which made shrewd discoveries Secondly again I shall give you the opinions of the two Divines before hinted the first is Dr. Preston who thus delivered himself in a Sermon on Numb 25. 10 11. Not onely the great sins of the profane but the coldness of them that are otherwise good causeth the Lord to remove the Candlestick the old complaint may be now taken up The fire which before was hot is now onely light and p. 291. If we profess the cause of God why go we coldly about it if it be not the cause of God why do we not desert it yea but discretion and moderation must be used It 's true but doth one grace cross another Prudence doth not abate our love but guides it in its labour as for moderation it stands in avoiding the rock in declining the extremes but moderation in a good course is not moderation but coldness and lukewarmness The second is Mr. Bolton in his Gen. direct for comfortable walking with God p. 50. who thus declares Many unsanctifie themselves by making moderation a Saint and undoe their Souls by adoring discretion as an Idol Moderation and discretion truly so called and rightly defined are ornaments to the most zealous Christians but being tempered with coldness and edged against the fervency of the Spirit become the very desperate cut-throats of the power of godliness a pestilent consumption of the spirits heart and life of true zeal It will be confessed they thus wrote in reference to the Papists who as they conjectured were too much favoured But if the Diffenters be as dangerous to the Government and as pernicious to the Souls of those who are taken in their nets which plain matter of fact demonstrates then these censures are as applicable to them For every Schism and rebellion carries in its bosome the transgression of all God's Commandments if our Book of Homilies III. Rebellion which Julian the Apostate thinks the next best Book to the holy Bible inform us aright and if he or any other designing make-bate can say worse of the Papists let them doe it There is another Authour who it seems by the often reprinting of his Book was once in great credit it is Mr. Shepherd who in his Sincere Convert prin an 50. Ed. 5ta p. 159. speaks home to the case his words are Of the nine easie ways which men take to heaven but lead to hell the eight is that of moderation or sober descretion which is nothing else but lukewarmness of the Soul when a man contrives and cuts out such a way to heaven as to please all and displease none if they be rich especially or in power In p. 165. he falls heavily upon fawning Ministers who in their Sermons do mostly shoot a few pot-guns against some grosser sins but will not tell them roundly of their Herodias c. and p. 207. says Thus they cheat the people by their general dawbing Doctrines who conclude themselves to be honest religious men because their Minister hath given them a beggarly pasport for heaven and so they go out of this world and die like Lambs being wofully cheated Mr. Calvin did not like any should be more moderate than Christ our great Exemplar and Law-giver who used severity upon those who upheld an old custome profanely and for their avarice at two several times Matt. 21. 12. Joh. 2. 13. which execution S. Hier. looks upon as an evidence of his miraculous power in that none made any resistence and Musc notes none before did ever attempt it though the Law and custome was over-ruled Matt. 11. 13. In sum the Lay prudential moderate in times of distraction and action will for the most part all but the Caballers stand still as lookers on till they spie the time most for their purpose then if the Faction get uppermost they will strike in go along with it and to loose no time will take the advantage of the first turn in their common language and practice The Clergy will now and then speak of Conformity making use of such arguments as would make an honest well-meaning Soul more averse for scarce a word comes from them of obeying for Conscience-sake mostly to submit for the Laws sake or Peace sake which is to say its good policy at present to conform Again they will for shame of the world say something for Loyalty upon the Fifth of November the Thirtieth of January or the Nine and Twentieth of May very rarely at other times be the occasions never so urgent and vent some general loose expressions as all parties consent in and will serve for the purpose of a Republick or a Monarchy for an Usurper or their natural Liege Lord and then slur over the most pernicious principles of Rebellion and by no means will declare of what denomination they are who assert those principles and pursue the practices consequential to them when they speak most home yet to come off fairly with the populace they have two tricks to please and to cheat them the first is an Application or Use to make an Harangue against Drunkenness Adultery Swearing Sabbath-breaking and other universally condemned debaucheries we know their full aim in this as they would have it taken malicious hypocritical slander the rather because they do not say any thing at all against lying slandering pride malice covetousness and hypocrisie which as they are the more reigning so the more dangerous to the Government and more deadly in their nature propter eorum latentiam as Aquinas for their close sculking within the Soul that it seldom or never is sensible of them no sooner have these devilish deadly sins taken possession but the possessed begin to settle on their lees and ever after sit in the seat of the scornfull for then the Conscience is concerned and the pretence and privilege of Conscience hardens them against all admonitions and reproofs Matt. 21. 31 32. The other trick is to close all with an Exhortation to Union Charity and Forbearance wherein if they have a good meaning it 's a pure impertinency if a bad meaning it 's a piece of hypocrisie and a scurvy reflexion on the Government both Lay and Clergy will occasionally talk at a considerable rate for Loyalty and Conformity ad amoliendum periculum the danger of the Law and suspicion of their insincerity but on all other occasions where no danger of Law as in the Election of Representatives Impannelling of Juries hooking in a rich Widow for one of the Tribe or procuring a confiding cologuing Priest to be admitted upon a Vacancy into a Church they then are tooth and nail for Dissenters or some moderate Dissemblers It may be foreseen with half an eye some will say all this needed not to be so tediously and unseasonably superadded to this it 's soon replyed when the Traitours in Scotland had made a large progress in their rebellious courses some took the liberty to talk freely of the danger this Kingdom was in the rather because the
NO Reformation OF THE ESTABLISHED Reformation By JOHN SHAW Rector of Whalton in Northumberland GALAT. IV. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing Qui non zelat non amat LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-yard 1685. TO The Right Honourable AND RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD NATHANIEL Lord Bishop of DVRHAM His honoured Diocesan My LORD WHEN I designed the publication of the ensuing Treatise it was my resolution to present it to your Honour as once I notified to you which I have now presumed to put in execution though then I had not your express licence to prefix your Honour's name yet by some expressions of respect I conceived you would not be offended if I did Upon this presumptive allowance as I was encouraged so upon other obligations I was engaged to doe it I have received high respects from your Lordship upon several occasions and instances which I ought whenever an opportunity was offered to acknowledge with all due veneration neither could I pitch on a more fitter than this how mean and little soever it is The old Rule was He who could make no better payment should readily confess the debt Reddit qui libenter debet holds still good with noble and generous Spirits But this is onely a debt of gratitude and common honesty and an argument of good nature to honour those who have deserved honour but an higher obligation from a more divine principle is due from an inferiour Priest to his Diocesan That Order Let nothing be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the permission or consent of the Bishop I wish it were better observed is so strongly binding that I think every Curate without offence I hope to the greatest Rectors or Vicars is to apply himself in all doubts and emergent cases of difficulty to his Diocesan for resolution and all his Clergy should in all publick Undertakings have either his express or reasonably presumed consent especially if they be such as this Treatise makes a shew of viz. The asserting the excellency of our Reformed Church for its strength and beauty surpassing all others both for soundness of Doctrine purity and comeliness of Worship and Apostolicalness of Government A Church for this reason the more excellent because most opposed for as the hardest things are the most excellent so the most excellent are most aimed and shot at One sort perfectly hateth because they fear her as long as she holds up her head they must lowr fret and storm and never perfect their projects yet they most malign and vilifie her who by all humane and divine Laws should live in obedience to her No Church hath had more furious assaults made on her but her enemies were still repulsed a Church of that firmness that the Gates of Hell even when Satan was let loose could not prevail against her This is her comfort all the Reformed Churches of any good figure give her the right hand of Fellowship and of preeminence too The very attempt then to defend this Church is both Heroical and Christian how weak soever the Undertaker be he may have and hath a good heart though his hands be feeble It is true Non eget auxilio tali nec defensoribus istis yet if a Puny manage a Cause under dispute with good success against an old experienced famous Lawyer pleading on the other side he himself gains a little esteem but its great reputation to the Cause That Cause was good which so mean a man could defend This is my case who am sufficiently sensible of mine own weakness but very hearty to defend that Church whereof I have been a Priest for full forty eight years ordained by one of your Lordship's Predecessours for this I have suffered and do yet suffer in some sort sufferers may have leave to speak this I will defend when I can doe no otherwise by Pen while I am able yet always and no otherwise but permissu Superiorum upon which account I tender this address begging your Ghostly Benediction and that you will still repute me as Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father Your most obedient Son and Devoted humble Servant John Shaw PREFACE THEY who understand what Reformation means need not trouble themselves for a solution to that captious silly demand of the Papists Where was your Church before Luther for to reform is but to amend what is amiss to correct and rectifie what is faulty the same numerical subject still existing Reformation is like the renovation of a sinner Eph. 4. 22 23 24. Saul the Persecutour was the same man in kind with Paul the Professour The Prodigal who took his journey into a far Countrey was the same individual person who returned to his Father's House a penitent But because Reformation is sometimes necessary yet at all times dangerous men being apt to run violently from one extreme to another jumping over the golden mean therefore that it be warrantable it ought to be duly circumstantiated by just methods and measures which by the good providence of God and I think direction and guidance of his Holy Spirit hit on the right way observing all requisites for the happy management of that great work when she reformed her self For 1. It was done by just and lawfull Authority the King and Clergy of the Kingdom concurring as our late excellent King observed saying I am confident to make it clearly appear that this Church did never submit nor was subordinate to the two Houses of Parliament and that it was onely the King and Clergy who made the Reformation the Parliament merely serving to help to give the civil Sanction His Majesty's Second Paper to Mr. Alex. Henderson Part 1. fol. 165. 2. They had good grounds to undertake the work for that there was a necessity of Reformation the Testimony of Adrian the Sixth and Cardinal Pool de Conc. p. 86. will assure besides it was the desire or pretence of all Kingdoms in the Western division of the Church especially by the Emperours of Germany and Principalities therein 3. That they proceeded with due moderation is declared Can. 30. For we profess as they did our Separation was not from the Church of Rome but its Errours our Church is the same it was before onely differing as a garden weeded from the same unweeded as the body purged from the same unpurged What they did was to separate the pretious from the vile the dross from pure metal The Church was then like Jeremy's Baskets of Figs Jer. 24. there were good very good Figs in one in the other the Figs were evil very evil so in the Church there was on one side good very good things in another part evil very evil things and our Reformers as they cast out the evil so they were very carefull to retain the good What can we think then of our desperate Dissenters who despise these Dominions and speak evil of these Dignities who have undertaken this work with courage
Diocesan or Patriarchal Churches as well as Rome yet even this would justifie our Separation because it was our duty to reunite our selves to the Catholick Church all several Churches being but partes simulares homogeneal parts of the whole Whereupon it followeth that that Church which keeps closest to the primitive Catholick Pattern and holds the nearest alliance with it is the purest and that several Churches having such a relation to and dependence upon it neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to act as divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but are to teach and to be taught and to doe all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned to the whole and as Members of the same indeterminable Society Sect. 4. Suppose we should yield to another project of Reformation the issue will be confusion and desolation for if we may conclude their intentions from their former practices and present principles the design is to over-rule or abolish all their way was to strike at all root and branch and now they are for removing the Laws Their course of regulation is to rase the Walls of the City if they can if not to undermine them Down with the Church of England is the Popish Plot and the direct way to this is to divide it All the Papist Pot Cannons and Sophisms could never batter or shake our Jerusalem till some of the Citizens thereof made breaches in it Nay the Romanists never made an approach upon it till the Puritans had made an assault these gave the other both the opportunity and encouragement to attack it Tush say the Popelings let us levell this the Mushrome Sectaries will either fall in the ruines of it or else into our hands they have been very serviceable Tools to us in all our attempts and no doubt will be so on to the end if ever we effect it and then we know how to engage their tender Consciences let it but appear to them which we will not fail to doe they can gain by the barter they forsooth have a new light a new dispensation of Providence and they must wait on Providence and follow that light Sect. 5. What will the consequence of this work be if it go on Is it to remove what is established before we resolve where to fix This were certainly mad work to demolish old Structures before we have advised of the fashion of the new Perhaps a model is fansied but are all the Dissenters agreed about it When they had power too much and time too long to resolve on a settled way even then they neither would or could unite nor ever will or can This we are sure of none of the schismatical Parties can have their own ends unless all be taken away which crosseth their humours or interests and if this be done by violence or by Law not one of ten shall have his own ends which because they cannot obtain their feuds will be high till one party get the full mastery and then the Plot of Union is marred But who shall be taken into this motion to have the benefit of it If all nothing can follow but confusion without remedy and scandal beyond an Apology If one onely Party which yet is unknown what it is then the others if they dare will stand out and oppose it if not they will murmur and repine and thus expostulate Why should they be secluded Members debarred of the privilege of Comprehension This say they we can say for our selves we were drawn into the Lines of Communication by the persuasions and solicitations of their gratified Partizans and Comrades and though they say it have as much promoted the good Old Cause In this indeed we are all agreed we shall never enjoy Liberty of Conscience till we have power to kill and take possession neither likely to have Free Trade till without any respect to Law we can plunder and sequester Malignants and shall we who are fully accorded with them be laid aside If it be pretended the favoured will give good security for their good behaviour for the future whereof there is yet no evidence we are as free as they not doubting to affirm we are the more sober and peaceable in whom there is a more sweet and gratious spirit of love and zeal and have been more constant to their principles than they For we can prove many of them were active Conformists soon after proved persecuting Presbyterians then dough-baked Independents and now again have tacked about and are Cologueing Compliers However if some be received into favour and others rejected there is plain partiality in the case if all must be entertained a downright unaccountable Schism follows But to wave the Persons to be comprehended what Things must be granted them for an Union If onely a few unsatisfactory alterations be tendered the project is baffled we should be as far from Unity as now we are for then the clamour would be our burthens are a little mitigated but not removed our grievances are abated but not fully satisfied we must not leave an hoof behind us when we go out of Egypt If many and great alterations be submitted to then they triumph in their Conquests they had not onely Providence on their side but reason also and argument and then we shall hear of nothing in Pulpits Clubbs and Coffee-houses but stories of their mighty Acts that their Enemies are now under great convictions that they are the Godly conscientious Gods secret Ones and the good Old Cause must needs be God's Cause Having premised these Considerations let us next reflect upon the matters on which this motion of Reformation must proceed and first of that which is most opposed the Government CHAP. II. COncerning it the most proper method will be to discuss these following Propositions 1. That Church Government is necessary 2. That necessary Church Government ought to be one and the same throughout the Christian world at all times 3. That one Church Government is Episcopacy which hath prevailed ever since the first plantation of Christianity Sect. 1. Church Government is necessary for these reasons The Church is a Society which cannot subsist without it It is a Body whose parts are compacted each whereof hath its proper Office and Service it is that Body whereof Christ is the Head who therefore will provide for its preservation and peace by placing Governours over it which de facto he hath done 1 Cor. 12. 28. It is the House of God whereof Christ is the Lord who hath reserved this prerogative to himself to nominate and constitute the Stewards of his Houshold and Family as he did Luk. 12. 42. hence those commissionated by him are called the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Therefore for any to exercise a power in his House who is not authorized by him or to reject those powers which he hath entrusted to provide for his Family and rule his House is a most sacrilegious invasion and
Concord l. 6. c. 4. sect Igitur observes Indeed in the Latin Church Presbyters did lay on hands with the Bishop at the Ordination of a Presbyter yet this was observed not for its validity but for its solemnity and attestation For the African Fathers who ordered it ascribed the entire power to the Bishop Cod. Afric c. 55. 80. and even at Rome besore S. John's death Presbyters were settled in several Parishes by Enaristus Caron p. 44. and therefore we may believe before that the same was done in earlier converted Churches Mr. Toung in his Notes on S. Clem. 1. Ep. ad Cor. out of a Book which Mr. Petty brought from Greece hath this Sentence S. Peter was in Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 settled Churches by laying hands on Bishops Priests and Deacons It will not be amiss to superadd how far the Waldenses concurred in judgment upon this case with the Church of England which we find Parsons third part of the Three Conversions of England cap. 3. p. 44. who relates from Vrspurg Trithem Antomin and others that they onely approved three Ecclesiastical Orders at which his tender Conscience was moved viz. That of Deaconship Priesthood and Bishops which is very probable for the Fratres Bohemi to continue a succession of Bishops sent twelve men to the Waldenses in Austria to be ordained Bishops by their Bishops which was accordingly done and Corranus a Spaniard one of the Waldenses flying thence into England was retained a Preacher at the Temple and dedicated a Dialogue to the Lawyers there an 1574. in the close whereof he maketh a confession of his Faith where he declares his judgment herein I hold saith he there be divers Orders of Ministers in the Church of God viz. Some are Deacons some Priests some Bishops to whom the instruction of the People and the care of Religion is committed This we are sure of S. Bernard complains heavily many Bishops were of their Communion This was the primitive Establishment Conc. Cart. 3. and 4. Chal. Act. 1. for which reason Nazian in Vita Basil enforms us that he rose to his Bishoprick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the order and rule of spiritual ascent one degree after another So S. Hier. writes of Nepot in Ep. Fit Clericus per solitos gradus c. Num. 7. If S. Augustine's known and generally approved rule be admitted then the Order of Bishops is truly Apostolical because maintained in all Apostolical Chruches before any general Council had determined it And Tert. his Sorites will make it good which was that is truest which is first that is first which was from the beginning that was from the beginning which was from the Apostles that was from the Apostles which was inviolably and religiously observed in all Apostolical Churches Calvin speaks fairly to the case and so doth Beza too if their words may be taken who have tricks to eat them in the former saith the Bishops of the ancient Church made many Canons with that circumspection they had nothing almost contrary to the word of God in their whole Oeconomy l. 4. Instit c. 1. sect 14. but more fully thus they did not frame any other form of Government in the Church than that which God prescribed in his word The latter averreth what was then done was done optimo Zelo if so then they did it from warranty either from the Scripture or universal Tradition S. Hierome himself once said it was an Apostolical Tradition and when he said it was a Custome he proved it a good one because ordered for a good end as a safe remedy against Schism and an Apostolical Custome because taken in the Apostles times when one said I am of Paul c. which happened an 58. The disparity of Bishops and Priests was so religiously maintained in the primitive Church that the Fathers in the Council of Chalc. Act. 1. adjudged it sacrilege to bring down a Bishop to the degree of a Presbyter and the Doctrine of parity was condemned as flat Heresie in Aerius because he positively affirmed that there was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. one Order one Honour one Dignity in the Priesthood Dr. Crack Defens Eccl. Anglic. contra Arch. Spal p. 242 243. Bishops then as they were settled in matricibus Ecclesiis the Apostolical mother Churches so have been continued in all successive Ages without any considerable opposition for 1500 years which is so strong and cogent an argument to some who have not been over-fond of Episcopacy they have resolved it unanswerable since the Order hath been canvassed by some yet is still retained either in the Name or Thing in all the Eastern and Southern Churches generally in the Western and Northern reformed and others unless in two or three petty Associations in comparison of the rest where by reason of some cross circumstances it cannot be obtained though highly approved and much affected by most of their learned men never disowned or abominated by any but those whose zeal for the good Old Cause is immoderate S. Augustine's expression insolentissima insania insolent madness Num. 8. If these Structures be built upon the Foundation of the Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone the Fabrick is as firm as Mount Sion which may not be removed For if the Apostles did settle Bishops in their several Plantations and these such as the Prelatists plead for then that is the one necessary Government to be retained in the Church For the Apostles being inspired by the Holy Ghost they did then act and order the Church according to his directions Amesius himself resolves what is Apostolical Stands by Divine Right his words are Med. Theol l. 2. c. 15. n. 28. The Apostles were acted by the Divine Spirit no less in their Institutions than in the very Doctrine of the Gospel propounded by word or writing This he delivers to assert the Divine Authority and unalterableness of the Lord's day and will therefore hold here For if Episcopacy stand in the Church by the same authority that the Lord's day doth which Dr. Hammond hath fully proved then it hath the same Divine Authority for its Establishment This King James saw and so Premonition p. 44. is very positive That Bishops ought to be in the Church I always maintained as an Apostolical Order and so the Ordinance of God The Dissenters who allow of Church Government as such have often declared what concerns the rule of Government in the Church by Officers appointed by Christ is unchangeable Now that the Bishops are those Officers hath been evidenced from Scripture Rules and Precedents and confirmed by the suffrage of a cloud of Witnesses who as they accord in their Testimonies so were faithfull unto death some whereof were the chosen Witnesses of Christ's Resurrection some were immediate Successours to those ordained by the Apostles others of the highest reputation in the Church for testifiers of Catholick Tradition all of them had and still have such credit in the
Christian world that their attestation hath ever since been reverenced and accepted in momentous matters of Religion such as the religious observation of the Lord's day the number and integrity of the Canonical Books of holy Scripture the Baptism of Infants c. Episcopacy at least stands upon the same grounds with these if these upon the true measures of Piety and Religion be not alterable neither is it The most learned of the Dissenters have been forced to use the same proofs for these which we do for Episcopacy when they have not done so they have been baffled in a good cause as hereafter may be exemplified The Conclusion then is to attempt a Reformation of Episcopacy by its extermination is contrary to the sure and standing Rules of Christianity CHAP. III. THIS is farther to be discussed in point of prudence whether the change or standing thereof will conduce more to the publick interest which may be dispatched by these observations SECT 1. They who to the diminution or abolition of Episcopacy have or would set up new models of Church Government are either the Erastians the Presbyterians the Independents or the Pontificians The three former were hatched since an 1510. the last was long of hammering but was never rightly cast till Julius the Second moulded it at Lateran and of a crackt piece made it whole Now every of these will prefer Episcopacy caeteris paribus before any of the other Platforms but their own espoused Darling which they would have all to accept because complying with and favouring their wordly designs and interests But ask seriously any of the more observing and understanding men which of the Claimers they would rather incline to provided they could not possibly procure their own to bear the sway they will fairly take to Episcopacy Num. 1. The Erastians will by no means joyn with the Pontificians because they challenge and usurp a power to take cognizance in causes merely Civil in ordine ad spiritualia Not with the Presbyterians because they also claim the same sub formalitate Scandali both of them maintain the power both of make and confirm Ecclesiastical Laws as originally and radically in their supreme Judicatures the Civil Magistrate is onely to execute them which he must doe upon their Significavit's and Writs of Requisition at his peril otherwise he shall be clogged with their Sentences of Excommunication Nor do they much fansie the Independents because they will not endure the Civil Magistrate to interpose in Church matters nor have the least stroke in externals of Religion As for the Bishops though it be a grievance that they sometimes meddle in matters of a mixt nature yet because they know that what they act in these cases is by authority derived from the Civil Magistrate according to the known standing Laws they esteem Episcopacy as the most safe and expedient form and so Bishops may stand for the present till they can by rebellion grasp again all Civil and Ecclesiastical power in their clutches Num. 2. Independents utterly dislike both Erastians and Pontificians and though they can associate with the Presbyterians at present yet they hold no good opinion of them In a Book entituled Saint John Baptist they heavily declaim against them saying They had established a Dagon in Christ's Throne had stinted the whole worship of God c. at last it came to this they had rather the French King yea the Great Turk should rule over them In a Book called The Arraignment of Persecution they declared If ever the Presbyterians rule in chief an higher persecuting spirit would be found in them than they had felt from the Bishops J. O. hath excellently decyphered these Num. 3. The Presbyterians grin at them all Beza is as angry at Erastus Socinus and Morellius as the Pope Mr. Henderson's tender Conscience started at the thought of them The Books are commonly to be had wherein they oft and sadly complained all that they could expect for their expences of Bloud and Treasure none of their own was to be recompensed with greater grievances and more dangerous licentiousness which is too true than they ever mourned for which is very false for most of them were colloguing compliers under the Government of King and Bishops At last they cried out Matters were come to that pass they had exchanged a bad Religion for none at all See Excom Excom p. 18. inde And Edwards his Gangrene Num. 4. The Papists of all men had the advantage but the more sober considering men among them have expressed That all their purchases of Proselytes were no compensation for those miseries they had sustained and still feared from the Junto's and that they were much more happy under the former Government which secured their civil Liberties and Birth-rights SECT 2. But let it be for once presumed that each of those Models had somewhat good yet withall recollect that the Constitution of this Church is of so excellent a mixture with the choicest ingredients that it will effect those great ends so much pretended by them more strongly and obligingly if it may attain its just value and respect For Num. 1. The Erastians are to be commended for their pretended care and endeavours that the power of the Civil Magistrate be not infringed by any Ecclesiastical Usurpation So far good if they were not possessed or rather pretend onely to be with fears and jealousies that this Church approved some principle to the diminution of the Civil Power which what it is none can with any colour of reason conjecture unless this be it that whilst she fully renders to Caesar the things that are Caesar's she is still cautious to reserve to God the things that are God's Erastus the first Founder of that Order had no prejudice against any thing determined in this Church upon that score if we respect either the motives which induced him to quarrel the Allobrogian Model or the Arguments he framed against it The Motives were 1. He had observed that Calvin had so cunningly contrived it that he and his assisting Ministers could upon every occasion overtop the Statesmen The artifice lay herein he took for a blind onely six Ministers but twelve Syndicks yet so that the Ministers were to continue for life but the Statesmen to be annually chosen whereby he conceived these changling Officers would be so wary as not to cross the standing Moderatours which so happened as he himself signified in his Epistle to Bulling Semper fuimus in ist a promiscua colluvie superiores We had always the better in that rifraff Junto 2. He knew those chosen Officers had neither age or experience nor judgment nor manners a full description of the late Lay-Elders to enable them to sustain so great an employment with credit and honour 3. He was provoked that a Malecontent English fugitive had liberty to discuss this Thesis viz. That in every well-ordered Church this Government was to be retained in which the Ministers with the concurrence of
pia fraus 2. The Zealots of the Sect honour an honest unpremeditated prayer with the title of Spiritual by way of propriety in opposition to set Forms for ordinary use pretending the Spirit immediately suggests the expressions Thus Ambrose in his experiences published with Licence from Herle once Prolocutor of their Assembly Angier Johnson and Waite Provincials in the Class in Lancashire upon a private Fast observed Jan. 6. 1642. held it forth The Lord gave some that exercised that day the very spirit and power of prayer to the ravishment of the hearers surely it was the Spirit spake in them which they resolved from Zach. 12. 10. Rom. 8. 26. This is a Jesuitical Cheat as it is reported by Maffeus elevante spiritu c. that the Spirit would raise Ignatius at his prayers four cubits from the earth 3. The great Sticklers for the good old Cause so highly extoll extempore conceptions that they own them as the best evidences of their Party and Piety first idolizing that which in some is mere natural in others an artificial habit of Enthusiasm as Casaubon hath evidenced c. 4. next idolizing the persons pretending to it who have been very monsters of men such as Achitophel who as the Rabbins relate prayed every day thrice and every time had a conceived Oration such as Basilides the great Duke of Muscovy and Oliver two most bloudy Villains and Tyrants such as the blasphemous Hacket here in England and the vile Wretch were in Scotland the horrid execrable Regicides and the whole litter of our late Mammon Rebels and Renegadoes SECT 5. It is confessed by the most knowing men of the Party that imposed stated Forms were in common practice in the Fourth Century which is an Argument they were so from the beginning For the Fathers of that Age being persons eminent for piety and sincerity in the Christian profession would not innovate and being also men of excellent accomplishments would easily have observed what was most proper for the discharge of their Function Had they believed that lowsie Fancy that the modification of publick Worship by personal abilities was the formal act of the ministerial Office as the cutting of Cloath into such a shape by his own skill is the formal ministration of a Taylor as an Anonymus p. 79. of his Survey mechanically held forth they doubtless would have made use of their great personal abilities in their publick administrations which confessedly they did not and it is certain they would not doe so because they conceived themselves obliged to retain the ancient Forms in veneration to those pious persons who composed and injoyned them for publick use The Third Council at Carthage c. 3. resolved Quascunque c. Whatsoever prayers any shall transcribe for themselves let them be taken out of a Copy before in use S. Basil de Sp. Sanct. c. 27. refers to the solemn words of prayer observed before his time in the benediction at the Eucharist Saint Chrys Hom. 2. in 2. ad Cor. exemplifies a Form which had long before been constituted in the Church In Ireland S. Patrick brought a Liturgy which he received from Germanus and Lupus originally taken from S. Mark Archbishop Vsher in his Discourse of the Religion professed by the ancient Irish affirmeth he had seen it set down in an ancient Fragment well nigh nine hundred years since remaining now in the Library of Sir Robert Cotton That every exception against those Liturgies of Saint James c. that they were supposititious is an argument that such there had been for if they were corrupted something was pure if somewhat was supposititious in them somewhat also was genuine One trifling objection against our Liturgy which serves to amuse the Vulgar is not to be neglected It is this The first Reformers industriously contrived the Common Prayer Book to endear the Papists to its use This in the judgment of wise men is to commend them Zanch. in Phil. 4. 8. thought the gratification of bad men in those things wherein we do not offend God to be a duty Amyral de Secess ab Eccl. Rom. p. 225. highly approves this course atque hic commemorare c. we are here to consider with what wisedom and moderation the French and Genevian Churches contrived their publick Forms of Prayer They are so far from handling any controversial matters therein that the Pontificians themselves scruple not to use them and which is scarce to be believed but that the matter of fact is notorious they have picked out of them certain Prayers which they have inserted into their Manuals for the use of the people in their native Language The objectors might have remembred that Book took with the Romanists for full ten years of Q. Elizabeth's Reign probably had longer but that their dear Friends the Puritans had disturbed the peace of the Church which gave the Pope an opportunity to dispatch his Emissaries and ever since both Parties have bandied against it The Consectaries of the premisses are stated Liturgy from Scripture with the practice of the primitive Christians and continued in the Catholick Church is the best service of God and our Liturgy being perfectly conformed thereto is to be retained It was then no vanity or presumption in Archbishop Cranmer to engage against all opposers thereof if he was permitted to take Peter Martyr with three or four more for his assistants he would prove there was nothing therein contained but what was agreeable with the holy Scriptures and primitive Antiquity Bishop Jewel had great reason to assert Accessimus c. We came as near as possibly we could to the Order used in the Apostles times Apol. par 5. c. 15. divis 8. and more fully par 6. c. 16. divis 1. We came as near as possible we could to the Church of the Apostles and of the old Catholick Bishops and Fathers and have directed according to their customs and ordinances not onely our Doctrine but also the Sacraments and form of Common Prayer so false and absurd is that fancy that our Liturgy is formed out of the Roman Missal that so far as it is Popish is nothing else but a bombast of corrupt additionals patched to it CHAP. V. THE next Charge against the Reformation is that Ceremonies are retained and enjoyned SECT 1. That circumstances may be determined the Assemblers have resolved Pref. to the Direc p. 7. viz. They endeavoured to hold forth such things as were of Divine Institution and to set forth other things according to the rules of Christian prudence agreeable to the general rules of God's word and some of these other things are Ceremonies for a determination of the posture of the Body in Divine Service is one which they pass when they order the people to sit at the Table and in the Office of Marriage they will and require the Man to take the Woman by the right hand c. which they accompt a Ceremony or else their immediately subsequent clause is non-sense viz.
case the Newcastle Presbyterian stinted us a time for so long as he is the Peoples Trustee which he is not if he fail in his trust whereof the good People are the Judges and if he be deposed we need neither to respect his Person nor his Authority The third is I will conform to the Liturgy c. The reservation is though we are not free yet for once we can and will conform because we shall thereby secure our Places and Offices and keep our Employments and Trusts and be in a condition to befriend the Clanns who have canvassed hard for us and better enabled us to drive on an interest and manage a Plot. The fourth is I do hold there lies no obligation upon me or any other person from the Oath commonly c. The evasion is very right if we make use of any eternal force or violent resistence but for all that we may meet draw Disciples after us form Parties inveigle Confederates hold correspondence and receive intelligence from the Whiggs but this is farther to be observed which mark we beseech you though we will not attempt any alteration of Government upon the score of the Covenant yet there is an obligation so to doe from other principles Nature's Dowry c. with many impertinent Maximes and mangled Precedents but especially from that connatural and gratefull thing which we call Self such as Self-preservation Self-interest Self-conceit and twenty Selfs more which we must not part with for a world as we are instructed by pretious men from good Book-cases The last is The same was an unlawfull Oath and imposed upon c. Here many of them stick but they will plunge through such experienced Masters are they in the craft of shuffling they will make or find an hole to creep out at when closely beset Some dare pretend an unlawfull Oath is still obligatory others plead the Oath was lawfull as the times went the then present Laws were on their side But that blunt blade spoke the sense of the Guzmans who said Oaths whether they were taken or not have no effect For says he if the matter be antecedently lawfull it remains so after the Oath and then whether it be taken or not the obligation is no more nor less than it was before the taking which is to say in plain English If we renounce the Solemn League and Covenant yet the matter being antecedently lawfull they are obliged notwithstanding the abrenunciation constantly to adhere thereto others of them again have a faculty to conjure up a set of distinctions to evade the force of any Oath as Pryn Marshall Downing who tell you either interpretations must be put upon them or they will not bind against the work of Reformation the end of the Covevant must be pursued swear what we will to the contrary Hollingworth of Manchester stood close for the Covenant but he disputed as hotly against the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance as Mattheus Tortus alias Bellarmin ever did The Anonymus true Nonconformist will allow the Oath of Allegiance to be taken provided it be interpreted by the Covenant which may not be crossed but he bids open defiance to the Oath of Supremacy as an Antichristian badge King James found by experience along while ago no Oaths will bind them we have greater reasons to believe his experience having had far more trials of their falseness and insincerity than ever he had even the Covenant it self will not hold them if it be their interest and advantage to break it because it is the Resolution of their own Casuists That an Oath obligeth not in the sense of the imposer but the taker but which is much more monstrous some of them assert That the swearer is neither bound to the meaning of him who exacts the Oath nor to his own meaning who takes it but to the reality of the thing sworn as it shall be hereafter at any time explained by a competent Judge All their Declarations Remonstrances and Appeals to heaven and the world are but mockeries contradicted by practice 8. Some love to pretend that a small alteration in established Laws would satisfie them to try if by these arts they could bring the wisedom of a Nation to yield to them in that and when they have obtained it a thousand objections would be raised that never before were mentioned This is a right Puritan prank experimented in the late times of confusions and in our present circumstances several matters have been started which at first they never so much as dreamed on certainly never spoke of them So much hath been already yielded as would not onely satisfie but endear any modest meek persons under their circumstances but we are never a whit the nearer that mark which was aimed at in those condescensions Nay yield what you can with honour and conscience they will presently make odd constructions of the grant Some fansie it a work of God in favour of them towards another turn and then they will fall in with the first opportunity others say God will not suffer their Reformation-work to fail for they have a stock of prophecies and promises to assure them of success others conclude the granters would not be so favourable unto them unless they were sensible of their own weakness and therefore let us fall on and prosecute the good old Cause and in a little time all will be our own But suppose such moderate projects be put to trial in the issue they will be found unpracticable They are pretty pleasant fancies and speculations to the politick contrivers very strange amusing things to the vulgar and fine matters of discourse to the busie inquisitive but when they come in good earnest to be transacted the matter is so perplexed and intricate so many quaeres are proposed so many difficulties to be resolved so many interests to be served that they spend time to bring forth a Mouse and after much expence of c. the pitifull projectours break up are dissolved and quite dashed out of countenance all the satisfaction they can give themselves and all the excuses they can make to others comes barely to this They had a good meaning there was honesty at the bottom but men value their interests and reputation at so high a rate as one moderate Sage observeth they will not buy the truth that 's the naked truth indeed and peace with the loss and damage of these 9. It is not wisedom nor safe to give toleration to Wolves among Sheep till they abate their monstrous uncharitableness renounce their Oaths and give security of their good behaviour in not seducing others This the Leaders of the Puritan Faction will never doe they are bound by their principles to engross Godliness and Saintship to their party and by their interests never to renounce their Oaths nor give over their crafts of seduction 10. If new Laws be made more accommodate to our present State yet all care ought to be taken and caution used that