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
them then who being well persuaded of their own safe-standing and perhaps having suffered much in testimony of their perseverance became the worse opinionated of those who had not been endued with an equal constancy So that upon a sudden unawares the Church of Rome was in a very great distemper the neighbouring Churches also suffering with it either in regard of their own peace which presently began to be endangered by this plausible and popular faction or out of commiseration unto the distresses of so great a number in the body mystical Nor was Cornelius wanting to the Church or the Church to him For presently upon the breaking out of the flame he gives notice of it to his dear Brother and Colleague S. Cyprian the Metropolitan of Carthage to Fabius Inter. Epistolas Cypr. Ep. 46.48 Euseb hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 35. n. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriarch of the Church of Antioch acquainting them with the whole story of the business assembling also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great and famous Synod in the City of Rome consisting of sixty Bishops and as many Presbyters or more besides Deacons For being a Provincial Council and not General the Presbyters and others of the inferiour Clergy had their Votes therein according as they still enjoy on the like occasions And on the other side the Orthodox and Catholick Bishops made the cause their own neither repelling of his Agents who came to justifie his Ordination as S. Cyprian did Cypr. Epist 41. Euseb hist Eccl. lib. 6. c. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. c. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or writing in behalf of the Church against him as did Dionysius the Learned and renowned Bishop of Alexandria The like no doubt did other Bishops And more than so they caused several Councils to be called about it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their several Provinces and charges as well in Italy as Africk in each of which the faction was condemned and the Arch-Schismatick with all his Fautors deprived of the communion of the Church I have the rather been more copious in the description of this Schism and the Authors of it than otherwise I would have been not only because of that great power and influence which it had after in the Church which we shall find hereafter in the prosecution of this present story if it please God to give me means and opportunity to go thorow with it but also for those many observations which any one that would be curious in collecting them might raise or gather from the same For first of all it must be noted that though Novatianus had a great desire to be made a Bishop and that he could not get it by a fair orderly Election as he should have done yet he could find no other entrance thereunto than by the door of Ordination and therein he would be Canonical though in nothing else For being a Presbyter before as Cornelius tells us in his Epistle unto Fabius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that holy Prelate Id. ibid. he thought that did not qualifie him enough for the place and office of a Bishop unless he might receive Episcopal Ordination also And when he was resolved on that he would not be ordained but by three Bishops at the least according to the ancient Canon and the present practice of the Church and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he procures three Bishops to be drawn together for the purpose And being thus Ordained he sends abroad his Agents into foreign Churches Cypr. E. 41. as viz. Maximus a Presbyter and Augendus a Deacon Macheus and Longinus and perhaps some others to the See of Carthage to have his Ordination ratified and himself acknwledged for a Bishop according to the commendable usage of those watchful times In which who would not but observe that Bishops had a different Ordination from the Presbyters and therefore do not differ from them only in degree or potestate Jurisdictionis but in the power of Order also and that this power of Order cannot be conferred regularly I mean and when there is no urgent and unavoidable necessity unto the contrary but by the joint assistance of three Bishops For how can any give that power of Order unto others with which they never were endued themselves Secondly it might be observed not to take notice of his seeking for the approbation of his neighbouring Prelates that the first Schism which did disturb the peace of these Western Churches was made by those who by the rigidness of their Profession were in that very instant termed Catharists Euseb hist Eccles l. 6.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it and that not to be Englished in a fuller Word than that of Puritans And thirdly that however in these later times the Scene be changed and that the greatest stirrs that have been raised in the Church have been for pulling down Bishops yet in the former times the course was otherwise most of their troubles and commotions being for setting up of Bishops when certain factious and unquiet spirits not willing to submit to the Chuches Government would have a Bishop of their own Certain I am that thus it was with the Novatians who though they stood divided from the Catholick Church a long time together yet they desired to be accounted for a Church and that they might be so accounted maintained an Episcopal Succession from the first Apostle of their Sect Socrat. bist Eccl. l. 5. c. 21. the names of many of their Bishops Agellius Sisinnius Marcianus others being to be found upon good record But from these counterfeit and schismatical Bishops proceed we forwards unto those who were acknowledged by the Church for true and real and amongst those keeping my self to the succession of the Church of Rome the fourth in order from Cornelius Baron Annal. Eccl. An. 261. Ap. Binium Concil Tom. 1. was Dionysius who entred on that weighty charge Anno 261. Of him we find in the Pontifical Presbyteris Ecclesias divisisse coemeteria Parochiasque dioeceses constituisse that he divided to the Presbyters their several Churches and Church-yards and that he first did set out Parishes and apportioned Diocesses Which as they were two several Actions so Platina Platina in vita Dionys assigns each action to its proper place making the first which was the distributing of the Presbyters into their several Churches and Churchyards then common places of Assembly to relate only to the City of Rome In urbe Roma statim divisit as his words there are Which being it had been done before by Pope Euaristus as hath been formerly observed we must resolve it with Baronius Baron in Annal An. 270. n. ult that this was a reviver only of the former Act and that the Presbyters being ravished from their Churches and the Church-yards taken from the Presbyters during the persecution of Valerian were afterwards restored again to their former
others with the Bishops of so many distant Nations as were there assembled suffice to make a General Council the Council of Antioch might as well have the name of General as almost any of the rest which are so entituled But laying by these thoughts as too strong of the Paradox and looking on a General Council in the common notion for an Assembly of the Prelates of the East and West to which the four Patriarchs are invited and from which no Bishop is excluded that comes commissionated and instructed to attend the service I cannot think them of such consequence to the Church of God but that it may proceed without them to a Reformation For certainly that saying of S. Augustine in his 4th Book against the two Epistles of the Pelagians cap. 12. is exceeding true Paucas fuisse haereses ad quas superandas necessarium fuerit Concilium plenarium occidentis orientis that very few Heresies have been crushed in such General Councils And so far we may say with the Learned Cardinal that for seven Heresies suppressed in seven General Councils though by his leave the seventh did not so much suppress as advance an Heresie an hundred have been quashed in National and Provincial Synods whether confirmed or not confirmed by the Popes Authority we regard not here Some instances hereof in the Synods of Aquileia Carthage Gaugra Milevis we have seen before and might add many others now did we think it necessary The Church had been in ill condition if it had been otherwise especially under the power of Heathen Emperors when such a confluence of the Prelates from all parts of the world would have been construed a Conspiracy against the State and drawn destruction on the Church and the Persons both Or granting that they might assemble without any such danger yet being great bodies moving slowly and not without long time and many difficulties and disputes to be rightly constituted The Church would suffer more under such delay by the spreading of Heresie than receive benefit by their care to suppress the same Had the same course been taken at Alexandria for suppressing Arius as was before at Antioch for condemning Paulus we never had heard news of the Council of Nice the calling and assembling whereof took up so long time that Arianism was diffused over all the world before the Fathers met together and could not be suppressed though it were condemned in many Ages following after The plague of Heresie and leprosie of sin would quickly over-run the whole face of the Church if capable of no other cure than a General Council The case of Arius and the universal spreading of his Heresie compared with the quick rooting out of so many others makes this clear enough To go a little further yet we will suppose a General Council to be the best and safest Physick that the Church can take on all occasions of Epidemical distemper but then we must suppose it at such times and in such cases only when it may conveniently be had For where it is not to be had or not had conveniently it will either prove to be no Physick or not worth the taking But so it was that at the time of the Reformation a General Council could not conveniently be Assembled and more than so it was impossible that any such Council should Assemble I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted according to the Rules laid down by our Controversors For first they say it must be called by such as have power to do it 2. That it must be intimated to all Christian Churches that so no Church nor people may plead ignorance of it 3. The Pope and the four chief Patriarchs must be present at it either in person or by Proxie And lastly that no Bishop is to be excluded if he be known to be a Bishop and not excommunicated According to which Rules it was impossible I say that any General Council should be assembled at the time of the Reformation of the Church of England It was not then as when the greatest part of the Christian world was under the command of the Roman Emperors whose Edict for a General Council might speedily be posted over all the Provinces The Messengers who should now be sent on such an errand unto the Countreys of the Turk the Persian the Tartarian and the great Mogul in which are many Christian Churches and more perhaps than in all the rest of the world besides would find but sorry entertainment Nor was it then as when the four chief Patriarchs together with their Metropolitans and Suffragan Bishops were under the protection of the Christian Emperors and might without danger to themselves or unto their Churches obey the intimation and attend the service those Patriarchs with their Metropolitans and Suffragans both then and now languishing under the tyranny and power of the Turk to whom so general a confluence of Christian Bishops must needs give matter of suspicion of just fears and jealousies and therefore not to be permitted as far as he can possibly hinder it on good Reason of State For who knows better than themselves how long and dangerous a War was raised against their Predecessors by the Western Christians for recovery of the Holy Land on a resolution taken up at the Council of Clermont and that making War against the Turks is still esteemed a cause sufficient for a General Council And then besides it would be known by whom this General Council was to be assembled If by the Pope as generally the Papists say he and his Court were looked on as the greatest grievance of the Christian Church and 't was not probable that he would call a Council against himself unless he might have leave to pack it to govern it by his own Legats fill it with Titular Bishops of his own creating and send the Holy-Ghost to them in a Cloakbag as he did to Trent If joyntly by all Christian Princes which is the common Tenet of the Protestant Schools what hopes could any man conceive as the time then were that they should lay aside their particular interesses to center all together upon one design Or if they had agreed about it what power had they to call the Prelates of the East to attend the business or to protect them for so doing at their going home So that I look upon the hopes of a General Council I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted as an empty Dream The most that was to be expected was but a meeting of some Bishops of the West of Europe and those but of one party only such as were Excommunicated and that might be as many as the Pope should please being to be excluded by the Cardinals Rule Which how it may be called an Oecumenical or General Council unless it be a Topical-Oecumenical a Particular-general as great an absurdity in Grammar as a Roman Catholick I can hardly see Which being so and so no question but it was either
assumed into the Clergy But not to make a further search into particulars which are vast and infinite we have two notable cases that reflect this way and in them two such general Maxims as will make all sure In the third Council of Carthage holden in or about the year 390. it was proposed by Aurelius then Metropolitan of Carthage Concil Carthag 3. Ca. 45. that it might be lawful for him to chuse or take Presbyters out of the Churches of his Suffragans and to ordain them Bishops of such Cities as were unprovided and that the Bishops of those Churches whose Clerks or Presbyters they were might not be suffered to oppose To which when all the Fathers had agreed Posthumianus one of the Prelates there assembled puts this case that if a Bishop had but one Presbyter only Numquid debet illi ipse unus Presbyter auferri whether that one Presbyter should be taken from him Aurelius thereunto replyeth Episcopum unum esse posse per quem dignatione divina Presbyteri multi constitui possunt that a Bishop by Gods grace might make many Presbyters and therefore that on such occasions his one and only Presbyter must be yielded up upon demand By which it is most clear and evident that a Bishop may alone perform the Act or Ceremony of Ordination not having any Presbyter at all to join with him in it The like occurreth in the second Council of Sevil held in the year 617 or thereabouts concerning Erangitanus a Presbyter of the Church of Corduba who by the Bishop of that See Concil Hispalens 2. c. 5. Cap. 6. a ruffling Prelate as appeareth by the following Chapter had been deposed from his Ministry the cause being brought before the Council and the whole process openly declared unto them the man was presently restored to his Orders and the sentence passed against him declared to be irrregular and contrary to the ancient Canons whereby it was enacted that no Clergy-man should be deposed without the judgment of a Synod And then it followeth Episcopus sacerdotibus ministris solus dare honorem potest auferre solus non potest that Bishops solely of themselves may confer holy Orders on Priests and Deacons but solely of their own authority they could not depose them So then it is most clear and evident that Bishops might and did ordain without their Presbyters might not the Presbyters do the like sometimes without their Bishop Certainly nothing less than so or if they did attempt it at any time the whole act was not only censured and condemned as uncanonical but adjudged void and null from the first beginning For besides that which hath been said before from Hierom Chrysostom and Epiphanius touching the limitation of this power to the Bishops only there are three Book-cases in the point which put the matter out of question Coluthus once a Presbyter of Alexandria Athanas in Apol 2. Edit Gr. Lat. p. 784. falling at difference with his Bishop usurps upon the Bishops Office and ordains certain Presbyters himself being one This business being canvassed in the Council of Alexandria before that famous Confessor Hosius and other Bishops there assembled Coluthus was commanded to carry himself for a Presbyter only as indeed he was and all the Presbyters of his ordaining reduced to the same condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which they were before the said Ordination Where by the way instead of Coluthus the last edition of this Author in Greek and Latin doth read Catholicus Lutet 1627. which must be mended as before in the relation of this story P. 732.792 where we have Coluthus and not Catholicus But to proceed It hapned afterwards that Ischyras one of the Pseudo-Presbyters ordained by Coluthus Id. ibid. p. 757. accused Macarius one of the Presbyters of Athanasius for a pretended violence to be offered to him Id. ibid. p. 732. then ministring at the holy Table So that the business being brought at last unto the judgment of a Council and the point in issue being this whether this Ischyras were a Presbyter or not and so by consequence a dispenser of those sacred Mysteries he was returned no Presbyter by the full consent of all the Prelates then assembled The reason was because he was ordained by Coluthus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who died a Presbyter and that his Ordinations had been all made void and those that had received them at his hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became lay again and in that state received the blessed Sacrament as the Lay-men did And this saith Athanasius was a thing so publique 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no man ever doubted of the truth thereof The second case was that of Maximus once a familiar friend of Gregory Nazianzens at such time as he was Bishop of Constantinople and by him Greg. Presb. in vita Nazian having taken a good liking to him admitted into the Clergy of that Church But Maximus being an ungrateful wretch complots with others like himself to be made Bishop of that City and thereupon negotiates with Peter then Patriarch of Alexandria to ordain him Bishop of the same which being done accordingly for Maximus was by birth of Egypt and possibly might have good friends there besides his money and the whole City in a great distemper about the business the whole cause came at last to be debated in the first general Council of Constantinople Conc. Const 1. cap. 4. where on full hearing of the matter it was thus Decreed viz. that Maximus neither was to be taken for a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any of those he had ordained to be accounted of the Clergy or remain in any order or degree thereof Where note that howsoever Maximus came unlawfully unto the bishoprick of Constantinople by means whereof all the Acts done by him as a Bishop were made void and frustrate yet if as Presbyter to which degree he had been lawfully ordained by Nazianzen he might have given the imposition of hands the Presbyters by him ordained would have held good still But the third case comes nearest to the business yet as it is thus reported in the Council of Sevil before remembred A Bishop of the Church of Spain Concil Hisp 11. cap. 5. being troubled with sore eyes and having some presented to him to be ordained Presbyters and Deacons did only lay his hands upon them suffering a Presbyter that stood by to read the words of Ordination This coming to be scanned in the aforesaid Council upon mature deliberation it is thus determined First for the Presbyter which assisted that for his boldness and presumption he had been subject to the Councils censure but that he was before deceased next for the Presbyter and Deacons who were so ordained that they should actually be deposed from all sacred Orders Concluding thus Tales enim merito judicati sunt removendi quia prave inventi sunt constituti that they were worthily adjudged to lose those Orders
of his time it is clear and evident that Bishops had been setled even in those early days in many Cities wherein we do not find that any had been formerly ordained by the Apostles But how they were so setled and by whose authority hath in these later days been made a question Our Masters in the Church of Rome appropriate the power of instituting and erecting new Episcopal Sees to their Bishop only as being the only universal and supream Pastor of the Church Bellarmine hath resolved it so in terms express Bellarm. de Rom. pont l. 2. c. 12. Apostolorum proprium erat It properly pertained saith he to the Apostles to constitute Churches and propagate the Gospel in those Churches wherein it never had been Preached So far unquestionably true but what followeth after Et hoc ad Romanum Pontificem pertinere ratio experientia ipsa nos docet And that this doth belong to the Popes of Rome both reason and experience teach us Belong it doth indeed to the Popes of Rome so far we dare joyn issue with him but that it doth belong to the Pope alone and not to any other Bishops but by his sufferance and authority which is the matter to be proved that there is neither reason nor example for No reason certainly for if this did belong to all the Apostles as Bellarmine affirms it did then other Bishops which derive their pedigree from Andrew James John Paul or any other of the Apostles have as much interest herein as the Popes of Rome who challenge their descent from Peter And for Examples if they go by that they have a very desperate cause to manage 'T is true indeed that Clemens one of the first Bishops of the Church of Rome Ino Carnotens in Chron. M.S. citat à Patr. Junio did ordain several Bishops in his time and placed them in the chief Cities of those parts of Gallia which lay near unto him as viz. Photinus at Lions Paul at Narbon Gratian at Tours others in other places also as Ino Carnotensis hath reported of him But then it is as true withal that other Bishops did the like in their times and places Christianity and Episcopacy had not else in so short a time been propagated over all the World if those which dwelt far off and remote from Rome could not have setled and ordained Bishops in convenient places without running thither or having a Commission thence And though we have no precedent hereof in the present age yet we may see by the continual practice in the ages following that Bishops were first propagated over all the Churches by the assistance of such neighbour Churches in whom there had been Bishops instituted either by the Apostles and Evangelists themselves or by their Successors Frumentius being in some hope of gaining the Indians beyond Ganges to the faith of Christ was made a Bishop for that purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. Eccles hist lib. 1. c. 15. as the story hath it not by the Pope of Rome nor with his privity or consent that we can hear of but by Atbanasius the great and famous Patriarch of Alexandria Theodoret. hist Eccles l. 5. c. 4. And when Eusebius Samosatanus had a mind for the suppressing of the growth of Arianism to erect Dolicha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Author calls it a small City but greatly pestred with that Heresie into an Episcopal See we find not that he sent to Rome for a Commission but actually ordained Maris Bishop of the place and went himself to see him inthronized in the same So in like manner Saint Basil ordained Gregory Nazianzen Bishop of Sasima making that Town a Bishops See which before was none Gregor Presb. in vita Nazian and thereupon Gregorius Presbyter writing the life of Nazianzen calls it very properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishoprick or Episcopal See of a new foundation And thus Saint Austin also in the age succeeding erected an Episcopal See in Fussata a City or walled Town in his own Diocess of Hippo making one Antonius the first Bishop there August Epist Bellarm. de Ecc. lib. 4. c. 8. the Primate of Numidia returning with him in the Ordination Nor did they this as fain the Cardinal would have it à sede Apostolica facultatem habentes by force of any faculty procured from Rome which is gratis dictum but by their own proper and innate authority as they were trusted with the Government of the Church of Christ So then the Bishops only of the Church of Rome had not the sole authority of instituting Bishops where none were before That 's a dream only of the Pontifician Authority they had to do it as had others also and hereof doth occur a notable and signal evidence in this present Age viz. the setling of the Church of Britain and planting Bishops in the same by Pope Eleutherius Damas in vita Eleuther apud Bin. in Concil Tom. 1. Of him it is affirmed in the Pontifical ascribed to Damasus who lived about the year 370. accepisse Epistolam à Lucio Britannico Rege ut Christianus efficeretur per ejus mandatum that he received an Epistle from Lucius a British King desiring that by his authority he might be made a Christian Our venerable Bede a right ancient Writer thus reports the story Anno ab incarnatione Domini 156 Beda hist Eccl. lib. 1. c. 4. c. In the 156 year after Christs Nativity Marcus Antonius Verus together with Aurelius Commodus his brother did in the fourteenth place from Augustus Caesar undertake the Government of the Empire In whose times when as Eleutherius a godly man was Bishop of the Church of Rome Lucius King of the Britains sent unto him obsecrans ut per ejus mandatum Christianus efficeretur intreating by his means to be made a Christian whose vertuous desire herein was granted and the faith of Christ being thus received by the Britains was by them kept inviolate and undefiled until the times of Dioclesian Wherein as I submit to Beda as to the substance of the story so I crave leave to differ from him as to the matter of Chronologie For by this reckoning Eleutherius must attain the Popedom Anno 167. as Beda elsewhere doth compute it Beda in histor Epitom which is ten years at least before the time assigned him by most other Writers And therefore I shall rather chuse to follow the commonly received account by which the said two Emperours are brought upon the Government of the Roman Empire Anno 161. and the attaining of the Popedom by this Eleutherius is placed in the 17th year of Mareus Anno 177. Lucius Aurelius Commodus being dead before But in this Controversie as it belongeth to Chronology I shall not meddle at the present It is enough that the planting of the Gospel amongst the Britains was as the greatest so the first action of this Pope done by him as we read in Platina
was a very pregnant evidence that they had neither verity nor antiquity to defend their Doctrins nor could with any shew of Justice challenge to themselves the name and honour of a Church Id. ibid. ca. 36. And such and none but such were those other Churches which he after speaketh of viz. of Corinth Philippi Thessalonica Ephesus and the rest planted by the Apostles apud quas ipsae Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur in which the Chairs of the Apostles to that time were sate in being possessed not by themselves but by their Successors By the same argument Optatus first and after him St. Austin did confound the Donatists that mighty faction in the Church St. Austin thus Numerate Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa sede Petri August contr Petil. l. 2. in illo ordine quis cui successerit videte Number the Bishops which have sate but in Peters Chair and mark who have succeeded one another in the same A Catalogue of which he gives us in another place Id. Epist 165. lest else he might be thought to prescribe that to others on which he would not trust himself Nay so far he relyed on the authority of this Episcopal Succession in the Church of Christ as that he makes it one of the special motives quae eum in gremio Ecclesiae justissimè teneant which did continue him in the bosom of the Catholick Church Id. contr Epist Manichaei c. 4. As for Optatus having laid down a Catalogue of the Bishops in the Church of Rome till his own times He makes a challenge to the Donatists to present the like Optat. de schis Donat. l. 2. Vestrae Cathedrae originem edite shew us saith he the first original of your Bishops and then you have done somewhat to advance your cause In which it is to be observed that though the instance be made only in the Episcopal succession of the Church of Rome Irt. adv haere lib. 3. cap. 3. the argument holds good in all others also it being too troublesome a labour as Irenaeus well observed omnium Ecclesiarum enumerare successiones to run through the succession of all particular Churches and therefore that made choyce of as the chief or principal But to return again unto Tertullian whom I account amongst the Writers of this Age though he lived partly in the other besides the use he made of this Episcopal succession to convince the Heretick he shews us also what authority the Bishops of the Church did severally enjoy and exercise in their successions which we will take according to the proper and most natural course of Christianity First for the Sacrament of Baptism which is the door or entrance into the Church Tertul. lib. de Baptism c. 17. Dandi quidem jus habet summus sacerdos i. e. Episcopus The Right saith he of giving Baptism hath the High-Priest which is the Bishop and then the Presbyters and Deacons non tamen sine Episcopi antoritate yet not without the Bishops licence and authority for the Churches honour which if it be preserved then is Peace maintained Nay so far he appropriates it unto the Bishop as that he calleth it dictatum Episcopi officium Episcopatus a work most proper to the Bishop in regard of his Episcopacy or particular Office Which howsoever it may seem to ascribe too much unto the Bishop in the administration of this Sacrament is no more verily than what was after affirmed by Hierom Hieron adver Lucifer shewing that in his time sine Episcopi jussione without the warrant of the Bishop neither the Presbyters nor the Deacons had any authority to Baptize not that I think that in the days of Hierom before whose time Parishes were assigned to Presbyters throughout the Church the Bishops special consent and warrant was requisite to the baptizing of each several Infant but that the Presbyters and Deacons did receive from him some general faculty for their enabling in and to those Ministrations Next for the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist that which is a chief part of that heavenly nourishment by which a Christian is brought up in the assured hopes of Eternal life he tells us in another place non de aliorum manu quam Praesidentium sumimus Tertul. de Corona Militis that they received it only from their Bishops hand the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or President of the Presbytery as Justin Martyr seconded by Beza did before call him Which Exposition or construction lest it should be quarrelled as being injurious to the Presbyters who are thereby excluded from the honour and name of Presidents I shall desire the Reader to consult those other places of Tertullian in which the word Prefident is used as viz. Prescriptio Apostoll Bigames non sinit praesidere Tert. ad axor lib. ad uxorem and lib. de Monogamia in both of which the man that had a second Wife is said to be disabled from Presiding in the Church of God and on consideration to determine of it whether it be more probable that Presbyters or Bishops be here meant by Presidents Besides the Church not being yet divided generally into Parishes but only in some greater Cities the Presbyter had not got the stile of Rector and therefore much less might be called a President that being a word of Power and Government which at that time the Presbyters enjoyed not in the Congregation And here Pope Leo will come in to help us if occasion be assuring us that in his time it was not lawful for the Presbyter in the Bishops presence nisi illo jubente Leo Epist 88. unless it were by his appointment conficere Sacramentum corporis sanguinis Christi to consecrate the Sacrament of Christs body and blood The author of the Tract ascribed to Hierom entituled de Septem Ecclesiae ordinibus doth affirm as much but being the author of it is uncertain though it be placed by Erasinus amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 docta we will pass it by From the Administration of the Sacraments which do belong ad potestatem ordinis to the power of Order proceed we on to those which do appertain ad potestatem jurisdictionis unto the power of Jurisdiction And the first thing we meet with is the appointing of the publick Fasts used often in the Church as occasion was A priviledg not granted to the common Presbyter and much less to the common people but in those times wherein the Supream Magistrate was not within the pale or bosom of the Church entrusted to the Bishop only This noted also by Tertullian in his book entituled de jejuniis which though he writ after his falling from the Church and so not to be trusted in a point of Doctrine may very well be credited in a point of custom Quod Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent non dico de industria stipium conferendarum sed ex aliqua sollicitudinis Ecclesiae causa
Hereticks before remembred had been hardly heard of it was plainly otherwise that day not only not being honoured with their publick meetings but destinate to a setled or a constant fast Some which have looked more nearly into the reasons of this difference conceive that they appointed this day for fasting in memory of Saint Peters conflict with Simon Magus which being to be done on a Sunday following the Church of Rome ordained a solemn fast on the day before the better to obtain Gods blessing in so great a business which falling out as they desired they kept it for a fasting day for ever after Saint Austin so relates it as a general and received opinion but then he adds Quod eam esse falsam perhibeant plerique Romani That very many of the Romans did take it only for a fable As for St. Austin he conceives the reason of it to be the several uses which men made of our Saviours resting in the grave the whole Sabbath day For thence it came to pass saith he that some especially the Eastern people Ad requiem significandam mallent relaxare jejunium to signifie and denote that rest did not use to fast where on the other side those of the Church of Rome and some Western Churches kept it always fasting Propter humilitatem mortis Domini by reason that our Lord that day lay buried in the sleep of Death But as the Father comes not home unto the reason of this usage in the Eastern Countreys so in my mind Pope Innocent gives a likelier reason for the contrary custom in the Western Concil Tom. 1. For in a Decretal by him made touching the keeping of this Fast he gives this reason of it unto Decentius Eugubinus who desired it of him because that day and the day before were spent by the Apostles in grief and heaviness Nam constat Apostolos biduo isto in moerore fuisse propter metum Judaeorum se occuluisse as his words there are The like saith Platina that Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted Quod tali die Christus in sepulchro jacuisset quod discipuli ejus jejunassent In Innocent Because our Saviour lay in the grave that day and it was fasted by his Disciples Not that it was not fasted before Innocents time as some vainly think but that being formerly an arbitrary practice only it was by him intended for a binding Law Now as the African and the Western Churches were severally devoted either to the Church of Rome or other Churches in the East so did they follow in this matter of the Sabbaths fast the practice of those parts to which they did most adhere Millain though near to Rome followed the practice of the East which shews how little power the Popes then had even within Italy it self Paulinus tells us also of St. Ambrose that he did never use to dine nisi die sabbati Dominico c. but on the Sabbath the Lords day In vita Ambros and on the Anniversaries of the Saints and Martyrs Yet so that when he was at Rome he used to do as they there did submitting to the Orders of the Church in the which he was Whence that so celebrated speeeh of his Cum hic sum non jejuno sabbato cum Romae sum jejuno sabbato at Rome he did at Millain he did not fast the Sabbath Nay which is more Epist â—6 Saint Augustine tells us that many times in Africa one and the self-same Church at least the several Churches in the self-same Province had some that dined upon the Sabbath and some that fasted And in this difference it stood a long time together till in the end the Roman Church obtained the cause and Saturday became a Fast almost through all the parts of the Western World I say the Western World and of that alone The Eastern Churches being so far from altering their ancient custom that in the sixth Council of Constantinople Anno 692 they did admonish those of Rome to forbear fasting on that day upon pain of Censures Which I have noted here in its proper place that we might know the better how the matter stood between the Lords day and the Sabbath how hard a thing it was for one to get the mastery of the other both days being in themselves indifferent for sacred uses and holding by no other Tenure than by the courtesie of the Church Much of this kind was that great conflict between the East and Western Churches about keeping Easter and much like conduced as it was maintained unto the honour of the Lords Day or neglect thereof The Passeover of the Jews was changed in the Apostles times to the Feast of Easter the anniversary memorial of our Saviours Resurrection and not changed only in their times but by their Authority Certain it is that they observed it for Polycarpus kept it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both with Saint John and with the rest of the Apostles as Irenaeus tells us in Eusebius's History Lib. 5. c. 26. The like Polycarpus affirms of Saint Philip also whereof see Euseb l. 5. c. 14. Nor was the difference which arose in the times succeeding about the Festival it self but for the time wherein it was to be observed The Eastern Churches following the custom of Hierusalem kept it directly at the same time the Jews did their Passeover and at Hierusalem they so kept it the Bishops there for fifteen several successions being of the Circumcision the better to content the Jews their Brethren and to win upon them But in the Churches of the West they did not celebrate this Feast decima quarta lunae upon what day soever it was as the others did but on some Sunday following after partly in honour of the day and partly to express some difference between Jews and Christians A thing of great importance in the present case For the Christians of the East reflected not upon the Sunday in the Annual return of so great a Feast but kept it on the fourteenth day of the month be it what it will it may be very strongly gathered that they regarded not the Lords Day so highly which was the weekly memory of the Resurrection as to prefer that day before any other in their publick meetings And thereupon Baronius pleads it very well that certainly Saint John was not the Author of the contrary practice Annal. An. 15 9. as some gave it out Nam quaenam potuit esse ratio c. For what saith he might be the reason why in the Revelation he should make mention of the Lords Day as a day of note and of good credit in the Church had it not got that name in reference to the Resurrection And if it were thought fit by the Apostles to celebrate the weekly memory thereof upon the Sunday then to what purpose should they keep the Anniversary on another day And so far questionless we may joyn issue with
spent or wholly taken up in pleasures or otherwise prophaned with vexatious suits Particularly for the Lords day that it be exempt from Executions Citations entring into Bonds Apparances Pleadings and such like that Cryers be not heard upon it and such as go to Law lay aside their Actions taking truce a while to see if they can otherwise compose their differences For so it passeth in the Edict Dominicum itaque ita semper honorabilem decernimus venerandum ut à cunctis executionibus excusetur Nulla quenquam urgeat admonitio nulla fidei-jussionis flagitetur exactio taceat apparitio advocatio delitescat sit idem dies à cognitionibus alienus praeconis horrida vox sileat respirent à controversiis litigantis habeant foederis intervallum c. I have the rather here laid down the Law it self that we may see how punctual the good Emperour was in silencing those troublesome suits and all preparatives or appurtenances thereunto that so men might with quieter minds repair unto the place of Gods publick service yet was not the Edict so strict that neither any kind of Pleasures were allowed upon that day as may be thought by the beginning of the Law nor any kind of secular and civil business to be done upon it The Emperour Constantine allowed of manumission and so did Theodosius too Cod. l. 2. de fer lex 2. Die dominico emancipare manumittere licet reliquae causae vel lites quiescant so the latter Emperour Nor do we find but that this Emperour Leo well allowed thereof sure we are that he well allowed of other civil businesses when he appointed in this very Edict that such as went to Law might meet together on this day to compose their differences to shew their evidences and compare their writings And sure I am that he prohibited not all kind of pleasures but only such as were of an obscene and unworthy nature For so it followeth in the Law First in relation unto businesses ad sese simul veniant adversarij non timentes pacta conserant transactiones loquantur Next in relation unto pleasures Nec tameÌ„n hujus religiosae dâ—ei â—cia relaxantes obscenis quemquam patimur voluptatibus detineri where note not simply voluptates but obseenae voluptates not pleasures but obscene and filthy pleasures are by him prohibited such as the Scena theatralis therein after mentioned not civil business of all sorts but brangling and litigious businesses are by him forbidden as the Law makes evident Collectar And thus must Theodorus Lector be interpreted who tells us of this Emperour Leo how he ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Lords day should be kept holy by all sorts of People that it should be a non-lee day a day of rest and ease unto them which is no otherwise to be understood than as the Law it self intended however the words of Theodorus seem to be more general Nor was it long before this Edict or the matter of it had found good entertainment in the Christian world the rather since those Churches which lay further off and were not under the command of the Roman Emperour taking perhaps their hint from hence had made a Canon to that purpose For in a Council held in Aragon Anno 516. being some 47 years after Leos Edict it was decreed that neither Bishop Priest or any other of the Clergy the Clergy at that time were possessed of some seats of judicature should pronounce sentence in any cause which should that day be brought before them Nullus Episcoporum aut presbyterorum vel Clericorum Can. 4. propositum cujuscunque causae negotium die dominico audeat judicare This was in Anno 516. as before I said the second year of Amalaricus King of the Gothes in Spain Nor stayed they here The People of this sixth Age wherein now we are began to Judaize a little in the imposing of so strict a rest upon this day especially in the Western Churches which naturally are more inclined to Superstition than the Eastern Nations Wherein they had so far proceeded that it was held at last unlawful to travel on the Lords day with Wains or Horses to dress Meat or make clean the House or meddle with any manner of Domestick businesses The third Council held at Orleans Anno 540. doth inform us so and plainly thereupon determined Can. 27. that since these prohibitions abovesaid Ad Judaicam magis quam ad Christianam observantiam pertinere probantur did savour far more of the Jew than of the Christian Die dominico quod ante licuit licere that therefore whatsoever had formerly been lawful on that day should be lawful still Yet so that it was thought convenient that men should rest that day from Husbandry and the Vintage from Sowing Reaping Hedging and such servile works quo facilius ad ecclesiam venientes orationis gratia vacent that so they might have better leisure to go unto the Church and there say their Prayers This was the first restraint which hitherto we have observed whereby the Husband-man was restrained from the Plough and Vintage or any work that did concern him And this was yielded as it seems to give them some content at least which aimed at greater and more slavish prohibitions than those here allowed of and would not otherwise be satisfied than by grant of this Nay so far had this superstition or superstitious conceit about this day prevailed amongst the Gothes in Spain a sad and melancholick People mingled and married with the Jews who then therein dwelt that in their dotage on this day they went before the Jews their Neighbours the Sabbath not so rigorously observed by one as was the Lords day by the other The Romans in this Age had utterly defeated the Vandals and their power in Africk becoming so bad Neighbours to the Gothes themselves To stop them in those prosperous courses Theude the Gothish King Anno 543. makes over into Africk with a compleat Army The Armies near together and occasion fair the Romans on a Sunday set upon them and put them all unto the sword the Gothes as formerly the Jews never so much as laying hand upon their Weapons or doing any thing at all in their own defence only in reverence to the day The general History of Spain so relates the story although more at large A superstition of so sudden and so quick a growth that whereas till this present Age we cannot find that any manner of Husbandry or Country labours were forbidden as upon this day it was now thought unlawful on the same to take a sword in hand for ones own defence Better such Doctrines had been crushed and such Teachers silenced in the first beginnings than that their Jewish speculations should in fine produce such sad and miserable effects Nor was Spain only thus infected where the Jews now lived the French we see began to be so inclined Not only in prohibiting things lawful which before we
of those godly men which teach us to enquire no further after our Election than as it is to be found in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Of which Bishop Latimer in the first place thus viz. Lat. in Serm. on Septuages p. 3. fol. 214. If thou art desirous to know whether thou art chosen to everlasting life thou maist not begin with God for God is too high thou canst not comprehend him the judgments of God are unknown to man therefore thou must not begin there But begin with Christ and learn to know Christ and wherefore that he came namely That he came to save sinners and made himself a subject of the Law and fulfiller of the same to deliver us from the wrath and danger thereof and therefore was crucified for our sins c. Consider I say Christ and his coming and then begin to try thy self whether thou art in the Book of Life or not If thou findest thy self in Christ then thou art sure of everlasting life If thou be without him then thou art in an evil case for it is written nemo venit ad patrem nisi per me that is no man cometh to my Father but through me therefore if thou knowest Christ thou maist know further of thy Election And then in another place When we are troubled within our selves whether we be elected or no we must ever have this Maxim or principal rule before our eyes namely that God beareth a good will towards us God loveth us God beareth a Fatherly heart towards us But you will say How shall I know that or how shall I believe that We may know Gods good will towards us through Christ for so saith John the Evangelist Filius qui est in sinu patris ipse revelavit that is The Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealeed it Therefore we may perceive his good will and love towards us He hath sens the same Son into the World which hath suffered most painful death for us Shall I now think that God hateth me or shall I doubt of his love towards me And in another place Here you see how you shall avoid the scrupulous and most dangerous question of the Predestination of God for if thou wilt enquire into his Councils and search his Consistory thy wit will deceive thee for thou shalt not be able to search the Council of God But if thou begin with Christ and consider his coming into the World and dost believe that God hath sent him for thy sake to suffer for thee and to deliver thee from Sin Death the Devil and Hell Then when thou art so armed with the knowledge of Christ then I say this simple question cannot hurt thee for thou art in the Book of Life which is Christ himself For thus it is writ Sic Deus dilexit mundum that God so entirely loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all that believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life whereby appeareth most plainly that Christ is the Book of Life and that all that believe in him are of the same Book and so are chosen to everlasting life for only those are ordained that believe Not stays that godly Bishop here but proceeds after some intervening passages towards this Conclusion Here is now taught you saith he how to try your Election namely in Christ For Christ is the Accompting Book and Register of God and even in the same Book that is Christ are written all the names of the Elect therefore we cannot find our Election in our selves neither yet the high Council of God for inscrutabilia sunt judicia Altissimi Where then shall I find my Election in the Compting Book of God which is Christ c. Agreeable whereunto we find Bishop Hooper speaking thus The cause of our Election is the mercy of God in Christ howbeit he that will be partaker of this Election must receive the promise in Christ by faith for therefore we be Elected because afterwards we are made the Members of Christ So we judge of Election by the event or success that hapneth in the life of man those only to be Elected that by faith apprehend the mercy promised in Christ To the same purpose also but not so clearly and perspicuously speaks the Book of Homilies Hom. of the misery of man fol. 11. where we find it thus viz. That of our selves as in our selves we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable captivity in which we were cast through the envy of the Devil by breaking Gods Commandment in our first Parent Adam It is the Lord with whom is plenteous Redemption he is the God which of his own mercy saveth us c. not for our own deserts merits or good deeds c. but of his meer mercy freely and for whose sake truly for Christ Jesus sake the pure and undesiled Lamb of God c. for whose sake God is fully pacified satisfied and set at one with man Such is the Doctrine of the Church in the matter of Predestination unto life according to the judgment of these learned men and godly Martyrs who were of such Authority in the Reformation Proceed we next to one of an inferiour Order the testimony of John Bradford Martyr a man in very high esteem with Martin Bucer made one of the Prebends of S. Pauls Church by Bishop Ridley and one who glorified God in the midst of the flames with as great courage as his Patron of whom we find a Letter extant in the Acts and Monuments Fox Acts and Mon. fol. 1505. directed to his friends N. S. and R. C. being at that time not thoroughly instructed in the Doctrine of Gods Election The words of which Letter are as followeth I wish to you my good Brethren the same grace of God in Christ which I wish and pray the Father of mercies to give me for his holy names sake Amen Your Letter though I have not read my self because I would not alienate my mind from conceived things to write to others yet I have heard the sum of it that it is of Gods Election wherein I wil briefly relate to you my faith and how for I think it good and meet for a Christian to wade in I believe that man made after the Image of God did fall from that blessed estate to the condemnation of him and all his posterity I believe that Christ for man being then fallen did oppose himself to the judgment of God as a Mediator paying the ransom and price of Redemption for Adam and his whole Posterity that refuse it not finally I believe that all that believe I speak of such as be of years of discretion are partakers of Christ and all his merits I believe that faith and belief in Christ is the work and gift of God given to no other than to those which be his Children that is to those whom God the Father before the
the Body of Christ Nay their labour was blessed by God first for the Conversion and then for the Resormation of this Church and Kingdom and therefore I hope there is no sober Protestant in England but will heartily say Amen to that Prayer of Mr. Beza's who although no great Adorer of Episcopacy yet considerdering the Blessings that God brought to this Nation by their Ministry put up this devout Petition Si nunc Anglicanae Ecclesiae instauratae suorum Episcoporum Archiepiscoporum auctoritate suffultae perstant quemadmodum hoc illi nostra memoria contigit ut ejus ordininis homines non tantum insignes Dei martyres sed etiam praestantissimos pastores ac Doctores habuerit fruatur sane istâ singulari Dei beneficentia quae utinam sit illi perpetua Theod. Bez. ad Tract de min. Evang. Grad ab Hadr. Sarav cap. 18. Fruatur Anglia ista singulari Dei Beneficentiâ quae utinam sit illi perpetua Let England enjoy that singular Blessing of God which I pray to God may be perpetual to it There are others that envy them their Honours and Dignities For though the Holy Spirit of God does oblige all Christians to esteem their Bishops very highly or more than abundantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in love for their work sake 1 Thes 5.12 13. and reason it self dictates that the honours confer'd upon Representatives and Embassadors redound to the Prince that delegates and imploys them though Jews Heathens and Mahomâ—tans ever paid the profoundest Veneration to their Priests Caliphs and Musti's and our Relig ous Ancestors in the Saxon Danish and Norman times set the highest value upon their Bishops yet the Religion of this Age is to load them with all possible Calumnies and Reproaches and with Corah and his Complices to charge them with taking too much upon them and to disdain to set them with the Dogs of their Flocks The Priests were Judges in Egypt and so were the Magi and Areopagites who were sacred persons in Persia and Athens and it was no other wise with the Druids amongst the Ancient Britains and Gauls For Caesar tells us how their Office extended to things Temporal as well as Religious Sacrificia publica privata procurant religiones interpretantur Druides a bello a besse consueverunt ni que tributa una cum reliquis pendunt St quod admissum est facinus si caedes facta si de haereditate de finibus controversia est iidem decernunt Caesar Com. lib. 6. that they did not only order publick and private Sacrifices and expound Religion and instruct Youth but were free from Contribution and Warfare and all burthens of State and determined all Controversies both publick and private and executed the place both of Priests and Judges for if any offence were committed as Murther or Man-slaughter or any Controversie arose touching Lands or Inheritance they sentenced it rewarding the Vertuous and punishing the Wicked The Patricii the noblest Romans were ambitious to be admitted into the College of the Priests and when the Government became Monarchical the Emperors took upon them the pontifical Dignity thinking it no diminution of them Grandeur to be imployed about the Service of the gods but rather conceiving the Priesthood too noble an imployment to be confer'd upon a Subject But we need no other Testimonies to convince us of the Rights of Church-men for the management of the civil concerns of human Society that the holy Scriptures Amongst the Jews the Civil and Ecclesiastical power were not so distinguished but one and the same person exercised both For not to expatiate upon particular instances Melchisedeck Eli Samuel Ezra Esdras were all Priests and had the power not only of Ecclesiastical but Civil jurisaictior Neither could Samuel have hewed Agag in pieces with his own hand 1 Sam. 15.33 if it had been unlawful for persons dedicated to the sacred Offices of Religion to havè intermeddled in causes of blood Which very instance proves that Clergy-men are not excluded from managing the highest secular concerns by any immutable Laws of God or Nature And if there are any Canons or Councils that forbid them to meddle in things of that kind that so they may the better attend upon the sacred Offices and Exercises of Religion let those be obligatory to the persons unto whom they were delivered but not be pleaded or produced to the prejudice of English Bishops who have distinct Priviledges and Laws For there have been Constitutions that have forbidden Church-men to Marry to make Wills to be Executors of mens Wills and Testaments to be the Wards of Orphans c. And these Constitutions are of as great force to bind the Clergy of England as the Council of Toledo to thrust the Bishops out of the House of Lords in Causes of Attainder and Blood Let the Archbishops of Ments and Colen with other Princes of the Empire look to it if it be unlawful for Ecclesiastical persons to adjudge Criminals to death It will be infinite to shew how St. Ambrose St. Augustin and the Godly Bishops of all Ages had no Supersedeas given them to intermeddle in things civil and secular because of their Wisdom and Knowledge in things Sacred and Divine Certainly the Holy Spirit of God did not conceive it unfit that Worldly matters and Controversies should be committed to Church-men for it is highly reasonable to think that those who are the Pastors of mens Souls will be the best Judges in determining their civil Rights It could not indeed be expected whilst the Empire was Heathen that Bishops should be busied and employed in Secular affairs unless it were in those Controversies which arose among the Christians themselves wherein St. Paul gives direction that they should rather determine their Contentions by a private Arbitrement of their own than by the publick judgments of their Enemies 1 Cor. 6. But when Kings became Christians Soz. lib. 1. c. 9. we find persons making their Appeals from the Tribunals of Princes to the Consistory of Bishops For then Bishops had power to reverse the sentence of death and to stay the hands of Executioners when the poor Criminals were going to receive the reward of their Iniquities just as the Praetors and Consuls of Rome would submit their Fasces those Ensigns of Authority when they did but casually meet with some of the Priests Constantine granted the Bishops this priviledge that condemned Malefactors might appeal unto their Courts and when such appeals were made the Bishops had power as well to deliver them over into the hands of Justice as to extend unto them a Pardon or Reprieve For the priviledge confer'd on them was as well for the punishment and terror of the Wicked as for mitigating the rigour of Justice and encouraging Criminals to Vertue and Repentance Mr. Selden himself who was none of the best Friends to Church-men grants that for four thousand years the Civil and Ecclesiastick jurisdiction went always hand in hand
the Lord Commissioners the Right of Sitting there 1. The Prebends Original Right 2. Their Derivative Right and lastly their Possessory Right Upon hearing the proofs on both sides it was ordered by general consent of the Lord Commissioners That the Prebends should be restored to their old Seat and that none should sit there with them but Lords of the Parliament and Earls eldest Sons according to the ancient custom After this there was no Bishop of Lincoln to be seen at any Morning-Prayer and seldom at Evening At this time came out the Doctor 's History of the Sabbath the Argumentative or Scholastick part of which subject was referred to White Bishop of Eli the Historical part to the Doctor And no sooner had the Doctor perfected his Book of the Sabbath but the Dean of Peterborough engages him to answer the Bishop of Lincoln's Letter to the Vicar of Grantham He received it upon good Friday and by the Thursday following discovered the sophistry mistakes and falshoods of it It was approved by the King and by him given to the Bishop of London to be Licens'd and Publish'd under the title of a Coal from the Altar In less than a twelve-month the Bishop of Lincoln writ an Answer to it Entituled The Holy Table Name and Thing but pretended that it was writ long ago by a Minister in Lincolnshire against Dr. Cole a Divine in the days of Queen Mary Dr. Heylyn receiv'd a Message from the King to return a reply to it and not in the least to spare him And he did it in the space of seven weeks presenting it ready Printed to his Majesty and called it Antidotum Lincolniense But before this he answered Mr. Burtons Seditious Sermon being thereunto also appointed by the King In July 1637. the Bishop of Lincoln was censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering with Witnesses in the Kings Cause suspended à Beneficio officio and sent to the Tower where he continued three years and did not in all that space of time hear either Sermon or publick Prayers The College of Westminster about this time presented the Doctor to the Parsonage of Islip now void by the death of Dr. King By reason of its great distance from Alresford the Doctor exchanged it for South-warnborough that was more near and convenient At which time recovering from an ill fit of Sickness he studiously set on writing the History of the Church of England since the Reformation in order to which he obtained the freedom of Sir Robert Cottons Library and by Arch-bishop Laud's commendation had liberty granted him to carry home some of the Books leaving 200 l. as a Pawn behind him The Commotions in Scotland now began and the Arch Bishop of Canterbury intending to set out an Apology for vindicating the Liturgy which he had commended to that Kirk desired the Doctor to translate the Scottish Liturgy into Latin that being Published with the Apology all the World might be satisfied in his Majesties piety as well as the Arch-Bishops care as also that the perverse and rebellious temper of the Scots might be apparent to all who would raise such troubles upon the Recommendation of a book that was so Venerable and Orthodox Dr. Heylyn undertook and went through with it but the distemper and trouble of those times put a period to the undertaking and the Book went no farther than the hands of that Learned Martyr In Feb. 1639. the Doctor was put into Commission of Peace for the County of Hampshire residing then upon this Living into which place he was no sooner admitted but he occasioned the discovery of a horrid Murther that had been committed many years before in that Countrey In the April following he was chosen Clerk of the Convocation for the College of Westminster at which time the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sending a Canon to them for suppressing the farther growth of Popery and reducing Papists to the Church our Doctor moved his Grace that the Canon might be enlarged for the Peoples farther satisfaction as well as the Churches benefit what was done therein and many other notable things by that Convocation may be seen at large in the History of the Arch-Bishops Life Friday being May the 29th the Canons were formally subscribed unto by the Bishops and Clergy no one dissenting except the Bishop of Glocester who afterward turn'd Papist and died in the Communion of the Romish Church and was all that time of his Life in which he revolted from the Church of England a very great Servant of Oliver Cromwel unto whom he dedicated some of his Books But for his Contumacy in refusing to subscribe the Articles he was voted worthy of Suspension in the Convocation and was actually Suspended by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which being done the Convocation was ended In Novemb. 3. A.D. 1640. began the Session of the long Parliament At the opening of which a general Rumor was spread abroad that Dr. Heylyn was run away for fear of an approaching storm that was like to fall upon his head as well as on his Grace the Arch-Bishop of Cauterbury but he who was ever of an undaunted spirit would not pusillanimously desert the Cause of the King and Church then in question but speedily hastned up to London from Alresford to confute the common calumny and false report raised on him by the Puritan faction that he appeared the next day in his Gown and Tippet at Westminster-Hall and in the Church with the accustomed formalities of his Cap Hood and Surplice employed then his Pen boldly in defence of the Bishops Rights when the Lords began to shake the Hierarchy in passing a Vote That no Bishop should be of the Committe for Examination of the Earl of Strafford being Causa sanguinis upon which the Doctor drew up a brief and excellent Discourse entituled De jure paritatis Episcopum wherein he asserted all the Bishops Rights of Peerage and principally of this as well as the rest That they ought to sit in that Committee with other Priviledges and Rights maintained by him which either by Law or ancient custom did belong unto them A rare Commendation at this juncture of time for which the Doctor is to be admired that he could command his Parts and Pen of a sudden to write on this subject or any other if there was need that did conduce to the publick good and above all make a quick dispatch in accomplishing what he had once undertaken and begun But for those quick dispatches the Doctor afterward endured many tedious waitings at the backs of Committe-men in that Parliament especially in the business of Mr. Pryn about his Histriomastix for which he was kept four days under examination because he had furnished the Lords of the Privy Council with matters out of that Book which Mr. Pryn alledged was the cause of all his sufferings Great hopes had the Committee by his often dancing attendance after them to sift the Doctor if they could gather any thing by his speeches
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
and adjuncts of it which had been utterly abolished in Zuinglian Churches and much impaired in power and jurisdiction by the Lutherans also and keeping up a Liturgy or set form of worship according to the rites and usages of the primitive times which those of the Calvinian Congregations would not hearken to God certainly had so disposed it in his Heavenly wisdom that so this Church without respect unto the names and Dictates of particular Doctors might found its Reformation on the Prophets and Apostles only according to the Explications and Traditions of the ancient Fathers And being so founded in it self without respect to any of the differing parties might in succeeding Ages sit as Judge between them as being more inclinable by her constitution to mediate a peace amongst them than to espouse the quarrel of either side And though Spalato in the Book of his Retractations which he calls Consilium redeundi objects against us That besides the publick Articles and confession authorised by the Churches we had embraced some Lutheran and Calvinian Fancies multa Lutheri Calvini dogmata so his own words run yet this was but the error of particular men not to be charged upon the Church as maintaining either The Church is constant to her safe and her first conclusions though many private men take liberty to imbrace new Doctrines 4. That the Church did not innovate in translating the Scriptures and the publick Liturgie into vulgar tongues and of the consequents thereof in the Church of England The next thing faulted as you say in the Reformation is the committing so much heavenly treasure to such rotten vessels the trusting so much excellent Wine to such musty bottles I mean the versions of the Scriptures and the publick Liturgies into the usual Languages of the common people and the promiscuous liberty indulged them in it And this they charge not as an Innovation simply but as an Innovation of a dangerous consequence the sad effects whereof we now see so clearly A charge which doth alike concern all the Protestant and Reformed Churches so that I should have passed it over at the present time but that it is made ours more specially in the application the sad effects which the enemy doth so much insult in being said to be more visible in the Church of England than in other places This make it ours and therefore here to be considered as the former were First then they charge it on the Church as an Innovation it being affirmed by Bellarmine l. 2. De verbo Dei c. 15. whether with less truth or modesty it is hard to say Vniversam Ecclesiam semper his tantum linguis c. that in the Universal Church in all times foregoing the Scriptures were not commonly and publickly read in any other language but in the Hebrew Greek and Latine This is you see a two-edged sword and strikes not only against all Translations of the Scriptures into vulgar Languages for common use but against reading those Translations publickly as a part of Liturgy in which are many things as the Cardinal tells us quae secreta esse debent which are not fit to be made known to the common people This is the substance of the charge and herein we joyn issue in the usual Form with Absque hoc sans ceo no such matter really the constant current of Antiquity doth affirm the contrary by which it will appear most plainly that the Church did neither Innovate in the act of hers nor deviate therein from the Word of God or from the usage of the best and happiest times of the Church of Christ Not from the Word of God there 's no doubt of that which was committed unto writing that it might be read and read by all that were to be directed and guided by it The Scriptures of the Old Testament first writ in Hebrew the Vulgar Language of that people and read unto them publickly on the Sabbath days as appears clearly Act. 13.15 15.21 translated afterwards by the cost and care of Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt into the Greek tongue the most known and sTudied Language of the Eastern World The New Testament first writ in Greek for the self-same reason but that S. Matthew's Gospel is affirmed by some Learned men to have been written in the Hebrew and written to this end and purpose that men might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing they might have life in his Name Joh. 20. vers ult But being that all the Faithful did not understand these Languages and that the light of holy Scripture might not be likened to a Candle hidden under a Bushel It was thought good by many godly men in the Primitive times to translate the same into the Languages of the Countreys in which they lived or of the which they had been Natives In which respect S. Chrysostom then banished into Armenia translated the New Testament and the Psalms of David into the Language of that people S. Hierom a Pannonian born translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick tongue as Vulphilas Bishop of the Gothes did into the Gothick all which we find together without further search in the Bibliotheque of Sixtus Senensis a learned and ingenuous man but a Pontifician and so less partial in this cause The like done here in England by the care of Athelstan causing a Translation of it into the Saxon Tongue the like done by Methodius the Apostle General of the Sclaves translating it into the Sclavonian for the use of those Nations not to say any thing of the Syriack Aethiopick Arabick the Persian and Chaldaean Versions of which the times and Authors are not so well known And what I pray you is the vulgar or old Latine Edition of late times made Authentick by the Popes of Rome but a Translation of the Scriptures out of Greek and Hebrew for the instruction of the Roman and Italian Nations to whom the Latine at that time was the Vulgar Tongue And when that Tongue by reason of the breaking in of the barbarous Nations was worn out of knowledge I mean as to the common people did not God stir up James Arch-Bishop of Genoa when the times were darkest that is to say Anno 1290. or thereabouts to give some light to them by translating the whole Bible into the Italian the modern Language of that Countrey As he did Wiclef not long after to translate the same into the English of those times the Saxon Tongue not being then commonly understood a copy of whose Version in a fair Velom Manuscript I have now here by me by the gift of my noble Friend Charles Dymoke Hereditary Champion to the Kings of England So then it is no Innovation to translate the Scriptures and less to suffer these Translations to be promiscuously read by all sorts of people the Scripture being as well Milk for Babes as strong Meat for the man of more able judgment Why else doth the Apostle note it
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then doth the Bishop say the Prayers and give the peace or kiss of peace to all the company who having saluted one another with an holy kiss the Diptychs are forthwith recited After the Bishop and the Priests having washed their hands the Bishop standing against the middle of the Altar the Priests and Ministers being round about him and giving praise to God for all his works proceeds unto the Consecration of the Elements being then presented to the publick view Which being thus Sanctified and publickly set forth to view 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he first partakes thereof himself and then exhorteth others to do the like The blessed Sacrament being thus given and received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he finally descends to the giving of thanks and so dismisseth the Assembly This is the Form of ministration laid down before us in the Books ascribed to this Dionysius in which I see not any thing which may advantage those of the Church of Rome unless it be the use of censing but I see much which makes against them viz. the giving of the whole Communion sub utraque specie For should you stumble at the Altar which is mentioned here Ignatius who lived in these very times Irenaeus who lived but little after S. Cyprian and almost who not amongst the Ancients will lend an helping hand for to raise you up And if you would sum up the Form which is described here at large we have the daily Service which I conceive to be those leading Prayers which the Bishop first said at the holy Altar the Psalms the reading of the Scriptures in a prescript order which possibly may be the Epistle and Gospel as we call them now then the dismission of all such who are not fitted to communicate the placing of the Bread and Wine on the holy Table the general confession of the peoples sins to Almighty God the kiss of peace and mutual salutation with the commemoration of the Righteous After all this the Prayer of Consecration and the participating of the blessed Sacrament and finally Thanksgiving for so great a blessing In all which there is nothing that I can see except it be the act of censing as before is said which savoureth not of primitive and Apostolical purity nothing but what is worthy of the name and piety of Dionysius nothing but what we may observe in other Worthies near about the time which is assigned unto this Author Finally if the Author be not Dionysius which I will not take upon me to determine yet doubtless he is very ancient and for the Books ascribed unto him Petr. Molinaeu◠in tract de Altar c. 7. they are acknowledged by Du Moulin to be utilia bonae frugis which is as much as need be said in the present case Let us next look upon the Form of Baptism which is another part of the publick Liturgy For howsoever the word Liturgy be used sometimes to signifie no more than the Ministration of the blessed Eucharist in which respect it is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is expounded so by Balsamon Balsam in not is ad Concil Sardic yet doth it signifie most commonly the whole course And therefore Bellarmine was foully out when he made this note à patribus Graecis vix aliter accipi quam pro minifterio sacrificii Eucharistiae offerendi Bellarm. de Missa l. 1. c. 1. Dionys de Eccles Hierarch p. 77. edit gr lat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was seldom used otherwise by the Greek Fathers then for the Celebrating of the Sacrifice of the holy Eucharist But let that pass cum caeteris errorbus and go we on unto our business to the Form of Baptism which we find thus described by the said Dionysius The day being come in which the party is to be Baptized and the Congregation being Assembled in the holy Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Bishop sings some Psalm contained in the Scripture the whole Assembly joyning with him then doing reverence towards the holy Table he turns unto the party offered unto Baptism and asks him for what cause he cometh who being taught by his Surety first making known his ignorance and want of God desires that he might be admitted to these things which pertain to godliness The Bishop next letting him know the rules of a Christian life demandeth if he will conform unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the which when he hath promised to do his name together with his sureties are enrolled in the publick Registers This done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bishop saith the holy Prayer which when the whole Assembly have consented to by saying Amen the Deacon doth prepare himself to strip him and disrobe him of his Cloaths and placing him towards the West with his hands lift up requireth him to bid defiance unto Satan thrice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and saying to him the set and solemn words of Abrenuntiation when he hath thrice repeated them he is turned towards the East and willeth him having both his hands and eyes heaved up to Heaven to joyn himself to Christ and Gods holy Word Which having promised and thrice made profession of his faith the Bishop layeth his hand upon him and prayeth over him Then being disrobed the Priests bring the Oyl or chrism wherewith the Bishop doth thrice sign him with the sign of the Cross and after delivereth him unto the Priests who carry him unto the Font where calling upon God to bless and sanctifie the waters and singing to the Lord one of the song or Psalms made by the inspiration of the Holy ghost the party is called by his Name and thrice dipped in water one of the persons of the blessed Trinity being particularly named and called upon at each several dipping or immersion This done they cloath him all in white and bring him back unto the Bishop who once more anointeth him with the Oyl or Chrism and so pronounceth him to be from that time forwards a meet partaker of the blessed Eucharist So far and to this purpose Dionysius But then withal you must observe that this was in baptismo Adultorum and that there was not so much ceremony in the Baptism of Infants although it was the same in both for the main and substance Now for the Form of Abrenuntiation we find it thus laid down in the Constitutions ascribed to Clemens of which it may be said as was before of Dionysius that though they be not his whose name they carry yet are they notwithstanding very ancient and do exceeding well set forth the Forms and usages of the primitive Church Clement Constitut l. y. c. 42. The Form is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. I forsake the Devil and all his works his pomps and service his Angels and inventions with all things under his command Which done he doth rehearse the Articles of his belief in this Form that followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
for your souls as they that must give account Chrysost in 13. ad Heb. c. If you would know of Chrysostom who these Rulers are he will tell you that they are the Pastors of the Church whom if you take away from the Flock of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you utterly destroy and lay waste the whole Theophy in 13. ad Heb. Next ask Theophylact than whom none ever better scanned that Fathers writings what he means by Pastors and he will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he speaks of Bishops Oecumen in locum The very same saith Oecumenius noting withal that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we read submit doth signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very punctual and exact obedience But to go higher yet than so Ignatius the Apostles Scholler one that both knew S. Paul and conversed with him will tell us that the Rulers or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Saint Paul here speaketh of were no other than Bishops For laying down this exhortation to the Trallenses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be subject to your Bishop as unto the Lord he gives the self-same reason of it which S. Paul here doth viz. Because he watcheth for your souls as one that is to render an account to Almighty God The like we also find in the Canons commonly ascribed to the Apostles which questionless are very ancient in which the obedience and conformity which is there required of the Presbyters and Deacons to the directions of their Bishop is grounded on that very reason alledged before And for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Saint Paul it is not such a stranger in the writings of the elder times but that they use it for a Bishop as may appear by that of the Historian where he calls Polycarpus Bishop of the Church of Smyrna Eâ—â—eb hist l. 3. cap. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that Church Ignatius writing as he saith not only to the Church of Smyrna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also unto Polycarpus Bishop of the same Where lest it may be thought that the preposition doth add unto the nature of the word Id. l. 14. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find the same Historian speaking of the same Polycarpus in another place where he gives notice of an Epistle written in the name of the Church of Smyrna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which this Polycarpus had the Government and a Bishop doubtless In the which place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is conform most fully to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Saint Paul differing no otherwise than the verb and participle Now those which in the Greek are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all the old Translations that I have met with are called Praepositi Obedite Praepositis vestris as the Latines read it and amongst them Praepositi are taken generally for the same with Bishops Oprian l. 1. ep 3. S. Cyprian thus Ob hoc Ecclesiae praepositum prosequitur for this cause doth the enemy pursue him that is set over the Church that the Governour thereof being once removed he may with greater violence destroy the same Id. lib. 3. ep 14. More clearly in another place What danger is not to be feared saith he by offending the Lord when some of the Priests not remembring their place neither thinking that they have a Bishop set over them challenge the whole government unto themselves Cum contumeliâ contemptu Praepositi even with the reproach and contempt of the Prelate Id. lib. 3. ep 9. or him that is set over them Most clearly yet where speaking of the insolency of a Deacon towards his Bishop he makes Episcopus and Praepositus to be one same thing willing the Deacon Episcopo Praeposito suo plena humilitate satisfacere with all humility to satisfie his Bishop or Praepositus Saint Austin speaks as fully to this purpose as Saint Cyprian did Ad hoc enim speculatores De civitat Dei l. 1. c. 9. i.e. populorum Praepositi in Ecclesiis constituti sunt c. For this end are Bishops for speculatores and Episcopi are the same Office though in divers words I mean the Prelates or Praepositi ordained in the Churches that they should not spare to rebuke sin In the same work De civitate he speaks plainer yet For speaking of these words of the Divine I saw seats Id. l. 20. c. 9. and some sitting on them and judgment was given he expounds it thus This is not to be understood saith he of the last Judgment Sed sedes praepositorum ipsi Praepositi intelligendi sunt per quos Ecclesia nunc gubernatur but the seats of the Praepositi and the Praepositi themselves by whom the Church is now governed and they were Bishops doubtless in Saint Augustines time must be understood More of this word who list to see may find it in that learned Tract of Bishop Bilson entituled Chap. 9. The perpetual Government of Christs Church who is copious in it Beza indeed the better to bear off this blow hath turned Praepositos into Ductores and instead of Governours hath given us Leaders Where if he mean such Leaders as the word importeth Leaders of Armies such as Command in chief Lieutenants General he will get little by the bargain But if he mean by Leaders only guides and conducts Paraeus Paraeus comment in Heb. 13. though he follow him in his Translation will leave him to himself in his Exposition who by Ductores understandeth Ecclesiae Pastores gubernatores the Pastors and Governours of the Church Neither can Beza possibly deny but that those here are called Ductores Beza Annot. in Heb. 13.17 qui alibi Episcopi vocantur which elsewhere are entituled Bishops But where he doth observe that because the Apostle speaketh of Praepositi in the plural number Ex eo quod loquitur Paulus in plurali mumero Ibid. therefore Episcopal jurisdiction was not then in use it being indeed against the ancient course and Canons to have two Bishops in one Church there could not any thing be spoken to pretermit the incivility of his expression more silly and unworthy of so great a Clerk For who knows not that the Jews being dispersed into many Provinces and Cities must have several Churches and therefore several Bishops or Praepositos to bear Rule over them This business being thus passed over and the Churches of Saint Peters planting in the Eastern parts being thus left unto the care and charge of several Bishops we will next follow him into the West And there we find him taking on himself the care of the Church of Rome or rather of the Church of God in Rome consisting for the most part then of converted Jews The current of antiquity runs so clear this way that he must needs corrupt the Fountains who undertakes to trouble or disturb the stream His being there and founding
in person or sent from place to place on his occasions and dispatches as may appear by looking on the concordances of holy Scripture Now that Titus was ordained the first Bishop of Crete hath been affirmed by several Authors of good both credit and antiquity For first Eccles hist l. 3. c. 4. Eusebius making a Catalogue of Saint Pauls assistants or fellow-labourers and reckoning Timothy amongst them whom he recordeth for the first Bishop of the Church of Ephesus adds presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so was Titus also the first Bishop of Crete Ambr. praef in ep ad Titum Saint Ambrose in the Preface to his Commentaries on the Epistle unto Titus doth affirm as much Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum the Apostle consecrated Titus a Bishop and therefore doth admonish him to be solicitous for the well ordering of the Church committed to him Saint Hierom writing on these words in that Epistle Hieron in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete c. doth apply them thus Audiant Episcopi qui habent constituendi Presbyteres per singulas urbes potestatem Let Bishops mark this well who have authority to ordain Presbyters in every City on what conditions to what persons for that I take to be his meaning Ecclesiastical orders are to be conferred Which is a strong insinuation that Titus having that authority must be needs a Bishop More evidently in his Catalogue of Writers or in Sophronius at the least Id. de Scrip. Eccles in Tit. if those few names were by him added to that Catalogue Titus Episcopus Cretae Titus the Bishop of Crete did preach the Gospel both in that and the adjacent Islands Apud Oecumen Praef. ad Tim. Theodoret proposing first this question why Paul should rather write to Timothy and Titus than to Luke and Silas returns this answer to the same that Luke and Silas were still with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but those had entrusted with the government of Churches But more particularly Titus a famous Disciple of Saint Paul Ap. eund in Praef. ad Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was by him ordained Bishop of Crete being a place of great extent with a Commission also to ordain Bishops under him Theoph. in praef ad Tit. Oecum in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. Theophylact in his preface unto this Epistle doth affirm the same using almost his very words And Oecumenius on the Text doth declare as much saying that Paul gave Titus authority of ordaining Bishops Crete being of too large a quantity to be committed unto one alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having first consecrate or made him Bishop Finally the subscription of this Epistle calls Titus the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians which evidence though questioned now of late is of good Authority For some of late who are not willing that Antiquity should afford such grounds for Titus being Bishop of the Church of Crete have amongst other arguments devised against it found an irreparable flaw as they conceive in this Subscription Beza Annot at in Ep. ad Tit. in fine who herein led the way disproves the whole Subscription as supposititious because it is there said that it was written from Nieopolis of Macedonia A thing saith he which cannot be for the Apostle doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will winter here but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illic I will winter there and therefore he was somewhere else when he wrote this Epistle But Athanasius who lived neerer the Apostles times In Synopsi sacr script Ad Paulum Eustochium Comment in Ep. ad Tit. affirms it to be written from Nicopolis and so doth Hierome in his Preface unto that Epistle The Syriack translation dates it also thence as is confessed by them that adhere to Beza Theophylact and Oecumenius agree herein with Athanasius and the ancient Copies As for the criticism it is neither here nor there for Saint Paul being still in motion might appoint Titus to repair unto Nicopolis letting him understand that howsoever he disposed of himself in the mean time yet he intended there to Winter and so he might well say though he was at Nicopolis when he writ the same That Titus is there called the first Bishop of Crete Smectym p. 54. or of the Church of the Cretians is another hint that some have taken to vilifie the credit of the said Subscription asking if ever there were such a second Bishop Assuredly the Realm of England is as fair and large a circuit as the Isle of Crete And yet I do not find it used as argument that Austin the Monk had neither any hand in the converting of the English or was not the first Archbishop of the See of Canterbury Beda hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. because it is affirmed in Beda's History Archiepiscopus genti Anglorum ordinatus est that he was ordained the Archbishop of the English Nation Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for an answer to the question we need but look into Eusebius where we shall find Pinytus a right godly man called in plain terms Bishop of Crete Cretae Episcopus saith the Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Original the self-same stile which is excepted at in Titus Now whereas it is said that Titus was left no otherwise in Crete than as Pauls Vicar General Commissary or Substitute to order those things in such sort as he had appointed which he could not dispatch himself when he was there present this can by no means be admitted the Rules prescribed unto him and Timothy being for the most part of that nature as do agree with the condition of perpetual Governours and not of temporary and removable Substitutes As for the anticipation of the time which I see some use relating that Saint Paul with Titus having passed through Syria and Cilicia to confirm the Churches did from Cilicia pass over into Crete where the Apostle having preached the Gospel left Titus for a while to set things in Order although I cannot easily tell on what Authority the report is built yet I can easily discern that it can hardly stand with Scripture We read indeed in the 15. Chapter of the Acts that he went thorow Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches ver ult and in the first words of the following Chapter Acts 14.6 Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find him at Derbe and Lystra Cities of Lycaonia the very next Province to Cilicia Northward from which it is divided by a branch of the Mountain Taurus Now whether of the two it be more probable that Paul should pass immediately from Cilicia unto Lycaonia upon the usual common Road or fetch a voyage into Crete Smectymn p. 50. as these men suppose and be transported back again into Lycaonia being an in-land Countrey far from any Sea which could not be without
is somewhat more out of doubt it must Those Canons which are only fathered on the Apostles will else run cross with those which are theirs indeed When Saint Paul lessoned those of Corinth 1 Cor. 6. that rather than they should profane the Gospel with contentious suits they should refer their differences to their Brethren Think you it was his purpose either to exclude the Clergy then or their Bishop after when they had one No saith Saint Ambrose Ambros Com. in 1 ad Cor. c. 6. if the work be his Melius dicit apud dei ministros causam agere no better way than to refer the business to Gods Ministers who being guided by the fear of God will determin rightly in the same Or is the Bishop only to be barred this Office Not so saith he For if Saint Paul adviseth them to submit themselves unto the judgment of their Brethren it was upon this reason principally quia adhuc Rector in eorum Ecclesia non esset ordinatus because as then there was no Bishop in that Church Saint Austin gives it more exactly makes it a charge imposed upon the Bishop by Saint Pauls command For speaking of the pains he took in the determining of such causes as were brought before him August de Opere Monarch c. 29. he tells us that he underwent the same in obedience only to Saint Paul's injunction quibus nos molestiis idem affixit Apostolus as his words there are and that Saint Paul imposed it not by his own authority sed ejus qui in eo loquebatur but by the authority of the Holy Ghost which did dictate to him adding withal that howsoever it was irksome and laborious to him yet he did patiently discharge his duty in it pro spe aeternae vitae only upon the hope of life eternal And it is worth the observation that venerable Beda making a Comment upon Saint Pauls Epistle collected out of several passages of Saint Austins writings he putteth down this place at large as the most full and proper exposition of the Apostles words Secularia judicia si habueritis c. 1 Cor. 6.4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life c. Here then we have the Bishop interessed in the determining of suits and differences a secular imployment surely and yet no violence offered to the sacred Canon May he not go a little further and intermeddle if occasion be in matters of the Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synesius in Ep. 57. I do not blame those Bishops saith Synesius that are so imployed such as are fitted with abilities for the undertaking being by him a strict and rigorous man permitted to employ the same And more than so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it maketh for Gods praise and glory that it should be so that men on whom he hath bestowed abilities to perform both Offices should do accordingly But these I put down here as opinions only the practice of them we shall see in a place more proper If then it be demanded what those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those worldly cares and secular imployments are which the Canon speaks off Zonar Comment in Conc. Chalced. Can. 3. Zonaras will inform us in another place that the Canon aimeth at the mingling of the Roman Magistracies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Episcopal or Priestly function which at that time were questionless incompatible And then the meaning of the Canon will in fine be this that Bishops or inferiour Clergy-men might not be Consuls Praetors Generals or undergoe such publick Offices in the State of Rome as were most sought for and esteemed by the Gentiles there As for their jurisdiction over the inferiour Clergy as far as it is warranted by these Apostolick Canons it doth coâ—â—st especially in these particulars First there is granted and annexed unto them the power of Ordination and to them alone Can. Apost 2. The second Canon tells us so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Presbyter and Deacon and all other Clerks must be ordained by one Bishop And if a Bishop be required though but one in all the Presbyters have no authority at all of conferring Orders But of this before Being ordained they were accomptable in the next place to their Bishop in all things which concerned their Ministration without whose special leave and liking there were not only many things which they might not do but there was nothing in a manner to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 38. Ignat. ad Smyrnens Zonar in Can. Apost let them do nothing saith the Canon without the knowledge of the Bishops neither Baptize nor celebrate the Eucharist as Ignatius hath it of whom more anon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not repel any man from the Communion as it is in Zonaras But here the Canons speaking in another place they will tell you more particularly that if a Presbyter neglecting or contemning his own Bishop Can. 31. shall gather the People into a Conventicle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and erect another Altar for divine worship not being able to convict his Bishop of any impiety or injustice he is to be deposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an ambitious person seeking a preheminence that belonged not to him Finally so obnoxious were the Presbyters to the command and pleasure of their Bishop that they could not be admitted into any other City Can. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without his letters testimonial and this on pain of Excommunication as well unto the Presbyter that should so depart Can. 15. as to the party that received him If any Presbyter or Deacon leaving the charge appointed to him shall go into another Diocess for so I think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be read in this place and time and there abide without the allowance of his Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is to be suspended ab officio especially if he return not presently on the Bishops summons More of this kind there is in those ancient Canons touching the Presbyters dependance on and plain subjection to their Bishop But I have instanced in such only as may be clearly justified by succeeding practice And so much of the Apostles Canons ascribed to Clemens From Clemens on to Evaristus his next successor in the government of the Church of Rome I know the Antiquaries of that Church have interloped an Anacletus between these two Iren. l. 3. cap. 3. and let them take him for their labour But when I find in Irenaeus who lived so near the times we speak of as to converse with those which were then alive when both these Bishops sate in the Church of Rome and when I find it in Eusebius Euseb hist Ec. l. 3. c. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who with such care and diligence collected the successions of the Prelates in the greater Churches that Evaristus did immediately succeed this Clemens I shall desire to be excused if I prefer their testimony
time contracted somewhat of that rust and rubbish wherewith the middle ages of the Church did so much abound Yet if mine own opinion were demanded in it though I agree unto the story both for the number of the Bishops and the Metropolitans I must needs think there was some other reason for it than the relation of the number of the Flamines and Archiflamines which is there pretended And that this was not done at once but in a longer tract of time than the Reign of Lucius as was in part affirmed before That Lucius did convert the Temples of the Idols into Christian Churches setled the revenues of the same upon the Churches by him founded I shall easily grant so far forth as the bounds of his dominions will give way unto it but being there were but 28 Cities in all that part of Britain which we now call England as both from Huntingdon and Beda was before delivered and that King Lucius was but a Tributary Prince of those Regions only which were inhabited by the Trinobantes and Cattieuchlani as I do verily conceive he was I believe rather that the number of the Bishops and Archbishops which our stories speak of related to the form of government as it was afterwards established in the Roman Empire Notitia Provinc in div cap. and not to any other cause whatever Now they which have delivered to us the state of the Roman Empire inform us this That for the easier government and administration of the same it was divided into fourteen Diocesses for so they called those greater portions into the which it was divided every Diocess being subdivided into several Provinces and every Province in the same conteining many several Cities And they which have delivered to us the estate of the Christian Church Notitia Prov. dignitat c. have informed us this that in each City of the Empire wherein the Romans had a Defensor Civitatis as they called that Magistrate the Christians when they gain'd that City to the holy faith did ordain a Bishop that over every Province in which the Romans had their Presidents they did place an Arch-bishop whose seat being commonly in the Metropolis of the Province gave him the name of Metropolitan and finally that in every Diocess in which the Romans had their Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the Christians also had their Primate and seated him in the same City also where the other was This ground thus layed it will appear upon examination that Britain in the time of the Roman Empire was a full Diocese of it self no way depending upon any other portion of that mighty State Ib. in Provinc Occident sup c. 3. as any way subordinate thereunto And being a Diocese in it self it was divided in those times into these three Provinces viz. Britannia prima Cambd. de divisione Britan. containing all the Countrys on the South of the River Thames and those inhabited by the Trinobantes Cattieuchlani and Iceni 2. Britannia secunda comprising all the Nations within the Severn and 3. Maxima Caesariensis which comprehended all the residue to the Northern border In the which Provinces there were no less than 28 Cities as before is said of which York was the chief in Maxima Caesariensis London the principal in Britannia prima Caer-Leon upon Vsk being the Metropolis in Britannia secunda And so we have a plain and apparent reason not only of the 28 Episcopal Sees erected anciently in the British Church but why three of them and three only should be Metropolitans For howsoever after this there were two other Provinces taken out of the former three viz. Valentia and Flavia Caesariensis which added to the former Id. ibid. made up five in all yet this being after the conclusion of the Nicene Council the Metropolitan dignity in the Church remained as before it did without division or abatement according to the Canon of that famous Synod Concil Nicen. Can. 6. And herewithal we have a pregnant and infallible Argument that Britain being in it self a whole and compleat Diocese of the Roman Empire no way subordinate unto the Praefect of the City of Rome but under the command of its own Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the British Church was also absolute and independent owing nor suit nor service as we use to say unto the Patriarch or Primate of the Church of Rome but only to its own peculiar and immediate Primate as it was elsewhere in the Churches of the other Dioceses of the Roman Empire This I conceive to be the true condition of the British Church and the most likely reason for the number of Bishops and Arch-bishops here established according to the truth of Story abstracted from those errours and mistakes which in the middle Ages of the Church have by the Monkish Writers of those times been made up with them But for the substance of the story as by them delivered which is the planting of the Church with Bishops in eminent places that appears evidently true by such remainders of antiquity as have escaped the tyranny and wrack of time For in the Council held at Arles in France Anno 314. Tom. 1. Concilior Gall. Ã Sirmundo edit we find three British Bishops at once subscribing viz. Eborius Bish of York Restitutus B. of London and Adelfus B. of Colchester there called Colonia Londinensium Gennadius also in his Tract de viris illustribus mentioneth one Fastidius by the name of Fastidius Britanniarum Episcopus Gennad in Catal amongst the famous Writers of old time placing him Anno 420 or thereabouts whom B. God win I cannot tell upon what reasons Godwin in Catal. Episc Londinens Cit. ap Armachan de Primor c. 5. Cambden in Brigant reckoneth amongst the Bishops of the See of London Particularly for the Bishops or Archbishops of the British Church we have a Catalogue of the Metropolitans of London collected or made up by Joceline a Monk of Fournest an ancient Monastery in the North being 14 in all which howsoever the validity thereof may perhaps be questioned by more curious Wits yet I shall lay down as I find it taking their names from him that little story which concerns them out of other Writers First then we have Theon or Theonus 2 Eluanus one of the two Ambassadours sent by King Lucius to the Pope 3 Cadar or Cadoeus 4 Obinus or Owinus 5 Conanus 6 Palladius 7 Stephanus 8 Iltutus 9 Theodwinus 10 Theodredus 11 Hilarius Geosr Monmouth hist Brit. Speed in descr Britan. 12 Guitelinus sent as Ambassadour to Aldrocnus King of Armorica or Little-Britain to crave his aid against the Scots and Picts who then plagued the Britains 13 Vodius or Vodinus slain by Hengist but some say by Vortiger at the first entrance of the Sateons into this Isle 14 And last of all Theonus who had been sometimes Bishop of Gloncester but was after translated hither and was the last Bishop of London of this line or Series Of
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
displeasure when some of the Presbyters neither mindful of the Gospel or their own duty or the day of Judgment nor thinking that they have a Bishop set over them cum contemptu contumelia praepositi totum sibi vendicent with the contempt and reproach of him that is their Bishop shall arrogate all Power unto themselves Which their behaviour he calls also contumelias Episcopatus nostri the reproach and slander of his Government in having such affronts put on him as never had been offered to any of his Fredecessors The like complaint to which he doth also make but with more resolution and contempt of their wicked practices in an Epistle to Cornelius being the 55. in number according to the Edition of Pamelius I have the more at large laid down the storms and troubles raised against this godly Bishop at his first coming to the place because it gives greater light unto many passages which concern his time especially in that extraordinary Power which he ascribes sometimes both to the People and the Presbyters in the administration of the Church as if they had been Partners with him in the publick Government Which certainly he did not as his case then stood without special reason For being so vehemently opposed from his first Election to the Episcopal Office all opportunities espied to draw away the peoples hearts and alienate their affections from him every advantage taken against him during his absence from the City to vex and cross him in his doings what better way could he devise to secure himself in the affections of the people and the obedience of his Presbyters than to profess that in all his acts and enterprises whatsoever he did and would depend upon the counsel of the one and consent of the other And this is that which he professeth in a Letter to the Presbyters and Deacons of Carthage quod à primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim Idem Epist 6. nihil sine consilio vestro consensu plebis meae privatâ sententiâ gerere that he resolved from his first entrance on that Bishoprick to do nothing of his own head as we use to say without the Counsel of his Clergy and the consent of his People and that on his return for he was then in exile when he wrote this Letter he would communicate his affairs with them Et in commune tractabimus and manage them in common with their assistance And certainly this was a prudent resolution as the World went with him For by this means he stood assured that whatsoever Schism or Faction should be raised against him it would be never able to prevail or get ground upon him as long as he had both the People and the Presbyters so obliged unto him for the support of his authority But this being but a private case and grounded on particular reasons makes no general Rule no Bishop being bound unto the like by this Example but where all circumstances do concur which we meet with here and then not bound neither except he will himself but as it doth conduce to his own security So that it is to me a wonder why the example of St. Cyprian should be pressed so often and all those passages so hotly urged wherein the Presbyters or People seem to be concerned in matters of the Churches Government as if both he and all other Bishops had been bound by the Law of God not to do any thing at all in their holy function but what the Presbyters should direct and the people yield their suffrage and consent unto For being but a resolution taken up by him the better to support himself against his Adversaries it obligeth no man to the like as before I said And he himself did not conceive himself so obliged thereby but that he could and did dispense with that resolution as often as he thought it necessary or but expedient so to do performing many actions of importance in the whole course and Series of his Episcopal Government wherein he neither craved the advice of the one nor the good liking of the other and which is more doing some things not only without their knowledg but against their wills as we shall make appear in that which followeth Now whereas the points of most importance in the Government and Administration of the Church are the Election of Bishops the Ordination of Ministers the Excommunicating of the Sinner and the reconciling of the Penitent it will not be amiss to see what and how much in each of these St. Cyprian did permit as occasion was either unto the People or the Presbyters and what he did in all and every one of these as often as he saw occasion also without their knowledg and consent First for Election of their Bishops it is conceived and so delivered that all their Elections were ordered by the privity Semctymn pag. 33. Sect. 7. consent and approbation of the people where the Bishop was to serve and for the proof of this St. Cyprian is alledged as one sufficient in himself to make good the point The place most commonly alledged is in his 68. Epistle touching the Case of Basilides and Martialis two Spanish Bishops who had defiled themselves with Idols and many other grievous Crimes concerning whom the people of those parts repaired unto him for his resolution But he remitting the cause back to them tells them how much it did concern them A peccatore Praeposito se separare to separate themselves from such sinful Prelates and not to participate with them in the Sacrifice Cypr. Ep 68. giving this reason for the same quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos Sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi because the people specially have power either of chusing worthy Prelates or of rejecting the unworthy For that by Sacerdotes here the Father understandeth Bishops Smectymn p. 33. is confessed on all hands Nor doth the Father only say it but he goeth forward to make good the same by Divine Authority ut Sacerdos plebe praesente that the Bishop should be chosen in the presence of the People under all mens eyes that so he may be proved to be fit and worthy by their publick testimony And for the proof of this is urged a Text from Moses in the book of Numbers where God is said to speak thus to Moses Apprehende Aaron fratrem tuum Take Aaron thy brother and Eleazar his son and thou shalt bring them to the Mount before all the Assembly and put off Aarons garments and put them on Eleazar his son By which it is apparent that God willeth the Priest to be made before all the multitude shewing thereby that the Priest should not be ordained but in the presence of the People that so the People being present the offences of the evil may be detected and the merits of the good made known and consequently the Election or rather Ordination may be good and lawful being discussed by the opinion and voice of all
with handling of worldly affairs And so far I agree with them that Presbyters and Bishops are to be restrained from these worldly matters so far forth as they are a molestation to them whereby they are disabled from the executing of their holy function as this Faustinus seems to be ab Altari avocatus Cypr. Ep. 66. quite taken off from the attendance of his place so far forth as the ancient Canons on the which Cyprian grounds himself they are and ought to be restrained V. par 2. c. 1. But we have shewn before that many secular affairs were not inconsistent with the true meaning of those Canons as neither possibly might this of Faustinus had it hapned at some other time been reputed by him But at this time partly by reason of the persecution and partly on occasion of the factious the Church was almost destitute and unprovided This as he intimates in his 35 Epistle Desolata Presbyterii nostri copia ep 35. Cypr. Ep. 24. touching the admission of Numidicus into the number of their Presbyters so he affirms the same at large in another place where he declareth plurimos nostros absentes esse paucos vero qui illic sunt vix ad ministerium quotidiani operis sufficere that many of the Presbyters did absent themselves and that those which did remain upon their Charge could not suffice for the performance of the daily offices So that the Church being in that necessity and such a manifest need or want of Presbyters as then appearing in the Church Faustinus could the less be spared from the attendance on the Ministry and consequently Geminius Victor the more unadvised in putting him on such a business by which he was ab administratione Divina avocatus Cypr. Ep. 66. quite taken off from the employment of his calling in Gods holy Service And this I rather take to be the true condition of the business and that which gave S. Cyprian so great cause of Anger than with Saravia De honore Praesul debito c. 16. to affirm that the Decree or Canon whereof Cyprian speaketh was but particular and provincial illi tempori loco serviens calculated for the Meridian only of the Church of Carthage and fitted to the present time the Canon being ancient and universal as before was shewn Another point in which S. Cyprian exercised the height of his Episcopal Authority and an high point it was indeed as the times then were was in restraining of those Indulgences which usually the Martyrs or such as were prepared for Martyrdom did too promiscuously bestow on collapsed Christians For in the Primitive times the Discipline of the Church being very rigid and severe such as in time of Persecution had denied the Faith either by offering unto Idols or by some formal abnegation under their hand-writing Albaspin de Eccl. ritibus whom they called Libellatici were doomed unto perpetual penance no restitution being to be hoped for to the Churches favour and to the benefits and comforts of it until the very moment of their last departure Yet such was the regard which was born to those who did already suffer duresse and imprisonment and were resolved to suffer death for the sake of Christ that such to whom they gave their Letters of recommendation Cypr. Ep. 11.13 14 15. were by the Bishops readmitted into the bosom of Church And this at first was done without any sensible inconvenience following thereupon the Martyrs or Confessors rather being very wary on whom they did bestow those favours and very sparing of them also But when that it was grown so general that either they did pacem lapsis dare receive such men into their favours and the Churches peace promiscuously without care and difference Id. Ep. 17.19 20 21 22. or that the Presbyters taking their warrant for sufficient without the leave and liking of their Bishop admitted them to the Communion then did the Father manifest his dislike thereof whereof consult Ep. 11.13 14 15. For when it once was come to this he first addressed himself unto the Confessors or Martyrs to be more sparing of the like Indulgences and after to the Presbyters and People severally for the repressing of this foul disorder And when that would not serve the turn he resolved at last that for the time to come Cypr. Ep. 15. Quamvis libello à Martyribus accepto such Bills or Letters notwithstanding as they had received from those Martyrs they should stay his leisure and the whole business concerning them be respited until his return Which check thus given and certain of the Presbyters rebuked and threatned by him for their officiousness in this kind as before we saw it came to pass that in a very little time as well the Discipline of the Church as the Authority of the Bishops reverted to its former rigor especially after that on the sight of this inconvenience the Lapsi or Collapsed Christians were by the general consent of holy Church admitted unto penance like to other Sinners which as it hapned chiefly by S. Cyprians means so was it brought to pass in S. Cyprians time But here take notice by the way that though these Indulgences had been granted by these Confessors whilst they were Martyrs but in voto they were not yet to take effect Albaspinae de rit Eccl. li. 1. obseru 2. as the late Learned Bishop of Orleans very well observed till that they had received the crown of Martyrdom which he proves very evidently out of certain places of S. Cyprian compared together for which I leave you to that Author It is enough that the first check that had been given to that promiscuous liberty which the Martyrs took of doing what they pleased with the Churches Keys was given by Cyprian Whose foot-steps one of his Successors following after brought to pass Baro. in Annal. Eccl. Anno. 302. n. 126. that none should have the honour of being counted Martyrs after their decease but such whose life and sufferings and the occasion of those sufferings were first reported by the Bishop of the place in which he lived to his Metropolitan or Primate and by the Metropolitan to the chief Primate who was he of Carthage who on deliberation was to decree Cuinam Martyris cultus deberet impendi who ought to have the honour and repute of Martyrs as Baronius noteth And this he proveth out of a passage in S. Austin Brev. Coll. die 3. c. 5. wherein Mensurius Bishop of Carthage writing unto Secundus Primate of Numidia for all the Metropolitans of Africa were called Primates is said to have disliked of those which without cause or questioning exposed themselves to open danger Et ab iis honorandis prohibuisse Christianos and that he did prohibit the Christian People to give them that regard and honour which was due to Martyrs And indeed Optatus speaks of one who was reputed for a Martyr Opta◠de Schism lib. 1.
that if any person whatsoever should accuse either Bishop Presbyter or Deacon falsly and could not make just proof of the Accusation nec in fine dandam ei communionem that he should not be admitted to the blessed Sacrament no not upon his death-bed in his last extremity So tender were they in that Age of the good name and reputation of their Clergy And now me-thinks I see a blessed Sun-shine a time of rest and quiet after all these troubles a gentle gale breathing upon the Church after so many tedious storms of Persecution For Dioclesian and Maximianus his Colleague either afflicted with the guilt of Conscience or tyred with the effusion of so much innocent blood as had by them been shed in this Persecution did of their own accord resign the Empire Anno 304. as Baronius calculates it leaving the same unto Constantius and Galerius whom they had long before created Caesars Baron Annal. Eccl. An. 304. n. 1. Of these Constantius taking to himself the Western parts lived not full two years leaving his own part of the Empire and a fair ground for all the rest to Constantine his Son not only born of Helena a British Woman but born at York the Mother-City or Metropolis of the British Nation A Prince whom God raised up of purpose not only to give end to the Persecutions wherewith the Innocent Spouse of Christ had been so tortured and tormented but to become the greatest nursing Father thereunto that ever was before him in the Church of Israel or since him in the Israel of the Church So that if heretofore you find the Clergy reckoned as the filth of men neglected slighted or disgraced esteemed unworthy either of publick trust or favour in the employments of the State It is to be imputed unto this that they were held a dangerous and suspected party to the Common-wealth maintaining a Religion contrary unto that which was allowed in the Empire Hereafter you shall find it otherwise Hereafter you shall find an Edict made by Constantine enabling such as would decline the sentence of the Secular Judges Sozom hist Eccl. l. c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawfully to appeal unto the judgment of their Bishops whose judgment he commanded to be put in execution by all his Officers with as much punctuality and effect as if himself in person had pronounced the same Hereafter we shall find Saint Ambrose a right godly Bishop Aug. Confes l. 6. c. 3. so taken up with hearing and determining mens suits and causes that he had very little leisure either for corporal repast or private study Saint Austin who relates the former saying also this that he had long waited an opportunity to have conference with him and had as long been hindred from access unto him Secludentibus me ab ejus aure atque ore catervis negotiosorum hominum quorum infirmitatibus serviebat his access to him being barred by multitudes of Suiters whose businesses he was pleased to undertake Hereafter we shall find the same Saint Austin no such lazie Prelate but that he hath transmitted to us as many monuments both of his Piety and Learning as any other whosoever so busied on the like occasions that he could hardly save the Mornings for his Meditations Aug. Epist 210 Post meridiem occupationibus hominum teneri the afternoons being wholly taken up in the dispatch or hearing of mens private Connoversies Nay when the Councils of Carthage and Numidia had imposed a certain task upon him propter curam Scripturarum in some things that concerned the holy Scriptures and that he asked but five days respite from the affairs and business of the people for the performance of the same the People would not have the patience to forbear so long Sed violenter irruptum est but violently brake in upon him And this lest the good Father may be thought to speak it in commendation of his own abilities we find related also by Possidonius in the narration of his life where we are told aliquando usque ad horam refectionis Possidon in vita Aug. c. 19. aliquando tota die jejunans that sometimes he gave hearing to mens causes till the hour of repast and sometimes fasted all the day for dispatch thereof but always bringing them unto some end or other pro arbitrata aequitate according to the rules of equity and a well-grounded Conscience Hereafter we shall find the Prelates honoured with the titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most honourable Lords and that not once or twice Athanas in apol 2. Nazianz Epist ad Nyssen Theod. l. 1. c. 4 5. others passim Ambros Epist 33. l. 5. but of common course Hereafter not to wander through more particulars we shall find Saint Ambrose employed in the most weighty matters of the Common-wealth and sent Ambassadour from the young Emperor Valentinian to the Tyrant Maximus who had usurped on his Dominions and much endangered the whole Empire which he performed to so good purpose that he preserved Italy from an imminent ruin the Tyrant afterwards confessing se legationis ejus objectu ad Italiam non potuisse transire that he was hindred by the same from passing forwards into Italy with his conquering Army So little was it either thought or found in those blessed times that holy Orders did superinduce a disability for civil Prudence But these things we do here behold but at a distance as Moses from Mount Nebo saw the Land of Canaan They appertain of right to the following Age Deuter. ult and they which had the happiness to live till then could not but easily discern the great alteration which was between a Church under Persecution and a Church in Peace between a Church oppressed by Tyrants and a Church cherished and supported by a Christian Prince And in this flourishing estate I should gladly shew her but that my wearied pen doth desire some rest and that I would fain see with what acceptation my present pains will be received in the world before I give the second on-set In the mean time I will lay down a brief Chronology of such of the remarkable occurrences which have been represented in these two last Centuries it being the office of an upright Judge and only such I do desire should peruse these Papers ut res ita tempora rerum noscere to know as well the times and circumstances of business as the things themselves A Brief CHRONOLOGY of the Estate of Holy Church in these two last Centuries An. Christ 102. CLemens Bishop of Rome the true Author of the Epistle to the Church of Corinth and the supposed Author of the Apostles Canons departeth this life 103. Evaristus succeedeth Clemens in the See of Rome in the which Church he afterwards ordained Parishes 109. Simeon B. of Jerusalem Martyred Justus succeeded in his place Ignatius led a Prisoner towards Rome writes his Epistles to the Churches 110. Ignatius Martyred designing Hero his Successor in the Church of
beginning of the World hath Predestinated in Christ unto Eternal life Thus do I wade in Predestination in such sort ' as God hath patesied and opened it Though to God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened and therefore I begin with Creation from whence I come to Redemption so to Justification so to Election On this sort I am sure that warily and wisely a man may walk it easily by the light of Gods Spirit in and by his Word seeing this faith is not to be given to all men 2 Thes 3. but to such as are born of God Predestinated before the World was made after the purpose and good will of God c. Which judgment of this holy man comes up so close to that of the former Martyrs and is so plainly cross to that of the Calvinistical party that Mr. Fox was fain to make some Scholia's on it to reconcile a gloss like that of Orleance which corrupts the Text and therefore to have no place here however it may be disposed of at another time But besides the Epistle above mentioned there is extant a Discourse of the said godly Martyr entituled The sum of the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation in which is affirmed That our own wilfulness sin and contemning of Christ are the cause of Reprobation as is confessed by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism p. 103. though afterwards he puts such a gloss upon it as he doth also on the like passages in Bishop Hooper as makes the sin of man to be the cause only of the execution and not of the decree of Reprobation But it is said That any one that reads the Common-Prayer-book with an unprejudiced mind Justifi Fatâ—â—s cannot chuse but observe divers passages that make for a Personal Eternal Election So it is said of late and till of late never so said by any that ever I heard of the whole frame and fabrick of the Publique Liturgy being directly opposite to this new conceit For in the general Confession we beseech the Lord to spare them that confess their faults and restore them that be penitent according to his promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord In the Te Deum it is said that Christ our Saviour having overcome the sharpness of death did open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers In the Prayer for the first day of Lent That God hateth nothing which he hath made but doth forgive the sins of all them that be penitent In the Prayer at the end of the Commination That God hath compassion of all men that he hateth nothing which he hath made that he would not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from sin and repent In the Absolution before the Communion That God of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them which with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him Can any one which comes with an unprejudiced mind to the Common-Prayer book observe any thing that favoureth of a Personal Election in all these passages or can he hope to find them in any other Look then upon the last Exhortation before the Communion in which we are required above all things To give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father and the Holy Ghost for the Redemption of the World by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ both God and man who did humble himself even to the death upon the Cross for us miserable sinners which lay in darkness and the shadow of death More of which nature we shall find in the second Article Look on the Collect in the form of publique Baptism in which we pray That whosoever is here dedicated unto God by our Office and Ministry may also be endued with Heavenly vertues and everlastingly rewarded through Gods mercy O blessed Lord God c. And in the Rubrick before Confirmation where it is said expr sly That it is certain by Gods Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary to their salvation and be undoubtedly saved Look on these passages and the rest and tell me any one that can whether the publique Liturgy of the Church of England speak any thing in favour of such a Personal and Eternal Election that is to say such an absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination and that of some few only unto life Eternal as is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin Some passages I grant there are which speak of Gods People and his chosen People and yet intend not any such Personal and Eternal Election as these men conceit unto themselves Of which sort these viz. To declare and pronounce to his People being penitent O Lord save thy People and bless thy Heritage that it would please thee to keep and bless all thy People and make thy chosen People joyful with many others intersâ—ers'd in several places But then I must affirm withal that those passages are no otherwise to be understood than of the whole bo y of the Church the Congregation of the faithful called to the publique participation of the Word and Sacraments Which appears plainly by the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth where having called upon the Lord and said To all thy People give thy Heavenly grace we are taught presently to add especially to this Congregation here present that is to say the members of that particular Church which there pour forth their prayers for the Church in general More to their purpose is that passage in the Collect for the Feast of All-Saints where it is said That Almighty God hath knit together his Elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son Jesus Christ though it doth signifie no more but that inseparable bond of Charity that Love and Unity that Holy Communion and Correspondency which is between the Saints in Glory in the Church Triumphant and those who are still exercised under the cares and miseries of this present life in the Church here Militant But it makes most unto their purpose if any thing could make unto their purpose in the Common-Prayer book that at the burial of the dead we are taught to pray That God would please of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect and to hasten his Kingdom From whence as possibly some may raise this inference That by the Doctrine of the Church of England there is a predestinated and certain number of Elect which can neither be increased nor diminished according to the third of the nine Articles which were agreed upon at Lambeth So others may perhaps conclude That this number is made up out of such Elections such Personal and Eternal Elections as they have fancied to themselves But there is nothing in the Prayer which can be useful to the countenancing of any such fancy the number of the Elect and the certainty of that number being known only unto God in the way of his
world The like saith Bishop Hooper also telling us Pref. to his Exposition There was no diversity in Christ of Jew or Gentile that it was never forbid but that all sorts of people and every propeny of the World to be made partakers of the Jews Religion And then again in the example of the Ninevites Thou hast saith he good Christian Reader the mercy of God and general promise of salvation performed in Christ for whose sake only God and man were set at one The less assistance we had from Bishop Hooper in the former points the more we shall receive in this touching the causes why this great benefit is not made effectual unto all alike Concerning which he lets us know That to the obtaining the first end of his justice he allureth as many as be not utterly wicked and may be helped Ibid. partly with threatnings and partly with promises and so provoketh them unto amendment of life c. and would have all men to be saved therefore provoketh now by fair means now by foul that the sinner should satisfie his just and righteous pleasure not that the promises of God appertain to such as will not repent or his threatnings unto him that doth repent but these means he useth to save his creature this way useth he to nurture us until such time as the holy Spirit worketh such a perfection in us that we will obey him though there were neither pain nor joy mentioned at all And in another place more briefly That if either out of a contempt or hate of Gods Word we fall into sin and transform our selves into the image of the Devil then we exclude our selves by this means from the promises and merits of Christ Serm. 1. Sund. after Epiph. Bishop Latimer to the same point also His salvation is sufficient to satisfie for all the World as concerning it self but as concerning us he saveth no more than such as put their trust in him and as many as believe in him shall be saved the other shall be cast out as Infidels into everlasting damnation not for lack of salvation but for infidelity and lack of faith which is the only cause of their damnation One word more out of Bishop Hooper to conclude this point which in fine is this To the Objection saith he touching that S. Peter speaketh of such as shall perish for their false doctrine c. this the Scripture answereth that the promise of grace appertaineth to every sort of men in the world and comprehendeth them all howbeit within certain limits and bounds the which if men neglect to pass over they exclude themselves from the promise of Christ CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a Sinner and mans co-operation with those Heavenly influences 1. The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles 2. The judgment of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndal touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England 3. Vniversal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgy and Book of Homilies 4. The offer of Vniversal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according to the judgment of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publick Liturgy 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsayings justified by the tenth Article of King Edwards Books And 10. The Book of Homilies THIS leads me unto the Disputes touching the influences of Grace and the co-operation of mans will with those Heavenly influences in which the received Doctrine of the Church of Rome seems to have had some alteration to the better since the debating and concluding of those points in the Council of Trent before which time the Doctrine of the Roman Schools was thought to draw too near to the lees of Pelagianism to ascribe too much to mans Free-will or so much to it at the least as by the right use of the powers of nature might merit grace ex congruo as the School-men phrase it of the hands of God Against this it was that Dr. Barnes declared as before was said in his discourse about Free-will and against which the Church of England then declared in the 13 Article His works p. 821. affirming That such works as are done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit do not make men meet to receive grace or as the School-men say deserve grace of Congruity Against which Tyndal gives this note That Free-will preventeth not Grace which certainly he had never done if somewhat to the contrary had not been delivered in the Church of Rome and against which it was declared by John Lambert another of our ancient Martyrs in these following words viz. Concerning Free-will saith he I mean altogether as doth S. Augustine that of our selves we have no liberty nor ability to do the will of God but are subject unto sin Acts and Mn. fol. 1009. and thrals of the same conclusi sub peccato or as witnesseth S. Paul But by the grace of God we are rid and set at liberty according to the proportion that every man hath taken of the same some more some less But none more fully shewed himself against this opinion than Dr. Barnes before remembred not touching only on the by Collection of his works by I. D. sol 266. but writing a Discourse particularly against the errours of that time in this very point But here saith he we will search what strength is of man in his natural power without the Spirit of God to will or do those things that be acceptable before God unto the fulfilling of the will of God c. A search which had been vain and needless if nothing could be found which tended to the maintenance of acting in spiritual matters by mans natural power without the workings of the Spirit And therefore he saith very truly That man can do nothing by his Free-will as Christ teacheth for without me ye can do nothing c. where it is opened that Free-will without Grace can do nothing he speak not of eating and drinking though they be works of Grace but nothing that is fruitful that is meritorious that is worthy of thanks that is acceptable before God To which effect we also find these brief Remembrances Mans Free-will without Gods Grace can do nothing that is good p. 268. that all which
maxim in the Civil Laws which telleth us Non esse distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit that no distinctions must be made in the explicating or expounding of any Law which is not to be found in the Law it self And therefore for the clear understanding of the Churches meaning we must have recourse in this as in other Articles to the plain words of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper so often mentioned in this work And first we find Bishop Latimer discoursing thus Let us not do saith he as the Jews did which were stiff-necked they would not leave their sins they had a pleasure in the same Bishop Latimer in his 8. Sermon in Linc. they would follow their old Traditions refusing the Word of God therefore their destruction came worthily upon them And therefore I say let us not follow them lest we receive such a reward as they had lest everlasting destruction come upon us and so we be cast out of the favour of God and finally lost world without end And in another place I say there be two manner of men Idem in Serm. Rom. 13.11 some there be that are not justified not regenerate not yet in the state of salvation that is to say not Gods servants they take the Renovation or Regeneration they be not come yet to Christ or if they were be fallen again from him and so lost their justification as there be many of us when we fall willingly into sin against Conscience we lose the favour of God and finally the Holy Ghost But you will say How shall I know that I am in the Book of Life See Ibid. I answer that we may be one time in the Book and another time come out of it again as appeareth by David who was written in the Book of Life but when he sinned foully at that time came out of the favour of God until he repented and was sorry for his faults so that we may be in the Book one time and afterards when we forget God and his Word and do wickedly we come out of the Book which is Christ The like we find in Bishop Hooper Pref. to the Expos on the ten Commandements first telling us that the causes of Rejection or Damnation is sin in man that will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel or else after he hath received it by accustomed doing of ill falleth either unto a contempt of the Gospel or will not study to live thereafter or else he hateth the Gospel because it condemneth his ungodly life After which he proceedeth to the Application Refuse not therefore the Grace offered nor once received banish it with ill conversation If we fall let us hear Almighty God that calleth us to repent and with his Word and return let us not continue in sin nor heap one sin upon another lest at last we come to a contempt of God and his Word In the beginning of his Paraphase or Exposition to the thirteenth Chapter of the Romans he speaks as plainly to this purpose which passage might here deserve place also but that I am called upon by Master Tyndal Collect. of his Works by J. Day p. 185. whose testimony I am sure will be worth the having and in the Prologue to his Exposition on the same Epistle he informs us thus None of us saith he can be received to Grace but upon a condition to keep the Law neither yet continue any longer in Grace than that promise lasteth And if we break the Law we must sue for a new pardon and have a new light against sin hell and desperation yet we can come to a quiet faith again and feel that sin is forgiven neither can there be in thee a stable and undoubted faith that thy sin is forgiven thee except there be also a lusty courage in thy heart and trust that thou wilt sin no more for on this condition that thou wilt sin no more is the promise of mercy and forgiveness made unto thee But against all this it is objected that Montague himself both in his Gag and his Appeal confesseth that the Church hath left this undecided Hick in his justi of the Fathers c. Pres Montag Gag cap. 20. p. 171. that is to say neither determining for finally or totally and much less for both And that he doth so in the Gag I shall easily grant where he relateth only to the words of the Article which speaks only of a possibility of falling without relating to the measure or duration of it But he must needs be carried with a very strange confidence which can report so of him in his book called Appello Caesarem in which he both expresly saith and proveth the contrary He saith it first in these words after a repetition of that which he had formerly said against the Gagger I determine nothing in the question that is to say nor totally nor finally Appell Caes cap. 4. p. 28. or totally not finally or totally and finally but leave them all to their Authors and Abetters resolving upon this not to go beyond my bounds the consented resolved and subscribed Articles of the Church of England in which nor yet in the Book of Common-Prayer and other divine Offices is thee any tye upon me to resolve in this much disputed question as these Novellers would have it not as these Novellers would have it there 's no doubt of that For if there be any it is for a possibility of total falling of which more anon He proves it next by several Arguments extracted from the book of Homilies and the publike Liturgy Out of which last he observeth theee passages the first out of the Form of Baptism in which it is declared that the Baptised Infant being born in original sin by the Laver of Regeneration in Baptism is received into the number of the Children of God Ibid. p. 3â— and Heirs of everlasting life the second out of the publick Catechism in which the Child is taught to say that by his Baptism he was made a Member of Christ the Child of God and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven The third out of the Rubrick before Confirmation in which it is affirmed for a truth that it is certain by Gods Word that Children being Baptized have all things necessary for their salvation and be undoubtedly saved And thereupon he doth observe that it is to be acknowledged for a Doctrine of this Church that Children duly Baptized are put into a state of Grace and salvation And secondly that it is seen by common experience that many Children so Baptized when they come to Age by a wicked and lewd life do fall away from God and from the state of Grace and salvation wherein he had set them to a worse state wherein they shall never be saved From which what else can be inferred but that the Church maintains a total and a final falling from the grace of God Add hereunto that the
Papist nor Pelagian 3. The common practices of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Freewill-men to whom given why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxy in the point of universalRedemption and what he builds upon the same 9. Hissolid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitaine 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin THUS we have seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Five Controverted Points according to the Principles and persuasions of the first Reformers And to say truth it was but time that they should come to some conclusion in the Points disputed there being some men who in the beginning of the Reign of King Enward the sixth busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvins Doctrins And thinking themselves to be more Evangelical than the rest of their Brethren they either took unto themselves or had given by others the name of Gospellers Of this they were informed by the reverend Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the Ten Commandments Our Gospellers saith he be better learned than the holy Ghost for they wickedly attribute the cause of Punishments and Adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself can do no ill and over every mischief that is done they say it is Gods Will. In which we have the men and their Doctrine too the name of Gospellers and the reason why that name was ascribed unto them It is observed by the judicious Author of the Book called Europae Speculum that Calvin was the first of these latter times who search'd into the Counsels the Eternal Counsels of Almighty God And as it seems he found there some other Gospel than that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his followers in these Doctrines had the name of Gospellers for by that name I find them frequently called by Campneys also in an Epistolary Discourse where he clears himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism which some of these new Gospellers had charged upon him which had I found in none but him it might have been ascribed to heat or passion in the agitation of these Quarrels but finding it given to them also by Bishop Hooper a temperate and modest man I must needs look upon it as the name of the Sect by which they were distinguished from other men And now I am fallen upon this Campneys it will not be unnecessary to say something of him in regard of the great part he is to act on the stage of this business Protestant he was of the first Edition cordially affected to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the present points but of a sharp and eager spirit And being not well weaned from some points of Popery in the first dawning of the day of our Reformation he gave occasion unto some of those whom he had exasperated to inform against him that they prosecuted the complaint so far that he was forced to bear a faggot at St. Pauls Cross as the custom was in all such cases Miles Coverdale then or not long after Bishop of Exon preaching a Sermon at the same But whatsoever he was then in other Doctrinals he hath sufficiently purged himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism wherewith he had been charged by those of the adverse Party Answer to a certain Letter p. 3. For whereas one William Samuel had either preached or written in Queen Maries times That a man might deserve God c. Campneys beholds it for a Doctrine so blasphemous and abominable that neither Papists nor Pelagians nor any other Heretick old or new hath ever-written or maintained a more filthy and execrable saying For it is the flat and manifest denying both of God the Father and of his Son Christ Jesus neither doth it require any confutation to him that doth but confess that there is a God And as for my self saith he I do not love my life so dearly as I hate this vile saying deadly He gives not long after to the Popish Pelagians the name of a filthy and detestable Sect. p. 5. mustereth up all the errours of Pelagius which had been publickly recanted in the Synod of Palestine and falling upon that which teacheth That the grace of God is given according unto our deserving he declares it to be vile and abominable contrary to the manifest mind and words of the Apostle p. 12. Finally Not to trouble my self with more particulars encountring with another of the Pelagian Heresies he passionately cries out O blasphemy intolerable O filthy puddle and sink most execrable full of stinking Errours full of damnable presumption like to the pride of Lucifer most abominable p. 15. This is enough to free this man from being either a Papist or Pelagian Heretick as his Enemies made him And for the other reproach which they laid upon him of being an Enemy to Gods Predestination I conceive it will not be regarded as a matter of moment considering the Disputes between them and the usual acts of the Calvinians to defame their Adversaries We shewed before how Bogerman Paraeus and the rest of the Calvinian Sect reproach'd the Remonstrants with Pelagianism in their publick Writings though as free from it as themselves We shewed before how Cross in the continuation of his Belgick History imposeth on them for some of their detestable Opinions that they made God to be the Author of sin and that he had created the infinitely greatest part of mankind to no other end but to burn them in Hell-fire for ever which horrid blasphemies they both abominated and confuted to their best abilities The like unworthy practices were used by Calvin and Beza against Sebastian Castel a man of no less learning but of far more modesty and moderation than either of them whom they never left persecuting and reviling till they had first cast him out of Geneva and afterwards brought him to his grave And this they
Justif of the Fath. pref maintaineth in his Catechism a Doctrine contrary to that which the Arminians as some call them do now contend for and that it is not to be thought that he and others engaged with them in the same convocation were either so ignorant as not to understand what they put into the Articles or so infatuated by God to put in things quite contrary to their own judgments which being supposed or took for granted we are directed to his Catechism written in the English tongue and dedicated from the two Archbishops from which the Objector hath abstracted these two passages following viz. To the Church do all they properly belong as many as do truly fear honour and call upon God altogether applying their minds to live holily and godly and with putting all their trust in God do most assuredly look for the blessedness of eternal life They that be stedfast stable and constant in this faith where chosen and appointed and as we term it predestinate to this so great felicity p. 44. The Church is the body of the Christian Common-wealth i. e. the universal number and fellowship of the faithful whom God through Christ hath before all beginning of time appointed to everlasting life Such are the passages in this Catechism from which the Objector hath concluded that Mr. Nowel had no communion with Arminians as some please to call them And to say truth he could have no communion with the Arminians as some please to call them though he had desired it Arminius being not born or but newly born when Mr. Nowel wrote that Catechism and Mr. Nowel had been dead some years before the name of an Arminian had been heard in England But unto this it hath been answered that looking upon Mr. Nowel in his publick capacity as he was Prolocutor to that Convocation it cannot be denied but that he was as like to undersTand the conduct of all affairs therein as any other whatsoever And yet it cannot rationally be inferred from thence that therefore nothing was concluded in that Convocation which might be contrary to his own judgment for a private person admitting that he was inclined to Calvin in the points disputed as he was not neither For had he been of his opinion the spirit of that Sect is such as could not be restrained from shewing it self dogmatical and in terms express and not occasionally only and on the by as in the Catechism now before us and that too in full general terms that no particular conclusion can be gathered from them Justif of the Fath. pref It hath been answered again thus that the Articles in the five points being the same with those in King Edwards book and so confessed by the Objector and no new sense being put upon them by the last establishment they must be understood no otherwise than according to the judgment of those learned men and godly Maryrs before remembred who had before concurred unto the making of them from which if Mr. Nowels sense should differ in the least degree it is to be lookt upon as his own not the sense of the Church And thirdly it hath been observed that the Catechism to which we are referred for the former passages is not the same with that which is authorized to be taught in the Grammar Schools in Greek and Latine nor the same which was published with the consent of the Author in the English tongue Ann. 1572. but a Catechism of a larger size yet of less authority out of which the other was extracted such points as were superfluous and not well expressed not being reduced into the same And somewhat certainly there was in it which rendred it uncapable of any further editions and not thought fit to be translated into Latine though such a translation of it was propounded to the Archbishops Bishops in the Epistle Dedicatory to the shorter English And though to let us know what Catechism it is he means he seems to distinguish it from the other it being dedicated to the two Archbishops Yet that doth rather betray the Objectors ignorance than advance his cause the Authors own Latine Edition and the English of it beign dedicated to the two Archbishops as well as that But since he hath appealed to the larger Catechism to the larger Catechism let him go in which he cannot so much as find one single question touching the Doctrine of Predestination or the points depending thereupon and therefore is necessitated to have recourse unto the Articles of the Catholick Church the members and ingredients of it from whence he doth extract the two former passages And then again we are to note that the first of the two passages not being to be found in the Latine Edition nor the English translation of the same is taken almost word for word out of Nowels Catechism therefore to be understood in no other sense than before it was when it was perused and approved by the Bishops and other Learned men of King Edwards time And thirdly there is nothing in all that passage which justifieth the absolute and irrespective decree of the Predestinarians or the restraining of hte benefit of our Saviours sufferings to a few particulars nothing of Gods invincible working on the hearts of his chosen ones or the impossibility of mans co-operating any further in his resurrection from the death of sin to the life or righteousness than in that of his body from the grave to the life of glory nothing that teacheth any such certainly or infallibly of persevering in the faith and favour of God as all the sins of the world are not able to deprive them of it but that they shall must necessarily be brought again into the place and station from which they had fallen And as for the last of the said two passages being the very same with that in the Authors Latine and the English translation of the same there is nothing in it which either a true English Protestant or a Belgick Remonstrant may not easily grant and yet preserve himself from falling into Calvinism in any of the points disputed For granting that the Church is the universal number and fellowship of all the faithful whom God through Christ hath before all beginning of time appointed to everlasting life Yet must it so be understood that either they were appointed to eternal life upon the supposition of their faith and repentance which may extend to the including of all those who are called to the external participation of the Word and Sacraments or else that it is meant especially of such as are appointed from all eternity to life everlasting without excluding any from the Dignity of being members of the Church who have received the outward call and openly joyn with them in all publick duties and thereby pass in common estimate amongst the faithful Believers And then this definition will afford no comfort to our modern Calvinists or create any inconvenience unto those whom they call Arminians CHAP.
long professed and received doctrine but continue to use all good means and seek at your Lordships hands some effectual Remedy hereof lest by petmitting passage to these Errors the whole body of Popery should by little and little break in upon us to the overthrow of our Religion and consequently the withdrawing of many here and elsewhere from true obedience to her Majesty May it therefore please your Lordship to have an honourable consideration of the premises and for the better maintaining of peace and the truth of Religion so long received in this University and Church to vouchsafe your Lordships good aid and advice both to the comfort of us wholly consenting and agreeing in judgment and all others of the University truly affected and to the suppression in time not only of these errors but even of gross Popery like by such means in time easily to creep in amongst us as we find by late experience it hath dangerously begun Thus craving pardon for troubling your Lordship and commending the same in praise to Almighty God we humbly take our leave From Cambridge March 8th 1595. Your Lordships humble and bounden to be commanded Roger Goad Procan R. Some Tho. Leg John Jegon Thomas Nevil Thomas Preston Hump. Tyndal James Mountague Edmond Barwel Laurence Cutterton Such was the condition of Affairs at Cambridge at the expiring of the year 1595. the genuine Doctrine of the Church beginning then to break through the clouds of Calvinism wherewith it was before obscured and to shine forth again in its former lustre To the advancement of which work as the long continuance of Baroe in the University for the space of 20 years and upwards the discreet activity of Dr. Harsnet Fellow and Master of Pembrook Colledge for the term of 40 yeaas and more gave a good encouragement so the invincible constancy of Mr. Barret and the slender opposition made by Overald contributed to the confirmation and encrease thereof For scarce had Overald warmed his Chair when he found himself under a necessity of encountring some of the remainder of Baroes Adversaries though he followed not the blow so far as Baroe did for some there were of the old Predestination Leven who publickly had taught as he related it in the conference at Hampton Court all such persons as were once truly justified though after they fell into never so grievous sins yet remained still just or in the state of Justification before they actually repented of those sins yea though they never repented of them through forgetfulness or sudden death yet they should be justified and saved without Repentance Against which Overald maintained that whosoever although before justified did commit any grievous sin as Adultery Murder Treason or the like did become ipso facto Conf. at Ham. C. p. 42. subject to Gods wrath and guilty of damnation or were in the state of damnation quoad presentem statum until they repented And so far he had followed Baroe but he went no further holding as he continued his own story that such persons as were called and justified according to the purpose of Gods Election did neither fall totally from all the graces of God though how a justified man may bring himself into a present state of Wrath and Damnation without a total falling from all the graces of God is beyond my reason and that they were in time renewed by the Spirit of God unto a lively faith and repentance and thereby justified from those sins with the guilt and wrath annexed unto them into which they had fallen nor can it be denied but that some other Learned men of those times were of the same opinion also Amongst which I find Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarum Anti-Armini pag. 202. and afterwards Lord Bishop of Oxon to be reckoned for one and Mr. Richard Hooker of whom more anon to be accounted for another But being but the compositions of private men they are not to be heard against the express words of the two Homilies touching falling from God in case the point had not been positively determined in the sixteenth Article But so it hapned notwithstanding that Overald not concurring with the Calvinists concerning the estate of such justified persons as afterwards fell into grievous sins there grew some diffidences and distrust between them which afterwards widned themselves into greater differences Insomuch that diffenting from them also touching the absolute decree of Reprobation and the restraining of the benefit of Christs death and Gods grace unto a few particulars and that too in Gods primitive purpose and intent concerning the salvation and damnation of man-kind those of the Anti-Calvinian party went on securely with little or no opposition and less disturbance At Oxford all things in the mean time were calm and quiet no publick opposition shewing it self in the Schools or Pulpits The reasons of that which might be first that the Students of that University did more incline unto the canvasing of such points as were in difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome than unto those which were disputed against the Calvinists in these points of Doctrine for witness whereof we may call in the works of Sanders Stapleton Allyns Parsons Campian and many others of that sid as those of Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson Dr. Humphreys Mr. Nowel Dr. Sparks 〈◊〉 Hist l. 9. Dr. Reynolds and many others which stood firm to the Church of England And secondly though Dr. Humphreys the Queens Professor for Divinity was not without cause reckoned for a Non conformist yet had he the reputation of a moderate man a moderate Non-conformist as my Author calls him and therefore might permit that liberty of opinion unto other men which was indulged unto himself neither did Dr. Holland who succeeded him give any such countenance to the propagating of Calvins doctrines as to make them the subject of his Lectures and Disputations Insomuch that Mr. Prin with all his diligence can find but seven men who publickly maintained any point of Calvianism in the Schools of Oxon from the year 1596. to the year 1616. and yet to make that number also he is fain to take in Dr. George Abbot and Dr. Benfield on no other account but for maintaining Deum non esse authorem peccati that God is not the Author of sin which any Papist Lutheran or Arminian might have maintained as well as they And yet it cannot be denied but that by errour of these times the reputation which Calvin had attained to in both Universities and the extream diligence of his followers for the better carrying on of their own designs there was a general tendency unto his opinions in the present controversies so that it is no marvel if many men of good affection to that Church in government and forms of worship might unawares be seasoned with his Principles in point of Doctrine Instit fathers in the Pref. his book of Institutes being for the most part the foundation on which the young Divines of
tres solum inventi fuere qui edicto resisterint that is to say the Word of God is not made the weaker by my sole appearing in defence thereof no more than when there were but three he means the three Hebrew Children in the Book of Daniel which durst make open opposition to the Kings Edict Liberius thought himself sufficient to keep possession of a truth in the Church of Christ till God should please to raise up more Champions in all places to defend the same not thinking it necessary to return any other answer or to produce the names of any others of his time who turned Athanasius as much as he which brings into my mind a passage in the conference betwixt Dr. Ban Featly and Sweat the Jesuite in which the Jesuite much insisted on that thred-bare question viz. where was your Church before Luther which when the Doctor went to shew out of Scriptures and Fathers some of the Papists standing by cried out for names those which stood further of ingeminating nothing but Names Names whereupon the Dr. merily asked them if nothing would content them but a Buttery book And such an Answer I must make in the present case to such as take up testimony by tale not weight and think no truth is fairly proved except it come attended with a cloud of witnesses But what we want in number now he shall find hereafter when we shall come to take a view of King James his Reign to which now we hasten CHAP. XXII Of the Conference at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of King James 1. The occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused the inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the Old Testament An. 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons for it 7. The great incouragement given by King James to the Anti-calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon. Calvinists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud. 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that the King was more incensed against the party of Arminius than against their persuasions 10. Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins Authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unuseful in the case of Gabriel Bridges 11. The publishing of Mountagues answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his appeal licensed by the Kings appointment 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England NOw we come unto the Reign of King James of happy memory whose breeding in the kirk of Scotland had given some hopes of seeing better days to the English Puritans than those which they enjoyed under Queen Elizabeth Upon which hopes they presented him at his first coming to the Crown with a supplication no less tedious than it was impertinent given out to be subscribed with a thousand hands though it wanted many of that number and aiming at an alteration in many points both of Doctrine and Discipline But they soon found themselves deceived For first the King commanded by publick Proclamation that the divine service of the Church should be diligently officiated and frequented as in former times under pain of suffering the severest penalties by the Laws provided in that case And that being done instead of giving such a favourable answer to their supplication as they had flattered themselves withal he commended the answering of it to the Vice-Chancellour Heads and other Learned men of the University of Oxon from whom there was nothing to be looked for toward their contentment But being thirdly a just Prince and willing to give satisfaction to the just desires of such as did apply themselves unto him as also to inform himself in all such particulars as were in difference betwixt the Petitioners and the Prelates he appointed a solemn Conference to be held before him at Hampton Court on Thursday the 12th of January Anno 1603. being within less than ten moneths after his entrance on the Kingdom To which Conference were called by several Letters on the Churches part the most Reverend and right renowned Fathers in God Dr. John Whitgift Arch-bishop of Canterbury Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London Dr. Tobie Matthews Bishop of Durham Dr. Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester Dr. Gervase Babbinton Bishop of Worchester Dr. Anthony Rudd Bishop of Davids Dr. Anthony Walson Bishop of Chichester Dr. Henry Robbinson Bishop of Carlile and Dr. Thomas Dove Bishop of Peterborough as also Dr. James Mountague Dean of the Chappel Dr. Thomas Ravis Dean of Christ Church Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarum Dr. Lancelot Andrews Dean of Westminster Dr. John Overald Dean of Saint Pauls Dr. William Barlaw Dean of Chester Dr. Giles Tompson Dean of Windsor together with Dr. Joh King Arch-Deacon of Nottingham and Dr. Richard Field after Dean of Glocester all of them habited and attired according to their several ranks and stations in the Church of England And on the other side there appeared for the Plantiff or Petitioner Dr. Reynolds Dr. Spark Mr. Knewstubs and Mr. Chatterton the two first being of Oxon and the other of Cambridge Con. at H. C. p. 27. apparelled in their Turky Gowns to shew as Bishop Bancroft tartly noted they desired rather to conform themselves in outward Ceremonies with the Turks than they did with the Papists The first day of the Conference being spent betwixt the King and the Bishops the second which was the 16th of the same moneth was given to the Plantiffs to present their grievances and to remonstrate their desires amongst which it was named by Dr. Reynolds Con. at H. C. p. 24. as the mouth of the rest That the nine Assertions Orthodoxal as he termed them concluded upon at Lambeth might be inserted into the Book of Articles which when King James seemed not to understand as having never heard before of those nine Assertions Pag. 40. c. He was informed that by reason of some Controversies arising in Cambridge about certain points of Divinity my Lords Grace
together Ex hisce simul sanè ex primo secundo libro hoc satis puto constabit per Annos amplius M. M. M. M. tam sacrorum regimen qua forense esset atque à functione facrâ ritè distinctum quam profanorum five res spectes five personas juxta jus etiam divinum ex Ecclesiae Judaicae populorumque Dei anteriorum disciplinâ perpetuâ ad eosdem attinuisse judices seu Magistratus ejusdem Religionis atque ad synedria eadem neutiquam omnino ex juris istius instituto aliquo sacrorum prosanorum instar Ecclesiarum seu Spiritualium laicorum seu teorporalium Nominibus nullatenus discriminata Seld. de syn praefat libr. secundi And so it did till Pope Nicolas made the one independent upon the other So that their disunion is a Popish Innovation for till his time the Judges of Church and State ever sate together affairs Sacred and Religious were scan'd and determined in the morning and those that were Secular and Civil in the afternoon There was not till that time any clashing between Moses and Aaron no prohibitions out of one Court to stop or evacuate the proceedings of another and then it was that Justice run down like a stream and Righteousness like a mighty River If it be said that there are many corruptions among Church-men and especially in Ecclesiastical Courts The answer is That Callings must be distinguish'd from persons or else those two noble professions of Law and Physick will fall under the same condemnation with Divinity No man of any sobriety will condemn either of those professions because there are some Empericks in the World who kill mens Bodies and some Petifoggers that intangle and ruine their Estates And I hope Divines may have some grains of allowance granted them as well as the Inns of Court and Chancery and the College of Physicians if they cannot let that Calling which is most innocent cast the first stone It cannot be hoped that there will in this Age be a Revival of the primitive usage of these two Jurisdictions But yet this ought to be seriously regarded by all who have any belief of a Deity and regard for their native Country I mean that either our English Monarchs might be totally excused from their Coronation-Oath or not be put upon a necessity of violating thereof Their Oath in favour of the Clergy is that they will grant and keep the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward their Predecessor according to the Laws of God Rushw Hist Collect. part 1◠pag. 204. the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the Ancient customs of the Realm But how this Oath is observed when the Bishops are infringed in their ancient and indisputable priviledges let it be considered by all persons of sober mind and principles And let it be declared what order of men in the whole Nation the King can rely upon with so much safety and confidence as upon the Bishops and that not only upon the account of their Learning Wisdom Sanctity and Integrity qualifications not every day to be met withal in State-Politicians but upon the score of Gratitude and Interest For 't is from their Prince that they derive their Honours Dignities Titles Revenues Priviledges Power Jurisdictions with all other secular advantages and upon this account there is greater probability that they will be faithful to his Concerns and Interests than those who receive nothing from him but the common advantages of Government But this argument is known too well by our Anti-Episcopal Democraticks And perhaps 't is the chief if not the only reason of their enmity against an Order of men of so sacred and venerable an Institution As for this little Treatise the Author of it is too well known unto this Nation to invite any Scholar to peruse it It was written when the Bishops were Voted by the House of Lords not to be of the Committee in the Examination of the Earl of Strafford For then it was that Dr. Heylyn considered the case and put these few Sheets as a MSS. into the hands of several of the Bishops that they might be the better enabled to assert and vindicate their own Rights It was only intended for private use and therefore the Reader is not to expect so punctual an accuracy as he may find in other Treatises of this Learned Author It has been perused by some persons of good Eminency for judgment and station in the Church of England and by them approved and commended All that is wished by the Publisher is that it may produce the effects which he proposes to himself in exposing it to publick view and that those Lords who are now Prisoners in the Tower and from whose tryal some have laboured to exclude the Bishops were able to give unto the World as convincing Evidence of their Innocency as that great and generous States man did who fell a Sacrifice to a prevailing Faction and whose Innocent Blood was so far from being a lustration to the Court as some thought it would have proved as it drew after it such a deluge of Gore as for many preceding years had never been spilt in this Kingdom But 't is not my design or desire to revive any of the Injustice or Inhumanities of the last Age. Suffice it to say that it was for this Apostolical Government of Bishops that King Charles the First lost his Kingdoms his Crown his Life And the exclusion of Bishops from Voting in causes of blood was the prologue to all those Tragical mischiefs that happened to that Religion and Renowned Prince And those who have the least veneration for his present Majesty cannot certainly conceive him a King of such slender and weak abilities as to permit Himself and Family to be ruined by those very methods with which his Father was before him De jure Paritatis Episcoporum OR The Right of Peerage vindicated to the BISHOPS OF ENGLAND SINCE the restoring of the Bishops to their place and Vote in the House of Peers I find a difference to be raised between a Peer of the Realm and a Lord of the Parliament and then this Inference or Insinuation to be built upon it that though the Bishops are admitted to be Lords of Parliament yet they are not to be reckoned amongst the Peers of the Realm the contrary whereof I shall endeavour to make good in this following Essay and that not only from the Testimony of approved Writers but from unquestioned Records Book-Cases Acts of Parliament and such further Arguments as may be able to evince the point which we have in hand But first perhaps it may be said that there is no such difference in truth and verity betwixt a Lord of Parliament and a Peer of the Realm but that we may conclude the the Bishops to be Peers of the Realm if they be once admitted to
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
doctrins An Answer to the Objection touching the paucity of those who opposed the same ibid. 10. Possession of a truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable for more fortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kind are rather to be valued by weight than tale Page 627 CHAP. XXII Of the Conference at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of King James 1. The occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled Page 628 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James Page 629 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition ibid. 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it Page 630 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused The inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession ibid. 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their Predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the Old Testament Anno 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons of it Page 631 7. The great incouragement given by King James to the Anti-Calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland ibid. 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon Calvanists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud Page 632 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that King was more incensed heainst the party of Arminius than against their perswasions ibid. 10. The Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins Authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unuseful in the case of Gabriel Bridges Page 633 11. The publishing of Mountagues Answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his Appeal Licensed by the Kings appointment Page 634 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England ibid. A Postscript to the Reader concerning some particulars in a Scurrilous Pamphlet Entituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. Page 635 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 Page 645 2. The Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes soundly and piously laid down by Calvin Page 646 3. And that not only to the good and gracious but even to cruel Princes and ungodly Tyrants Page 647 4. With Answer unto such Objections as are made against it Page 649 5. The Principles of Disobedience in the supposal of some particular Officers ordained of purpose to regulate the power of Kings Page 650 6. How much the practice of Calvin's followers doth differ from their Masters Doctrine as to the point of Obedience Page 651 7. Several Articles and points of Doctrine wherein the Disciples of Calvin are departed from him Page 653 8. More of the differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Master and the Scholars ibid. 9. The dangerous consequences which arise from his faulty Principles in the point or Article of Disobedience Page 654 10. The method and distribution of the following work Page 655 CHAP. II. Of the Authority of Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The King of Sparta absolute Monarch at the first Page 656 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government Page 657 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings ibid. 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate Page 658 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori Page 659 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages Page 660 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government Page 661 8. By what degrees the Ephori incroached on the Spartan Kings Page 662 9. The insolencies of the Ephori towards their Kings altered the State into a Tyranny Page 663 10. The Spartan Kings stomach the insolency of the Ephori and at last utterly destroy them Page 664 11. An application of the former passages to the point in hand Page 665 CHAP. III. Of the Incroachments of the Tribunes on the State of Rome and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Tribunes of the People why first Instituted in the State of Rome Page 666 2. And with what difficulty and conditions Page 667 3. The Tribunes fortifie themselves with large immunities before they went about to change the Government Page 668 4. The Tribunes no sooner in their Office but they set themselves against the Nobility and the Senate contrary to the Articles of their Institution Page 669 5. The many and dangerous Seditions occasioned by the Tribunes in the City of Rome Page 670 6. The Tribunes and the People do agree together to change the Government of the State Page 671 7. By what degrees the People came to be possessed of all the Offices in the State both of power and dignity Page 672 8. The Plots and Practices of the Gracchi to put the power of the Judicature and Supream Majesty of the Senate into the hands of the People ibid. 9. The Tribunes take upon them to commit the Consuls and bring all the Officers of the State under their command Page 673 10. The Office and Authority of the Tribunes reduced unto its antient bounds by Corn. Sylla and at last utterly destroyed Page 674 11. An Application of the former passage to the point in hand Page 675 CHAP. IV. Of what Authority the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of the danger and unfitness of the instances produced by Calvin 1. Athens first governed by Kings and afterwards by one Sovereign Prince under other titles Page 676 2. The Annual Magistrates of Athens what they were and of what Authority Page 677 3. By whom and what degrees the State of Athens was reduced to a Democratie Page 678 4. Of the Authority of the Senate and the famous Court of the Areopagites Page 679 5. What the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of what Authority Page 680 6. The Demarchi never were of power to oppose the Senate nor were ordained to that end ibid. 7. Calvins ill