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
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
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
not to be forgiven him I hope the Doctor has met with a more merciful Judge in another World than Mr. Burnet is in this If he had been a Factor for Papists Mr. Burnet should have presented one particular instance which he cannot do As we have said before in his Life he communicated that design of his History of Reformation to Arch-Bishop Laud from whom he received all imaginable encouragement by ancient Records that he perused And what benefit could any Reader receive to have quoted to him the pages of Manuscripts Acts of Parliament Records of old Charters Registers of Convocation Orders of the Council-Table or any of those out of the Cottonian Library which the Doctor made use of The Lord Bacon writ of Transactions beyond his own time living as far distant from the Reign of K. Hen. VII as Dr. Heylyn did from K. Hen. VIII who laid the first foundation of the Reformation yet I cannot find there more quotations of Authors than in Dr. Heylyns History yet I suppose Mr. Burnet will look upon the Lord Bacons History as compleat And if all this were made out 't is no more than what may be laid at the door of the Author who lately writ the History of Duke Hamilton Hist D. Ham. p. 29 30. where are reported the most abominable Scandals that were broach'd by the malicious Covenanters against the Scottish Hierarchy and they are permitted without the least contradiction or confutation to pass as infallible Truths that so Posterity as well as the present prejudiced Age might be levened with an implacable enmity and hatred against the whole Order of Episcopacy Although the Hamiltons were the old inveterate Enemies of the Stuarts and the Duke of whom the History is compiled was an Enemy as treacherous to K. Charles I. as any that ever appeared against him in open Arms. He was the cause of the first Tumult raised in Edenburgh He Authorised the Covenant with some few alterations in it and generally imposed it on that Kingdom He was the chief Person that prevailed with the King to continue the Parliament during the pleasure of the two Houses and boasted how he had got a perpetual Parliament for the English and would do the like for the Scots He aimed at nothing less than the Crown of Scotland and had so courted the common Soldiers that David Ramsey openly began a health to K. James VII yet all these things with many others are either quite smothered or so painted over by Mr. Burnet that the Volume he has writ may be called an Apology or a Panegyrick rather than a History Of all these matters the Doctor hath acquainted the world before in the Life of Archbishop Laud and the Observations that he wrote upon Mr. L'Estrange's History of King Charles I. I will be bold to aver if the Doctor had employed his great Learning and Abilities to have written but one half of those things against the King and Church of England which he wrote for them he would have been accounted by very many persons I will not say by Mr. Burnet the truest Protestant the most faithful Historian the greatest Scholar and in their own phrase the most pretious man that ever yet breathed in the Nation But he had the good luck to be a Scholar and better luck to employ his Learning like an honest man and a good Christian in the defence of a righteous and pious King of an Apostolical and true Church of a venerable and learned Clergy and that drew upon him all the odium and malice that two opposite Parties Papist and Sectary could heap upon him After the happy Restauration of the King it was high time for the good Doctor to rest a while from his Labours and bless himself with joy for the coming in of his Sovereign for now the Sun shone more gloriously in our Hemisphere than ever the Tyrannical powers being dissolved the King brought home to his people the Kingdom setled in peace the Church restored to its rights and the true Religion established every man returned to his own vine with joy who had been a good Subject and a sufferer and the Doctor came to his old habitation in Westminster of which and of his other Preferments he had been dispossest for the space of seventeen years and he no sooner got thither but according to his wonted custom he sets upon building and erected a new Room in his Prebends house to entertain his Friends in And seldom was he without Visitors especially the Clergy of the Convocation who constantly came to him for his Advice and Direction in matters relating to the Church because he had been himself an ancient Clerk in the old Convocations Many Persons of Quality besides the Clergy for the Reverence they had to his Learning and the delight they took in his company payed him several visits which he never repayed being still so devoted to his Studies that except going to Church it was a rare thing to find him from home I happen'd to be there when the good Bishop of Durham Dr. Cousins came to see him who after a great deal of familiar discourse between them said I wonder Brother Heylyn thou art not a Bishop but we all know thou hast deserved it To which he answered Much good may it do the new Bishops I do not envy them but wish they may do more than I have done Now what that great Man did so readily acknowledge to be the Doctors due was no more than what his true worth might justly challenge from all that were Friends to Learning and Virtue For his knowledge was extensive as the Earth and in his little world the great one was so fully comprehended that not an Island or Province nay scarce a Rock or Shelf could escape his strict survey and exact description Nor was he content with that degree of knowledge which did far exceed what any other durst hope or even wish for viz. A perfect familiarity with the present State of all the Countreys in the World but he was resolved to understand as well what they had always been as what they then were to be as throughly acquainted with their History as he was with their Situation and to leave nothing worth the knowing undiscovered So that what he has done in that kind looks liker the product of the most Learned and Antient Inhabitans of their respective Countreys than the issue of the industry of a Single Person Yet for all this his head was not so filled with the contemplations of this World as to leave no room for the great concerns of the other But on the contrary the main of his Study was Divinity the rest were but by the by and subservient to that For he having strictly viewed and examined all the various Religions and Governments upon Earth and coming to compare them with those under which himself lived did find the advantage both in respect of this life and another to lie so much on the side
in their Convocations as well by the common assent as by subscriptions of their hands 5 6. Edw. 6. chap. 12. And for the time of Q. Elizabeth it is most manifest that they had no other body of Doctrine in the first part of her Reign then only the said Articles of K. Edward's Book and that which was delivered in the Book of Homilies of the said Kings time In which the Parliament had as little to do as you have seen they had in the Book of Articles But in the Convocation of the year 1562. being the fifth of the Q. Reign the Bishops and Clergy taking into consideration the said book of Articles and altering what they thought most fitting to make it more conducible to the use of the Church and the edification of the people presented it unto the Queen who caused it to be published with this Name and Title viz. Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. for the avoiding of diversity of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion put forth by the Queens Authority Of any thing done or pretended to be done by the power of the Parliament either in the way of Approbation or of Confirmation not one word occurs either in any of the Printed Books or the Publick Registers At last indeed in the 13th of the said Queens Reign which was 8 years full after the passing of those Articles comes out a Statute for the Redressing of disorders in the Ministers of holy Church In which it was enacted That all such as were Ordained Priests or Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments after any other form then that appointed to be used in the Church of England all such as were to be Ordained or permitted to Preach or to be instituted into any Benefice with Cure of souls should publickly subscribe to the said Articles and testifie their assent unto them Which shews if you observe it well that though the Parliament did well allow of and approve the said Book of Articles yet the said Book owes neither confirmation nor authority to the Act of Parliament So that the wonder is the greater that that most insolent scoff which is put upon us by the Church of Rome in calling our Religion by the name Parliamentaria-Religio should pass so long without controle unless perhaps it was in reference to our Forms of Worship of which I am to speak in the next place But first we must make answer unto some Objections which are made against us both from Law and Practice For Practice first it is alledged by some out of Bishop Jewel in his Answer to the Cavil of Dr. Harding to be no strange matter to see Ecclesiastical Causes debated in Parliament and that it is apparent by the Laws of King Ina King Alfred King Edward c. That our Godly Fore-fathers the Princes and Peers of this Realm never vouchsafed to treat of matters touching the Common State before all Controversies of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical had been concluded Def. of the Apol. part 6. chap. 2. sect 1. But the answer unto this is easie For first if our Religion may be called Parliamentarian because it hath received confirmation and debate in Parliament then the Religion of our Fore-fathers even Papistry it self concerning which so many Acts of Parliament were made in K. Hen. 8. and Q. Maries time must be called Parliamentarian also And secondly it is most certain that in the Parliaments or Common-Councils call them which you will both of King Inas time and the rest of the Saxon Kings which B. Jewel speaks of not only Bishops Abbots and the higher part of the Clergy but the whole Body of the Clergy generally had their Votes and Suffrages either in person or by proxie Concerning which take this for the leading Case That in the Parliament or Common-Council in K. Ethelberts time who first of all the Saxon Kings received the Gospel the Clergy were convened in as full a manner as the Lay-Subjects of that Prince Convocati Communi Concilio tam Cleri quam Populi saith Sir H. Spelman in his Collection of the Councils Anno 605. p. 118. And for the Parliament of King Ina which leads the way in Bishop Jewel it was saith the same Sr. H. Spelman p. 630. Communi Concilium Episcoporum Procerum Comitum nec non omnium Sapientum Seniorum Populorumque totius Regni Where doubtless Sapientes and Seniores and you know what Seniores signifieth in the Ecclesiastical notion must be some body else then those which after are expressed by the name of Populi which shews the falshood and absurdity of the collection made by Mr. Pryn in the Epistle to his Book against Dr. Cousins viz. That the Parliament as it is now constituted hath an ancient genuine just and lawful Prerogative to establish true Religion in our Church and to abolish and suppress all false new and counterfeit Doctrines whatsoever Unless he means upon the post fact after the Church hath done her part in determining what was true what false what new what ancient and finally what Doctrines might be counted counterfeit and what sincere And as for Law 't is true indeed that by the Statute 1 Eliz. cap. 1. The Court of Parliament hath power to determine and judge of Heresie which at first sight seems somewhat strange but on the second view you will easily find that this relates only to new and emergent Heresies not formerly declared for such in any of the first four General Councils nor in any other General Cuncil adjudging by express words of holy Scripture as also that in such new Heresies the following words restrain this power to the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation as being best able to instruct the Parliament what they are to do and where they are to make use of the secular sword for cutting off a desperate Heretick from the Church of CHRIST or rather from the Body of all Christian people 5. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship and the Times appointed thereunto THIS Rub removed we now proceed unto a view of such Forms of Worships as have been setled in this Church since the first dawning of the day of Reformation in which our Parliaments have indeed done somewhat though it be not much The first point which was altered in the publick Liturgies was that the Creed the Pater-noster and the Ten Commandements were ordered to be said in the English Tongue to the intent the people might be perfect in them and learn them without book as our Phrase is The next the setting forth and using of the English Letany on such days and times in which it was accustomably to be read as a part of the Service But neither of these two was done by Parliament nay to say truth the Parliament did nothing in them All which was done in either of them
the curiosity of the Ministers and mistakes of the people rather than for any other weighty cause As the Statutes 5 and 6 Ed. 6. cap. 1. it was thought expedient by the King with the assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled that the said Order of Common Service should be faithfully and godly perused explained and made fully perfect Perused and explained by whom Why questionless by those who made it or else by those if they were not the same men who were appointed by the King to draw up and compose a Form of Ordination for the Use of the Church And this Assent of theirs for it was no more was the only part that was ever acted by the Parliament in matter of this present nature save that a Statute passed in the former Parliament 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. unto this effect that such form and manner of making and consecrating Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Deacons and other Ministers of the Church which before I spake of as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in Gods Laws by the King to be appointed and assigned shall be devised to that purpose and set forth under the great Seal shall be lawfully used and exercised and none other Where note that the King only was to nominate and appoint the men the Bishops and other learned men were to make the Book and that the Parliament in a blind obedience or at the least upon a charitable confidence in the integrity of the men so nominated did confirm that Book before any of their Members had ever seen it though afterwards indeed in the following Parliament this Book together with the Book of Common-prayer so Printed and explained obtained a more formal confirmation as to the use thereof throughout the Kingdom but in no other respect for which see the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c. 1. As for the time of Q. Elizabeth when the Common-prayer book now in use being the same almost with the last of King Edward was to be brought again into the Church from whence it was cast out in Queen Maries Reign it was committed to the care of some learned men that is to say to M. Whitehead once Chaplain to Q. Anne Bullen Dr. Parker after Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Grindal after Bishop of London Dr. Cox after Bishop of Ely Dr. Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr. May Dean of Saint Pauls Dr. Bill Provost of Eaton after Dean of Westminster and Sir Tho. Smith By whom being altered in some few passages which the Statute points to 1 Eliz. c. 21. it was presented to the Parliament and by the Parliament received and established without more ado or troubling any Committee of both or either Houses to consider of it for ought appears in their Records All that the Parliament did in it being to put it into the condition in which it stood before in Kings Edwards Reign partly by repealing the Repeal of King Edw. Statutes made in the first of Q. Mary c. 2. and partly by the adding of some farther penalties on such as did deprave the Book or neglect to use it or wilfully did absent themselves from their Parish-Churches And for the Alterations made in King James his time being small in the Rubrick only and for the additions of the Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany the Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue and the Doctrine of the Sacraments at the end of the Catechisme which were not in the Book before they were never referred unto the Parliament but were done only by Authority of the Kings Commission and stand in force by virtue only of His Proclamation which you may find before the Book the charge of buying the said Book so explained and altered being laid upon the several and respective Parishes by no other Authority than that of the eightieth Canon made in Convocation Anno 1603. The like may also be affirmed of the Forms of Prayer for the Inauguration-day of our Kings and Queens the Prayer-books for the fifth of November and the fifth of August and those which have been used in all publick Fasts All which without the help of Parliaments have been composed by the Bishops and imposed by the King Now unto this discourse of the Forms of Worship I shall subjoyn a word or two of the times of Worship that is to say the Holy-days observed in the Church of England and so observed that they do owe that observation chiefly to the Churches power For whereas it was found in the former times that the number of the Holy-days was grown so great that they became a burthen to the common people and a great hinderance to the thrift and manufactures of the Kingdom there was a Canon made in the Convocation An. 1536. For cutting off of many superstitious and superfluous Holy-days and the reducing them into the number in which they now stand save that St. George's day and Mary Magdalens day and all the Festivals of the blessed Virgin had their place amongst them according to which Canon there went out a Monitory from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to all the Suffragans of his Province respectively to see the same observed in their several Diocesses which is still extant on Record But being the Authority of the Church was then in the wane it was thought necessary to confirm their Acts and see execution done upon it by the Kings Injunction which did accordingly come forth with this Form or preamble That the abolishing of the said Holy-days was decreed ordained and established by the Kings Highness Authority as Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England with the common consent and assent of the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation lawfully Assembled and Congregate Of which see Fox his Acts and Monuments fol. 1246 1247. Afterwards in the year 1541. the King perceiving with what difficulty the people were induced to leave off those Holy-days to which they had been so long accustomed published his Proclamation of the twenty-third of July for the abolishing of such Holy-days amongst other things as were prohibited before by his Injunctions both built upon the same foundation namely the resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation And so it stood until the Reign of King E. 6. at which time the Reformation of the publick Liturgie drew after it by consequence an alteration in the present business no days being to be kept or accounted Holy but those for which the Church had set apart a peculiar office and not all those neither For whereas there are several and peculiar offices for the day of the Conversion of St. Paul and the day of St. Barnabas the Apostles neither of these are kept as Holy-days nor reckoned or esteemed as such in the Act of Parliament wherein the names and number of the Holy-days is precisely specified which makes some think the Act of Parliament to have had an over-ruling power on the Common-prayer-Book but it is not so
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
inquisition or Impeachment the Lords in that of Judicature and determination with the consent and approbation of the King though many times without his personal assent and presence The King may be abused in his Grants and Patents to the oppression of the people or the dilapidation and destruction of the Royal Patrimony Judges and other the great Officers of Law and Equity are subject to corruptions and may smell of gifts whereby the passages of Justices do become obstructed The Ministers of inferiour Courts as well Ecclesiastical as Civil either exhaust the miserable Subject by Extortions or else consume him by delays Erroneous judgments may be given through fear or favour to the undoing of a man and his whole posterity in which his Majesties Justices of either Bench can afford no remedy The great Ones of the State may become too insolent and the poor too miserable and many other ways there are by which the Fabrick of the State may be out of Order for the removing of which mischiefs the rectifying of which abuses the Lords and Commons in their several ways before remembred are of special use yet so that if the King's Grants do come in question or any of his Officers are called to a reckoning they used heretofore to signifie unto his Majesty what they found therein and he accordingly either revoked his Grants or displaced his Servants or by some other means gave way unto their contentment the Kings consent being always necessary and received as a part of the final sentence if they went so far So that we may conclude this point with these words of Bodin who being well acquainted with the Government of this State and Nation partly by way of Conference with Dr. Dale the Queens Ambassadour in France and partly in the way of observation when he was in England doth give this resolution of the point in Controversie Bodin de Repub l. 1. o. 8. Habere quidem Ordines Anglorum authoritatem quandam jura vero majestatis imperii summam in unius Principis arbitrio versari The States saith he of England have a kind of Authority but all the Rights of Sovereignty and command in chief are at the will and pleasure of the Prince alone And to say truth although the Lords and Commons met in Parliament are of great Authority especially as they have improved it in these later times yet were they never of such power but that the Kings have for the most part over-ruled them and made them pliant and conformable to their own desires and this not only by themselves but sometimes also by their Judges by their Council often For such was the great care and wisdom of our former Kings as not to venture single on that numerous Body of the two Houses of Parliament whereby the Sovereignty might be so easily over-matched but to take with them for Affistants as well the Lords of their Privy Council with whom they might advise in matters which concerned them in their Sovereign Rights as their learned Council as they call them consisting of the Judges and most eminent Lawyers from whom they might receive instruction as the case required and neither do nor suffer wrong in point of Law and by both these as well as by the power and awe of their personal presence have they not only regulated but restrained their Parliaments And this is easily demonstrable by continual practice 4 Ed. 1. For in the Statute of Bigamie made in the fourth year of King Edward I. it is said expresly That in the prefence of certain Reverend Fathers Bishops of England and others of the Kings Council the Constitutions under-written were recited and after published before the King his Council forasmuch as all the Kings Council as well Justices as others did agree that they should be put in writing and observed In the Articuli super Chartas when the Great Charter was confirmed at the request of the Prelates 28 Ed. 1. c. 2. Earls and Barons we find these two claufes the one in the beginning thus Nevertheless the King and his Council do not intend by reason of this Statute Ibid. c. 20. to diminish the Kings right c. The other in the clofe of all in these following words And notwithstanding all these things mentioned or any part of them both the King and his Council and all they which were present at the making of this Ordinance do will and intend that the Right and Prerogative of his Crown shall be saved in all things In the 27th of King Edward the 3d. The Commons presenting a Petition to the King 27 Ed. 3. which the Kings Council did mislike were content thereupon to mend and explain their Petition the Form of which Petition is in these words following To their most redoubted Sovereign Lord the King praying the Commons that whereas they have prayed him to be discharged of all manner of Articles of the Lyre c. which Petition seemeth to his Council to be prejudicial unto him and in disherison of his Crown if it were so generally granted his said Commons not willing not desiring to demand things of him which should fall in disherison of him or of his Crown perpetually as of Escheats c. but of Trespasses Misprifions Negligences and Ignorances c. In the 13th of the reign of King Richard the 2d when the Commons did pray that upon pain of forfeiture the Chancellor or Council of the King should not after the end of the Parliament make any Ordinance against the Common Law 13 Rich. 2. the King by the advice of his Council answered Let it be used as it hath been used before this time so as the Regality of the King be saved for the King will save his Regalities 4 Hen. 4. as his Predecessors have done In the 4th year of King Henry IV. when the Commons complained against Sub-poenae's and other Writs grounded upon false suggestions the King upon the same advice returned this Answer that he would give in charge to his Officers that they should abstain more than before time they had to send for his Subjects in that manner But yet saith he it is not our intention that our Officers shall so abstain that they may not send for our Subjects in matters and causes necessary as it hath been used in the time of our good Progenitors Finally not to bring forth more particulars in a case so clear it was the constant custom in all Parliaments till the Reign of King Henry V. that when any Bill had passed both Houses Henr. 5. and was presented to the King for his Royal Assent the King by the abvice of his Privy Council or his Council learned in the Laws or sometimes of both did use to cross out and obliterate as much or as little of it as he pleased to leave out what he liked not and confirmed the rest that only which the King confirmed being held for Law And though in the succeeding
bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended which is the third and last of my Propositions and is I hope sufficiently and fully proved or at the least made probable if not demonstrative I have said nothing in this Tract of the right of Tithes or on what motive or considerations of preceding claim the Kings of England did confer them upon the Clergy Contenting my self at this time with the matter of fact as namely that they were setled on the Church by the Kings of this Realm before they granted out Estates to the Lords and Gentry and that the Land thus charged with the payment of Tithes they passed from one man to another Ante Concilium Lateranense bene toterant Laici decimas sibi in feudum retinere vel aliis quibuscunque Ecclesiis dare Lindw in Provinc cap. de decimis until it came unto the hands of the present Occupant which cuts off all that claim or title which the mispersuaded subject can pretend unto them I know it cannot be denied but that notwithstanding the said Grants and Charters of those ancient Kings many of the great men of the Realm and some also of the inferiour Gentry possessed of Manours before the Lateran Council did either keep their Tithes in their own hands or make Infeodations of them to Religious houses or give them to such Priests or Parishes as they best affected But after the decree of Pope Innocent the third which you may find at large in Sir Edw. Cokes Comment upon Magna Charta and other old Statutes of this Realm in the Chapter of Tithes had been confirmed in that Council Anno 1215 and incorporated into the Canons and conclusions of it the payment of them to the Minister or Parochial Priest came to be setled universally over all the Kingdom save that the Templars the Hospitalers and Monks of Cisteaux held their ancient priviledges of being excepted for those Lands which they held in Occupancy from this general rule Nor have I said any thing of Impropriations partly because I am persuaded that the Lords and Gentry who have their Votes or Friends in Parliament will look well enough to the saving of their own stakes but principally because coming from the same original grant from the King to the Subjects and by them setled upon Monasteries and Religious houses they fell in the ruine of those houses to the Crown again as of due right the Tithes should do if they be taken from the Clergy and by the Crown were alienated in due form of Law and came by many mean conveyances to the present Owners Onely I shall desire that the Lords and Commons would take a special care of the Churches Patrimony for fear lest that the prevalency of this evil humour which gapes so greedily after the Clergies Tithes do in the end devour theirs also And it concerns them also in relation to their right of Patronage which if this plot go on will be utterly lost and Churches will no longer be presentative at the choice of the Patron but either made Elective at the will of the People or else Collated by the Trustees of the several Counties succeeding as they do in the power of Bishops as now Committee-men dispose of the preferments of the Sequestred Clergy If either by their power and wisdom or by the Arguments and Reasons which are here produced the peoples eyes are opened to discern the truth and that they be deceived no longer by this popular errour it is all I aim at who have no other ends herein but only to undeceive them in this point of Tithes which hath been represented to them as a publick grievance conducing manifestly to the diminution of theâ—â— gain and profit If notwithstanding all this care for their information they will run headlong in the ways of spoil and sacrilege and shut their eyes against the light of the truth shine it never so brightly let them take heed they fall not into that â—â—â—â—tuation which the Scripture denounceth that seeing they shall see but shall not perceive and that the stealing of this Coal from the Altars of God burn not down their Houses And so I shut up this discourse with the words of our Saviour saying that no man tasteth new wine but presently he saith that the old is better ECCLESIA VINDICATA OR THE Church of England VINDICATED PART II. Containing the Defence thereof V. In retaining the Episcopal Government AND VI. The Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons Framed and Exhibited in an HISTORY of EPISCOPACY By PETER HEYLYN D. D. HEB. XIII 17. Obedite Praepositis vestris subjacete eis Ipsi enim pervigilant quasi rationem pro Animabus vestris reddituri ut cum gaudio hoc faciant non gementes CYPRIAN Epist LXV Apostolos id est EPISCOPOS Praepositos Dominus elegit Diaconos autem post Ascensum Domini in coelos Apostoli sibi constituerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesiae Ministros LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE Quarrels and Disputes about Episcopacy had reposed a while when they broke out more dangerously than in former times In order whereunto the people must be put in fear of some dark design to bring in Popery the Bishops generally defamed as the principal Agents the regular and establisht Clergy traduc'd as the subservient Instruments do drive on the Plot Their actings in Gods publick Worship charged for Innovations their persons made the Common subjects of reproach and calumny The News from Ipswich Bastwicks Let any and the Seditious Pamphlets from Friday-street with other the like products of those times what were they but Tentamenta Bellorum Civilium preparatory Velitations to that grand encounter in which they were resolved to assault the Calling The Calling could not be attempted with more hopes of Victory than when it had received such wide wounds through the sides of those persons who principally were concerned in the safety or defence thereof The way thus opened and the Scots entring with an Army to make good the pass the Smectymnuans come upon the Stage addressing their discourse in Answer to a Book called An Humble Remonstrance to the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled Anno 1640. amongst whom they were sure beforehand of a powerful party to advance the Cause which made them far more confident of their good suocess than otherwise they had reason to expect in a time less favourable And in this Confidence they quarrelled not the Rocket or the Officers Fees the Oath ex officio the Vote in Parliament or the exorbitant jurisdiction of the High-Commission at which old Martin and his followers clamoured in Queen Elizabeths time Non gaudet tenui sanguine tanta sitis Their stomach was too great to be satisfied with so small a sacrifice as the excrescences and adjuncts of Episcopacy which seemed most offensive to their Predecessors
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
say the Lord Protector and the rest of the Privy Council acting in his Name and by his Authority performed by Archbishop Cranmer and the other six before remembred assisted by Thirdby Bishop of Winchester Day Bishop of Chichester Ridley Bishop of Rochester Taylor then Dean after Bishop of Lincoln Redman then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Hains Dean of Exeter all men of great abilities in their several stations and finally confirmed by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in Parliament Assembled 23 Edw. VI. In which Confirmatory act it is said expresly to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost which testimony I find also of it in the Acts and Monuments fol 1184. But being disliked by Calvin who would needs be meddling in all matters which concerned Religion and disliked it chiefly for no other reason as appears in one of his Epistles to the Lord Protector but because it savoured too much of the ancient Forms it was brought under a review the cause of the reviewing of it being given out to be no other than that there had risen divers doubts in the Exercise of the said Book for the fashion and manner of the Ministration though risen rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers than of any other cause 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. The review made by those who had first compiled it though Hobeach and Redman might be dead before the confirmation of it by Act of Parliament some of the New Bishops added to the former number and being reviewed was brought into the same form in which now it stands save that a clause was taken out of the Letany and a sentence added to the distribution of the blessed Sacrament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth and that some alteration was made in two or three of the Rubricks with an addition of Thanksgiving in the end of the Letany as also of a Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue in the first of King James At the same time and by the same hands which gave us the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. was the first Book of Homilles composed also in which I have some cause to think that Bishop Latimer was made use of amongst the rest as one who had subscribed the first other two books before mentioned as Bishop of Worcester Ann. 1537. and ever since continued zealous for a Reformation quitting in that respect such a wealthy Bishoprick because he neither would nor could conform his judgment to the Doctrine of the six Articles Authorized by Parliament For it will easily appear to any who is conversant in Latimers writings and will compare them carefully with the book of Homilies that they do not only savour of the same spirit in point of Doctrine but also of the same popular and familiar stile which that godly Martyr followed in the course of his preachings for though the making of these Homilies be commonly ascribed and in particular by Mr. Fox to Archbishop Cranmer yet it is to be understood no otherwise of him thad than it was chiefly done by encouragement and direction not sparing his own hand to advance the work as his great occasions did permit That they were made at the same time with King Edwards first Liturgy will appear as clearly first by the Rubrick in the same Liturgy it self in which it is directed Let. of Mr. Bucer to the Church of England that after the Creed shall follow the Sermon or Homily or some portion of one of them as they shall be hereafter divided It appears secondly by a Letter writ by Martin Bucer inscribed To the holy Church of England and the Ministers of the same in the year 1549. in the very beginning whereof he lets them know That their Sermons or Homilies were come to his hands wherein they godlily and effectually exhort their people to the reading of Holy Scripture that being the scope and substance of the first Homily which occurs in that book and therein expounded the sense of the faith whereby we hold our Christianity and Justification whereupon all our help censisteth and other most holy principles of our Religion with most godly zeal And as it is reported of the Earl of Gondomar Ambassador to King James from the King of Spain that having seen the elegant disposition of the Rooms and Offices in Burleigh House not far from Stanford erected by Sir William Cecil principal Secretary of State and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth he very pleasantly affirmed That he was able to discern the excellent judgment of the great Statesman by the neat contrivance of his house So we may say of those who composed this book in reference to the points disputed A man may easily discern of what judgment they were in the Doctrine of Predestination by the method which they have observed in the course of these Homilies Beginning first with a discourse of the misery of man in the state of nature proceeding next to that of the salvation of man-kind by Christ our Saviour only from sin and death everlasting from thence to a Declaration of a true lively and Christian saith and after that of good works annexed unto faith by which our Justification and Salvation are to be obtained and in the end descending unto the Homily bearing this inscription How dangerous a thing it is to fall from God Which Homilies in the same form and order in which they stand were first authorized by King Edward VI. afterwards tacitly approved in the Rubrick of the first Liturgy before remembred by Act of Parliament and finally confirmed and ratified in the book of Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergy of the Convocation Anno 1552. and legally confirmed by the said King Edward Such were the hands and such the helps which co-operated to the making of the two Liturgies and this book of Homilies but to the making of the Articles of Religion there was necessary the concurrence of the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in Convocation in due form of Law amongst which there were many of those which had subscribed to the Bishops book Anno 1537. and most of those who had been formerly advised with in the reviewing of the book by the Commandment of King Henry VIII 1543. To which were added amongst others Dr. John Point Bishop of Winchester an excellent Grecian well studied with the ancient Fathers and one of the ablest Mathematicians which those times produced Dr. Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon who had spent much of his time in the Lutheran Churches amongst whom he received the degree of Doctor Mr. John Story Bishop of Rochester Ridley being then preferred to the See of London from thence removed to Chichester and in the end by Queen Elizabeth to the Church of Hereford Mr. Rob. Farran Bishop of St. Davids and Martyr a man much favoured by the Lord Protector Sommerset in the time of his greatness and finally not to descend to those of the lower
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
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
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
did absent themselves of their own accord so many things have been transacted in the Parliament excluso Clero when the Clergy have been excluded or put out of the House by some Act or Ordinance A precedent for this hath been found and published by such as envied that poor remnant of the Churches honour though possibly they will find themselves deceived in their greatest hope and that the evidence will not serve to evince the cause The Author of the Pamphlet entituled The Prerogative and practice of Parliaments first laying down his Tenet that many good Acts of Parliament may be made though the Arch-bishops and Bishops should not consent unto them which is a point no man doubts of Printed at London 16.8 p. 37. consideriong how easily their Negative may be over-ruled by the far greater number in the House of Peers adds that at a Parliament holden at St. Edmundsbury 1196. in th reign of Edw. 1. a Statute was made by the King the Barons and the Commons Excluso Clero and for the proof hereof refers us unto Bishop Jewel Now Bishop Jewel saith indeed that in a Parliament solemnly holden at St. Edmundsbury by King Edward 1. An 1296. the Arch-bishops and Bishops were quite shut forth and yet the Parliament held on and good and wholesome Laws were there enacted the departing or absence of the Lords Spiritual notwithstanding In the Records whereof it is written thus Defence of the Apolog. pt 5. c. 2. §. 1. Habito Rex cum Baronibus suis Parliamento Clergo excluso statutum est c. the King keeping the Parliament with his Barons the Clergy that is to say the Arch-bishops and Bishops being shut forth it was enacted c. Wherein who doth not see if he hath any eyes that by this reason if the proof be good many good Acts of Parliament may be made though the Commons either out of absence or opposition should not consent unto them of whose consent unto that Statute whatsoever it was there is as little to be found in that Record as the concurrence of the Bishops But for Answer unto so much of this Record so often spoken of and applauded as concerns the Bishops we say that this if truly senced as I think it be not was the particular Act of an angry and offended King against his Clergy not to be drawn into Example as a proof or Argument against a most clear known and undoubted right The case stood thus A Constitution had been made by Boniface the 8th Ne aliqua collecta ex Ecclesiasticis proventibus Regi aut cuivis alii Principi concedatur Matth. Westm in Edw. 1. that Clergy-men should not pay any Tax or Tallage unto Kings or Princes our of their Spiritual preferments without the leave of the Pope under pretence whereof the Clergy at this Parliament at St. Edmundsbury refused to be contributory to the Kings occasions when the Lay-Members of the House had been forwards in it The King being herewith much offended gives them a further day to consider of it adjourning the Parliament to London there to begin on the morrow after St. Hilaries day and in the mean time commanded all their Barns to be fast sealed up The day being come and the Clergy still persisting in their former obstinacy excluso è Parlamento Clero Concilium Rex cum solis Baronibus c populo habuit totumq Antiq. Brit. in R. Winchelsey statim Clerum protectione sua privavit the King saith the Historian excluding the Clergy out of the Parliament advised with his Barons and his people only what was best to be done by whose advice he put the Clergy out of his protection and thereby forced them to conform to his will and pleasure This is the summa totalis of the business and comes unto no more but this that a particular course was advised in Parliament on a particular displeasure taken by the King against the body of his Clergy then convened together for their particular refusal to contribute to his wants and Wars the better to reduce them to their natural duty Which makes not any thing at all against the right of Bishops in the House of Peers or for excluding them that House or for the validity of such Acts as are made in Parliament during the time of such exclusion especially considering that the King shortly after called his States together Wlsingh in Edw. 1. Anno 1297. and did excuse himself for many extravagant Acts whch he had committed against the liberties of the Subject whereof this was one laying the blame thereof on his great occasions and the necessities which the Wars which he had abroad did impose upon him And so much as in answer unto that Record supposing that the words thereof be rightly senced as I think they are not and that by Clerus there we are to understand Arch-bishops and Bishops as I think we be not there being no Record I dare boldly say it either of History of Law in which the word Clerus serve to signifie the Arch-bishops and Bishops exclusive of the other Clergy or any writing whatsoever wherein it doth not either signifie the whole Clergy generally or ther inferiour Clergy only exclusive of the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Prelates Therefore in answer unto that so much applauded Cavil of Excluso Clero from what Record soever it either hath been hitherto or shall hereafter be produced I shall propose it to the consideration of the sober Reader whether by Clerus in that place or in any other of that kind and time we must not understand the inferiour Clergy as they stand distinguished in the Laws from my Lords the Bishops For howsoever it be true that Clerus in the Ecclesiastical notion of the word doth signifie the whole Clergy generally Arch-bishops Bishops Priests and Deacons yet in the legal notion of it it stands distinguished from the Prelates and signifieth only the inferiour Clergy Thus do we find the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm divided into Prelates men of Religion and other Clerks 3. Edw. 1. c. 1. the Seculars either into Prelates and Clerks 9 Edw. 2. c. 3. 1 Rich. 2. c. 3. or Prelates and Clerks Beneficed 18 Edw. 3. c. 2. or generally into the Prelates and the Clergy 9 Edw. 2. c. 15. 14 Edw. 3. c. 1. 3. 18 Edw. 3. 2.7 25 Edw. 3.2.4 8 Hen. 6. c. 1. and in all acts and grants of Subsidies made by the Clergy to the Kings or Queens of England since the 32 of Henry 8. when the Clergy Subsidies first began to be confirmed by Act of Parliament So also in the Latin ideom Regist Warham Regist Cranmer Statut. ◠Eliz c. 17. ever since Stat. 1. Phil. Mar. c. 8. which comes nearest home Nos Praelati Clerus in the submission of the Clergy to King Henry VIII and in the sentence of divorce against Anne of Cleve and in the instrument of the grant of the grant of the
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