King James the Parliament sitting Dr. Harsenet Bishop of Chichester Preached a Sermon at Whitehall upon Mark 12.17 Give unto Caesar c. wherein he insisted that Goods and Money were Caesars and therefore they were not to be denied unto him at which the whole Parliament stormed and took great Offence which that wise and peaceable Prince endeavoured to calm and qualifie by moderate Exposition thereof to the Lords and Commons for that purpose Assembled in the Banquetting-House viz. That the Doctor meant it according to the Laws and Customs of the Country wherein they did live This did mollifie but not satisfie and therefore the Sermon was burnt to satisfie their Indignation against such vile and destructive Doctrines for which he was well rewarded by being translated to Norwich Rush 177. then to York a shrewd sign that such Doctrines did please the Court tho' not the Parliament Likewise Mr. Ric. Montague who 21 Jac. printed an Answer to the late Gag of Protestants and about 22 Jac. printed another Book Entituled A Treatise of the Invocation of Saints 1 Car. 1. he printed another Entituled An Appeal to Caesar which Books contained so many Erronious and false Doctrines contrary to the very Articles agreed on in the Convocation held at London 1562. that they disobliged the whole Nation so much that the Commons House exhibited Articles against him 1 Car. and prayed that he might be punished This Cause began 21 Jac. when he had published a former Book called A new Gag for an old Goose and was then questioned in Parliament and committed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and ended in an Admonition only given to Montague by the Archbishop who disliked that Book and thought to suppress it but could not It was printed and dedicated to the King and his Cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Oxford Rochester and St. Davids all mighty Church of England Men not Puritans whereby they espoused it as their common Cause and Concern and Montague is made his Majesties Chaplain yet his Majesty was so just and prudent as to leave him to the Parliament which did not please the Bishops and the Commons House did exhibit Articles against him and prayed his Book might be burnt and himself punished but the Bishops prevailed so much with the King on their own behalf that he was made first Bishop of Chichester and then Bishop of Norwich and his Book only called in by Proclamation yet so as all Answers thereunto by Preaching or Writing were forbidden For the several Answers made by Dr. Featly Dr. Gâ—ad in their Parallels by Mr. Burton Ward Yates Wetton Rouse in a Book called King James's Religion were all suppressed and some of the Printers questioned in the High Commission and Montague had a Royal Pardon which was inquired into 4 Car. by the Commons House In the same Parliament a Petition was exhibited from some Booksellers and Printers in London complaining of the restraint of Books written against Popery and the contrary allowed of by the only means of Dr. Land Bishop of London and divers of the Printers and Booksellers were sent for by Pursevants for Printing Books against Popery and the Licensing is only restrained to the Bishop of London and his Chaplains Ph. de Comines complained That tho' the King of France had a wise Council yet they rid all upon one Horse And must we be Priest-ridden by a Bishop and his Chaplains Upon which Mr. Selden declared That there was no Law to prevent Printing of any Books only a Decree in Star-Chamber and he advised that a Law might be made concerning Printing else one may be Fined Imprisoned prisoned and his Goods taken from him by vertue of such Decrees which is a great invasion upon the Liberty of the Subject About the same time also came out Cosins his Book of Seven Sacraments containing strange things against whom the Commons House exhibit 21 Articles whereof one was for calling some Gentlewomen Whores and Jades and Pagans and for tearing some of their Clothes when they were in their Seats in the Church because they would not bow to the Altar nor at the Name of Jesus c. Nalson 789. About this time the Clergy had wrought themselves with great Power and Interest at Court which encouraged the Inferior Clergy to great boldness and to pulpit any thing that might please as the very Road of Preferment Teach for Hire and Divine for Money Another that did appear bare faced and without any Vizard was one Sybthorp Vicar of Brackley scarce Batchellor of Art who preached Feb. 22. 1626. at Lent Assizes at Northampton on Rom. 13.7 Which Sermon called Apostolical Obedience tho' full fraught with many Theses destructive to all human Society yet had such countenance from the Court-Clergy that they procured his Majesty to send to the Archbishop of Canterbury to License it for the Press for the better grace of the business which his Majesty did feveral times by Mr. William Murrey but the Archbishop like a true Nathaniel refused to give it an Imprimatur but not without great Reasons humbly submitted to his Majesty for his so doing It was afterwards carried to Dr. Worrall Chaplain to the then Bishop of London who having hand over head Licens'd it afterward took advice of Councel who told him That if all in that Sermon were true there was no meum tuum left to Subjects and that he might be called to an Account for it and hanged Whereupon he blotted out his Name again and the Book was afterward Licens'd by Laud then Bishop of London who gave it a great and stately Allowance and caused it to be dedicated to the King and published upon his Majesties Commission for the Raising of Money by the way of Loan which was by such Royal Authority to give greater countenance thereto It taught that the King's Duty is to direct and make Laws that nothing may excuse from Active Obedience but what is against the Law of God or Nature or Impossible That all Antiquity was absolutely for Absolute Obedience in all Civil and Temporal Things Laud also allowed the Book called The Seven Sacraments with all its Errors which were afterwards expunged Another bold faced Priest that did appear about the same time was Dr. Manwaring who promoted the same Design in two Sermons preached before the King and Court at Wintehall called Religion and Allegiance in which he declared That the King was not bound to observe the Laws of the Realm concerning the Subjects Rights and Liberty but that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes without common consent in Parliament doth oblige the Subjects Conscience upon pain of Eternal Domnation that they who refused to pay this Loan offended against the Law of God and the Kings Supreme Authority and became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty and Rebellion and that the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for Raising the of Aids and Subsidies c. for which he was impeached
the Emperors Decrees were not executed by the bounty of Constance Cloro Caesar who governed it But a while after Constantine and Licinius granted freedom of Religion to the Christians approved of the Ecclesiastical Colledges called Churches granted generally throughout the Empire that they might gain and acquire stable Goods as well by Gift as Testament exempting also the Clergy from personal publick services that they might attend the Duties of Religion more constantly But the Clergy made so ill use of these Favours that Princes were forced to regulate them by Laws in the Year 370 Which St. Jerom confesseth to have been a Remedy against the Corruptions entred amongst the Clergy which was of getting Temporal Estates But that Law not being sufficient to suppress their greediness of getting Temporal Estates another Law was made Anno 390 to the same end and purpose this excess of getting was so unpleasant to St. Austin who lived in those Days that he openly declared against them saying The Ecclesiastical Ministry consisted not in getting and distributing much but in getting and distributing well Likewise he abhorred the new indirect ways they had found out of increasing their Stock and would never permit them in his Church and often declared in his Sermons That he had rather live on the Primitive Oblation than to have a care of Possessions which hindred from attending intirely upon the Principal Charge of a Bishop i. e. Spiritual things Notwithstanding all Laws Reprimands and Checks yet the Ecclesiastical Goods increased excessively above what it ought but the ancient manner of Governing and Distributing lasted till the Year 420. both the Oblation and the Ecclesiastical incoms from real Estates were in common and governed by Deacons Sub-Deacons and by other Assistants and distributed for the maintenance of Ecclesiastical Ministers and of the Poor The Colledge of Priests and the Bishops were the Superintendants so that the Bishops disposed of every thing and the Deacons executed it But after France Spain and Africa were divided from the Empire the Churches were differently governed The Eastern Church retained the common Government but in the Western the Bishops by Administrators and Superintendants made themselves Masters and to govern the Goods of the Church Arbitrarily from whence arose Confusions in the distribution of them and the Buildings fell to ruine and the Poor neglected and forsaken For which cause about the Year 470 in the Western Church it was ordained that the Ecclesiastical Goods should be divided into Four parts which alteration was also soon abused And also other changes made in the Government which in and through all things proved contrary to the Ancient as also the manner of chusing Ministers was instituted by the Apostles That Bishops Priests and other Ministers of God's Word and the Deacons Ministers of Temporal things should be elected by the Universality of the Faithful and should be ordained by the Bishops with laying of Hands on the Head a thing which lasts without alteration to this Day Which Custom continued about 200 Years The Bishops were chosen by the People and ordained by the Metropolitan in the presence of all the Com-provincial Bishops or else by their Consents c. And afterwards many Provinces for a better Form of Government were subject to one Primate whose Consent was also required for Ordaining Then the Priests Deacons and other Clergy Men were presented by the People and ordained by the Bishop or else nominated by the Bishops and with the Consent of the People ordained by him An unknown Man was never received neither did the Bishop ever Ordain one who was not approved of and commended or rather presented by the People and the Consent of the People was judged so necessary that Pope Leo the First treated amply that the Ordination of a Bishop could not be valid nor lawful which was not required by the People and by them approved of which was the Opinion of all the Saints of those times A thing worthy to be noted now a Days when that Election is declared to be illegitimate and null where the People have any share Thus is seen how things in the Government of the Church are degenerated from what they were in purer times even quite contrary that now accounted lawful which was then accounted wicked and that now unjust which then was reputed holy The Clergy finding the sweet and great Advantages of the Favours granted by Princes did improve them to the uttermost but by such means as were not pleasing to the Faithful of which St. Austin and St. Chrisostom greatly complained in their times For they increased the common Stock by undue practises and distributed over much to themselves and neglecting the Poor And their Wealth so vastly and unjustly increasing they instituted new kinds of Government which they changed at pleasure until at last it came to that we see at this Day Not content with the old ways of getting about the 500 Year another sort of Religious Colledges called Monasteries were erected Monkery began in Egypt about the Year 300 and from thence past into Greece whereby St. Basil at the Year 370 it was formed in the manner which yet continues But in Italy about the Year 350 it was brought to Rome by Athanasius but had little encouragement till about the Year 500 when St. Equitius and St. Benedict gave it a settled Form The Institution of Equitius increased but little but that of Benedict spread it self all over Italy and beyond the Mountains The Monks in those Days were not Ecclesiasticks but Seculars and in the Monasteries without the Cities they lived on their own Labour Arts and Husbandry together with some addition out of the publick Oblations and were governed by the Abbot The Abbot Tritemius makes Account that Monasteries of the Benedictine Monks were 15000 besides Prepositures and lesser Convents The Monks themselves chose their own Abbots by this time the Bishops by tricks and cunning Artifices became absolute Dispensators of the Fourth part of the Churches Goods which made the haughty Clergy mind Temporal Goods more than Spiritual and to make themselves Eminent and Popular whence arose Discords Seditions Tumults and Blows to the great Disturbance of Civil States especially about the Election of Clergy Dignitaries which Primarily at the first Institution was in the People beyond contradiction but afterwards by the cunning craftiness of those that lay in wait to deceive it was sometimes in the Clergy sometimes in the Prince sometimes in a mixture one chusing and another confirming as the Interest and Power of the one or the other could prevail Elections being then used not as the end of Divine Service but for secular Interests and worldly Ends. Antiquity knew of no distinction between Ordination and Benefice and Ordaining was then the same thing as to give an Office and the right of having ones livelihood from the common Goods of the Church But afterward through Wars and Confusions the Clergy being driven from their Ministries had recourse and retired
fraudulenter occultar nihil intentatum praetermittit 442. About the Year 1558 there being a Custom among the People of Paris in the Summer Evenings to go out of the Suburbs of St. German in great Multitudes to take the Fresco and to Solace themselves with divers kinds of Sports those of the new Religion instead of doing so began to sing the Psalms of David in French Verses the Multitude first laughed at the Novelty then leaving the Sports joyned themselves unto the Singers And the number of those who came to that place began to increase more than usually whereupon the Pope's Nuntio told the King of this Novelty as of a thing pernicious and dangerous because the Ministeries of Religion usually Celebrated in the Church in the Latin Tongue by Religious Men only were put into the Mouths of the common People in the Vulgar Language which was an invention of the Lutherans telling him that if he did not resist the beginnings in a short time all Paris would be Lutherans the King gave order that the principal Authors should be proceeded against wherein they went not very far having found Anthony King of Navar and his Wife in that Number but for hereafter it was forbid upon pain of Death Trent 410. Thus you see how both the Hugonots and Papists behaved themselves beyond Sea and that the King and Queen of Navar were not ashamed to Conventicle openly nor of Christ nor of his Words lest Christ should be ashamed of them when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of the Holy Angels Luke 9.26 not ashamed to search the Scriptures in their own Language because commanded and because in them is eternal life John 5.39 This Nation and Government did presume at least that such solemn Rebukes such severe Reprimands as the Preachers of such Doctrines received from the whole Kingdom represented in Parliament by King Lords and Commons Clergy and Layety should have forewarned and discouraged all the succeeding Clergy for ever Preaching such destructive Doctrines again of which we now see and feel the smart and sad effects which our prudent Predecessors did foresee and would have prevented by their timely Rebukes and Precautions but they have not prevailed In the Church of Ephesus there were those that boasted themselves to be Apostles but being tried by the Angel of that Church were found Lyars Is it not so with us Have we not many that boast themselves to be the only true Church of England Men that if tried by our Angels would be found but Mungrils nay Lyars making Kings glad with their Wickedness and Princes with their Lyes Hos 7.3 But the Works and Labour and Patience of our true Church of England Men true Nathaniels indeed cannot bear such Church of England Men as are so evil as to dare to Preach and Print such enslaving Doctrines Nay now at this very Day it s a shame to tell how such false Prophets use the Church of the Great God by making Her a very Tool and Slave to serve their own turns and to bring their own ends about not caring what havock they make of the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel Mr. Clifford on Psalm 51.4 pulpits That Kings as such are above the Law have Power to Dispense with the Law at their Pleasure and alter Religion at Pleasure pag. 7. Mr. J. T in his Sermon on Eccles 10.20 declares That Resistance in all Cases and in all its Degrees and Circumstances absolutely unlawful because it supposes an Appeal of the People from the King to themselves and makes them Judges of their own Causes for to place Sovereignty and the last Appeal in all the People together is perfect nonsense because all the People will never be of one mind while the World stands pag. 8.9 and I will add nor all the Clergy And yet he is so ingenious as to confess That the Interest of a Nation is to be preferred before the Interest or Welfare of one Man according to John 11.49 50 51. It is expedient for us that one man dye for the People and that the whole Nation perish not So that we have a sure word of Prophesie that it is the Testimony of God himself That a greater Interest of Mankind is to be preferred before a lesser pag. 20 21. As perfect nonsense as this Priest is pleased to make Appeals unto the People to be yet so wise were the Roman State above Fifty Years before Christ's time and so careful of their own Happiness Rights and Interests that they thought it even then a most prudent Law And therefore Publius Valerius caused it to be an Establish't Law That Appeals should be allowed from any Magistrate to the People Livy lib. 3. n. 8. And that no Man should offer to make any Magistrate without liberty of Appeal and if he did it should be lawful to kill him Ibid. lib. 3. n. 34. For which prudent Law they honored him by adding Publicola to his other name What the Power of the First Kings were appears for that Ephron Chief Prince of the Children of Heth would not grant Abraham the possession of a Sepulchre in the Land of the Children of Heth but in the presence and with the approbation of the Children of Heth before all that went in at the gate of his City Gen. 23. Nor would Hamor Prince of the Country make a League with Jacob but by the consent of all that went out of the gate of his City Gen. 34. because all the great Concerns of the Governed was referred unto the Common Council and consent of the People which in those Empires was easily done which commonly was circumscribed within one or few Cities But when Kings began to enlarge their Territorios so that all the People could not Assemble in one Place without danger of confusion there were ordinarily instituted Tribunes of the People or Officers of the Kingdom or of the Governed to assist and defend the Rights and Priviledges of the People granted to them by the Law of God and Nature and upon great Exigences great Assemblies of the Sages of the Governed were assembled as an Epitome of the Universal People were extraordinarily congregated to consider and consult thereof In the Israelitish Kingdom which by consent and judgment of all Politick Writers was the best constituted Government of the World was the same order observed the King had his particular Officers and the Kingdom theirs Seventy one Elders their Captains chosen out of every Tribe which both in War and Peace should take care of the whole Magistrates also in singulis Municipiis that as they were to take care of the whole so the several Officers were to take care of their particular Cities and Charges over which they were set For David called all the Congregation when he desired to Invest Solomon in his Kingdom when he had restored the Policy of that Nation to have it examined and approved 1 Chron. 19. So when David was to fetch back
be ignorant that Christ hath service much more than enough without Secular Imployments to take up all the Might Strengths Studies Abilities Times Callings of all his servants especially those of the Ministry whose peculiar Duty it is to teach others and watch over them and must give an account of them that they may be always worshipping communing of him and conversant with him and Enoch-like walk all the day long with him not minding their own things only but the things of others also that as Instruments and fellow Members by taking the hint of every fit opportunity they shall be put upon by the way of Providence and may be always Exhorting Reproving Directing Instructing Restoring Relieving and Helping others always Mourning Rejoycing Praying with their flocks and serving them in all ways of Love always doing that which may bring in most Spiritual good to themselves and their Flocks most true comfort to their own Souls and their Flocks and most glory to their Maker and Redeemer which is the true end and design of Conventicling and which the absurd love and attendance of the World is too prevalent to steal from us and to cheat us of tho' things of most precious spiritual and everlasting consequence They cannot be ignorant that if the seed be sown among thorns that the cares of this World and the deceitfulness of Riches and the lusts of other things fears of disappointment and miscarriage of earthly Ends and Interests entring in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful Mark 4.18 19. Erasmus was wont to say of Luther That he medled with two precious but dangerous concerns when he touched the Popes Crowns and the Monks Bellies who are apt enough even whilst their Meat is jet in their Mouths whilst distenti crepantes to cry out Heu quanta patimur But if Socrates say true Monachus qui non laborat manibus similis est praedoni Those Priests that feed themselves and do not feed the Flock whether through Laziness or multitude of Secular Imployments are at best but Pillagers and Robbers even Locusts that eat up the best of the Fruit of the Church and Ecclesiastical preferments for which severe Character I have Ezek. 34. for my undoubted warrant Certainly it is no very wild conjecture of him who hath printed that nothing offended Julian the Apostate so much or was so great an occasion of his Apostatizing as were the Vices and vile Hypocrisie of the then Christian Clergy who besides their coining of contrary Creeds in the Reigns of Constantine and Constantius and modelling Religion by Court Intrigues which seemed almost wholy to dispence even with Morality placing Sanctimony not so much in a Holy Life as in the shict observance of their Rituals and the Symbolical Representations of Christian Religion such as Baptism the Eucharist Chrism but above all in submitting to the formalities of Confession Penance Indulgences Absolutions Holy Water c. upon which the greatest Sins were so easily remitted What Flesh could indure to hear the Murderers of ones Father Uncle two Brothers six Cousin Germans harangue to Heaven in Pulpits as Saints because forsooth absolv'd by their own Friends the Priests who haply set them on work The ground of this his conjecture is because Julian is not so Satyrical on any occasion as upon this In his Caesars we find this flouting out-cry viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ho! whoever is either Sodomite Murderer Rogue or Villain let him dread nothing but repair hither with this Water I 'll make him clean in a trice and if he shall happen as human Nature is frail to reiterate the same Crimes if he will but thump his Breast and box his Noddle I 'll warrant him as innocent as the Child unborn Tho' this Julian a Man of excellent Parts and Learning became an accursed Apostate yet he was against those that discountenanc'd and persecuted Men of honest Principles and against those that paid devout Visits to the Bones of dead Friars calling them Holy Reliques and the like This fully appears by his Epistle to the Citizens of Bostra wherein he complains of his Predecessor for Persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing many of them nay whole Corporations of them they term Hereticks were put to the Sword insomuch that at Samosata Cizicum Paphlagonia Bythinia Galatia and many other Countries and whole Towns were laid level with the Earth whereas Julian himself practised the clean contrary recalling the exiled home and restoring such as were proscrib'd their own intire and vehemently complaining of the Clergy acting as Tyrants not as Men as above the controul of Laws and that upon one another and he laid the cause of all Tumults Insurrections and Tyranny to the seduction of those they call Clergy and all because they are restrain'd from their former excesses and because they may not be Judges nor make Peoples Wills and possess themselves of other Mens Patrimonies and so get all into their own Clutches quo jure quâve injuria and therefore advised the Laity not to tumultuate with the Clergy but to live in Peace one with another and commanded that in no wise any Injury Affront or Abuse should be offered to the Galilaean Laity for that Men ought to be brought over by Reason and Perswasion and not by ill Usage Blows and Stripes I wish all our most Christian Kings had imitated him in this particular I know I am harping upon an unpleasing String but it matters not I am at a point for that it may crush Arts and designs of Wealth Honour Preferments and Plausibility but God can recompence maugre all black Mouths that may either barke or bite Magna est veritas prevalebit These are not my sentiments alone but they have been the complaints of many Generations both of Lay and Ecclesiasticks Witness Guicciardine Sleydan Thuanus Padre Paolo and others Even in the Council of Trent some were so honest as to make the same complaints and desire Reformation of them averring that all the evil did arise from the large Donations of the Church especially that of Jurisdiction a thing inconvenient that they who ought to give themselves to Prayer and Preaching should exercise Power which is no ways essential to their Calling nor was ever receiv'd immediately from Christ nor any Authority ever given by Christ but what was meerly and purely Spiritual but that packt Conventicle was not so honest as to redress them Dr. Jeremy Taylor Lord Bishop of Down and Cannaught hath written a very learned Discourse justifying the liberty of Prophesying c. and Naked Truth supposed to have been written by another worthy Prelate makes the like complaints and laments them Of all which more largely in Jus Caesaris Ecclesiae vere dictae As to the Reformation of them Religion was certainly then most pure and sincere when there ws not one Ceremony used nor one Bishop nor Priest ingaged in Secular Imployments And no Reformation can be so good so pure as that which doth reduce things to