Solis Levitis Sacerdotibus constaret That as near as might be the endeavour was it might consist only of Priests and Levites whence Josephus and Philo oftentimes under the Title of Priests understand the Sanhedrim Come we down to David whose Government was a Pattern to all his Successors his Reign was peaceable and flowrishing nor did he want States-men of the most raised abilities for his employments Yet did not this Wise this Holy Prince think it inconsistent with the Sacred Function which yet St. Austin tells us in some respects Operosius Ministerium than that of the Gospel to engage Levites in his weightiest secular Charges For we find Hathaliah and his Brethren appointed Officers on this side Jordan not only in the business of the Lord but in the Service of the King And Jerijah another in Holy Orders is made Plenipotentiary or Ruler over the Reubenites the Gadites and the half Tribe of Manassah in every matter pertaining to God and in the affairs of the King likewise 1 Chron. 26. 30. 32. Nor was he singular in it but was Imitated by good Jehosaphat who made the Priests and the Levites Judges of all the Controversies in Israel not excluding matters of Blood 2 Chron. 19. 8 10. Now run over the Catalogue of all the Kings of Israel and were any to be paralled with these I am sure that none went beyond these none whose Government did more prosper with Righteousness Justice and Tranquility And though under the rest of the Kings we have no express mention of the same practice yet all things considered we have more reason to conclude it held than the contrary for we find Jehoiada the Priest chief Counsellour to Joash 2 King 11. And if we look into after times at the Babylonian Captivity the Priests command all and possess the Scepter for some Hundred of years for the Assamonaean Race continued absolute Princes till Pompeys Conquest Joseph l. 13. c. 9. We may further add that many Civil Causes are by name reserv'd to the Levical Cognizance as the Inquisition for Murther false Witness c. Deut. 21. And yet after all the Preachers of the Gospel do not hence draw arguments that they are chiefly and solely to be instructed with these great and Important Ministeries but I do on their behalf averr and will be ready to prove and maintain That a fit allowance being made to the difference of Times and Persons the model prescribed by God himself under this Levitical Administration may safely be followed now in some things and those no Circumstantials also But leaving Moses let us come to Christ and see how matters stood under the Gospel here though we have no instances of Honours conferr'd by our Saviour upon his Apostles yet have we Prophesies that after the publication thereof Kings should become the Nursing Fathers of it and that the feet of those that brought the glad tydings of Peace should be Beautiful upon the Mountains which Mr. Calvin applyeth to the Bounty and Munificence of Princes to the Church Isa 49. But for the first 300 years What could rationally be expected from the professed Enemies of Christianity no other honours than cruel Persecutions whilst the persecuting fury lasted whilst they were burnt in usum nocturni luminis as Tacit. the Historian hath it The ordinary sentence was Toeda lucebis in illa Qua stantes ardent fixo gutture fumant Juven But no sooner was Gentilism abolish'd but we have a new and smiling face of Affairs under the happy Reign of Constantine the Churches great Patron as well as the Clergies Friend And henceforth the Primitive Piety was not wanting who thought no Honours or Powers misplaced upon their Spiritual Fathers for whom they judged nothing too dear All Histories ring of Constantines kindness to his Clergy by whom the most weighty Affairs of his Empire dureing his time was most happily transacted and that most of his Successors wrote after his Copy will appear by what follows for it were very easie to muster a little Army of Fathers engaged in Secular Employments We read Zozomen l. 6. c. 32. that Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus a Person of singular vertue prudence and piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man busied in Political matters Theodoret reports l. 2. c. 30. that one Jacobus Bishop of Nisibis or the Mygdonian Antioch was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop Governour and Captain of the same City In Baronius A. 610. I find that John Patriarch of Alexandria was accustomed to sit twice a Week and Judge between those that were at variance and to reconcile them and once when none came to him he departed weeping That all that day he had done no good but Sophronius replyed That he had more cause of rejoycing than of Weeping for having brought the City to such good Order and to so great Peace that they were more like Angels than men having no differences left but were all in friendship and amity A rare Example to the Immortal Fame of an Exclesiastical Judge We all remember that Sir Thomas Moore commanded it to be scored up as a wonder That he had once been able to clear the High Court of Chancery from Suites and not one cause to remain unheard But here we have a Populous City hardly short of any in our Nation by the pains of a good Bishop without any charge to the Litigants reduced to a perfect unity within it self But wee will pass over such obscure Names whom it were endless to reckon up and Select only a few whose eminent Labours have Eternized them to posterity and begin with St. Ambrose who flourished A. C. 378. and to his Conduct and Government was the great City of Milan entrusted so that St. Austin Conf. l. 6. c. 7. Complains that he was a long time kept from access to him Secludentibus me ab ejus aure atque ore Catervis negotiorum hominum quorum infirmit atibus serviebat He had whole troops of Suiters about him to dispatch their worldly business The next shall be that great Affrican Light St. Austin who Ep. 147. hath this passage Homines quidem suas saeculares causas apud nos finire capientes dum iis necessarii fuerimus sit nos Sanctos Dei Servos appellant ut negotia terra suae peragant aliquando agamus negotia salutis eorum non de auro non de argento non de fundis pecoribus pro quibus rebus quotide submisso capite salutamur ut dissentiones hominum terminemus He saith he was every day sollicited to make up some breaches about Gold Silver Land Cattel c. And yet where have we found a more Faithfull and Assiduous Preacher and Pastor than this good father Were any more engaged in contests with Hereticks or any that left a larger Legacy of his Learned Labours to the Church I dare challenge any before or since the Churches Reformation who have done the like and who will say that the good Father had mispent
THE HONOURS OF THE Lords Spiritual Asserted And THEIR PRIVILEDGES To VOTE in CAPITAL CASES IN PARLIAMENT Maintained by Reason and Precedents Collected out of the RECORDS of the TOWER And the Journals of the HOUSE of LORDS Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Peace be within thy Walls and prosperity within thy Palaces Psal 122. ver 6 7. LONDON Printed by Tho. Braddyll and are to be Sold by Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-yard 1679. TO THE READER T IS not unknown to any in our English Israel that there are yet here amongst us some Remainders of the Men of 42. and that the Disease it self sticks as close to Them and particularly to some eminent Parts of the Nation where they skul and for the present where they make their Refuge for in the Countries they are more easily discovered as the Leprosie did under the Law to the very Walls of the House and it seems to be as hardly removed as that Levitical Distemper which some Naturalists and Physitians say cannot be done but only by Blood and that is the thing which their fingers itch to be at again Witness their late Rebellious Commotions in Scotland which had they taken effect there would not have been wanting these who would have justified them Nay I speak what I know and have heard did excuse them as a poor People Opprest and You know Oppression makes a Wise man Mad especially at this time of the year the Season being a little Hot. I must confess I am no stranger to the Men or their ways having been for many Years last past a strict Observer of them though I thank God I have always and do still from my Heart Abhor and Detest any Confarreation with them or any the least Approbation of their Actings or Principles for I have discovered so much of ill Nature Censoriousness Covetuousness Self-seeking and want of Charity in this sort of Men that it did always give me a great suspition that their Cause was Evil especially reflecting upon the Means which they made use of to carry on their pretended Reformation viz. The throwing down of Episcopacy a Government of Gods Church as Antient in this Nation as Christianity it self the takeing away and Abolishing the best of Liturgies either Ancient or Modern a justified taking up of Arms against their Native Soveraign the Lords Annointed to whom and to whose Ancestors they and their Fore-fathers had Sworn Allegiance the Plundering and Devesting of the Kings most faithfull Subjects of their Goods Estates and for their dutiful adherence to the best of Kings who ever raign'd in this our Isle And lastly the embrewing their Violent Rebellious and Wicked hands in His most Sacred Blood a course which the Moral Heathen would Blash to take to save his Country ready to be Lost and Ruined and yet these men in a Bad Cause to pretend Conscience and Religion which hereto fore Conquered the Heathen World not by resisting though they were able and wanted not Numbers to do it but by their Sufferings for these Men I say to pretend Conscience and Religion Clament Melicerta Perisse Frontem de rebus These are the Men I Confess against whom the following Discourse is aim'd For I very well know that it lies not in the Power or Wit of these though they gladly would and do flatter themselves perhaps in this their Folly that they may be able to Cajole any Persons of Loyal Hearts or Principles to take part with or appear against the Bishops in the present Controversie No Gentlemen believe it you smell too strong and you are too well known and I can never believe the contrary till I see you perswade them to carry in once more their Plate to Guild-Hall for the Carrying on Your Vnholy Cause or to shut up their Shops as you know who did heretofore and go with you to Releive Glocester Atqui parvas spes habet Troja si tales habet And so I Refer the Reader to the Perusal of the Book THE HONOURS AND RIGHTS OF THE CLERGY ASSERTED And PRIVILEDGES of the BISHOPS To VOTE in Capital CASES in Parliament VINDICATED c. CHAP. I. The Honour of the Priesthood asserted by the Law of Nature and Levitical Law the Immumunities thereof under Primitive Christianity The returns of Gratitude to God for the Blessings and Labours of the Ministers thereof in the Reformation of the Church in the last and present Age wherein we Live together with some close Reflections thereupon REligion a thing so Excellent that to be careless in it or neglectful of it is accounted a great disreputation and shame to any Party or Person hath ever had since there were Professors of it and that is so long as there have been men in the World a select number of Persons who have been the Ministers of it These men dureing the first times and the Administration of the Law of Nature were the First Born and they both Princes and Priests too so that the Administration of Justice and the Performance of Religious Worship we find then to have been linked together in one and the same Person Adam Seth Enoch and Noah and other the Antediluvian Patriarchs were in their Order and Succession both Kings and Priests also as any person may be satisfied if he will peruse those Writers of the Jewish Antiquities Philo and Josephus Afterwards when the Law was given by positive Precepts to the Sons of men one of the Twelve Tribes viz. that of Levi had the Priesthood annexed to it together with other great Immunities Honours and Priviledges and in the division of the Land of Canaan if Mr. Seldens Authority may sway any Rev. Hist Tithes c. 2. they of Levi had near three times the Annual Revenue of the largest among them they had their Places and Voices in their Sanhedrims and Councils yea and Cognizance of Capital Causes also as we may find largely proved by the Learned Spelman in his History of Sacriledge What sense the very Heathens themselves had of the Honours of their Priesthood it would be very tedious to relate The Priesthood was not esteemed any shame to him that bore the Scepter and wore the Crown In Egypt as Sr. John Marsham in his Cronic Canon well observes those Ancient Kings after the Flood Thoth or Mercurius Tosorthrus or Aesculapius Suphis the Builder of the greatest of the Pyramids were Kings and Divines too See him at large c. ad Sec. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay in the first Ages of the World the Legislative and Executive Power went along with the Priesthood Melchizedeck Abraham and Jacob after the Flood as well as the Antediluvian Patriarchs were as well Executors as makers of Laws Let us peruse the Holy Records and we find David a King and a Prophet his Son Solomon the wisest of mortal men stileing himself by the name of the Preacher and valuing himself more upon that name then upon the score of his
nay a small and inconsiderable part of that House voting the Temporal Lords useless and dangerous and that how they were enabled by being assisted by the help of Cromwell the late Usurper and the Army to accomplish what they had begun and the bad consequence of all we have seen with our eyes and Bishops God be thanked restored to their undoubted Rights and Privileges and that for as much as they were equally Barons nay the Bishops had usually the first in Summons they have also equal privileges to make their Proxies in Parliament as the Temporal Barons had we confess as before for that they were Spiritual persons they were not by the Council of Clarendon to sit in Capital Causes and loss of limb but then we must know that long before this they both had and exercised this Power as may be made appear out of John Crampton's Chron. c. 24. where amongst the Laws of Athelstane we read Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei viz. saeculi debent Episcopi cum saeculi judicibus interesse judiciis and the ordering of all the Measures and Weights is there made of Episcopal cognizance the Standard being still left in the Bishops hands and out of Sir Henry Spelman's Glossary voce Comes Comes praesidebat foro comitatus non solus sed junctus Episcopo ut alter alteri auxilio esset consilio praesertim Episcopus Comiti nam in hunc illi animadvertere saepe licuit errantem cohibere so much confidence did the Antients repose in the Clergy that the guidance and overseeing of most temporal affairs was entrusted to them nay they had a check upon the Laity And thus lovingly with all sweetness and candor for 4 or 500 years during all the Saxons times and till that unhappy division by the Conquerour who defaced this beautiful and regular composure did the Church and State-Officers sit together in the morning determining Ecclesiastical affairs and in the afternoon Civil There were then no jars or clashings of jurisdictions heard of no prohihitions issuing out of one Court to obstruct the course of Justice in another thereby hampering the poor Client that he knew not which way to turn himself and I am perswaded there is no better expedient to prevent lasting vexatious suits and to relieve the oppressed than again to reconcile these two jurisdictions that according to the primitive usage as well Spiritual as Temporal Judges may be appointed in all Courts that Moses and Aaron may not interfere and quarrel but walk hand in hand Though I know this design does not rellish with many of the Long Robe yet 't is feared that attempting some such thing purchased the late Archbishop Laud no few enemies and was one especial cause of hastening his ruine yet we find Mr. Selden a Lawyer too lib. 2. de Synedriis proving that for the first 4000 years and better the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts continued united and the first distinction proceeded from Pope Nicholas Gratian. Distinct 96. c. cum ad verum and that the Clergy do not meddle personally to vote in loss of life or limb proceeds from the Canons of the antient Church which forbad their presence in cases of blood but I hope that no sober man will hence argue that they being Barons of this Realm they must lose their Priviledges which belong to the Spiritual Lords as well as to the Temporal viz. To make Proxies though in Capital Causes when by the antient Canons of the Church they are forbid to be present which they have done and still have right to doe comes next to be discoursed of And first I shall make use of Mr. Selden's authority though no friend to the Bishops for reasons he best knew of who expressly saith in his Book of the Priviledges of the Barons of England Printed 1642. that omnes Praelati Magnates c. has this Priviledge Introduct Though he says there they had lost it by the Parliament 17 Car. 1. 1641. I hope now they are restored to it again that they had before he gives you sundry instances Cap. 1. these are his words § 2. That the course of Elder time was not that Barons onely made Proxies but other men as Bishops and Parliamentary Abbots and Priors who gave their Letters usually to Parsons Prebendaries and Canonists In the Parliament of Carlisle under Edw. 1. the Bishop of Exeter sent to the Parliament Henry de Pynkney Parson of Houghton as his Proxy The Bishop of Bath and Wells sent William of Cherlton a Canon of his Church and in like sort other of the Spiritualty of that time in the beginning of the 17th year of King Richard the Second the Bishop of Norwich made Richard Corqueaux being then Deane of the Arches Thomas Hederset being Archdeacon of Sudbury and John Thorp Parson of Epingham his Proxies by the name of Procuratores sive Nuntii and in the same time the Bishop of Durham ' s Proxies were John Burton Canon of Bewdley and Master of the Rolls and John of Wendlingborough Canon of London and other like in the same time By which also that of the preamble of the Statute of Praemunire is understood where it is said that the advice of the Lords Spiritual that was present and of the Procurators of them that were absent was demanded The like under Henry the 4th and 5th are found in the Rolls and under Henr. 5. the Archbishop of York gives the Proxies to the Bishop of Durham and to two other Clerks of his Province Nay farther that the Bishops used to give their Proxies in Cases of Attainder the said Mr. Selden expresly saith in the place forecited and also what sort of persons they used to make their Proxies he there likewise tells you adding withal this unhandsom reflexion That the Lords Spiritual had so much mistaken of late the Laws of the Kingdom and the Original of their own Honours by endeavouring to enlarge the Kingdom of Antichrist that they had now he means A. D. 42 lost both Priviledge and Vote in Parliament All sharp Reply to which I shall purposely forbear And secondly proceed to shew you express Precedents wherein they have Voted either Personally or by Proxies in Capital Causes and here I will produce Mr. Selden himself the Bishops adversary become their advocate who saith expressly p. 125. lib. cit That though in the Case of Appeal of Treason in a Parliament of the 11 of Richard the Second commenced by Thomas Duke of Gloucester and others against Alexander Archbishop of York Robert de Vere c. they absented themselves I mean the whole Spiritualty in that Parliament and would make no Proxy in their room for that time yet afterwards they agreed to do it in Cases of Judgments of Death Rot Parl. 2. Henr. 4. Rot. Parl. 2. Henr. 5. But he there saith that the first use of such Proxies was 21 Ric. 2. so that we have him confessing the Bishops sitting in cases of blood