same man to differ from himselfe We see that Families are ever at unity when they beare an orderly subjection to the Master of the House be there never so many private jarrings of opinions among the severall members Examine we the matter yet a little further Is there any thing more agreeable to reason then that the lesse depend upon the greater the weake and feeble upon the strong in a word to behold that subordination in the world that where any prejudiciall counselâ—â— or resolutions shall happen to â—e proposed they may be timously check'd by some intervening authority and kept within the bounds prescribed them How many may we every day see attempting to passe the bounds of their abilities and professions and of what a banefull consequence the impunity of such irregularities may prove I leave it for any man to determine This I 'me sure made the Divine Providence speake by the mouth of Saint Paul that * 1 Cor. 14. 29. when the Prophets speake there should be some to judge That which followes is very observable * v 33. The spirits of the Prophets are subject unto the Prophets whereof presently he renders the reason For * v. 34. God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all Churches of the Saints Behold Sir at a nearer distance the reasons for which this Order was first established which in my judgement are of equall force for the continuance of it to all ages seeing you have as great cause now as ever to feare those inconveniences which attend on equality You have Councels to be assembled Schismes to be composed Heretiques to be convinced and many ill appointed Churches to be visited But there is yet a more speciall and pressing motive in the case of England to wit the Genius of the People who being accustomed to gaze upon a gorgeous outside will not without much reluctancy be drawne to yeild any manner of reverence and submission to such as stand not upon the vantage-ground of honour Witnesse their Divines and all the gowned tribe Let their vertues be never so legible the Great ones looke upon them but as so many silly fellowes in blacke extracted out of the scumme of the People who for their part thinke they doe them a great honour if they shall vouchsafe to use them as their companions The case being thus what may we thinke would attend the extirpation of Episcopacy out of that Kingdome but the utter contempt of Christianity From vilifying the persons 't is ordinary to proceed next to a slighting of the Profession though never so sacred And if they put such a cheape esteeme upon the Persons of those that are to direct the Conscience and watch over the soule with what oscitancy and indevotion will all their counsels and instructions be entertained amongst them 'T is indeed the dignity of the Prelates which hath hitherto supported the dignity of Religion and if any manner of respect hath beene paid them it was first excited by the Majesty and lustre of that superiority wherewith God hath invested them as the most naturall meanes to keepe in an Evangelicall awe a People whose very Genius seconded with excesse of riches and security hath merited them the name of the most insolent People in the world But they tell us that the Bishops of meere Overseers were become absolute Lords and of Rulers had transformed themselves into Tyrants which indeed may be true of some but not of all How many have there beene in England since the Reformation so farre from the least smacke of their Predecessours or any of their fellow brethrens vanity that on the contrary in examples of modesty and and humility they have left most of the truly Reformed Pastours in Europe behind them who knowes not that the now Bishop of Durâ—aâ— notwithstanding the large revenues he formerly enjoyed and the severall titles of honour particularly annexed to that Bishopricke hath manifested to the world that he is cast in the same mould with those untainted soules of the Primitive Church All men may reade his temper and what spirit swayed him in his greatest prosperity inasmuch as now sharing in the common calamity depriv'd of all his livelyhood and brought to indigence thrown downe from so high a pitch of greatnesse to so low an ebbe from so much honour to so much infamy shut up as it were in a prison without ease without liberty and almost without a freind too aged about fourescore and five or six yeares he beares it all out with such composednesse of spirit such an absolute resignation of himselfe to the Divine Providence in the midst of these his trialls that he seemes to have no part in the corruption of the Times and those impurities wherewith they charge his Brethren such a large portion he hath in the innocence and vertues of the Primitive Martyrs Did ever any man behold a more Apostolique man then the present * Bishop vsher Primate of Ireland I applaud not now the learning either of the one or other I speake onely of their piety that characteristicall vertue of the Saints Could any the most active and noted adversaries of Episcopacy ever blemish the conversation of Doctor Bromhall Bishop of Derry of Jewell Bilson Hall Downham Davenant Sands Abbot Andrewes Vsher Prideaux and a large Catalogue besides of such whose vertues are not yet come to my knowledge no more then their names For all those prerogatives they enjoy above other men by reason of the Character they beare for all that superiority and those titles full of pompe and magnificence the Lawes of the Land have allowed them did ever any know them give the least scandall to the most scrupulous conscience or the least occasion for the meanest Subject to complaine of them On the contrary the whole course of their lives is a copy worthy the imitation not onely of such as had need to reforme themselves but even of the most unblameable persons I should but wrong their modesties in proceeding any further And I would be loath to distast them having no other intent then simply to describe them However I shall confidently a vouch thus much that they live in Episcopacy with much more integrity then any of their Persecutours do in their professions as being conformable to their intention who first gave life unto it The Divine Authours of so sacred â—n Ordinance knew well enough what high conceits are apt to surprize the soules of men when once they are lifted up above others and hence was it that of so many names wherewith the Apostles invested the Rulers of the Church they pitch't upon the name of Bishop for such as were to fit at the Sterne There were others that carried more state and lustre with them as that of â—astour wherewith homer honours his King of Elder of Doctour of President of Cheife But this is a name of toile and diligence by which the first imposers of it intended to containe such as
with us and we obliged as much thereupon to maintaine it I intend not at this time to discusse either of these two questions that taske hath already beene so amply performed by sundry eminent writers of this age that there remaines little more to be done to it Nor will I deliver my owne opinion I shall onely insist upon two others Saint Hierome saith that Episcopacy was instituted as the onely meanes to stoppe the current of those Divisions which sprung at first among Christians Before saith he that by the instigation of the Devill there were any fidings in Religion and People began to say I am of Paul and I of Cephas and I of Apollos the Churches were ruled by the joint resolutions of Preâ—sbyters But when every one began to fancy that those he baptized were his owne and not Christ's it was ordained throughout the whole world that there should be one chosen out of the rest with whom the cure of the Church was to be entrusted for the rooting up of Schismes and taking away all matter of dissention What this great Doctor spake so punctually of the Baptisme of Paul of Cephas and Apolloâ— is nothing in my judgement but an allusion to what we reade in one of the Epistles to the Corinthians and ought to be construed of all those seeds of division which the Devill scattered among Christians in the infancy of the Church and such as he hath throwne amongst them ever since Thus we see so many monstrous Heresies have beene strangled by meanes of this Order some â—â—â—oone as they saw the light others after they had in a sort empoisoned the whole Earth And if still there have continued some in the World or any slips of the old roote have beene remaining it hath generally happened in such places where Episcopacy had not it's full force and where Councells have not enjoyed their due liberty as in some of the Southerne and Easterne Countries and some also of the North where Christian Religion hath suffered either a totall extirpation or at least some notable alteration by 〈◊〉 If then Episcopacy hath produced fruits answerable to their hopes who did first institute it as beyond all contradiction it hath to what course shall we betake our selves in these distractive times wherein the Devill is so busy at his old game inâ—omenting Divisions among all those whom the Spirit of God hath freed from the yoke and slavery of Rome now especially when there are so many visible Factions amongst us some siding with Luther others with Calvin and most of the rest following no other guides then their owne apish unruly Fancies what course I say shall we now fly to for remedy but the example of all antiquity in tracing their Steps and conforming to their rules withall applying our selves to those Antidotes wherewith they healed the like distempers we suffer and are upon the point to perish under In those times the unity of the Head begat an Unity of Mission this an Unity of Doctrine and both together an Unity of all the Faithfull among themselves But in these dayes of ours from the multitude of Pastours equall in authority there flowes a diversity of Mission from this a repugnancy of Doctrines and from both jointly the Schismes and sidings of People which could never have befallen us had men contented themselves with a meere Reformation of Episcopacy and not utterly abolished it Or if during their Division they had established it in such places as they had made themselves Masters of or where they enjoyed a Toleration This is cleare from the example of Rome whose Disciples are never at oddes with themselves but still keepe the Body close and well compacted in all it's Members through the skill of their Conductours who have the sole power of deciding controversies amongst them and they neither have authority nor any the least badge thereof but what they derive from their Heads So that it is a rare thing to behold any Innovation of Religion with them either in Doctrine or Discipline and if any should arise that Order doth so hedge it in that it cannot proceed a steppe further then they please themselves If examples borrowed from our Enemies be odious let us insist onely upon that of England So long as the Bishops were not molested in their Functionâ— that Kingdome was not disquieted with any Schismes or disorders in the Church There durst not a Sectarie shew his head till those Christian Guides were overborne with violence and all superiority among Pastours decryed Now if their conjecture be sound who say that Saint Hierome builds not a bare allusion upon the words of Saint Paul but a cleare observation that immediately after the Apostles times there arose certaine jarres among their Disciples some pretending to a right of greater preheminence by reason of some better endowments which every one in particular ascribed to him who had baptised and instructed him and that upon this foundation the Devill attempted to build a multiplicity of bodies and prevailed so farre that he seemed to have got a share in the Church then in her Infancy have not we reason every moment to feare the like now from so many upstart Doctrines 〈◊〉 Religion and so many different sects in Europe resulting from that variety of Opinionâ— which is every where to be seene amongst out Teachers The malady is so great that it seemes to be arrived at its height and so little care is taken of applying a remedy as if men had a designe palpably to betray the cause of God The greatest mischeife I finde herein is that so long as our exteriour government shall continue in the same posture it is at this present it will be impossible to heale the distemper and if we go about to alter the Order established it must needes be from better to worse in as much as every sect will be busy in tempting others after it and so make a rupture in the Body and teare the Church in peeces Let us once more reflect a little upon Antiquity Had there beene ought amisse in the first institution of Episcopacy and had not indeed the spirit of God beene the sole contriver of it for the common benefit of the Church could his providence have given way to that generall unanimous approbation it received from Christians in every corner of the Universe We see clearely that of all the new Lawes and severall alterations devised by the wisedome and prudence of man there is not any one but hath beene opposed in some part of the world or other Witnesse what 〈◊〉 hath beene â—â—â—â—uded upon the Church either against the custome of Antiquity or the rules of Scripture such as arâ— the Supreme authority of one Person in cases spirituall the severall teâ—â—â—s about the Encharist Invocation of Saints worshiping of Images with many other But this decree which enables one of those that are imployed in the dispâ—â—sâ—tion of the Heavenly treasures with a power above his fellowâ—â— hath continued
contagious That in the body the separation of any one part is dangerous what errour soever hath infected it except it be Heresie or Superstition otherwise there can be no just cause of doing so As for the depravation of manners he is yet more expresse affirmeing it downe-right folly for any man to conceive that a sufficient ground of seperation and alleadging the words of Christ they sit in Moses chairs what therefore they bid you that doe and he gives the reason wheresoever there is purity of Doctrine God must needs have a Church though encombred with a multitude of faults Now if this eminent writer had occasion to speake thus what a grosse shame is it for such as have nothing to object against their Bishops but the bare corruption of manners to endeavour not only a simple seperation from them but a totall suppression of them As for their Doctrine that 's Scot-free from censure 't is indeed so pure that it agrees in every particular with that of our best reformed Divines witnesse their severall Tracts of the Eucharist The power of the Pope The right of Kings The adoration of Images and the like which assure us that those which at this day advance the purity of Religion are their deserving successors that laboured so much in the first establishing of it Such were the Prelates God employed in this great worke the Arch-bishops of Canterbury Yorke the Bishops of London Worcester in Peter Martyrs time Cranâ—er Ridley Latiâ—er Hooper men all famous in their generations and such as knew how to weild a Bishoprick Most of which dyed martyrs in that hot Combat they maintained against the Errours and impieties of their times Before them when men durst scarce mutter of a Reformation one of the Bishops of Lincolnâ— couragiously entred the Lists with the Idolatry Grosâ—head and Superstition into which the Church was then plunged And he performed the Combate with so much gallantry that the common suffrage of all good men after him gave him this honorary title The Hammer of Rome Yet for all this they of London maâ—â—e him and the rest I have named you the common the 〈◊〉 of their Invectives both in the Presse and in the Pulpit They spare not to call them in publique a packe of impostours and Hypocrites such as never trac'd the paths of Christianity but in a râ—â—ling posture their soules being drunke with the cup of abdomination what fellowship can we have with such a generation as this We who have ever paid so much honour and esteeme to the memory of those worthy men that we have placed them in the ranke and calendar of our Martyâ—â—â— Nay our most upright and conscientious Divines have proposed each circumstance of their lives and deaths as the most exquisite patternes in all Europe and perhaps in the whole world besides of an unwearied constancy in asserting Truth and suppressing falshood Finally they are accused for intermedling too much in State affaires They will needs have it unlawfull for them to beare any share in the administration of Justice and that such priviledges should be annexed to Episcopacy which say they are incompatible with â—â—y but the Secular Authority and therefore they tooke care to dâ—vest them of the same in the beginning of this Parliament They which harpe so much upon this string are the very same malignant Spirits of which I have formerly given you the character Had they but any shadow of reason is it possible they should thus fight against the custome and example of so many ages both in their owne forraigne Countries Who knowes not that the Constitutions of greatest consequence in any State have bin made in Councells Assemblies of Bishops What else meaneth that ancient Ordinance of almost 900 yeares standing which pronounceth all Elections of Kings void where the Bishops and cheife of the People are denyed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whence arose the custome in all debates of preserving inheritances successions in families of having as much recourse to Episcopall as Regall Authority in that behalfe We finde that King Aethelstant â—â—â— 928. by expresse Statute joyned the Bishops in Commission with the Justices Secular to stop the current of Injustice and to root out all the seedes thereof Those employments did not divert them from the care of the Church Councels were no whit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the contrary we finde that in this Age or a little before whâ—â— the barbarisme of the Saxons had almost spent it self and men beguâ— to tast the sweetnesse of Christianity that the Bishops thereupon resuming their Authority and following the advice of one Bâ—nifâ—â—â— Arch-bishop of Mayence ordained that every Presbyter should yearly give an account of his Ministery to the Bishop who likewise for his part was yearly to visit his Diocesse in like manner to yeild an account of his proceedings to the Metropolitan these and many other Ordinances tending all to the establishment of purity in manners were with all rigour put in execution notwithstanding they set a part some time for secular affaires And this is further very remarkeable that Bishops themselves made lawes for the government of the People We finde it amongst others in one Odon Arch-bishop of Canterbury who exhorteth the Prince to yeeld all manner of obedience and submission to the Bishops which speakes the antiquity of their Power in this Kingdome a power which I can see no cause should be denied them if those that are invested with it be sincere Professors of true Christianity as they ought to be who are preferred to Bishopricks no more then their right of â—itting in Parliaments a right common to them with all the Bishops that ever have beene in the world and to which those of this Kingdome have a stronger title it being but the small remnant of that great power they had once and which they mannaged wit◠〈◊〉 much discretion Nor was it ever knowne that either King or People endeavoured their extirpation heretofore no not so much as to exercise my rigour upon their persons for about eleven hundred yeares together since the tyranny of the Saxon Kings forced them to quit the Realm and retire themselves to France that they might enjoy more case and liberty of Conscience in the service of God If ever their Votes in Parliament were lyable to suspicion it was doubtlesse in the reigne of Henry the 8 when they had so straight a dependance upon Rome that Prince having in a manner shaken off the Romish yoake and by his owne sole authority taken upon him the government of the Church of England which Pope Nicholas had heretofore freely resigned to Edward the Confessour had just cause to feare that in those Conventions they would betray his interestsâ—or of the Holy See's sake as they call it and so by consequent that he runne a great hazard of his owne Prerogative in not excluding them Notwithstanding be never had such a thought No more had Edward the Sixth nor Queene
enjoyed plenty the wildnesse and debauchednesse of many of their Princes in former times could doâ— There be some I know that lay all the blame upon the negligence of the Prelates accusing them of betraying that care where with they were entrusted for the good of the People and are therefore urgent to have thâ—â— made the first examples of Justice as having 〈◊〉 led the Churches with a company of scandalous debâ—ist fellowes instead of honest and faithfull Pastours But were this true the evill they complaine of would have shewed it selfe during their Authority aâ—d while these monsters were in place and not onely within these few yeares as it hath done Not would this shamelesse caâ—umny deserve any other answer were it not expedient to let the world know that at the very moment the peace of the Church was molested the Devill shooke off his chaines and hath ever since without all controule disgorged his venime in the midst of it So long as there was a perfect harmony of affections betwixt the People and their Pastours and an absolute conformity to those rules which were unanimously observed for the space of a whole age and upwards such as had any seeds of a corrupt and depraved soule were at least over-awed and so not daring to appeare abroad they were made uncapable of doing any mischeife Those who are best acquainted with the Innovations of the times and that make any conscience of a Lye will all conclude with me that the disorder which at this day hath overcast all England with an everlasting shame owed it's beginning to none but such as have usurped the place of those ancient Divines and Pastours which they drive to their Cures They are for the most part but a schismaticall and factious Crew which the madnesse of a brutish and seditious People hath confusedly thrust up into the pulpit Men of a farre different temper from those who were in a peaceable and Legall way preferred to those places before Such at Lond. were Holdsworth Hacket Featley Marsh Shoote Squire all men of abilities and such as the Puritans themselves before ever these troubles began followed with admiration These worthy persons who have by their learning and conversation so much advanced the Protestant cause when to satisfy their Conscience and discharge the duty of their callings they endeavoured to prevent the growing evils and to choak the Ieeds of that fatall and deadly division among all the members of this Kingdome were shamefully debarred of their Liberty the exercise of their profession and to compleate their miseries having first made them spectatours of such ignorant malicious and turbulent Firebrands as were preferred to their Benefices and possest of their Houses they thrust them into Dungeons where they still continue loaded with chaines and â—â—ons bemoaâ—ing their owne and their Countryes misery The most of the Cambridge Doctors have well nigh beene in as bad condition for refusing to take up armes against their Prince Above all Doctor Ward who after he had beene Professour of Divinity in that famous University for the space of thirty yeares reputed generally for one of the most pious and knowing men â—â— his time and who had with much vehemence opposed Popery and Arminianisme and all other Innovations of our age hath suffered divers torments by their cruelty who endeavoured to extort his approbation of that tyranny which they exercised upon the Soules of all those they sought to engage in their faction In fine he died having beene kept in bonds as a vile Malefactour His last words acquaint us sufficiently with the nature of his crime I will never said he giving up the Ghost be a Rebell to my King nor well I ever contribute to that outrage which is done to my Prince Those be the debâ—ist fâ—llâ—wes the Bishops set up these be the Monsters whom they chase out of their Pulpits and banish the Churches The 〈◊〉 which the Parliament or rather a franticke people have put in theâ—â— roomes are such as I have formerly describ'd you who preach nothing but injuries and denounce nothing but cursings and yet for all this talke of agreement with us in France Certainly it highly concernes us to entertaine no manner of commerce or allyance with them I speake onely of the outward conformity as for that within what fellowship and unity of spirit can there be betwixt us aâ—d those that are enemies to all Order and harbour so many impurities amongst them These are they of which your Synods must henceforth consist if the Independents doe not quite suppresse them and who must prescribe Rules to Christendome These be they who must mould the Discipline and dispose of the Government of the Church Judge now with what wisedome and holinesse it is like to be governed Let them ordaine or execute what they please the Magistrates must be no better then Lookers on in as much as the Clergy and themselves are two distinct bodies which must needs draw along with it such consequences as are most pernicious both to Church and State For by this â—â—nes a doore is opened not onely to sedition tumults aâ—d civill warres but even to all excesse of 〈◊〉 and licentiousnesse to which that Nation is naturally devoted There would be lesse cause to feare any such disorder might the Bishops be still continued and enjoy their Priviledge of sitting in Parliament The People would entertaine better correspondence one with another and Peace would sooner flourish amongst them The Prelates like faithfull Pastours preaching innocency as well by their practise as their doctrine and as members of a Convention representing the whole State would by their authority nourish good agreement and perfect harmony in all the inferiour Clergy This your Boutefeus and opposers of Episcopacy perceive well enough and therefore would have no Rulers at all neither Bishop nor Magistrate In which respect they are farre worse then the Ministers of that Tyrant of the Church who in shaking off as much as in them lieth all obedience to secular Princes acknowledge a multiplicity of Heads amongst themselves and by the severall ascents and power of superiâ—â—ity which they call Hierarchy and which they have prudently established for prevention of discords and confusion they arrive at last at one to whom all indifferently are bound to submit as to their spirituall Monarch They bragge withall of an intended conformity to Geneva But let me tell them before they can doe this they must abjure that Independence which they are so hot in pursuit of and in stead of being Masters and Lords Paramount in their Consistories they must submit to their just Authority whom God hath in every State deputed to represent his Authority to wit Princes and their Vicegerents For so it is in Geneva where in the place they issue forth their spirituall censures one of the cheife Senatours is alwaies appointed to passe sentence upon offenders without the concurrence of any one besides which denotes the subordination of the Consistory and it's subjection