illa absolutos c. This amongst many others wherein I could instance is but to shew that the King's Judges did controul the inferiour Jurisdictions called Ecclesiastical and Judge whether the cause or contempt deserved Excommunication and accordingly commanded Absolution c. as I have known the Lord Chief Baron in his Majesties Court of Exchequer about seven years ago command Doctor Lake Commissary of Lincoln and then in Court to absolve one King c. to which the Doctor making some tergiversation the Lord Cheif Baron threatned to lay him by the heels for his contempt For it is great insolency for a Commissary Official or his Master the Arch-deacon to excommunicate in their Courts and Visitations the Kings Subjects except by Authority and Commission from God or the King From God they have no power to excommunicate or to hear Causes then hath any Parish-Priest in his Parish if so much And if they have a Commission from the King let them shew it but when they have shewn it I dare say it will run with submission to His Majesties Decrees in his superiour Courts Courts of Record at Westminster Courts of good and great use Courts that have his Majesties Authority and Commission to shew for what they do Courts that do not bear the Sword in vain Courts that are not made up only of an empty noise of Curses and Anathema's thundring and cracking as if they came from Heaven when all is but vox praeteria nihil and not of little or no use but to vex and weary out the Supplicants Suiters and Attendants by enriching some few not of the best of mankind with Money Money And on the contrary how careful have our Kings of England been rather to encourage Parish-Ministers that labour and look after the Flock even in times of Popery as for instance in this Brief sub privato sigillo Edwardi 1. anno regni ejus 33. in these words Rex dilecto sibi Ricardo Oysel Ballivo suo de Holdernesse salutem Mandamus vobis quod de exitibus Molendinorum nostrorum in Belliva vestra faciatis Decimas dari Personis Ecclesiarum in quarum Parochiis Molendina ista existunt prout alii Magnates de regno nostro ac hominis partium illarum Decimas dant de exitibus Molendinorum suorum Et nos vobis inde in compoto vestro ad Scaccarium nostrum debitum allocationem fieri faciemus T. R. apud Westm 20. die Octobris Per breve de privato sigillo And good reason sure had that valiant King to give all due encouragement to the Inferiour Clergy if we consider how he was affronted and defy'd and brav'd by the Prelates Polid. Virgil Angl. Hist l. 17. especially by Robert Arch-bishop of Canterbury so that the King was forc'd to put all the Rebellious Prelates and Clergy out of his protection seizing their Goods and Revenues until they at long-run submitted themselves after a tedious Bustle to which they were encouraged by Pope Boniface I know that the King granted his Favour afterwards and Protection to the said stout Arch-bishop Robert and the rest and suffered the said Arch-bishop to stand by him and his Son upon a wooden Scaffold erected before the Gates of Westminster-Hall for that purpose when with many Tears the King askt Pardon with all Humility not the Arch-bishop's Pardon but that the People would pardon him Walsingham Hist Angl. p. 36. but it was not for his humbling the proud Clergy as aforesaid but for his Arbitrary Government Dicens se minús bene tranquillè quam Regem deceret ipsos rexisse c. Rursum ut libertates contentas in Magna Charta Mat. West An. 1297. p. 409 410. Ypodigmae Neustr p. 84. de Foresta in usu extunc efficacius haberentur voluntarias super his exactiones inductas de caetero quasi id irritum revocaret petentibus Comitibus Baronibus Rex Articulos in praedictis chartis contentos innovari insuper observari mandavit Henry de Knyghton adds Rogavitque Populum accepta licentia ut omnia condonarentur ei orarent pro eo orabant quidam publicè alii vero sic alii vero occulte pauci vero bene Anno 32 Edw. 1. this King was again affronted by Thomas Corbridge Arch-bishop of York For when the King by his Letters Patents granted to Mr. John Bouhs the Prebend of Styvelington in the Church of St. Peter in York and commanded Thomas Corbridge the new Arch-Bishop to admit him c. after two successive Mandates he neglected to do it to the King's damage 10000 l. as in the Plea Rolls of Trinity Term held at York To be seen in the Receivers Office of the King's Exchequer at VVestminster 32 Edw. 1. is at large expressed Thereupon the Arch-bishop being summoned to answer this contempt before the King's Justices he appearing answered That he was always ready to obey the Kings commands so far as he could but he could not admit the King's Clerk because the Pope had conferred the said Prebendary and Chappel thereunto belonging on his own Clerks of whom they were now full and that he could not make void the Act of the Pope his Superiour Lord nor deprive or remove his Clerks And therefore prayed the King to hold him excused refusing to give any other answer Whereupon Judgment was solemnly given against him That what he alledged was no sufficient cause for him not to execute the Kings commands and that all his Temporalties should be seized into the Kings hands for this his contempt c. By which we may see that even in times of Popery the Kings of England have opposed the Popes Innovations and Usurpations and the Kings Justices have taken cognizance of these Ecclesiastical matters and that no Forreign Mandates or Bulls were pleadable in the Kings Courts in bar of the Kings Writs and that long before the Reign of King Henry 8. obedience to the Pope before the King was adjudged a very high contempt in Law and had a suitable punishment and that the Kings Temporal Courts had Soveraign Jurisdiction over the Ecclesiastical Proceedings which is also more evidenced by the several sorts of Mandates dates and Writs even in times of Popery frequently issued out against Arch-bishops Bishops Ecclesiastical Judges and Ordinaries commanding them to do this and that and prohibiting them not to do this and that witness the Writs of Quare impedit Quare incumbravit Quare non admisit de Clerico admittendo de copia libelli deliberanda de permutatione Beneficiorum de revocatione Praesentationis Bracton de Residentia facienda de cautione admittenda de Assisa ultima Praesentationis cessavit de Cantaria de Nonresidentia pro Clericis Regis de Praesentatione ad Ecclesiam Praebendam Capellam c. Nay it seems to me that even in times of Popery the Kings Judges would take no notice of any Excommunications Cook Instit 134.2 but what were decreed by the
16 17 nay the Holy Ghost fell upon the whole Auditory Acts 10.44 And that there should be no mistake St. Peter you must know it was before he was Pope he confesses there was no difference nor Preference nor Prelacy for like Priest like People The people have received the Holy Ghost as well as we The Disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 13.52 so also the Gentiles Acts 15.8 and the Holy Ghost made no difference vers 9. no no 'T is Pride and ambition that makes the difference The Holy Ghost in his gifts made none in Temporal affairs there must be a difference but to Spiritual gifts the poor are entituled as much as the Rich. A Deacon a Presbyter or Priest are names wherewith the Apostles and Primitive Christians were well acquainted but Arch Deacon and Arch Priest c. are but modern coyn and did not pass currant in the Primitive times of Christianity Yet if the ambitions of men did not extend nor aim at any higher reach than to vye with or out vye their equals contemporaries or betters it is still but humane ambition and pardonable But most of the Councils whether Oecumenical Provincial or Synodical since the Primitive times have ever since the Gifts extraordinary of the Holy Ghost left the Church vy'd with the Apostles for the Infallible Spirit in their Assemblies not an ace less would they go Nay which is an ambition not less groundless than vain and ridiculous they would outvy the Apostles in Monopolizing the infallible Spirit to themselves alone the Clergy forsooth Whereas all the people all the brethren as aforesaid received the Holy Ghost as well as the Apostles and they were consulted and their advice askt in framing Canons as aforesaid It being meet that they that were oblig'd should have a hand and a heart a vote and a consent at least by their Representatives in those Decrees that obliged them to obedience But no such matter no for when the French or Spanish faction prevails in the Conclave when an Arrian Emper or makes an Arrian Council and consequently an Arrian Creed as at Ariminum and when an Homousian Emperor makes an Athanasian as in the first General Council of Nice when an Idolatrous Empress makes Canons for worshipping of Images Harangu'd to it by some of her favourite Priests as in the second Council of Nice when Simony Flattery Hypocrisie or Sorcery creates a Pope and a thousand Fopperies Partialities and Interest of Princes swayes in the Conclave of Cardinals yet none of them all will bate a Tittle of the old Preface to their Canons namely It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Constantine the great was no Arrian nor yet Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea before praised whatever some men imagine but without dispute he made the greatest part of the Creed for the whole Council of Nice As may be seen at large in his Epistle to the people of his own Diocess Theod. lib. 1. c. 12. which the great Constantine very well approved of But the Council of Nice had a hand in altering it a little and made some little addition of the word Homousios or Consubstantial which neither Eusebius nor any Orthodox man does gain-say nevertheless that un scriptural word though according to the sense of Scripture made the greatest Schism in the Church that ever was and was at last the great cause of the Turks Conquests and Triumphs over Christendom The Arrians which once was the Major part of Christendom chusing rather to turn Turks that owned and to this day own the Lord Jesus Christ to be the great Prophet of God and with whom they met with fairer quarters than amongst some of the Orthodox so fatal has it been to Christendom to impose unscriptural words upon mens Consciences under the Title of the Infallible Spirit and Holy-Ghost in meer disputable points that will endure Contest to the worlds end As if God and our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost The Holy Trinity did condemn all men as fast as one man condemns another and meerly too because they cannot see to split a hair as few men of all mankind are so quick-sighted betwixt Homousion and Homoiousion or betwixt one substance with the Father and alike substance with the Father I 'le only add the words of Eusebius Theod. l. 1. c. 12. namely Therein in the said first Council of Nice It was Prohibited that any man should make use of any Terms which the Custom of the Scriptures do not allow by which Phrases or Terms have happened all these Revels and Disorders wherewith the Church is thus disturb'd Observe how agreeable that Note of Eusebius is to that Divine 20th Article of the Church of England set down at length in the beginning of this Discourse And how careful our first Reformers were and tender of laying Stumbling-blocks before the weak not delighting to make them fall in hopes to get a top of them or get some booty from them much less did they cram unscriptural Articles Canons and Creeds down mens throats and ram them down with a Curse an Anathema or Excommunication However no c. Creeds and Canons are so ramm'd down Again by what Authority do they lay Injunctions and Burdens Canons and Decrees on all mankind that are Christians Whilst the Roman-Emperour had the universal Monarchy there might be General Councils to whom he gave Command to sit approv'd or disprov'd their Acts and gave life and vigour to their Canons when Enacted But now it is next to Impossible now that both Emperour and Pope have such a Precarious sway that there should be an Oecumenical Council the Old House is too much broken to pieces and divided against it self Besides if there were a General-Council what Tokens are upon them of the Holy Ghost more than upon a Parliament who pretend not to be Bigots nor to have the people Bigotted but ruled by God according to the Laws of the Land they live in in all quietness godliness and honesty and in Righteousness and Holiness according to the Divine Laws of the Land Men live in For if once Men come to dispute Authority and the wisdom of the Laws and Law-makers the next step is Confusion and Rebellion nor did or can any Government under Heaven subsist when they are not able to avow and execute their Laws against all Gainsayers This notwithstanding does not urge that Governours if wise should be wanton in Power and lay unnecessary Burdens upon their people though weak for they are the least able to bear and if the Laws or Canons they impose be nothing but some necessary things as did the said Synod of Jerusalem there are none but obstinate and querulous persons that will refuse Obedience and such must be made to know themselves or else the Government sits very unsteady as being precarious the condition of Supplicants not of such as bear Sway and Authority And one would wonder that those that have Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction if now
command the Sick person to come and visit him or at least give him a meeting at such a Church and such a Tavern and then he shall hear what Prayers he will say over him St. James says Jam. 1.27 pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widdows c. What to do To pill them and poll them No surely that would not be a very pure Religion except of such a pure Religion as is made up of pure Money the Fatherless I suppose like not the visits of such kind of Fathers they had rather they would keep away and not help to make them poorer and add Affliction to the Afflicted of such Visiters better have their Room than their Company Is this your Kindness to your Friends when you come to visit them Hah Indeed I find that Allowance is taken care for in Visitations of old but what Not Money but Food and Drink such as the poor Vicar and his Family makes shift with but never never any Money in ancient time For which let him that lists consult Wil. Lindewood in his Provincial Constit l. 3. de Censubus Procurationibus f. 159 160. Johannes de Aten in his Glosses on Otho's and Othobon's Constitutions f. 43 89. Angelus de Clavasio in his Summa Angelica Tit. Visitatio also Gratian. Distinct 42. cap. non opertet Also Concil Lateran sub Innocent 3 Pap. An. 1215. cap. 33 34. Also Concil apud Castrum Gunter An. 1251. Concil Surius Con. Tom. 3. p. 746. apud Salmar An. 1253. Synod Andegavensis An. 1263. Concil Provincial apud Langres An. 1264. Concil Burdegal An. 1582 c. collected by Laurentius Bochellus Decret Eccles. Gallican lib. 5. Tit. 15. Devisitatione Procuratione personis quibus commissa est potestas visitandi Also Concil Coloniens An. 1549. Concil Trident Sess 24. de Reformatione cap. 3. Thomas Zerula in his Praxis Episcopal par 1. Tit. visitatio They all concur Vt nullus Procurationem recipiat nisi in Locis visitatis duntaxat tum Tantum victuallibus à locis quae visitantur That Meat and Drink when the Visiters are athirst or hungry shall be given them but not one Farthing of Money For says the said Council of London Anno 1200. The Children ought not to lay up for the Parents but Parents for their Children How far is it then from the Piety of Fathers if rich Prelates that ought like good Pastors to provide for the wants of their poor Flocks under them should be burthensom to their Inferiours And therefore the said John de Aton in his Gloss on that clause of Othobon's Constitution f. 89. hath these Words viz. Nos tam Ecclesiarum indemnitati quam Praelatorum saluti consultius provedentes districtius inhibemus nè quis eorum Procurationem quae ratione visitationis debeter ab Ecclesia quacunque recipiat nisi cum eidem visitationis officium impendit qui vero receperit donec restituerit ab Ingressu Ecclesiae sit suspensus By this Law then the Bishops and Archdeacons must make restitution of all the Moneys they received for Procurations or else be Suspended and not suffered to enter into the Church until they restore those ill-gotten Goods Et haec ratio fortè movet Episcopos hujus Regni qui in Visitationibus suis Procurationes ab Ecclesia communiter non exigunt quia ad singulas Ecclesias ob causam Visitationis non declinant lecet plenè personas visitent tà m Clerum quam populum ob hanc causam nunc ad unum locum nunc ad alium congruum convocando cumtamen Procurationem debeant recipere tantum modo de locis visitatis In short Visitations of old were to a good end like that of Paul and Barnabas by preaching the Word again to them to confirm them or strengthen and corroborate them in the Faith Afterwards this Godly usage became a Trade but never till there was Money to be got by it a nusance that Pride and Covetousness invented and continues in spight of the Laws and Canons of God and man For which cause the learned French Bishop Claudius Espencaeus complains in these words Comment in Epist ad Titum c. 1. Minores non tantum Episcopi sed ut Archidiaconi eorumque male officiosit absit verbo invidia nam de malis loquor Officiales Vicarii dum Diocaeses Parochias obequitant non tam facinorosos criminum reos poenis correctionibus à vitiis deterrent quo fine Peregrinationes hujusmodi olim jam fucrint jure canonico ordinatae quam pecuniâ praesenti numeratâ titulo Procurationis nè dicam fictitiae Jurisdictionis emungunt exigunt tum Clericos tum Laicos First they bring their printed Articles for the Church-wardens of every Parish to buy and though they have half a score of them which the Parish has bought ten years together yet still they must buy a new Book every year or lay down the money for it and then you may chuse whether you will take it with you or no Then also the Church-wardens must swear to keep and observe those Articles And are not all that do so forsworn Then they must give money a grant for being sworn then they must swear to Present and if they do not make a Presentment they are Excommunicated if they do put in a Presentment usually written in Court and very brief with an omnia benè for which they pay a shilling then also for putting in the Presentment a shilling more For three shillings and six pence or three shillings and eight pence a Church-warden may escape cleverly But saith the said French Bishop the Minor Bishops and Arch-deacons and their wickedly-officious pardon the Word for I speak only of the wicked Officials and Vicar-generals in their Visitations do not so much deterr men from sin by punishing the criminals as to drain their Purses by exacting ready monies of the Clergy and Laity by the name of Procurations and I know not what feigned Jurisdiction Thus the said good Bishop Espencaeus And therefore in the greatest height of Popery in England the Kings Judges and Justices in his Temporal Courts have usually decreed that Excommunicate persons shall be absolved clave errante when the Judges disallowed the cause for which a man was Excommunicated And many Actions of the Case have been brought against the Arch-deacons c. for Excommunicating men for things out of their cognizance and exceeding the limits of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions namely when they meddle with the right of Patronage exempt Churches being Lay-Fees c. and have made them pay sawce for being so sawcy and pragmatical I 'le instance in one Pat. 18 Edw. 1. m. 26. De libertatibus liberarum Capellarum Regis Rex omnibus c. salutem Inspeximus literas celebri memoriae Domini H. Regis Angliae patris nostri patentes in hec verba Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae
strange Religion is built on this rotten foundation Whereas the Church of Jerusalem on whom the Holy Ghost descended chang'd their Opinions if not their Canons concerning the observation of Circumcision and the Mosaical Ceremonies for Acts 15. they required not those Ceremonies but Acts 21. they did require them nay St. Peter himself would not eat with an uncircumcised Christian Gal. 2. if a Jew was present notwithstanding he was one that made the Canon to the contrary Acts 15. Gal. 2. Acts 21. Acts 15. And St. Paul that reprov'd his inconstancy Gal. 2. and would not Circumcise Titus yet had Timothy Circumcised Acts 21. If the Pillars of the Church warp can we think any other Canon-makers of the Church are infallible so that we must believe all they Decree in spight of our Teeth or else by Excommunication Take him Devil and forty days after Take him Jaylor This is like the Muscovites that acknowledge no Christians but themselves and the Greek Church or like the Donatists that confined the Church of Christ to themselves at least within the bounds of Africa which was a larger extent than was afforded by the Family of Love Gratian. Dist 16. and many of our Sectarists whose Opinions in this kind are derived from Rome like that of Pope Agatho l. That commanded that all the Popes Decrees should be taken for the Oracles of God and as true as if pronounced by the Mouth of God though contrary to Holy Writ Thus the Council of Trent Decreed Conc. Trident Sect. 5. Can. 2. that the Church that is themselves had power to change the Sacraments And the Council of Constance did change the Institution of the Lord's Supper by Robbing the Laity of the Cup with a non obstante to Christs command But now henceforth this being premised I 'le keep to our own Canons and Canon-makers of which Query I. Whether Ecclesiastical Canons that want the Stamp of Legislative-power or Acts of Parliament are necessarily binding and of force to us English-Protestants And this Inquiry was occasioned by a late Discourse or Sermon Mischief of Separation Preached by the Reverend Doctor Stilling fleet May 2. 1680. at Guild-hall upon that Text Phil. 3.16 Whence he exhorts in the words of his Text his Auditory to walk by the same Rule or Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mischief of Impositions yet Canon is not found in some Greek Copies as one has in answer to the Doctor already very ingeniously observed But the accurate Mr. Baxter very pertinently in a Letter to the Doctor puts him upon declaring what is this same Rule or Canon and who makes it which one would think should be very necessary and one of the first things as a foundation on which should be built any pertinent or rational Discourse For if one certain Rule or Canon be not agreed upon it is impossible to know when we straggle and walk disorderly deviate and err And also if Preachers exhort as they ought to walk by the same Rule and yet do not declare what that same Rule is and who is the Rule-maker the Canon-maker or Law-maker they had as good say nothing at all But the wary Doctor waves the answer to Mr. Baxter and either would not or could not or durst not declare what is the Canon and the Rule and Who are the Rule or Law-makers very wisely foreseeing that Mr. Baxter had got him upon the Lock For it had been dangerous for a Protestant Doctor to deny the King and Parliament to be the only Law makers or Rule and Canon-makers But on the other hand if the Doctor had declared against the Pastoral-Head and Synod who stil'd themselves the representative-Church and no man in pain of Excommunication Can. 139 140 141. Anno 1603. to dare to derogate from their Authority possibly he might fear to come within dunger and reach of the Bishops Canons at least he might fear he had in so doing arriv'd at the Pillars ef Hercules and the streights the nè plùs ultrà of his Preferments But no private-ends ought to byass any man or stop his mouth from speaking out and plain such a necessary Truth for want of adjusting this Query What is truth What is the Canon the Rule this same Law we ought all to walk by that we may all speak the same things For if the Trumpet give an uncertain sound an undistinct sound who shall prepare himself to the Battle 1 Cor. 14.8 1 Cor. 14.8 If one Clergy-man sounds a Retreat whilest others sound Boots and Saddles To Horse To Horse Into what confusions will the distracted-people run and no wonder For certainly this is the great cause of our Divisions not to be remedied at least not till agreed among our selves and till we walk after the same Rule For uniformity in Religion ought to be the endeavour as well as Prayer of all true Christians that all of us may Rom. 15.6 with one mind and one mouth too glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 But how is this possible or that Christians should speak the same things and walk by the same Rule when this Rule is not agreed upon no not as aforesaid among our selves For if the Acts of Parliament the universally confessed-Law of England even in Religion be the Rule or Canon and the King and Parliament the only Law-makers or Canon-makers as who dare deny now that the Popes Hierarchical Head is cut off without Incurring a Praemunire and that can and being the only Representatives of the People of England alone ought to make Acts of uniformity in Religion and of all other things especially to have a care of Religion and a watchful eye over Religious men Then how comes the Convocation to call themselves the Representative-Church of England and thunder out Excommunication which with them is eternal Damnation Can. 139 140 141. An. 1603. if men die before they recant and publickly repent their wicked Error in thinking to the contrary And ask any of the Convocation at this day if they also do not look upon themselves and value themselves as the Representative-Church of England and they will not surely deny it For if they be not that what are they But though those that made the Canons in 1603 might in some sense be called the Representative-Church of England and so also were that Synod of London that made the Canons Anno Dom. 1640. which are commonly called the Lambeth-Canons and are Damn'd already as I 'le demonstrate beyond all contradiction if any dare deny so great and evident a Truth Yet the Synods and Convocation now adays have not the Authority they had they are scarce the shadows of those Synods and yet the Authority also of those Synods in 1603 and 1640 and all they did is now abrogated and taken away by Acts of Parliament and their very beings annihilated and made of no force power strength nor vertue as I shall shew hereafter much
each other by Articles and informations endeavouring to make each other more black that were black enough already and by blemishing their Reputations with the General get them turn'd out of their Livings Constantine had work enough says the Historian to keep the Peace amongst them and to keep them quiet and as the best Expedient he call'd them all before him and every ones heart leapt with joy and fear with joy that the Articles he had put in against his adversary should be first read and consider'd but yet in a trembling fear lest the black-lot should be his own from which sears the Emperour forthwith deliver'd them all by making a Bonefire of all the Indictments and charging them thenceforth to keep the Peace And blessed be God for this piety and prudence of the Emperor or else with what strange dismal features had these Holy Fathers been decipher'd to posterity if their Pictures as they had drawn and pourtrayed one another in their Informations had been transmitted to after-Ages instead of being committed to the fire Yet the Clergy The Clergy what by the Piety of some Princes and the simplicity of others got such Immunities and Priviledges to sin and offend the Laws and yet be free from the Cognizance or Jurisdiction of the Lay-Magistrate that they begun to distinguish themselves in Habit from other men and colour of their Clothes as did the Pharisees of old that a man thought himself never so safe as when he had got on a Cassock and Girdle or some such distinguishing weed I doubt not but St. Peter and St. Paul were as good Clergy-men as the best of them and yet after they were Apostles who could distinguish them for such as the word Clergy is now taken that had found St. Peter a fishing with his Fishers Coat tuckt about him and St. Paul in his Loom a weaving But in process of time the Presbyters or Priests begun to call themselves alone the Church themselves alone the Council and Synod and themselves alone God's Heritage or God's Lot or which is all one his Clergy But since this word Clergy has so long obtain'd in the world how properly I have already discuss'd and also is become part of-some Statutes in England I that hate Innovation without great cause will even let it go as it is and take it in its common acceptation hereafter I only have said thus much to show that neither the Name nor the Thing neither the word Clergy nor yet God's Heritage belongs any more to this Tribe of Levi than to other Christians if so much nor that they alone above all others nor some of the few and odd ones amongst them much less are the Representative Church of England and must needs be acknowledged so to be in pain of Excommunication the Gaol and Damnation And by the premises it seems to be evident that there is no Law or Canon at this day in force or of force sufficient to make them such a Representative One Head we all acknowledge viz. Imperial but the Pastoral Head was Beheaded as aforesaid when the Popes Head was cut off And where is that Hydra that dare put his Prelatical Fifth-Monarchy or Presbyterian Head in his room Laymen cannot see so readily the Tokens of the Infallible Spirit amongst these Clergy and Synod-men that they boast of but that they are faulty and frail at least as much as other prudent Men even in that first general Council before praised Arrius had some friends amongst them to the last and such that refused their Bishopricks no common Bigots I 'le promise you and contemning the glorious Caresses and gifts of an Emperour that seem'd to be enamoured and in love with those Reverend Fathers even almost to sin rather than they would subscribe to keep their High seats the Nicene Creed And when after the death of Constantine when the Arrian Creed and Religion came to be uppermost and the State-Religion and the opinion countenanc'd preferr'd and infashion at Court as it did in the days of his Son and Successor Constantius many of the Nicene-Creed-Bishops fac'd about kept their Bishopricks and their Livings being not now neither Non-Conformists like the Vicar of Bray only Athanasius alone stood it out to the last with great constancy In the Seventeenth Canon of the said first Council of Nice it is ordained that no Bishop shall ordain any that are not of his own Diocess without the consent of the Bishop of that Diocess to whom he appertains or if he does the Ordination is null and void Whence note how easie was the Remove from being a Clergy-man back again as you were a Lay-man where was the indelible Character in those days that the Papists prate of The Eighteenth Canon is made against Clergy-men that are Usurers the penalty was loss of his Bishoprick or Living and also the Clergy-man for his Usury was made a Lay-man again so small was the leap from Clergy to Laity In the Twentieth Canon being the last it is piously ordained that no man shall pray kneeling upon the Lords-day or in the days of Pentecost But enough of the Canons and these first Canons and Canon-makers I 'le conclude them as St. Bernard does Homil. 4. super missus est Videas plerosque in Ecclesiâ de ignobilibus nobiles de pauperibus divites factos subitò intumescere pristinae oblivisci abjectionis genus quoque suum erubescere infimos dedignare parentes c. Video alios quos non sine dolore videri debet post aggressam Christi Militiam rursùs saecularibus implicari negotiis rursùs cupiditatibus terrenis immergi cum magnâ curâ exigere muros negligere mores c. You may see quoth he very many Church-men of mean Parentage now made equal with Noblemen of poor Fellows now made Rich and swell so suddenly and look big that the Priest forgets that ever he was Clark nay he 's asham'd of his own Parents and the stock he came on And some Money'd-men you may see fly presently into high Ecclesiastical Dignities and then presently admire themselves for their worth and holiness when alas they have got indeed richer Copes not richer Brains thinking themselves Men of Worth and deserving that great Dignity to which they arriv'd through the assistance of great friends and flattery And if I durst say which they purchast with their Money not with their deserts Not to speak of those that are so hoodwink't with Ambition that their places makes them proud and high and unsociable c. coveting to involve themselves in Secular Affairs and Ambitious Designs after they have listed themselves Souldiers in the Camp of Christ which I am very much troubled to see they being more careful to Erect stately Mannors than to correct their evil Manners c. Query III. Of Procurations Synodals and Visitations Query WHether since by the Laws of this Realm no man ought to take a Purse or exact any Money but by Act of Parliament Procurations Synodals and
Bishop it for filthy lucre against the Law of the Land and Magna Charta against Sacred Councels Fathers and Canons and all this because 't is easie to prey upon their own poor gentle kind though so unnatural as aforesaid I wonder they are not afraid of these Curses and Anathema's if they themselves do believe the vertue of them and Excommunications thunder'd out against the Impugners of Magna Charta so often by the Bishops of old with Bell Book and Candle or do think all these Ceremonial Curses were only of force against the Impugners of the first clause of Magna Charta namely that Holy Church shall be free And do they keep two measures one to buy by and another to sell by But let Magna Charta and the Laws of the Land sleep at present I 'le only henceforth play my Canons against these Exactions turn their own Canons upon them their Canon-Law and the Civil Law and sure their Lay-Chancellors will herein stand by them to divert the shock for they are either good at skill in Civil and Canon Laws of which they are Professors or else what are they good for And can there be any fairer play than to fight a man with his own weapons that he is us'd to and has skill in if in any 'T is Argumentum ad hominem which I 'le make use of and which of all Arguments soonest stop the mouth out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee thou wicked Servant says the Parrable and then it soons follows He was speechless The Apostle Paul us'd such a stabbing Argument ad hominem Rom. 2. Thou that sayest by thine own Law Rom. 2.22 a man should not steal doest thou steal Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge I have instanced enough in the Canon-Law already but if those many already recited will not do I 'le stop their mouths for ever if Canons can do it For none are so frequently met with as Canons to this effect that Censum à Presbyteris Parochianis exigere Tyrannicum est Constitut Apostol l. 2. cap. 32. de Agapis Presbyteris ut qui laborant in verbo doctrina duplex seponatur pars in gratiam Apostolorum Domini cujus locum sustinent tanquam Conciliarii Episcoporum Ecclesia corona Let the Presbyters that labour in the Word and Doctrine have double maintainance for the sake of the Apostles of our Lord whose Successors they are mark that being the Bishops Counsellors and the Churches Crown And those Canons and Constitutions Apostolical in 8. Books are numbred amongst the Books of Canonical Scripture by John Damascen and by Eusebius as also Epiphanius lib. 1. adversus Haereses J. Damasc de orthodoxa fide of the same opinion is Proclus Patriarch of Constantinople and Oecumenius in Comment in Epist 1. ad Timoth. so also in Can. Apostol 84. Athanasius indeed allows them to be of good and wholesome use in the Church but not Canonical as composed by St. Clement the disciple and companion of the Apostles But there are so many things foisted in amongst them by the Pope who long had the keeping of them that though many good things are amongst them they are none of my Creed but good enough to shew against the Canon-Law men and to prove that Presbyters or Priests are not in the judgement of Antiquity such scums and pitiful fellows to stand with cap in hand like so many School-boys before the Bishop whilst he schools them catechises them lectures them and calls them to account from the beginning it was not so as I will shew anon they were his Fellows and Counsellors any where even in the Church The only difference was he sat uppermost but all sat not stood bare-head like so many Boys And can there be any greater cause of the contempt of the Clergy and their neglect amongst the Laity then when they see how the Bishop one of their own Cloth that should best understand their worth slights them good God! whither will not pride and oppression hurry frail man Jubemus Presbyterum tantùm docere Can. Apostol l. 3. cap. 20. baptizare benedicere populo Diaconum ministrare Episcopo Presbyteris We ordain That only the Priest or Presbyter shall preach baptize and bless the people and the Deacon although Arch-Deacon but that he was not then born nor baptized in the Church ought to wait upon the Bishop and the Priests or Presbyters Cavendum sanè est Cabil Synod 2. cap. 14. nè cùm Episcopi Parochias suas peragrant quandam damnosam c. which I 'le faithfully English thus Special care should be taken saith that learned Council lest the Bishops going to visit their Diocesses should play the Tyrants over their Inferiours or over their Fellows and Comrades not exacting money of them by strict and rigorous courses Then follows a Lecture to teach Bishops what they ought to do in their Visitations and what they ought not to do ' They ought to spend their time in inquirendis rebus emendatione dignis in praedicatione verbi Dei in lucris animarum potius quam depraedandis spoliandis hominibus scandalizandis fratribus operam dent in confirming men in reforming what is amiss in preaching the Word busying themselves in gaining Souls and not in spoiling and making a prey of men and giving offence to their Brethren Et si quando eis ad peragrandum ministerium suum à fratribus aut subditis aliquid accipiendum est hoc summoperè observare debent nè quem scandalizent aut gravent Tanta ergò in hâc re discretio tenenda est ut verbi Dei praedicator sumptus ubi proprli desunt à fratribus accipiat item fratres illius potentiâ non graventur exemplo Apostoli Pauli qui nè quem gravaret arte manibus victum quaerebat And if for the work of the Ministery somewhat be to be received either of their Brethren or else of their Inferiours yet let them look to 't that they neither burthen any man nor give offence Such prudence therefore is to be used in this affair that as on the one hand a Preacher of God's Word may recieve somewhat of his Brethren to bear his charges when he has mark that no proper maintenance and Revenue of his own so also his Brethren ought not to be burthen'd with his Mightiship In imitation of the Apostle Paul who chose rather to get his living with his hands and Trade then to be burthensom or chargeable to any Get living with their hands there 's no need of that blessed be God for the munificence and legal provision is enough enough if avarice can possibly have enough to glut men without being burthensom to poor Priests and Vicars Indeed if these Bishops and Arch-deacons were as poor as St. Paul and should come a begging our charity as he did hard-hearted would that man be that would not open his purse for his relief though his Family fasted for