not alwayes the most knowing in all Ecclesiasticall cases neither are they at all indifferent and impartiall in many which concerne their owne honour and profit as the world feeles to his regret therefore for jurisdiction they are not the most competent But be they of what use soever they may still remaine subordinate and at the Princes election and admitted of ad consilium solum not ad consensum and it had beene happy for all Christians these many hundred yeares by past if they had not been further hearkned to The Sacerdotall function is not at all disparaged by this subordination for whether the order of Princes be more sacred then that of Bishops or not it is all one to Priests for an obedience they owe and must pay be it to the one Order or the other Our Bishops at this day stand much upon their Divine right of Jurisdiction and they refer their style to the providence of God immediatly not to the grace of the King and though in words they acknowledge a Supremacie of power to remain to the King yet indeed I thinke they mean rather a priority of order Whatsoever Supremacie they meane if it be not such as makes them meerely subordinate and dependent so that the King may limit alter or extinguish their jurisdiction as far as He may to his civill Judges they derogate much from his Kingly office Bishops for their claime of Jurisdiction ought to prove that they alone did exercise it over all in all causes from our Saviours dayes till the entrance of Christian Princes and that being cleared they must further prove that those times also are leading and precedentary to ours In both these their proofes are lame especially in the latter for neither is the power of the Keyes the same thing as Iurisdiction nor is jurisdiction now as it was in the Apostles dayes nor is the State of the times now the same as then In those dayes either Christians were to implead one another before Infidel Magistrats whatsoever the case were criminall or civill spirituall or temporall or else they were to erect some tribunall in the Church or else they were to await no justice at all and because some judicature within the Church was most fit therfore Christ himselfe according to the exigence of those times did endow his Church with a divine Oeconomy which was partly miraculous and of use then but not now The Spirit of God did then internally incite such and such men at such times to reside and preside in such such places and some of the Apostles at some times could judge by inspiration without proofs and allegations and could execute sentence of death or other spirituall punishment upon secret hypocrites not intrenching upon temporall authority but in these times this discipline is uselesse and therefore decayed Whatsoever the offence then was what injury or trespasse soever betwixt brother and brother the onely remedy was Dic Ecclesiae and yet that precept serves as strong for temporall as spirituall trespasses so that it cannot be enforced now to continue unlesse wee meane to drowne all temporall authority As for the extent also of spirituall power in those dayes I will onely cite a learned Politician of the Popish religion who admitting it seemed that the keyes of heaven were given to Saint Peter alone and his Successours and not to all Bishops and Ministers whatsoever thus proceeds By the keyes given to S. Peter many Holy Fathers mean the one of knowledge and the other of power and that that power ought not to be understood universally but only concerning the Kingdome of Heaven which is spirituall for the Civill Royall and Temporall power is expresly forbidden him by Christ Even so that also of knowledge it is not to be understood of naturall politike or morall things but as Saint Paul saith of Christs mysteries only Wherefore in matters of faith Ecclesiasticall authority may approve and Secular cannot condemne but in matters of policy what all the Prelates in the World approve Temporall authority may condemne It is a great wrong to pretend because Christ hath given Saint Peter the cognizance and power of the Kingdome and forbidden him the earthly contrary to this precept to extend spirituall things to temporall Saint Augustine often saith That Grace doth not destroy any thing in Nature but leaveth her all her owne adding moreover divine perfection The Temporality hath of its owne nature power to forbid all things repugnant to publike quietnesse and honesty and Christ came not to take away this authority from Magistrates He onely addes power to his Ministers in matters of faith not knowne by nature but revelation For ought wee know this power of opening or shutting Heaven of binding and loosing sinnes was miraculous and so but Temporary but admit it in this Catholike Writers sense yet we plainly see it is no prejudice at all to limit Secular Princes thereby The same learned Papist writes That the Easterne and Westerne Churches continued in unity and charity for the space of nine hundred yeares after Christ and this peace was easily kept because the Supreme power was then in the Canons to which all Churches acknowledged themselves equally subject Ecclesiasticall Discipline was then severely maintained in each Country by its owne Prelates not arbitrarily but absolutely according to Canonicall rigour none of them intermedling in anothers government No Pope of Rome did pretend to conferre Benefices in other Bishops Diocesses or to get money out of others by way of Dispensations and Buls but when Rome began to shake off all subjection to Canons then notwithstanding any ancient order of the Fathers Councels or Apostles themselves in stead of her ancient Primacy she brought in an absolute Dominion free from any Law or Canon and this made the division Neither could any re-union bee brought to passe within these 700 yeares because this abuse which caused the Division is not remedied Whilst the union held Saint Pauls doctrine was joyntly observed that Every one should be subject to Princes no man pretended to be free from punishment Nay and after the division the same opinion remained that every Christian in temporall businesses is subject to the Prince And nothing is more temporall then offence because nothing is more contrary to the Spirit Amongst the Greeks also it is still held that Bishops ought to judge what opinion is sound what Hereticall but to punish those of hurtfull opinions belongeth to the Secular The State of Venice as well as other Catholike Kingdomes walks between two extreams betweene Protestants which have no other ayme but to diminish Ecclesiasticall authority and the Court of Rome which hath no other aime but to encrease it and to make the Temporall her servant Those of the Court of Rome making use of Religion for worldly ends and respects under a spirituall pretense but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth and honour would free themselves from obedience due to the Prince and take away
at Court be strong and active enough for matter of Counsell yet for matter of force the Puritans in City and Countrey be too predominant The Bishop of Downe in his visitation speech layes all the calamities of Church and Common-wealth upon Non-conformists and for proofe thereof instances in the Covenanters whom he charges of rebellion charging withall that rebellion upon Puritanisme The first thing says he that made me out of love with that Religion was their injurious dealing with Kings which I observed both in their Practice and Doctrine Hee taxes first their Doctrine because they deny the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall and allow Subjects to resist nay and depose their King if he be a Tyrant Surely Ahab could say little for himselfe if he could not lay his owne crimes upon Elijah but see here by what art of confusion all Scots are called Puritans and all Puritans rebels King James spoke not so confusedly as if Puritanisme were a Religion and all that disliked Bishops and Ceremonies were of that Religion and all of that Religion were enemies to Kings If a Bishop needed any proofe it his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were not unquestionable I would desire him to prove all Covenanters Puritans denyers of the Kings supremacy or to instance in any Kings which have been deposed or murthred by Presbyteriall authority How far Bishops have incroached upon Kings is knowne to all the world our Protestant Bishops lately have by Oath and Canon combined together to bind the Kings hands though hee bee Supreme that hee shall not governe our Church but by Arch-bishops Bishops Arch-deacons c. And yet these troublers of Israel have the face to taxe Elijah of their own sinne Presbytery indeed has heretofore passed her bounds yet not of late but Episcopacy has ever from Constantine claimed an independance of Divine right till this instant I conceive there are not in all the Kings Dominions three men except Papists and Anabaptists which hold it lawfull to depose or by any force to violate the persons of Kings how ill soever The Scotch Divines indeed maintaine that a great body of men may defend themselvs against the unjust sword of misled Kings because they cannot fly or otherwise save themselves and this they take now to be their own case whereas our Court Divines in England hold that in such case we ought all to yeeld our throats without defence This seemes unnaturall and truth was never unnaturall but I forbeare to dispute a point so horrid to mans imagination The Bishop next instances in the rebellious practices of Puritans reckons up some Fasts in Scotland appointed by the Presbytery without King Iames his privity and some other seditious Sermons and actions whereby he was much annoyed But what Did not King James know his owne enemies or how to blame them Did hee condemne all Scots alike or all Bishop haters alike or joyne the English in like condemnation We know well enough that King James called rebellious precisians Puâ—itans but he never called all Puritans rebellious precisians He never used those termes as conveâ—tible but declared his contrary meaning by a manifest difference taken between them But the Bishops maine â—nstance is in the present Scotch insurrection this he cals a rebellion of Puritans and far greater than the Powder-treason For says he that plot was but the act of a few discontented Gentlemen but in this rebellion of the Puritans they have ingaged a great part of the Kingdome so that this may be said to be the common sin of that Sect. What could have beene raked out of Hell more slanderous to our Religion more Apologeticall for Popery The Powder-Traytors are here preferred before the whole sect of Puritans The sin of the Powder-Traytors was that they being but an inconsiderable party sought the destruction of their King and his issue and the flower of the Nobility Gentry Commonalty and the extirpation of the true Religion by a most diabolical bloudy practice and conspiracy And it ought not to be charged upon the meere actors as a symptome of discontent onely wee know how far the Romish Religion it selfe favours and gives ground to such damned feats and how far it has owned some having proved prosperous and justified the doing thereof in nature as impious though perhaps in degree not so hainous as this For take this as it was conspired and questionlesse since the crucifying of Iesus Christ the Light never discovered any treason more ugly and horrible Now to out-match this deed of darknesse the Scotch Nation by a strange general unanimity have armed themselves to oppose the ill government of Bishops and other alterations in the service of God and the administration of Iustice and being invaded therefore by another Nation have used force to defend their lives and seeing that defence not safe in their owne Countrey they have since pursued it further by way of prevention in the Country of their Invaders That is the greatest act of Rebellion whereby the common Peace and safety of a Kingdome is most disturbed and impeached but by the common act of a whole Kingdome that mischiefe cannot be effected therefore the Bishop failes in his politiques when he thinkes that the Major part disturbing the Minor is more trayterous than the contrary The unanimous act of a whole Kingdome ought to bee presumed to bee lesse injurious and more wise than the act of any small inconsiderable party for it hath scarce ever been seen that a whole Kingdome or the majority thereof hath ever been treasonable to its selfe in procuring its own ruine Many States have perisht by the machinations of a few ill-affected ill-advised Counsellors scarce ever any perisht otherwise but the totall body and collection has never been guilty of its owne ruine and if it were such Treason could not be so great as that which is plotted by a few Whilst the Scots contained themselves within their owne territories and were considered as a kingdome within themselves as they were when the Bishop past his censure they were not rightly so censured neither was he then privy to their intrusions that they would infest our kingdome with the same combustion and so prove a disturbance to the greater part of our British Monarchy whereof they themselves are but a member of lesse bulke and value Cursed therefore are those uncharitable exasperating censurers whereby the King is too far incensed and by whose rash instigations the commotions themselves become the harder to be appeased Great insurrections are like great fires wherein delay is mischievous and small remedies rather turne to fuell then extinguish and violent counsell against an inraged multitude is like oyle or pitch cast into the flame The wise politician proportions his remedy according to the mischiefe if water will not prevaile he useth milke if a little quantity will not suffice he powres as the combustion it selfe requires Vnfortunate Rehoboam stands as a Seamarke to warne all Princes how to
the love and reverence due by the people to draw it to themselves To bring these things to passe they have newly invented a doctrine that talks of nothing but Ecclesiasticall greatnesse liberty immunity and jurisdiction This doctrine was unheard of till about the year 1300 then it began to be written scatteringly in some books but till 1400 there were not written above two Bookes which treated of nothing else after this such Writers increased a little but after 1560 there were scarce any Bookes printed in Italy but in diminution of Secular authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiasticall And now the people have scarce any other Bookes to read nor have the Confessors any other doctrine or need any other learning Hence comes this perverse opinion that Magistracy is a humane invention and to be obeyed for policy onely not for conscience but that every intimation of Ecclesiasticall persons is equivolent to a divine precept there want not in Italy pious learned men which hold the contrary but they are not suffered to write or print Neither are forraine Books permitted or ancient Authours left ungelded of all which serves for Temporall authority as appears by a book printed 1607 called Index Expurgatorius and Clement the Eighth in 1595 published a rule in his Index that all Catholike Writers Bookes since 1515 might be corrected not only by expunging but also by interlining and this hath beene practised though not publikely above seventy yeares Thus we finde the Court of Romes but not the Authors meaning and finally wee are sure to have no book true I have hitherto cited this egregious Politician for these purposes First That we may see how easie it is for Clergie-men to wrest all authority out of the Temporalties hands if Princes will be so easie to be hood-winkt and deluded by them and to resigne their judgements to them in such cases as concern their profit and advancement Secondly That we may take notice how far the learnedst of Papists themselves doe discover and detect the errours and tyranny of the Court of Rome and that mysticall way of deceiving whereby all hope of remedy is cut off I observe this also the rather because our Prelates in England at this day assume to themselves almost as vast and unquestionable a power of stifling and repressing all adverse disputes and of authorizing and publishing all arguments whatsoever favouring their cause as the Court of Rome does Thirdly that I might produce the same Author against himselfe in those points wherein he taxes Protestants Wee will yeeld that for the space of nine hundred yeeres the See of Rome did not usurpe over other Sees but did acknowledge equall subjection to the Canons and that the division and separation of the Easterne Churches happened when Rome arrogated above Canons but withall we must have it yeelded to us that those Canons had been composed only by Clergy-men and that in too much favour of Clergy-men and too much abridgement of Temporall Rights and Priviledges and that they did concerne matters more then meerely spirituall and speculative and things known by meere revelation So that though one Prelate did not usurpe over another yet all Prelates had usurped over the Laity from the times of Constantine almost It is true the Church had Bishops before in its times of persecution but of what power or pompe It is said of Calvin that in regard of his sway in Geneva he wanted nothing but the Name of Bishop and it may be as truly said of the Bishops before Constantine that they wanted all but the Name The power of Bishops before the installment of Christian Princes was rather like that of Arbitrators then of Judges and that held in all cases alike Civill and Spirituall but in case of disobedience they did not intrench so farre upon the Lay power as to inflict any pecuniary or corporall punishment but they did deny the Sacrament and eject delinquents out of the Congregation and this was then an abscission from Christ being done Clave non errante that is whilst God did inspire according to his promise a miraculous power of binding and loosing infallibly The Priestly function was then an Office not a jurisdiction of sacred dignity not power but the Function of a Prince was ever sacred both for honour and power for dignity and command Constantine the Great was the first Prince which tooke upon him the care and protection of the Church after that it had suffered contempt and poverty for 300 yeares and now did even that authority and protection cease and devolve into his hands which the poore persecuted Bishops had but feebly managed before but such was the extraordinary indulgence of this pious Emperour as well to religious persons as to Religion it selfe that taking little notice what the Church had gain'd by him as its Head and Governour He heaped up greater Titles and Honors upon Bishops Archbishops Patriarchs and Popes as if some other supreme Ruler more sacred and competent then himselfe were necessary Neverthelesse it is thought that this was as poyson poured into the Church and not Balme for from that very time Clergy-men began to be more glorious but lesse gracious more rich outwardly but more poore and vile inwardly Within a little space after Constantine there was just cause of complaint that excessive Honours had corrupted the Church and that Religion had prospered better in former times when it had wooden Chalices and golden Priests then now when it had golden Chalices but wooden Priests It is remarkable also that soon after Constantine the temporall power being too much restrained and abased and the spirituall as much inlarged and exalted the whole face of Christendome began to be imbroyled with wars and poysoned with heresies so that the Historians of those times have almost nothing else to write of but the forcible investing and devesting by armes of such Bishops and Patriarchs and of the oppositions of such and such Councels and Synods and of the Appeals Iars Schismes Excommunications and Commotions of such and such Priests and Monks Nay such were the ill effects of those ages which were certainly more zealous then politike that they cannot yet be wholly rectified and purged in these our latter times which are growne too too contrary being more politike then zealous Thus did the Church fare for 900. yeares till the Romane Bishops began to Empire above all and then did the greatest part of the Clergie themselves especially East from Italy make their departure and separation Neither did the Romish Vice-god after this great rent and division in the world hang his head for shame or seeke any re-union by letting fall his pompous painted plumes but audaciates himselfe rather to mount higher yet and to detrude the Western Emperour quite out of the bounds of Italy And in this his industry failes him not for after much bloud-shed in many cruell conflicts Hee gaines in Italy a Temporall and in all Europe besides a spirituall Monarchy making a triple
and therefore there needs not that vocall power or indisputable force to remaine in the breasts of Princes as was of old The Courts of Parliament and their unquestionable Acts and Ordinances and their infallible avisoes are now in all well-governed Countries the very Oracles of all Policy and Law they are the fountaines of civill bloud spirits and life and the soveraigne antidots of publike mischiefes That Prince was never yet deceived which relied upon them nor can he chuse but be deceived which thinkes he can be assisted with any more wise or faithfull advertisement then that which is given him by his whole Realme united and contracted in a lesse circumference What end can all the flower of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of a Nation being wise and religious have in seducing their Soveraigne or in limiting that Soveraignty by which alone they are protected Or what one party of particular men can better understand the true limits of sufficient Soveraignty and the profit thereof then this collective universality whole rayes like the Suns are every where dispersed and yet whose body of light is here as in a refulgent Globe concentred Individualls may have many particular ends severed from the Princes or the States but Communities can ayme at nothing but the common good as the lesser fountaines scatter their branching streames up and downe in various Maeanders whilst the Sea containes it selfe in an intire body within its constant bounds Individuals also have but their owne particular set limit of perfection and have judgements beside apt to be darkened by their owne severall interests and passions whereas the common body enjoyes a confluence of severall perfections and hath the lesse force from abroad to overcloud them Of all men therefore it will most concerne Princes to suspect them which are enemies to publike assemblies and to confide in them most whose ends are not divided from the generalities and as they tender their owne happinesse to expect it chiefly from that generality by which they are Kings to which they are Gods from which their very Diadems receive honour and sanctity to which their very Royall Order imparts life and breath and necessary subsistence I come now to my Ethicall Puritan The name of Puritan must not rest here for there may be some moderate well inclined facile men whose education may be such that they are not much vers'd or insighted either in matters of Religion or matters of State they may be such as are no waies busie but in their own particular affaires and yet it behooves that these men too be brought in within the opprobrious compasse of Puritanisme To the Religious Ecclesiasticall and Politicall Puritan there must be joyned also an Ethicall Puritan This detested odious name of Puritan first began in the Church presently after the Reformation but now it extends it selfe further and gaining strength as it goes it diffuses its poysonous ignominy further and being not contended to Gangrene Religion Ecclesiasticall and Civill policy it now threatens destruction to all morality also The honest strict demeanour and civill conversation which is so eminent in some men does so upbraid and convince the Antipuritan that even honesty strictnesse and civility it selfe must become disgracefull or else they which are contrary cannot remaine in grace But because it is too grosse to deride vertue under the name of vertue therefore other colours are invented and so the same thing undergoes derision under another name The zealous man is despised under the name of zealot the Religious honest man has the vizard of an hypocrite and dissembler put upon him to make him odious Here I may alledge even Hooker himselfe in justification of this Ethicall Puritan that good ingenuous man in these dayes though he opposed them in polity yet honoured them in morality and certainty if he were now living he would strongly inveigh against their opposers in this respect He cites Aristotle in his 5. booke of Ethicks and 3. cap. that many men in domesticall things may be vertuous and yet offend {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yea I am perswaded sayes he that of those with whom we strive in this cause there are whose betters amongst men could hardly be found if they did not live amongst men but in some wildernesse amongst themselves And the cause sayes he of their disposition so unframeable to Society is for that what they thinke privately to be convenient and just with some shew of probability the same they thinke themselves bound to practise and uphold notwithstanding any Law of man to the contrary and thus by following the Law of private reason where the Law of publike should take place they breed disturbance See here the maine taxation of Puritans amongst their honest and wise opposers such as I allow Hooker to bee is this that in things indifferent they will not recede from their owne consciences for any command whatsoever in all necessary points of morality there cannot be found better men I cannot tell I am left to pronounce here with the Poet Crudelis Mater magis an puer improbus ille Improbus ille puer crudelis tu quoque mater I will only wish that neither the child would be so disrespectfull of his mothers judgement in indifferencies nor the mother so unpittifull of her childes weaknesse in scruples Hooker also in his preface confesses that Puritans at first were pityed only in their errors and not much withstood by any for the great humility zeale and devotion which appeared to be in them was in all mens opinions a pledge of their harmelesse meaning The hardest sayes he that men of sound understanding conceived of them was but this O quà m honestâ voluntate miseri erant and for this cause Luther made request to Fredericke of Saxony that within his dominion they might be favourably dealt with and spared for that their error exempted they seemed otherwise right good men So then whilst their meaning is honest and whilst their honest meaning tends onely to make themselves miserable that is objects of scorne and punishment favour ought to be shewed T is true Hooker after complaines that this favour produced ill effects amongst Puritans who by meanes of such mercifull tolleration gathered more strength then was safe for the State but under favour this does not appeare so with me In France Scotland and those parts of Germany where Zealots have had most liberty and favour I doe not see any effects so evident thereof as these that Popery hath the sooner vanisht and enmity beene the better prevented It seemes to me that England of all Protestant countries has least cause to boast of her rigorous discipline towards Puritans having never yet been either quiet or safe til this instant and now scarce being able to beleeve that great worke of deliverance which God hath mercifully wrought for us It cannot be denyed but the yet unsettled condition of these times hath been scandalous in multitudes of Anabaptisticall sectaries