobates it is in vain to do well because it will not help them They confessed that not only works are not the cause of Gods election because that is before them and eternal but that neither Works foreseen can move God to Predestinate who is willing for his infinite mercy that all should be saved to this end prepareth sufficient assistance for all which every man having Free-will receiveth or refuseth as pleaseth him and God in his eternity foreseeth those who will receive his help and use it to good and those who will refuse and rejecteth these electeth and predestinateth those They added That otherwise there was no cause why God in the Scriptures should complain of sinners nor why he should exhort all to repentance and conversion if they have not sufficient means to get them that the sufficient assistance invented by the others is insufficient because in their opinion it never had nor shall have any effect The first Opinion as it is mystical and hidden keeping the mind humble and relying on God without any confidence in it self knowing the deformity of sin and the excellency of Divine Grace so this second was plausible and popular cherishing humane presumption and making a great shew and it pleased more the preaching Fryers than the understanding Divines And the Council thought it probable as consonant to politick Reason It was maintained by the Bishop of Bitonto and the Bishop of Salpi shewed himself very partial The Defenders of this using humane Reasons prevailed against the others but coming to the testimonies of Scripture they were manifestly overcome Calarinus holding the same Opinion to resolve the places of Scripture which troubled them all invented a middle way That God of his goodness had elected some few whom he will save absolutely to whom he hath prepared most potent effectual and infallible means the rest he desireth for his part they should be saved and to that end hath promised sufficient means for all leaving it to their choice to accept them and be saved or refuse them and be damned Amongst these there are some who receive them and are saved though they be not of the number of the Elect of which kind there are very many Other refusing to co-operate with God who wisheth their salvation are damned The cause why the first are predestinated is only the will of God why the others are saved is the acceptation good use and co-operation with the Divine assistance foreseen by God why the last are reprobated is the foreseeing of their perverse will in refusing or abusing it That S. John S. Paul and all the places of Scripture alledged by the other part where all is given to God and which do shew infallibility are understood only of the first who are particularly priviledged and in other for whom the common way is left the admonitions exhortations and general assistances are verified unto which he that will give ear and follow them is saved and he that will not perisheth by his own fault Of these few who are priviledged above the common condition the number is determinate and certain with God but not of those who are saved by the common way depend on humane liberty but only in regard of the fore-knowledge of the works of every one Catarinus said He wondred at the stupidity of those who say the number is certain and determined and yet they add that others may be saved which is as much as to say that the number is certain and yet it may be enlarged And likewise of those who say That the Reprobates have sufficient assistance for salvation though it be necessary for him that is saved to have a greater which is to say a sufficient unsufficient He added that S. Augustins Opinion was not heard of before his time and himself confesseth it cannot be found in the works of any who wrote before him neither did himself always think it true but ascribed the cause of Gods will to merits saying God taketh compassion on and hardneth whom he listeth But that will of God cannot be unjust because it is caused by most secret merits and that there is diversity of sinners some who though they be justified deserve justification But after the heat of Disputation against the Pelagians transported him to think and speak the contrary yet when his opinion was heard all the Catholicks were scandalized as S. Prosper wrote to him and Genadius of Marselles fifty years after in his judgment which he maketh of the famous Writers said That it hapned to him according to the words of Solomon That in much speaking one cannot avoid sin and that by his fault exagitated by his Enemies the question was not then risen which might afterwards bring forth Heresie whereby the good Father did intimate his fear of that which now appeareth that is that by that opposition some Sect and Division might arise The censure of the second Article was diverse according to the three related Opinions Catarinus thought the first part true in regard of the efficacy of the Divine Will towards those who were particularly favoured But the second false concerning the sufficiency of Gods assistance unto all and mans liberty in co-operating Others ascribing the cause of Predestination in all to humane consent condemned the whole Article in both parts But those that adhered unto S. Augustine and the common opinion of the Theologans did distinguish it and said it was true in a compound sense but damnable in a divided a subtilty which confounded the minds of the Prelates and his own though he did exemplifie it by saying he that moveth cannot stand still it is true in a compound sense but is understood while he moveth but in a divided sonse it is false that is in another time Yet it was not well understood because applying it to his purpose It cannot be said that a man predestinated can be damned
ill but all cometh from absolute necessity and in us is no Free-will and to affirm it is a meer fiction 3. Free-will since the sin of Adam is lost and a thing only titular and when one doth what is in his power he sinneth mortally yea it is a thing fained and a Title without reality 4. Free-will is only in doing ill and hath no power to do good 5. Free-will moved by God doth by no means co-operate and followeth as an Instrument without life or an unreasonable Creature 6. That God correcteth those only whom he will though they will not spurn against it Upon the first Article they spake rather in a Tragical manner than Theological that the Lutheran Doctrine was a frantick wisdom that mans Will as they make it is prodigious that those words a thing of Title only a Title without reality are monstruous That the Opinion is impious and blasphemous against God that the Church hath condemned it against the Maniches Priscilianists and lastly against Aballardus and Wickliff and that it was folly against common sense every one proving in himself his own Liberty that it deserveth not confutation but as Aristotle saith Chastisement and Experimental proof that Luther's Scholars perceived the folly and to moderate the Absurdity said after that a man had liberty in External Political and Oeconomical actions and in matters of Civil Justice that which every one but a Fool knoweth to proceed from Councils and Election but denied Liberty in matter of Divine Justice only Marinarus said That as it is foolish to say no huane action is in our power so it is no less absurd to say that every one is every one finding by experience that he hath not his affections in his power that this is the sense of the Schools which say that we are not free in the first motions which freedom because the Saints have it is certain that some freedom is in them which is not in us Catarinus according to his opinion said That without Gods special assistance a man cannot do a moral good said there was no liberty in this and therefore that the Fourth Article was not so easily to be condemned Vega after he had spoken with such Ambiguity that he understood not himself concluded that between the Divines and the Protestants there was no difference in Opinion for they concluding now that there is liberty in Philosophical Justice and not in Supernatural in External works of the Law not in external and spiritual that is to say precisely with the Church that one cannot do spiritual works belonging to Religion without the assistance of God And though he said all endeavour was to be used for composition yet he was not gratefully heard it seeming in some sort a prejudice that any of the differences might be reconciled and they were wont to say that this is a point of the Colloquies a word abhorred as if by that the Laity had usurped the Authority which is proper to Councils A great Disputation arose upon them Whether it be in mans power to believe or not to believe The Franciscans following Sotus did deny it saying That as Knowledge doth necessarily follow Demonstrations so Faith doth arise necessarily from persuasions and that it is in the understanding which is a natural Agent and is naturally moved by the Object They alledged Experience that no man can believe what he will but what seemeth true adding that no man would feel any displeasure if he could believe he had it not The Dominicans said that nothing is more in the power of the Will than to believe and by the determination and resolution of the Will only one may believe the number of the Stars is even Upon the I hird Article Whether Free-will be lost by sin very many Authorities of S. Augustine being alledged which expresly say it Hist of 〈◊〉 cil p. 108. c. Soto did invent because ke knew no other means to avoid them that true Liberty is equivocal for either it is derived from the Noun Libertas Freedom or from the Verb Liberare to set Free that in the first sense it is opposed to Necessity in the second to Servitude and that when S. Augustine said That Free-will was lost he would infer nothing else but that it is made slave to Sin and Satan This difference could not be understood because a servant is not free for that he cannot do his Will but is compelled to follow his Masters And by this opinion Luther could not be blamed for entituling a Book of SERVILE WILL many thought the Fourth Article absurd saying That Liberty is understood to be a power to both the contraries therefore that it could not be said to be a Liberty to Evil if it were not also to Good But they were made to acknowledge their Error when they were told that the Saints and blessed Angels in Heaven are free to do good and therefore that it was no inconvenience that some should be free only to do Evil. In the examining the fifth and sixth Articles of the consent which Free-will giveth to Divine Inspiration or preventing Grace the Franciscans and Dominicans were of divers Opinions The Franciscans contended that the Will being able to prepare it self hath Liberty much more to accept or refuse the divine Prevention when God giveth assistance before it useth the strength of Nature The Dominicans denied that the Works preceding the Vocation are truly preparatoy and ever gave the first place to God Notwithstanding there was a contention between the Dominicans themselves For Soto defended that although a man cannot obtain Grace without the special preventing assistance of God yet the Will may ever some way resist and refuse it and when it doth receive it it is because it giveth assent and doth will so and if our assent were not required there would be no cause why all should not be converted For according to the Apocalyps God standeth always at the Gate and knocketh And it is a saying of the Fathers now made common That God giveth Grace to every one that will have it and the scripture doth always require this consent in us and to say otherwise were to take away the Liberty of the Will and to say that God useth violence Fryer Aloisius Catanca said to the contrary That God worketh two sorts of preventing Grace in the mind according to the Doctrine of S. Thomas the one sufficient the other effectual To the first the Will may consent or resist but not to the second because it implieth contradiction to say that Efficacy can be resisted for proof he alledged places of S. John and very clear Expositions of S. Augustine He answereth that it ariseth hence that all are not converted because all are not effectually prevented That the fear of overthrowing Free-will is removed by S. Thomas the things are violently moved by a contrary Cause but never by their own and God being the cause of the WIll to say it is moved by God is to
rest of man-kind and appointed them by the same decree to eternal damnation without any regard to their Infidelity or Impenitency Art 2. Of the Merit and Effect of Christs Death That Jesus Christ hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect only Ibid. p. 29. having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Art 3. Of Mans Will in the state of Nature That by Adam's Fall his Posterity lost their Free-will Ibid. p. 33. being put to an unavoidable necessity to do or not to do whatsoever they do or do not whether it be good or evil being thereunto Predestinated by the eternal and effectual secret decree of God Art 4. Of the manner of Conversion That God to save his Elect from the corrupt Mass Ibid. p. 41. doth beget faith in them by a power equal to that whereby he created the World and raised up the dead insomuch that such unto whom he gives that Grace cannot reject it and the rest being Reprobate cannot accept of it Art 5. Of the certainty of Perseverance That such as have once received that Grace by Faith can never fall from it finally Ibid. p. 47. or totally notwithtanding the most enormious sins they can commit This is the shortest and withal the most favourable Summary which I have hitherto met with of the conclusions of this Synod that which was drawn by the Remonstrants in their Antidotum being much more large and comprehending many things by way of Inference which are not positively expressed in the words thereof But against this though far more plausible than the rigorous way of the Supralapsarians Gods love to Mankind p. 45. it is objected by those of the contrary persuasion 1. That it is repugnant of plain Texts of Scripture as Ezek. 33.11 Rom. 11.2 John 3.16 2 tim 2.4 2 Pet. 3.9 Gen. 4.7 1 Chron. 28.9 2 Chron. 15.2 Secondly That it fighteth with Gods Holiness and makes him the cause of sin in the greatest number of men 1. In regard that only of his own will and pleasure he hath brought men into an estate in which the cannot avoid sin that is to say by imputing to them the transgression of their Father Adam Ibid. p. 53. And 2. In that he leaves them irrecoverably plunged and involved in it without affording them power or ability to rise again to newness of life In which case that of Tertullian seems to have been fitly alledged viz. In cujus manu est ne quid fiat Tertul. l. 2. contr Marcion c. 22. ei deputatur cum jam sit That is to say In whose power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done as a Pilot may be said to be the cause of the loss of that Ship when it is broken by a violent Tempest to the saving whereof he would not lend a helping hand when he might have done it They object thirdly That this doctrine is inconsistent with the mercy of God so highly signified in the Scriptures Gods love to Mankind p. 62. in making him to take such a small and speedy occasion to punish the greater part of men for ever and for one sin once committed to shut them up under an invincible necessity of sin and damnation For proof whereof they alledge this saying out of Prosper viz. Qui dicit quod non omnes homines velit Deus salvos fieri Ibid. p. 64. sed certum numerum praedestinatorum durius loquitur quam loquutum est de altitudine inscrutabilis gratiae Dei That is to say He which saith that God would not have all men to be saved but a certain set number of predestinate persons only he speaketh more harshly than he should of the light of Gods unsearchable Grace 4. It is affirmed to be incompatible with the Justice of God who is said in Scripture to be Righteous in all his ways according unto weight and measure Ibid. p. 65. p. 67. that the far greatest part of man-kind should be left remedilâ—sly in a state of damnation for the sin of their first Father only that under pain of damnation he should require faith in Christ of those to whom he hath precisely in his absolute purpose denied both a power to believe and a Christ to believe in or that he should punish men for the omission of an Act which is made impossible for them by his own decree by which he purposed that they should partake with Adam in his sin and be stript of all the supernatural power which they had in him before he fell And fifthly It is said to be destructive of Gods sincerity in calling them to repentance and to the knowledge of the faith in Jesus Christ Ibid. p. 58. that they may be saved to whom he doth not really intend the salvation offered whereby they are conceived to make God so to deal with men as if a Creditor should resolve upon no terms to forgive his Debtor the very least part of his debt Ibid. p. 76. and yet make him offers to remit the whole upon some conditions and bind the same with many solemn Oaths in a publick Auditory The like to be affirmed also in reference to Gods passionate wishes that those men might repent which repent not as also to those terrible threatnings which he thundreth against all those that convert not to him all which together with the whole course of the Ministry are by this doctrine made to be but so many acts of deep Hypocrisie in Almighty God though none of the maintainers of it have the ingenuity to contess the same but Piscator only in his Necesse est ut sanctam aliquam si mutationem statuamus in Deo which is plain and home And finally it is alledged that this doctrine of the Sublapsarians is contrary to the ends by God proposed in the Word and Sacraments to many of Gods excellent gifts to the Sons of men to all endeavours unto holiness and godly living which is said to be much hindered by it Ibid. p. 91. and tend to those grounds of comfort by which a Conscience in distress should be relieved And thereupon it is concluded that if it be a doctrine which discourageth Piety if it maketh Ministers by its natural importment to be negligent in their Preaching Praying and other Services which are ordained of God for the eternal good of their people if it maketh the people careless in hearing reading praying instructing their Families examining their Consciences fasting and mourning for their sins and all other godly exercises as they say it doth it cannot be a true and a wholsome doctrine as they say 't is not This they illustrate by a passage in Suetonius Sect. de vit Tyb c. 69. p. 180. relating to Tyberius Caesar of whom the Historian gives this note Cire à Deos Religiones negligentior erat quippe addictus
nothing so obscure no term so intricate as to need any especial or distinct explication as those words Whom he hath chosen in Christ which being the very words of the same Apostle Ephesians first cap. 4. we will first paraphrase in the words of some ancient Writers Ambros in Epâ—st 1.4 and then illustrate them by others of our holiest Martyrs who had a principal hand in the Reformation First St. Ambrose amongst others sicut elegit nos in ipso as he hath chosen us in him Praescivit enim Deus omnes scil qui credituri essent in Christum For God saith he by his general prescience did foreknow every man that would believe in Christ To the same purpose speaks S. Chrysostom saying Quod dicit perinde est ac si dicat Per quem nos benedixit per eundem elegit and a little after Quid est in ipso elegit per eam quae in ipso habenda esset fidem For praestitit prius quam ipsi essemus Chrys in Ep. 14. magis autem prius quam mundi bujus jacerentur Fundamenta Which is as much as to say saith he as if he had said That we are blessed in him in whom we are chosen and we are chosen in him in whom we believe which he performed before we our selves had any being or rather before the foundations of the World were laid And to the same effect the Commentary upon St. Pauls Epistles ascribed to St. Jerom viz. in hoc praedestinavit ut haberent potestatem filii Dei ficri homines Hierom. in Epist 64. qui credere voluissent that is to say in this he hath predestinated us to Eternal life that men may be made the Sons of God if they will believe Which sayings of those ancient Writers we shall expound by others of our holy Martyrs and first Archbishop Cranmer L. 5. p. 372. in his Answer to Gardiner touching the holy Sacrament telleth us this viz. Christ saith he took unto himself not only their sins that many years before were dead and put their trust in him but also the sins of those that until his coming again should truly believe in his Gospel More fully Bishop Latimer thus When saith he we hear that some be chosen Serm. 3. Sunday after Epiphany part 3. fol. 198. and some be damned let us have good hope that we be amongst the chosen and live after this hope that is uprightly and godly then shall we not be deceived think that God hath chosen those that believe in Christ and Christ is the Book of Life If thou believest in him then art thou written in the Book of Life and shalt be saved By which we may the better understand that passage in the book of Homilies Hom. of the misery of Man f. 8. where it is said That the Scripture shutteth up all under sin that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe which is as much as can be comprehended in so narrow a compass This said as in the way of Explication we will next see what hath been positively delivered by our first Reformers concerning the fatality or absoluteness of Gods Decrees maintained by Calvin then and his followers since Of which thus Bishop Latimer in his Sermon upon Septuagesima Serm. on Sepfâ—ages f. 213. Some vain fellows make their reckoning thus What need I to mortifie my body with abstaining from all sin and wickedness I perceive God hath chosen some and some are rejected now if I be in the number of the chosen I cannot be damned but if I be accounted amongst the condemned number then I cannot be saved For Gods judgments are immutable such foolish and wicked reasons some have which bringeth them either to carnal liberty or to desperation Therefore it is as needful to beware of such Reason or Exposition of the Scriptures as it is to beware of the Devil himself To the same purpose in his third Sermon after the Epiphany viz. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that when St. Paul had made a long Sermon at Antioch There believed saith the Evangelist as many as were ordained unto everlasting life With the which saying a great number of people have been offended and have said We perceive that only those shall come to believe and so to everlasting life which are chosen of God unto it therefore it is no matter whatsoever we do for if we be chosen to everlasting life we shall have it And so they have opened a door unto themselves of all wickedness and carnal liberty against the true meaning of the Scripture For if they must be damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for it is written Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all men should be saved But they themselves procure their own damnation and despise the passion of Christ by their own wicked and inordinate living 5. Hooper is bolder yet than he even to the censuring of those who by the fatality of these Decrees Hoop in Prefac before the ten Commandm make God to be the author of sin And first he lets us know in general That the blind Southsayers that write of things to come were more to be esteemed of than our curious and high-climing Wits for they attribute the cause of ill to the evil Aspect and sinister conjunctions of the Planets Which said we shall hear him speaking more particularly to the present point Id. Ibid. in this manner following viz. It is not a Christian mans part to attribute to his own free will with the Pelagian and extenuate Original sin nor to make God the Author of evil and our damnation nor yet to say God hath written fatal Laws with the Stoicks and in the necessity of Destiny violently pulleth one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other headlong into Hell And in another place Our Gospellists saith he he better Learned than the Holy Ghost Id. Ibid. for they wickedly attribute the cause of punishment and adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself could do no ill and every mischief that is done they say it is Gods will Id. Ibid. And then again Howsoever man judgeth of Predestination God is not the cause of sin thou art not the God that willest sin and it is said That thy Perdition O Israel is of thy self and thy succour only of me And finally to shut up his discourse hereof with some Application he shall tell us thus Being admonished by the Scripture that we must leave sin Id. Ibid. and do the works commanded of God it will prove but a carnal opinion which we blind our selves withal of Fatal Destiny and in case there follow not in us knowledge of Christ amendment of life it is not a lively faith that we have but rather a vain knowledge and meer presumption Next let us look upon such passages in the writings
world The like saith Bishop Hooper also telling us Pref. to his Exposition There was no diversity in Christ of Jew or Gentile that it was never forbid but that all sorts of people and every propeny of the World to be made partakers of the Jews Religion And then again in the example of the Ninevites Thou hast saith he good Christian Reader the mercy of God and general promise of salvation performed in Christ for whose sake only God and man were set at one The less assistance we had from Bishop Hooper in the former points the more we shall receive in this touching the causes why this great benefit is not made effectual unto all alike Concerning which he lets us know That to the obtaining the first end of his justice he allureth as many as be not utterly wicked and may be helped Ibid. partly with threatnings and partly with promises and so provoketh them unto amendment of life c. and would have all men to be saved therefore provoketh now by fair means now by foul that the sinner should satisfie his just and righteous pleasure not that the promises of God appertain to such as will not repent or his threatnings unto him that doth repent but these means he useth to save his creature this way useth he to nurture us until such time as the holy Spirit worketh such a perfection in us that we will obey him though there were neither pain nor joy mentioned at all And in another place more briefly That if either out of a contempt or hate of Gods Word we fall into sin and transform our selves into the image of the Devil then we exclude our selves by this means from the promises and merits of Christ Serm. 1. Sund. after Epiph. Bishop Latimer to the same point also His salvation is sufficient to satisfie for all the World as concerning it self but as concerning us he saveth no more than such as put their trust in him and as many as believe in him shall be saved the other shall be cast out as Infidels into everlasting damnation not for lack of salvation but for infidelity and lack of faith which is the only cause of their damnation One word more out of Bishop Hooper to conclude this point which in fine is this To the Objection saith he touching that S. Peter speaketh of such as shall perish for their false doctrine c. this the Scripture answereth that the promise of grace appertaineth to every sort of men in the world and comprehendeth them all howbeit within certain limits and bounds the which if men neglect to pass over they exclude themselves from the promise of Christ CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a Sinner and mans co-operation with those Heavenly influences 1. The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles 2. The judgment of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndal touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England 3. Vniversal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgy and Book of Homilies 4. The offer of Vniversal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according to the judgment of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publick Liturgy 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsayings justified by the tenth Article of King Edwards Books And 10. The Book of Homilies THIS leads me unto the Disputes touching the influences of Grace and the co-operation of mans will with those Heavenly influences in which the received Doctrine of the Church of Rome seems to have had some alteration to the better since the debating and concluding of those points in the Council of Trent before which time the Doctrine of the Roman Schools was thought to draw too near to the lees of Pelagianism to ascribe too much to mans Free-will or so much to it at the least as by the right use of the powers of nature might merit grace ex congruo as the School-men phrase it of the hands of God Against this it was that Dr. Barnes declared as before was said in his discourse about Free-will and against which the Church of England then declared in the 13 Article His works p. 821. affirming That such works as are done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit do not make men meet to receive grace or as the School-men say deserve grace of Congruity Against which Tyndal gives this note That Free-will preventeth not Grace which certainly he had never done if somewhat to the contrary had not been delivered in the Church of Rome and against which it was declared by John Lambert another of our ancient Martyrs in these following words viz. Concerning Free-will saith he I mean altogether as doth S. Augustine that of our selves we have no liberty nor ability to do the will of God but are subject unto sin Acts and Mn. fol. 1009. and thrals of the same conclusi sub peccato or as witnesseth S. Paul But by the grace of God we are rid and set at liberty according to the proportion that every man hath taken of the same some more some less But none more fully shewed himself against this opinion than Dr. Barnes before remembred not touching only on the by Collection of his works by I. D. sol 266. but writing a Discourse particularly against the errours of that time in this very point But here saith he we will search what strength is of man in his natural power without the Spirit of God to will or do those things that be acceptable before God unto the fulfilling of the will of God c. A search which had been vain and needless if nothing could be found which tended to the maintenance of acting in spiritual matters by mans natural power without the workings of the Spirit And therefore he saith very truly That man can do nothing by his Free-will as Christ teacheth for without me ye can do nothing c. where it is opened that Free-will without Grace can do nothing he speak not of eating and drinking though they be works of Grace but nothing that is fruitful that is meritorious that is worthy of thanks that is acceptable before God To which effect we also find these brief Remembrances Mans Free-will without Gods Grace can do nothing that is good p. 268. that all which
Faith as it cometh not by mans will as the Papists falsly pretend but only by the Election and free gift of God so it is only the immediate cause whereto the promise of our salvation is annexed according as we read And therefore of faith is the inheritance given as after grace that the promise might stand sure to every side Rom. 4. and in the same Chapter Faith believing in him that justifieth the wicked is imputed to righteousness And this concerning the causes of our salvation you see how Faith in Christ immediately and without condition doth justifie us being solicited with Gods mercy and Election that wheresoever Election goeth before Faith in Christ must needs follow after And again whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus through the vocation of God he must needs be partaker of Gods election whereupon resulteth the third note or consideration which is to consider whether a man in this life may be certain of his election To answer to which question this first is to be understood that although our election and vocation simply indeed be known to God only in himself a priore yet notwithstanding it may be known to every particular faithful man a posteriore that is by means which means is Faith in Christ Jesus crucified For as much as by Faith in Christ a man is justified and thereby made the child of salvation reason must needs lead the same to be then the child of election chosen of God to everlasting life For how can a man be saved but by consequence it followeth that he must also be elected And therefore of election it is truly said de electione judicandum est à posteriore that is to say we must judge of election by that which cometh after that is by our faith and belief in Christ which faith although in time it followeth after election yet this the proper immediate cause assigned by the Scripture which not only justifieth us but also certifieth us of this election of God whereunto likewise well agreeth this present Letter of Mr. Bradford wherein he saith Election albeit in God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened And therefore beginning first saith he with Creation I come from thence to Redemption and Justification by faith so to election not that faith is the cause efficient of election being rather the effect thereof but is to us the cause certificatory or the cause of our certification whereby we are brought to the feeling and knowledge of our election in Christ For albeit the election first be certain in the knowledge of God yet in our knowledge Faith only that we have in Christ is the thing that giveth to us our certificate and comfort of this election Wherefore whosoever desireth to be assured that he is one of the Elect number of God let him not climb up to Heaven to know but let him descend into himself and there search his faith in Christ the Son of God which if he find in him not feigned by the working of Gods Spirit accordingly thereupon let him stay and so wrap himself wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and cumber his head with no further speculations knowing this that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish Joh. 3. shall not be confounded Rom. 9. shall not see death Joh. 8. shall not enter into judgment Joh. 5. shall have everlasting life Joh. 3.7 shall be saved Matth. 28. Act. 16. shall have remission of all his sins Act. 10. shall be justified Rom. 3. Gal. 2. shall have floods flowing out of him of the water of life Joh. 7. shall never die Joh. 11. shall be raised at the lest day Joh. 6. shall find rest in his soul and be refreshed Matth. 11. c. Such is the judgment and opinion of our Martyrologist in the great point of Predestination unto life the residue thereof touching justification being here purposely cut off with an c. as nothing pertinent to the business which we have in hand But between the Comment and the Text there is a great deal of difference the Comment laying the foundation of Election on the Will of God according to the Zuinglian or Calvinian way but the Text laying it wholly upon faith in Christ whom God the Father hath Predestinate in Christ unto eternal life according to the doctrine of the Church of England The Text first presupposeth an estate of sin and misery into which man was fallen a ransom paid by Christ for man and his whole Posterity a freedom left in man thus ransomed either to take or finally to refuse the benefit of so great mercy and then fixing or appropriating the benefit of so great a mercy as Christ and all his merits do amount to upon such only as believe But the Comment takes no notice of the fall of man grounding both Reprobation and Election on Gods absolute pleasure without relation to mans sin or our Saviours sufferings or any acceptation or refusal of his mercies in them As great a difference there is between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper as between the Comment and the Text Bishop Hooper telleth us cap. 10. num 2. that Saul was no more excluded from the promise of Christ than David Esau than Jacob Judas than Peter c. if they had not excluded themselves quite contrary to that of our present Author who having asked the question why Jacob was chosen and not Esau why David accepted and Saul refused c. makes answer that it cannot otherwise be answered than that so was the good will of God And this being said I would fain know upon what authority the Author hath placed Nachor amongst the Reprobates in the same rank with Esan Pharaoh and Saul all which he hath marked out to reprobation the Scripture laying no such censure on Nachor or his Posterity as the Author doth Or else the Author must know more of the estate of Nachor than Abraham his Brother did who certainly would never have chosen a Wife for his Son Isaac out of Nachors line if he had looked upon them as reprobated and accursed of God I observe secondly that plainly God is made an accepter of persons by the Authors doctrine For first he telleth us that the elder Son had a better will to tarry by his Father and so did indeed but the fatted Calf was given to the younger Son that ran away and thereupon he doth infer that the matter goeth not by the will of man but by the will of God as it pleaseth him to accept I observe thirdly that Vocation in the Authors judgment standeth upon Gods Election as the work thereof whereas Vocation is more general and is extended unto those also whom they call the Reprobate and therefore standeth not on Election as the Author hath it For many are called though out of those many which are called but a few are chosen Fourthly I observe that notwithstanding the Author builds the doctrine of Election on Gods
Thine always to be commanded in the Churches service P. H. Lacies Court in Abingdon Decemb. the 29th 1659. FINIS THE STUMBLING-BLOCK OF DISOBEDIENCE AND REBELLION Cunningly laid by Calvin in the Subjects way Discovered Censured and Removed By PETER HEYLYN D. D. ROM xiv 13. Offendiculum fratri tuo ne ponas Let no man put a Stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way ISAM xxiv 6. And David said to his men The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. LONDON Printed by M. Clark for C. Harper 1681. THE PREFACE IT will appear to any who shall read this Treatise that it was written in the time of Monarchical Government but in the later and declining times thereof when the change of that Government was in agitation and in part effected In which respect I doubt not but the publishing of this Discourse at this present time may seem unseasonable unto some and yet it may be thought by others to come out seasonably enopugh for these following Reasons 1. To give warning to all those that are in Supreme Authority to have a care unto themselves and not to suffer any Popular and Tribunitian Spirits to grow amongst them who grounding upon Calvins Doctrine both may and will upon occasion create new disturbances 2. To preserve the Dignity of the Supreme Power in what Person soever it be placed and fix his Person in his own Proper Orb the Primum Mobile of Government brought down of late to be but one of the three Estates and move in the same Planetary Sphere with the other two 3. To keep on foot the claim and Title of the Clergy unto the Reputation Rights and Priviledges of the Third Estate which doth of right belong unto them and which the Clergy have antiently enjoyed in all and to this day in most Christian Kingdoms 4. To shew unto the World on whose authority the Presbyterians built their damnable Doctrine not only of curbing and restraining the power of Princes but also of deposing them from their Regal Dignity whensoever they shall please to pretend cause for it For when the Scotch Commissioners were commanded by Queen Elizabeth to give a reason of their proceedings against their Queen whom not long before they they had deposed from the Regal Throne they justified themselves by those words of Calvin which I have chosen for the Argument of this Discourse By the Authority of Calvin as my Author hath it they endeavoured to prove that the Popular Magistrates are appointed and made to moderate and keep in order the excess and unruliness of Kings and that it is lawful for them to put the Kings that be evil and wicked into prison and also to deprive them of their Kingdoms If these reasons shall not prove the seasonableness of this Adventure I am the more to be condemned for my indiscretion the shame whereof I must endure as well as I can This being said in order to my Justification I must add somewhat of the Book or Discourse it self in which the canvasing and confuting of Calvins Grounds about the Ephori of Sparta the Tribunes of Rome and the Demarchi of Athens hath forced me upon many Quotations both Greek and Latin which to the Learned Reader will appear neitehr strange nor difficult And for the sake of the Vnlearned which are not so well verst and studied in foregin Languages I have kept my self to the direction of St. Paul not speaking any where in a strange Tongue without an Interpreter the sense of every such Quotation being either declared before or delivered after it Lastly whereas the Name of Appius Claudius doth many times occur in the History of the Roman Tribunes it is not always to be understood of the same Man but of divers men of the same Name in their several Ages as the name of Caesar in the New Testament signifieth not one man but three that is to say the Emperour Tiberius in the Gospels Claudius in the Boo of the Acts and that most bloody Tyrant Nero in the Epistle to the Philippians Which being premised I shall no longer keep the Reader in Porch or Entrance but let him take a view of the House it self the several Rooms Materials and Furniture of it long Prefaces to no long Discourses being like the Gates of Mindum amongst the Antients which were too great and large for so small a City The Argument and occasion of this following Treatise Joh. Calvini Institution Lib. 4. cap. 20â— Sect. 31. NEQVE enim si ultio Domini est effrenatae dominationis correctio ideo protinus demandatam nobis arbitremur quibus nullum aliud quam parendi patiendi datum est Mandatum De privatis hominibus semper loquor Nam siqui nunc sint Populares Magistratus ad moderandum Regum libidinem constituti quales olim erant qui Lacedaemoniis Regibus oppositi erant Ephori aut Romanis Consulibus Tribuni Plebis aut Atheniensium Senatui Demarchi qua etiam forte potestate ut nunc res habent funguntur in singulis Regnis tres Ordines cum primarios Conventus peragunt adeo illos ferocienti Regum licentiiae pro officio intercedere non veto ut si Regibus impotenter grassantibus humili plebeculae insultantibus conniveant corum dissimulationem nefaria perfidia non carere affirmem qua populi liberiatem cujus se Dei ordinatione tuiores positos norunt fraudulenter produnt NOR may we think because the punishment of licentious Princes doth belong to God that presently this power is devolved on us to whom no other warrant hath been given by God but only to obey and suffer But still I must be understood of private persons For if there be now any popular Officers ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings such as were the Ephori set up of old against the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people against the Roman Consuls and the Demarchi against the Athenian Senate and with which power perhaps as the World now goes the three Estates are seized in each several Kingdom when they are solemnly assembled so far am I from hindring them to put restraints upon the exhorbitant power of Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them rather to be guilty of a perfidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the common people in that they treacherously betray the Subjects Liberties of which they knew they were made Guardians by Gods own Ordinance THE STUMBLING-BLOCK OF Disobedience and Rebellion c. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of Obedience laid down by CALVIN and of the Popular Officers supposed by him whereby he overthroweth that Doctrine 1. The purpose and design of the Work in hand 2. The Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes soundly and piously laid down by Calvin 3. And that not only to
Kings than of the Thief that steals thy goods or the Adulterer that defiles thy marriage-bed or the Murderer that seeks thy life all which are reckoned for Gods curses in the holy Scripture The point we purpose to make proof of goeth not down so easily that is to say That in the vilest men and most unworthy of all honour if they be once advanced to the publick Government there doth reside that excellent and divine Authority which God hath given in holy Scripture to those who are the Ministers of his heavenly Justice who therefore are to be reverenced by the Subject for as much as doth concern them in the way of their publick duties with as much honour and obedience as they would reverence the best King were he given unto them And first the Reader must take notice of the especial Act and Providence of Almighty God SECT 26. not without cause so oft remembred in the Scriptures in disposing Kingdoms Dan. 2 21 37. and segging up such Kings as to him seems best The Lord saith Danicl changeth the times and the seasons he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings And in another place That the living may know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Which kind of sentences as they are very frequent in the Scriptures so is that Prophesie most plentiful and abundant in them No man is ignorant that Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Hierusalem was a great spoiler and oppressor yet the Lord tells us by Ezechicl that he had given unto him the land of Egypt for the good service he had done in laying it waste on his Commandment Dan. 2.37 And Daniel said unto him thus Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom power and strength and glory And wheresoever the children of men dwell the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thy hand and hath made thee Ruler over them all Again to Belshazzer his son Dan. 5.18 The most high God gave unto Nebuchadnezzar thy father a Kingdom and majesty and glory and honour and for the majesty that he gave him all people nations and languages trembled and feared before him Now when we hear that Kings are placed over us by God let us be pleased to call to mind those several precepts to fear and honour them which God hath given us in his Book holding the vilest Tyrant in as high account as God hath graciously vouchsafed to estate him in When Samuel told the people of the house of Israel what they should suffer from their King 1 Sam. 8.11 he expressed it thus This will be the manner of the King which shall reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horsemen and some shall run before his Chariots And he will appoint him Captains over thousands and Captains over fifties and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of War and instruments of his Chariots And he will take your daughters to be his Confectionaries and to be Cooks and to be Bakers And he will take your fields and your Vineyards and your Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his servants And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your Vineyards and give to his Officers and to his Servants And he will take your men-servants and your maid-servants and your goodliest young men and your Asses and put them to his work He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his Servants Assuredly their Kings could not do this lawfully whom God had otherwise instructed in the Book of the Law but it is therefore called Jus Regis the right of Kings upon the Subject which of necessity the Subjects were to submit unto and not to make the least resistance As if the Prophet had thus said So far shall the licentiousness of your Kings extend it self which you shall have no power to restrain or remedy to whom there shall be nothing left but to receive the intimation of their pleasures and fulfil the same But most remarkable is that place in the Prophet Jeremy SECT 27. which though it be somewhat of the longest I will here put down because it doth so plainly state the present question Jer. 27. â— I have made the earth saith the Lord the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my out-stretched Arm and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me And now have I given all these Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon my Servant and the Beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him and all Nations shall serve him and his Son and his Sons Son until the very time of his Land come and it shall come to pass that the Nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the King of Babylon that Nation will I punish saith the Lord with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence wherefore serve the King of Babylong and live We see by this how great a measure of obedience was required by God towards that fierce and cruel Tyrant only because he was advanced to the Kingly Throne and did by consequence participate of that Regal Majesty which is not to be violated without grievous sin Let us therefore have this always in our mind and before our eyes that by the same decree of God on which the power of Kings is constituted the very wickedest Princes are established and let not such seditious thoughts be admitted by us that is to say that we must deal with Kings no otherwise than they do deserve and that it is no right nor reason that we should shew our selves obedient subjects unto him who doth not mutually perform the duty of a King to us It is a poor objection which some men have made viz. that that command was only proper to the Israelites for mark upon what grounds the command was given SECT 28. I have given saith the the Kingdom unto Nebuchadnezzar wherefore serve him and ye shall live and thereupon it needs must follow that upon whomsoever God bestows a Kingdom to him we must address our service and that assoon as God hath raised any to the Regal Throne he doth sufficiently declare his will to be that he would have that man to reign over us Some general testimonies of this truth are in holy Scripture For thus saith solomon For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof Prov. 24.2 and job He looseth the band of Kings and girdeth their loins with a girdly Job 12.18 Which if confessed there is no remedy at all but we must serve those Kings if we mean to
every Kingdom when they are solemnly assebled whom he condemns as guilty of perfidious dissimulation and the betrayers of the Subject Liberties whereof they are the proper and appointed Guardians if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insuit on the common people This is the gap through which rebellions and seditions have found to plausible a passage in the Christian World to be dethroning of some Kings and Princes the death of others For through this gap broke in those dangerous and seditious Doctrines that the inferiour Magistrates are ordained by God and not appointed by the King or the Supream Powers that being so ordained by God that are by him inabled to compel the King to rule according unto justice and the Laws established that if the King be refractory and unreclaimable they are to call him to account and to provide for the safety of the Common-wealth by all ways and means which may conduce unto thepreservation of it and finally which is the darling Doctrine of these later times that there is a mixture in all Governments and that the three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever we do call their meeting are not subordinate to the King but co-ordinate with him and have not only a supplemental power to supply what is defective in him but a coercive also to restrain his Actions and a Corrective too to reform his Errors But this I give you now in the generals only hereafter you shall see it more particularly and every Author cited in his own words for the proof hereof Many of which as they did live in Calvin's time and by their writings gave great scandal to all Sovereign Princes but more as to the progress of the Reformation so could not Calvin choose but be made acquainted with the effects and consequences of his dangerous principles Which since he never did retract upon the sight of those seditious Pamphlets and worse than those those bloody tumults and rebellions which ensued upon it but let it stand unaltered to his dying day is a clear argument to me that this passage fell not from his Pen by chance but was laid of purpose as a Stumbling-block in the Subjects way to make him fall in the performance of his Christian duty both to God and man For though the Book of Institutions had been often printed in his life time and received many alterations and additions as being enlarged from a small Octavo of not above 29 sheets to a large Folio of 160 yet this particular passage still remained unchanged and hath continued as it is from the first Edition of it which was in the year 1536 not long after his first coming to Geneva But to proceed in our design What fruits these dangerous Doctrines have produced amongst us we have seen too plainly and we may see as plainly if we be not blind through what gap these Doctrines entred on what foundation they were built and unto whose Authority we stand indebted for all those miseries and calamities which are fallen upon us Yet to say truth the man desired to be concealed and not reputed for the Author of such strange conclusions which have resulted from his principles and therefore lays it down with great Art and caution Si qui and Fortè and ut nunc res habent that is to say Perhaps and as the World now goes and if there be such Officers as have been formerly as the three disguises which he hath masked himself and the point withal that he might pass away unseen And if there be such Officers as perhaps there are or that the world goes here as it did at Sparta or in the States of Rome and Athens as perhaps it doth or that the three Estate of each several Kingdom have the same authority in them as the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes had as perhaps they have the Subject is no doubt in a good condition as good a man as the best Monarch of them all But if the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes were not appointed at the first for the restraint and regulating of the Supream Powers as indeed they were not and if the three Estates in each several Kingdom have not that authority which the Ephori and the Tribunes did in fine usurp and the Demarchi are supposed to have as indeed they have not perhaps and peradventure will not serve the turn The Subject stands upon no better grounds than before he did Therefore to take away this stumbling-block and remove this rub I shall propose and prove these three points ensuing 1. That the Ephori the Demarchi and the Roman Tribunes were not instituted at the first for those ends and purposes which are supposed by the Author 2. If they were instituted for those ends yet the illation thereupon would be weak and childish as it relates of Kings and Kingdoms And 3. That the three Estates in each several Kingdom without all peradventures have no such authority as the Author dreams of and therefore of no power to controul their King Which If I clearly prove as I hope I shall I doubt not but to leave the cause in a better condition than I found it And in the proof of these the first point especially if it be thought that I insist longer than I needed on the condition of the Spartan Ephori the Roman Tribunes and the Demarchi of Athens and spend more cost upon it than the thing is worth I must intreat the Reader to excuse me in it I must first lay down my grounds and make sure work there before I go about my building And being my design relates particularly to the information and instruction of the English Subject I could not make my way unto it but by a discovery of the means and Artifices by which some petit popular Officers attained unto so great a mastery in the game of Government as to give the Check unto their Kings Which being premised once for all I now proceed unto the proof of the points proposed and having proved these points I shall make an end Haec tria cum docuero perorabo in the Orators Language CHAP. II. Of the Authority of the Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Kings of Sparta absolute Monarchs at the first 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government 8. By what degrees the Ephori encroached on the Spartan Kings 9. The
the Common-wealth A Priviledg which they found good use of in the times succeeding and made it serve their turns upon all occasions Martius complained of them in the Senate for disobedience to the Consuls and an intent to bring an Anarchy upon the State Platarch in Coriolano they Vote this for a breach of priviledg and nothing but his death or banishment will give them satisfaction for it Appius being Consul sends his Lictor to lay hands upon them for raising Tumults in the City Livie hist Rom. lib. 2. this is another breach of priviledg and he shall answer for it when his year was out Caeso Quintius like a noble Patriot joyns with the Consuls and the Senate to oppress their insolencies when neither Law nor Reason would prevail upon them this also is a breach of priviledg Id. l. 3. and his life shall pay for it But to proceed having obtained this Law for their own security their next work was to break or pass by those Laws by which the State was governed in all times before and which themselves had yielded to at their first creation It was the practice of the City from the first foundation and a continual custom hath the force of Law to give such respect unto the Senate Dionys Halicarnass l. 7. that the people did not vote nor determine any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Senate had not first debated and resolved upon This though no breach of priviledg was a main impediment to the advancing of those projects which they had in hand and therefore fit to be removed as removed it was and so a way made open unto that confusion which did expose the State to so many changes that it was never constant to one Form of Government Which being obtained the next thing to be brought about was to bring the Election of the Tribunes into the hands of the people who had before the least part in it that so depending mutually upon one onother they might co-operate together to destroy the State and bring it absolutely under the command of the common people For at the first according to the Articles of the Institution the Tribunes were to be elected in Comitiis Centuriatis as before was said where none but men of years and substance such as were of the Livery as we speak in England had the right of suffrage By means whereof the Patricians had a very great stroke in the Elections Et per Clientum suffragia creandi quos vellent poteâ—tatem Livie hist and by the voices of their Clients or dependents set up whom they listed They must no longer hold this Power The Tribunes were the creatures of the Common people and must be made by none but them A Law must therefore be propounded to put the Election wholly into the hands of the People and to transact the same in Comitiis Tributis where no Patrician was to vote but all things carried by the voices of the rascal Rabble Which though it caused much heat and no small ado yet it was carried at the last Appius complaining openly as his custom was Rempub. per metum prodi that the Senate did destroy the Common-wealth by their want of courage And whereas at the first they had so much modesty as not to come into the Senate Sed positis subselliis ante fores decreta Patrum examinare Valer. Maxim lib. 2. c. 2. but to sit without upon some Benches whilest they examined the decrees which had passed the House they challenge now a place though no vote in Senate and had free ingress and egress when they would themselves But their main business was to pull down the Nobles and make them of no more esteem than the common sort And upon this they set their strength and made it the first hansel of their new authority Martius had spoken some words in Senate which displeased the Tribunes and they incense the People to revenge the injury who promising to assist them in their undertakings an Officer is forthwith sent to apprehend him This caused the Patricians whom the cause concerned to stand close together and to oppose this strange encroachment and generally to affirm as most true it was that when they yielded to the setting up this new Authority there was no power given them by the Senate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Halicarn l. 7. but only to preserve the Commons from unjust oppressions The like did Martius plead in his own behalf as we find in Livie auxilii non poenae jus datum illi potestati plebisque non Patrum Tribunos esse Livie hist lib. 2. that they were trusted with a Power to help the Commons but with none to punish and were not Tribunes of the Lords but of the People And so much also was affirmed in the open Senate that the Authority of the Tribunes was at first ordained not to offend or grieve the Senate but that the Commons might not suffer any grievance by it and that they did not use their Power according to such limitations as were first agreed on and as of right they ought to use it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Halicarn l. 7. but to the ruin and destruction of the Laws established Enough of conscience to have stayed them from the prosecution but that they had it in design and resolved to carry it For Brutus had before given out and assured the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he would humble the Nobility Id. ibid. and bring down their pride and 't was no reason that such a man as he should be disappointed and not be master of his word Martius being banished at the last their next bout was with Appius Claudius a constant and professed Enemy of the popular faction one who had openly taken part against them in behalf of Martius and after seeing them apprehend some Gentlemen who opposed their insolencies had openly denied jus esse Tribuno in quenquam nisi in plebeium Liv. l. 2. that they could exercise their power on any but the Commons only Him therefore they accused of Treason or at least sedition in that he had intrenched upon their Authority which was made sacred by the Laws and doubtless had condemned him to some shameful punishment had he not died before his Trial. Which Victory on Martius and the death of Appius did so discourage the Nobility and puff up the Tribunes that from this time forwards as the Historian doth observe the Tribunes cited whom they listed to answer for themselves before the People and to submit their lives to their final sentence which as it did increase the Power of the popular faction in the depressing of the Nobles and weakning the Authority of the Senate so did it open them a way to aim at and attain to all those dignities in the Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Halicarn l. 7. which were most honourable in themselves and had formerly belonged to
sometimes to pass by a Statute with a non obstante as in the Statute 1 Hen. IV. cap. VI. touching the value to be specified of such Lands Offices or Annuities c. as by the King are granted in his Letters patents But these will better come within the compas of those jura Majestatis Cambden in Brit. or rights of Sovereignty which our Lawyers call sacra individua Sacred by reason they are not to be pried into with irreverent eyes and individual or inseparable because they cannot be communicated unto any other Of which kind are the levying of Arms Case of our Affairs p. suppressing of tumults and rebellions providing for the present safety of his Kingdom against sudden dangers convoking of Parliaments and dissolving them making of Peers granting liberty of sending Burgesses to Towns and Cities treating with forein States making War Leagues and Peace granting safe conduct and protection Indenizing giving of Honour Rewarding Pardoning Coyning Printing and the like to these But what need these particulars have been looked into to prove the absoluteness and sovereignty of the Kings of England when the whole body of the Realm hath affirmed the same and solemnly declared it in their Acts of Parliament 16 Rich. 2. c. 5. In one of which is affirmed that the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediatly to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crown and to none other And in another Act that the Realm of England is an Empire governed by one Supream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty be bounden and ought to bear next to God a natural and bumble obedience 24 Hen. 8. c. 12. And more than so That the King being the supream Head of this Body Politick is instituted and furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary whole and entire power preheminence authority prerogative and jurisdiction to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of Subjects within this Realm and in all causes whatsoever Nor was this any new Opinion invented only to comply with the Princes humour but such as is declared to have been fortified by sundry Laws and Ordinances made in former Parliaments Ibid. and such as hath been since confirmed by a solemn Oath taken and to be taken by most of the Subjects of this Kingdom Which Oath consisting of two parts the one Declaratory and the other Promissory in the Declaratory part the man thus taketh it he doth declare and testifie in his conscience that the Kings Highness is the only supream Governour of this Realm and of all other his Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal c. And in the Promissory part 1 Eliz. c. 1. they make Oath and swear that to their power they will assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Put all which hath been said together and it will appear that if to have merum imperium a full and absolute command and all the jura majestatis which belong to Sovereignty if to be so Supream as to hold immediatly of God to have all persons under him none but God above him if to have all authority and jurisdiction to be vested in him and proceeding from him and the material sword at his sole disposal for the correcting of offenders and the well ordering of his people if to have whole and entire power of rendring justice and final determination of all causes to all manner of Subjects as also to interpret and dispence with Laws and all this ratified and confirmed unto him by the solemn Oath of his Subjects in the Court of Parliament be enough to make an absolute Monarch the Kings of England are more absolute Monarchs than either of their Neighbours of France or Spain If any thing may be said to detract from this it is the new device so much pressed of late of placing the chief Sovereignty or some part thereof in the two Houses of Parliament concerning which Mr. Pryn published a discourse entituled The supreme power of Parliaments and Kingdoms and others in their Pamphlets upon that Argument have made the Parliament so absolute and the King so limited that of the two the Members of the Houses are the greater Monarchs But this is but a new device not heard of in our former Monuments and Records of Law nor proved or to be proved indeed by any other Medium than the Rebellions of Cade Tiler Straw Kett Mackerel Prynns book of Parl. c. pt 3. and the rest of that rascal rabble or the seditious Parliaments in the time of King Henry III. King Edward II. and King Richard II. when civil war and faction carried all before it For neither have the Houses or either of them enjoyed such Sovereignty de facto in times well setled and Parliaments lawfully assembled nor ever could pretend to the same de jure Or if they do as many have been apt enough to raise false pretences it would much trouble them to determine whether this Sovereignty be conferred upon them by the King or the People whether it be in either of the Houses severally or in both united If they can challenge this pretended Sovereignty in neither of these capacities nor by none of these titles it may be warrantably concluded that there is no such Sovereignty as they do pretend to And first there is no part nor branch of Sovereignty conferred upon them by the King The Writs of Summons which the Deelaration of the Lords and Commons assembled at Oxon. 1643. doth most truly call the foundation of all power in Parliament Declaration of the Trtaty p. 15. tell us no such matter The Writ directed to the Lords doth enable them only to confer and treat with one another consilium vestrum impendere and to advise the King in such weighty matters as concern the safety of the Kingdom But they are only to advise not compel the King to counsel him but not controll him and to advise and counsel are no marks of Sovereignty but rather works of service and subordination Nor can they come to give this Counsel without he invite them and being invited by his Writ cannot choose but come except he excuse them which are sure notes of duty and subjection but verry sorry signs of power and sovereignty 'T is true that being come together they may and sometimes do on a Writ of Error examin and reverse or affirm such judgments as have been given in the Kings Bench and from their sentence in the case there is
Princes and Ecclesiastical Governors yet the Apostle calleth not Princes an humane Creation as though they were not also of Gods Creation for there is no power but of God but that the form of their Creation is in mans appointment All the Genevians generally do so expound it and it concerns them so to do in point of interesse The Bishop of that City was their Sovereign Prince and had jus utriusque gladii as Calvin signified in a Letter to Cardinal Sadolet till he and all his Clergy were expelled the City in a popular Tumult Anno 1528. and a new form of Government established both in Church and State So that having laid the foundation of their Common-wealth in the expulsion of their Prince and the new model of their Discipline in refusing to have any more Bishop they found it best for justifying their proceedings at home and increasing their Partizans abroad to maintain a parity of Ministers in the Church of Christ and to invest the people and their popular Officers with a chief power in the concernments and affairs of State even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of Kingdoms But for this last they find no warrant in the Text which we have before us For first admitting the Translation to be true and genuine as indeed it is not the Roman Emperor and consequently other Kings and Princes may be said to be an humane Ordinance because their power is most visibly conversant circa humanas Actiones about ordering of humane Actions and other civil affairs of men as they were subjects of the Empire and Members of that Body politick whereof that Emperor was head Secondly to make Soveraign Princes by what name and Title soever called to be no other than an humane Ordinance because they are ordained by the people and of their appointment must needs create an irreconcileable difference between St. Peter and St. Paul by which last the Supream Powers whatsoever they be are called the Ordinance of God The Powers saith that Apostle are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God Upon which words Deodate gives this gloss or comment That the Supream Powers are called the Ordinance of God because God is the Author of this Order in the world and all those who attain to these Dignities do so either by his manifest will and approbation when the means are lawful or by his secret Providence by meer permission or toleration when they are unlawful Now it is fitting that man should approve and tolerate that which God approves and tolerates But thirdly I conceive that those words in the Greek Text of St. Peter viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so properly translated as they might have been and as the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred by the same Translators somewhat more near to the Original in another place For in the 8th Chapter to the Romans vers 22. we find them rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the whole Creation and why not rather every Creature as both our old Translation and the Rhemists read it conform to omnis Creatura in the vulgar Latine which had they done and kept themselves more near to the Greek Original in St. Peters Text they either would have rendred it by every humane Creature as the Rhemists do or rather by all Men or by all Man-kind as the words import And then the meaning will be this that the Jews living scattered and disperst in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia and other Provinces of the Empire were to have their conversation so meek and lowly for fear of giving scandal to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived as to submit themselves to all Man-kind or rather to every Man unto every humane Creature as the Rhemists read it that was in Authority above whether it were unto the Emperor himself as their supream Lord or to such Legats Prefects and Procurators as were appointed by him for the govenment of those several Provinces to the end that they may punish the evil-doers and incourage such as did well living conformably to the Laws by which they were governed Small comfort in this Text as in any of the rest before for those popular Officers which Calvin makes the Overseers of the Sovereign Prince and Guardians of the Liberties of the common people If then there be no Text of Scripture no warrant from the Word of God by which the popular Officers which Calvin dreams of are made the Keepers of the Liberties of the common people or vested with the power of opposing Kings and Sovereign Princes as often as they wantonly insult upon the people or willingly infringe their Priviledges I would fain learn how they should come to know that they are vested with such power or trusted with the defence of the Subjects Liberties cujus se Dei oratione Tutores positos esse norunt as Calvin plainly says they do If they pretend to know it by inspiration such inspiration cannot be known to any but themselves alone neither the Prince or People whom it most concerneth can take notice of it Nor can they well assure themselves whether such inspirations come from God of the Devil the Devil many times insnaring proud ambitious and vain-glorious Men by such strange delusions If they pretend to know it by the dictate of their private Spirit the great Diana of Calvin and his followers in expounding Scripture we are but in the same uncertainties as we were before And who can tell whether the private Spirit they pretend unto and do so much brag of 1 Ring 22.22 may not be such a lying Spirit as was put into the mouths of the Prophets when Ahab was to be seduced to his own destruction Adeo Argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus as Lactantius notes it All I have now to add is to shew the difference between Calvin and his followers in the propounding of this Doctrine delivered by Calvin in few words but Magisterially enough and with no other Authority than his ipse dixit enlarged by David Paraeus in his Comment on Rom. 13. into divers branches and many endeavours used by him as by the rest of Calvins followers to find out Arguments and instances out of several Authors to make good the cause For which though Calvin scap'd the fire yet Paraeus could not Ille Crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic Diadema For so it hapned that one Mr. Knight of Brodegates now Pembroke Colledge in Oxford had preach'd up the Authority of these popular Officers in a Sermon before the University about the beginning of the year 1622. for which being presently transmitted to the King and Council he there ingenuously confessed that he had borrowed both his doctrine and his proofs and instances from the Book of Paraeus above mentioned Notice whereof being given to the University the whole Doctrine of Paraeus as to that particular was drawn into several Propositions which in a full and frequent Convocation
belong also to Bishops 14. And of Lay-people if they walk unworthy of their Christian calling ibid. 15. Conjectural proofs that the description of a Bishop in the first to Timothy is of a Bishop strictly and properly called Page 233 CHAP. VI. Of the estate of holy Church particularly of the Asian Churces toward the later days of Saint John the Apostle 1. The time of Saint Johns coming into Asia Page 235 2. All the seven Churches except Ephesus of his Plantation ibid. 3. That the Angels of those Churches were the Bishops of them in the opinion of the Fathers Page 236 4. And of some Protestant Divines of name and eminency ibid. 5. Conclusive Reasons for the same Page 237 6. Who is most like to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus ibid. 7. That Polycarpus was the Angel of the Church of Smyrna Page 238 8. Touching the Angel of the Church of Pergamus and of Thiatyra ibid. 9. As also of the Churches of Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea Page 239 10. What Successors these several Angels had in their several Churches Page 240 11. Of other Churches founded in Episcopacy by Saint John the Apostle ibid. 12. Saint John deceasing left the Government of the Church to Bishops as to the Successours of the Apostles Page 241 13. The ordinary Pastors of the Church Page 242 14. And the Vicars of Christ Page 243 15. A brief Chronologic of the estate of holy Church in this first Century Page 244 PART II. CHAP. I. What doth occur concerning Bishops and the Government of the Church by them during the first half of the second Century 1. OF the condition of the Church of Corinth when Clemens wrote unto them his Epistle Page 249 2. What that Epistle doth contain in reference to this point in hand Page 250 3. That by Episcopi he meaneth Bishops truly and properly so called proved by the scope of the Epistle Page 251 4. And by a text of Scripture therein cited ibid. 5. Of the Episcopal Succession in the Church of Corinth Page 252 6. The Canons of the Apostles ascribed to Clemens what they say of Bishops Page 253 7. A Bishop not to be ordained under three or two at least of the same Order ibid. 8. Bishops not barred by these Canons from any Secular affairs as concern their Families Page 254 9. How far by them restrained from the employments of the Common-wealth ibid. 10. The jurisdiction over Presbyters given to the Bishops by those Canons Page 255 11. Rome divided into Parishes or tituli by Pope Euaristus Page 256 12. The reasons why Presbyteries or Colleges of Presbyters were planted first in Cities ibid. 13. Touching the superiority over all the flock given to the Bishop by Ignatius Page 257 14. As also of the Jurisdiction by him allowed them Page 258 15. The same exemplified in the works of Justin Martyr Page 259 CHAP. II. The setling of Episcopacy together with the Gospel in the Isle of Britain by Pope Eleutherius 1. What Bishops Egesippus met with in his Peregrination and what he testifieth of them Page 260 2. Of Dionysius Bishop of Corinth and of the Bishops by him mentioned ibid. 3. How Bishops came to be ordained where none were left by the Apostles Page 261 4. The setling of the Gospel in the Isle of Britain by Pope Eleutherius Page 262 5. Of the Condition of the Church of Britain from the first preaching of the Gospel there till the time of Lucius Page 263 6. That Lucius was a King in those parts of Britain which we now call England Page 264 7. Of the Episcopal Sees here founded by King Lucius at that time Page 265 8. Touching the Flamines and Arch-flamines which those Stories speak of ibid. 9. What is most like to be the reason of the number of the Arch-bishopricks and Bishopricks here of old established Page 266 10. Of the Successors which the Bishops of this Ordination are found to have on true Record Page 267 11. Which of the British Metropolitans was antiently the Primate of that Nation Page 268 CHAP. III. The Testimony given to Episcopal Authority in the last part of this second Century 1. The difference betwixt Pope Victor and the Asian Bishops about the Feast of Easter Page 269 2. The interpleading of Polycrates and Irenaeus two renowned Prelates in the aforesaid cause Page 270 3. Several Councils called about it by the Bishops of the Church then being with observations on the same ibid. 4. Of the Episcopal Succession in the four prime Sees for this second Century Page 271 5. An Answer to some Objections made against the same Page 272 6. The great authority and esteem of the said four Sees in those early days ibid. 7. The use made of this Episcopal Succession by Saint Irenaeus Page 273 8. As also in Tertullian and some other Antients Page 274 9. Of the authority enjoyed by Bishops in Tertullians time in the administration of the Sacraments Page 275 10. As also in enjoyning Fasts and the disposing of the Churches treasury ibid. 11. And in the dispensation of the Keys Page 276 12. Tertullian misalledged in maintenance of the Lay-Presbytery Page 277 13. The great extent of Christianity and Episcopacy in Tertullians time concludes this Century Page 278 CHAP. IV. Of the Authority in the Government of the Church of Carthage enjoyed and exercised by Saint Cyprian and other Bishops of the same 1. Of the foundation and preheminence of the Church of Carthage Page 279 2. Of Agrippinus and Donatus two of Saint Cyprian's Predecessors ibid. 3. The troublesome condition of that Church at Cyprian's first being Bishop there Page 280 4. Necessitated him to permit some things to the discretion of his Presbyters and consent of the People Page 281 5. Of the Authority ascribed by Cyprian to the People in the Election of their Bishop Page 282 6. What power the People had de facto in the said Elections ibid. 7. How far the testimony rf the People was required in the Ordination of their Presbyters Page 283 8. The power of Excommunication reserved by Saint Cyprian to the Bishop only Page 284 9. No Reconciliation of a Penitent allowed by Cyprian without the Bishops leave and licence Page 285 10. The Bishop's power as well in the encouragement as in the punishment and censure of his Clergy Page 286 11. The memorable case of Geminius Faustinus one of the Presbyters of Carthage Page 287 12. The Bishop's power in regulating and declaring Martyrs Page 288 13. The Divine Right and eminent Authority of Bishops fully asserted by Saint Cyprian Page 289 CHAP. V. Of the condition and affairs of the two Patriarchal Churches of Alexandria and Antiochia 1. Of the foundation and first Professors of the Divinity-School in Alexandria Page 290 2. What is affirmed by Clemens one of those Professors concerning Bishops Page 291 3. Origen the Divinity Reader there permitted to expound the Scriptures in the presence of the Bishop of Caesarea ibid. 4. Contrary to