Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A61034
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The speech of a reverend bishop of the Church of England in defense of themselves and the government against the malicious libels of these times
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Reverend Bishop of the Church of England.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing S4861; ESTC R10360
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3,336
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10
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THE SPEECH OF A Reverend Bishop OF THE CHURCH Of ENGLAND IN DEFENCE OF THEMSELVES AND THE GOVERNMENT Against the Malicious LIBELS of these TIMES Printed in the Year 1679. MY LORDS I Shall not need to speak of the Infamous Course of Libelling in any kind Nor of the Punishment of it which in some cases was Capitall by the Imperial Laws Nor how patiently some great Men very great Men indeed have bourn the tearing and rending of their Credit and Reputation with a gentle nay a generous mind But of all Libels they are most odious which pretend Religion as if that of all things did desire to be defended by a Mouth that is like an open Sepulcher or by a Pen that is made of a sick and a loathsome Quill There were times when Persecutions were great in the Church even to exceed Barbarity it self did any Martyr or Confessor in those times Libel the Governours Surely no not one of them to my best Remembrance Yet these complain without cause and in the mean time Libel and rayl without all measure So little of kin are they to those which suffer for Christ or the least part of Christian Religion My Lords It is not every mans spirit to hold up against the Venome which Libellers spit For S. Ambrose who was a stout and a worthy Prelate tells us not that himself but that a far greater Man than he that 's K. David had found out so it seems in his judgement 't was no matter of ordinary ability Grande inventum a great and mighty invention how to swallow and put off those bitter contumelies of the Tongue and those of the Pen are no whit less and spread farther And it was a great one indeed and well beseemed the greatness of David But I think it will be far better for me to look upward and practise it than to look downward and discourse upon it In the mean time I shall remember what an Antient under the name of S. Hierom tells me Indignum est praeposterum 'T is unworthy in it self and preposterous in demeanour for a man to be ashamed for doing good because other men glory in speaking Ill. And I can say it clearly and truly as in the presence of God I have done nothing as a Prelate to the uttermost of what I am conscious but with a single heart and with a sincere intention for the good Government and Honour of the Church and the maintenance of the Orthodox Truth and Religion of Christ professed established and maintained in this Church of England For our care of this Church the upholding of the External Worship of God in it and the setling of it to the Rules of its first Reformation are the causes and the sole causes what ever are pretended of all their malice against us For 't is most apparent to any man that will not wink that the Intention of these men and their Abettors is to raise Sedition being as great Incendiaries in the State where they get power as they have ever been in the Church Novation himself hardly greater Our main Crime is would they all speak out as some of them do that we are Bishops were we not so some of us might be as passable as other men And a great trouble 't is to them that we maintain that our Calling of Bishops is Jure Divino by Divine Right This I will say and abide by it that the Calling of Bishops is Jure Divino by Divine Right though not all Adjuncts to their calling And this I say in as direct opposition to the Church of Rome as to the Phanatick humour And I say farther that from the Apostles times in all ages in all places the Church of Christ was Governed by Bishops And Lay-Elders never heard of till Calvins new-sangled device at Genova Now this is made by these men as if it were Contra Regem against the King in right or in power But that 's a meer ignorant shift for our being Bishops Jure Divino by Divine Right takes nothing from the Kings Right or power over us For though our Office be from God and Christ immediately yet may we not exercise that power either of Order or Jurisdiction but as God hath appointed us that is not in his Majesties or any Christian Kings Kingdoâ—â— but by and under the power of the King given us so to do And were this a good Argument against us as Bishops it must needs be good against Priests and Ministers too for themselves grant that their Calling is Jure Divino by Divine Right and yet I hope they will not say that to be Priests and Ministers is against the King or any His Royal Prerogatives Next suppose our Callings as Bishops could not be made good Jure Divino by Divine Right yet Jure Ecclesiastico by Ecclesiastical Right it cannot be denyed And here in England the Bishops are confirmed both in their power and means by Act of Parliament So that here we stand in as good case as the present Laws of the Realm can make us And so we must stand till the Laws shall be repealed by the same power that made them Now then suppose we had no other string to holâ— by I say suppose this but I grant it not yet no man can Libâ—l against our Calling as these men do be it in Pulpit Print or otherwise but he Libels against the King and the State by whose Laws we are established Therefore all these Libels so far forth as they are against our Calling are against the King and the Law and can have no other purpose than to stirr up Sedition among the people If these men have any other intention or if they have any Christian or charitable desire to reform any thing amiss why do they not modestly Petition His Majesty about it that in his Princely Wisdom he might set all things right in a Just and Orderly manner But this is neither their Intention nor way For one clamours out of his Pulpit and all of them from the Press and in a most virulent and unchristian manner set themselves to make a heat among the people and so by Mutiny to effect that which by Law they cannot And by most false and unjust Calumnies to defame both our Callings and Persons Put for my part as I pitty their rage so I heartily pray God to forgive their malice No Nation hath ever appeared more jealous of Religion then the people of England have ever been And their zeal to Gods glory hath been and at this day is a great honour to them But this Zeal of theirs hath not been at all times and in all persons alike guided by Knowledge Now Zeal as it is of excellent use where it sees it's way so is it very dangerous company where it goes on in the dark And these Men knowing the Disposition of the people do labour all they can to mis-inform their knowledge and misguide their Zeal and so to fire that into a Sedition in hope that they whom they causlesly hate might miscatry in it For the main scope of these Libels is to kindle a Jealousie in mens minds that there are some great Plots in hand to change the Orthâ—dox Religion established in England and to bring in J know not what Romish Superstition in the Room of it As if the external decent worship of God could not be upheld in this Kingdom without bringing in of Popery Now by this Art of theirs give me leave to tell you that the King is most desperately abused and wounded in the minds of his people For there is not a more cunning trick in the World to withdraw the peoples hearts from their Soveraign than to perswade them that he is changing true Religion and about to bring in gross Superstition upon them For his Majesty This I know and upon this occasion take it my duty to speak There is no Prince in Christendom more sincere both in the Truth of the Religion here established and in Resolution to maintain it And for the Prelates I assure my self they cannot be so base as to live Prelates in the Church of England and labour to bring in the Superstitions of the Chuâ—ch of Rome upon themselves and it And if any should be so foul I do not onely leave him to Gods Judgement but if these Libellers or any other can discover that his base and irreligious falshood to shame also and severe punishment from the State And in any just way no mans hand shall be more or sconer against him than mine shall be For as basely as these men conceive of us yet I thank God we know our duty well both to God and the King And I know that all the duty we owe to the King is under God And our great happiness is that we live under a Gracious and a Religious King that will ever give us leave to serve God first and Him next I shall end all with a passage out of S. Cyprian when he then Bishop of Carthage was bitterly rayled upon by a pack of Schismaticks his answer was and 't is now mine They have rayled both bitterly and falsly upon me and yet Non oportet me paria cum illis facere it becomes not me to answer them with the like either Levities or Revilings but to Speak and Write that only which becomes Sacerdotem Dei a Priest of GOD. FINIS