path 't is not out of any intention to joine and associate with them but rather to marre and undoe the worke which by their meanes was set on foote in the world And in truth Sir what can be hoped for from such a Rabble as this naturally so insolent and head-strong but the markes of Rebellion both against God and Man it being their sole employment to advance factions and fidings when ever the affaires either of Religion or Policy are brought into agitation So that if you abate hence all who have either out of haughtines and unbridlednesse of Spirit combined against their Prince or nourished the Schismes and ruptures of the Church in broaching their empty and wild Fancies I dare not promise that the residue shall afford you either a Body of Subjects or a Congregation of Christians I intend not to discourse of those of the King's Party wherein 't is true there be some apparently culpable but yet more of such as I may call really unfortunate those alone I meane that make up the greatest number of Reformed and Honest men in that Kingdome I shall confine my Discourse to those who beare the World in hand they are at oddes with nothing but Popery which in their jealous apprehensions was taking roote in England againe With this pretty cheate they have got the approbation of not a few Protestants who without sifting their designe are by this meanes engaged to applaude a paâ—â—icidiall attempt upon the Soveraigne Majesty and a villainous plot against the Sacred Overseers of the Church Either of which two crimes is doubtlesse one of the most essentiall notes of reprobation nor is it possible for him to make good the profession of Christianity who complies or holds any the least correspondence with such as are knowingly guilty of the same Your new-fangled Ministers of London are mostly involved in the equall guilt of both For who knowes not how at the very first rise of these troubles they preached openly to the People That Kings are not to be obeyed if once they assault their Liberties and Priviledges which in their construction is the first steppe to Tyranny or taking upon them to intermeddle in Church affaires they fall upon any absurd impious opinion Wherein they came nothing short of Cardinall Bellarmine who writes That if Princes shall once apply themselves to the protection of Heresy or exercise of Tyranny they are left to the mercy of the Pope and the Church who are first to excommunicate them then to absolve the Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance and they upon this discharge assoone as they can be provided of a competent strength are to employ it against them to expose them to punishment and by all meanes feisible to dethrone them A wonderfull thing that they who are such professed enemies to the Jesuites that use their persons when they seize them with so much inhumanity and for the continued revolution of so many yeares have exposed their bodies quartered to all passengers as a spectacle of horrour upon their most eminent Gates should notwithstanding shake hands with them in a point for the which at first they did so much abhorre them Would you not conclude that they are all alike the Disciples of Mariana and the Agents of a Boniface what affinity is there betwixt these Doctours and Saint Ambrose when this great Saint this reall Christian perceived that the Arians were about to possesse themselves of the Church in Milan with the approbation of the Emperour Valentinian he addressed himselfe unto that Prince in these tearmes Royall Sir we intreate we presume not to fight If the Prince will needs make use of his Supreame power I am ready to discharge the duty of a Prelate I shall stand upon my defence but 't is in the petitions of the poore I can â—emoane me I can weepe I can â—igh but against Armes against Souldiers against the Gothes my onely weapons are teares nor ought I to use any other manner of resistance whatsoever And in another place If the Kingdome shall lye panting under the pressures of Tyranny I am ready to suffer any kind of violence even Death it selfe Besides that universall injunction laid upon Christians to put up injuries with patience God having reserved unto himselfe the right of revenging by the power of his Justice as Saint Gregory upon Job speakes Man being uncapable of performing it but with a heart fraught with malice he knew I say besides this what David once sung to God against thee onely have I sinned upon which passage in the Apology he compiled for him he thus comments He was a King and so not within the reach of the Lawes Viâ—â—â—lis delictorum liberi sunt reges if I may borrow the attestation of so divine a pen. Now if David were not mistaken if Saint Ambrose spake reason in this point with Saint Chrysostome who assures us so punctually that Kings are above the Lawes What shall we thinke of our upstart Reformers that have placed Kings below their People and stirre up the People against their Kings It is a pregnant evidence they are swayed by that spirit of rebellion which heretofore animated the Gregories the Bonifaces the Mariana's the Bellarmines to attempt upon the Honour and life of Kings rather then by that spirit of wisedome and meekenesse which moved Solomon to leave this divine precept behind him equally obliging all that have not forfeited their reason never to divorce the respect due unto Kings from that which they owe unto God himselfe and in case they shall presume to do otherwise associating themselves with such Libertines as refuse to pay the tribute of obedience to be afraid their calamity doe not arise suddainly The Pulpits here are full of none but Preachers of discord and division betwixt the King and his Subjects In lieu of praises magnifying the name of God Invocation of the Holy Spirit Confession of Sinnes sighs and groanes for the commission thereof here is nothing to be heard but reproaches revilings and accusations Charity in all other places throwes her skirt over the Errours she discovers be they as great and numerous as can be 'T is charity here to lay them naked in the view of the world and if there be no reall ones to devise some that so they may never be destitute of a forgery wherewith to traduce their Prince His Person and Actions are both exposed to publique reproaches The Churches Ring of nothing but declamations against Him and if happily some small relickes of shame have ever slacked the heate of those bawling Predicants or railing Scriblers impudence makes others in compensation to double the Cry This yet is nothing in comparison of their usuall Execrations as if that Law pronounced by the mouth of God himselfe which forbids to curse the Prince of his People no not so much as in thought did not at all concerne them That detestable League which in the memory of our Fathers was attended with such tragique effects in
three or foure of our Kings raignes and against which our Protestants have alwaies so eagerly declaimed laying their grounds upon certaine proofes drawne from the corruption of Rome which gave life unto it had nothing in it of more venimous consequence then this we see here save that the Emissaries and Boute-feus of the English Confederacy have not as yet imbrued their hands in the bloud of their King And can it suite with their profession who talke so much of reducing Christian Religion to it's primitive purity and reviving the Innocence and Simplicity of the Apostolique times who call him their Master that reconciled the world to God and united men in the same mutuall affections who are not ignorant that Peace and Concord are the essentiall characters of a Christian and that such should never be the occasioners of warre to employ the sword in such a manner as this I cannot thinke there 's any man so credulous as to beleive that such courses can finde any welcome among those that are Protestants indeed they may with many who are such in shew onely of which sort are all the opposers not of monarchy alone but indefinitely of any secular authority whatsoever There were some in the infancy of the Church who strained Christian liberty so farre that they condemned it as unjust for the Enfranchised of God and such as were guided by his spirit to be subject to the command of any creature The Donatists sucked the same poison from them which afterwards diffused it selfe among the Anabaptists and in fine reached us also by meanes of some who gave a second birth to this Heresy which now walkes up and downe here in great bravery under pretences very specious in the apprehension of some shallow Judgements And though I conceive this will not be to the generall prejudice of the Reformed Churches in Europe by reason of that just jealousy which Princes ought to entertaine that they hold no intelligence amongst themselves and that they doe not all bandy togethr against the rights and prerogatives of their respective dominions Yet it must needs 〈◊〉 to their shame atleast if they doe not openly declare against the villany of their proceedings and the iniquity of their designes especially since they have had the impudence to invite them to an imitation of their example and to steppe in for the support of their faction I am not ignorant what grounds we goe upon and how little resemblance ours â—eare to theirs but the world will not passe sentence upon us by our positions but either by our actions or by our silence For if we be silent when they are bragging of 〈◊〉 with us and yet appearing in the field against their Soveraiâ—â— who will not be ready to conclude that had we the like power â—â— our hands we would do as much every wâ—â—it our selves â— but if 〈◊〉 the contrary we speake our mindes condemning the unlawfullnesse and horridnesse of their designe our actions suiting still with 〈◊〉 doctrine in stead of exasperating the secular powers we shall 〈◊〉 them for it cannot be but they will take part with us and 〈◊〉 off such as make them so subordinate either to the people in groâ—â—â— or to some select parcell of the whole body who let them talke what they will are no lesse Subjects then the rest In breife â— need but demand whether of the two are the better Christians those that wast so much bloud to subvert the right of Kings and to cherish a warre under counterfeit pretences for the suppression of all order and engaging the whole world to the same common confusion Or they of the Primitive times who maintained that to shâ—â— bloud was to violate Christianity to oppose Kings was to disobey God and to contest with Superiours was to fight against that Order which he established I beleeve they will hardly be swayed by examples lesse by reason nor that they put any great value upon the authority which the practise of the first ages may challenge over us If they do I would exhort such preachers of fire and sword to call to minde how the ancient disciplien of the Church denied their communion to such as had slaine an Enemy in a lawfull warre and that they would hence collect how those times stood affected to such as voluntarily embroyled themselves in an unlawfull and unjust one See Sir in part what I have to say to you upon this argument It will not be amisse if in the next place I acquaint you with the innovations they make in Religion and what fruits Christianity is like to reape from the labours of such doughty Reformers 'T is a truly impious designe to perâ—ue a Reformation in such manner as these men do and which tends onely to the subversion of an order established by God under a pretence of pulling downe one devised by man which they call Tyranny because indeed it is the onely meanes whereby to check them in that full caâ—câ—â—â— of unbridled licentiousnesse unto which they are naturally so much devoâ—â—â— Not but that there is alwayes matter enough for a reformation both in manners and government and that it is extreamely necessary to correct the evills and disorders of the present times and withall to prevent that corruption which may be feared from the future But who will be the fittest to go through with this taske will the Parliament no in as much as the Bishops that is the Clergy are no longer a part of it Will the Synod be able to supply this defect no not they because the whole body is composed of persons interessed besides that ignorance and blindenesse are there for the most part in their greatest exaltationâ— or if perhaps there be some knowing there is a great dearth of honest men most of them being possest with the spirit of division which hath drawne them into the by-paths of Hereticks as well ancient as moderne Well then shall the People beare the burthen this is altogether impossible unlesse first there be made an universall resignation of all sence and reason because of themselves they are uncapable of all manner of order and conduct Neither can the King assisted only by his Counsell and Magistrates be thought a â—it instrument to mannage the businesse for feare he make Religion waite upon his owne private interest and by consequent bring the spirit under the command of the Flesh The issue then will be to finde out a just and lawfull way for the advancing of this Reformation which in my opinion can be no other then that of a generall Assembly indicted by the Prince wherein the Boroughs shall have their Deputies whose voices are to be heard and their suffrages admitted The Church it's Bishops and Doctors The Parliament diverse of the Nobility which they may chuse out of their severall Houses and the King his principall Officers And to make the action more Authentique to establish in the Church that uniformity which ought to be in a body in which
the Spirit of Union and Concord is the Moderatour as that of Christians is there may be called thither the most eminent Protestants from forraigne parts by whose assistance all doubts and scruples may be solved This in my judgement is the way to maintaine the severall rights of each order in the State of England as also in the whole body of Christendome entire I know none that can dislike the project but your new Independants and the fanatique Illuminatâ—es commonly called Brownists who in truth are no other but the Brats or Brethren of the Munster-Faction These men have fancied to themselves a monstrous Common-wealth an absurd and motley State in which there should not be the least cognizance of civill Authority nor any other spirituall power acknowledged but such as the Sonne of God should by an insensible and â—idden influence exercise over them Collect now from these Premises how such kinde of people stand affected to Royalty and then what reckoning they make of Councels and the Persons they consist of Their aime indeed is to ruine both to have no Rulers or Overseers at all either Temporall or Spirituall Secular or Ecclesiasticall They want no specious colours to blanch the blacknesse of their Designe They make their King a Demy-Apostate and little better then a Tyrant They proclaime to the world that he had a resolution to violate Religion and to destroy their Liberties and Priviledges That he hath supplanted the Fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and falsified the Oath made to his Subjects the observation of which alone must entitle him to a Dominion over them As for the Overseers of the Church it hath no need say they of any at all in as much as the Founder and Head thereof hath skill enough to governe as he had to establish it That 't is enough if there be meere Pastours only to preach without being lifted above others or others above them Such be the Authors and Abettours of this Fancie who gave the first blow at Episcopacy A strange thing that some even of the honester sort should so rashly mingle with the enemies of that Order transported in the simplicity of their hearts by this groundlesse conceit that 't is the Prelates alone who have opened the gap to wickednesse in the Church as if where there are no Bishops at all Innocence and purity bare an absolute and soveraigne command in the Soules of men Ferrier Pâ—tes with many more besides in France will be perpetuall attestours to the world that your Church Government lyes no lesse open to the assaults and stratagems of the Devill then that which hath beene setled from all Antiquity Were it my drift to search it to the bottome it would be easie to demonstrate this with advantage and that had it beene a few yeares elder and liv'd in a Country where the Lawes of the Prince are not so rigorous against Innovatours as they be in France which permits but two sorts of Religion or at least if God had not from time to time raised some eminently guifted Persons therein in which respect I must needs confidently affirme that it flourisheth now more then ever there could not have wanted matter through the many visible inconveniences thereof to embroyle the Church in a tedious and perpetuall taske I shall but point at one 't is the equality of Pastours which indeed at first blush presents you with a comely glosse and hath a wonderfull influence upon the fancy when it beholds it at a distance but in truth is the source of disorder the fountaine of negligence and the bane of that laudable emulation among the virtuous to out-strip one another in goodnesse It is to shut the doore against the perfection of life in denying the strictest observers of their masters injunctions those advantages and prerogatives which himselfe hath designed them What a block is it in the way to all those eminent persons without who were a coming toward us You know better then I how memorable to this purpose is the example of the Arch-bishop of Spalata Being to be honoured with no ranke at all above others can you thinke they will quit that which they enjoy where they are There can be no humility so great but may justly take offence at this How can any Genius acquainted thoroughly with it selfe and borne to a preheminence over others with some singular endowments of Nature be allured over to a profession whose sweetest baiâ—e is but a voice with the meanest and where its resolutions shall be valued as cheape as those of any other particular Personâ— The world is not to learne what a traine of inconveniencies attend these kind of suffrages and Deliberations and how there must needes follow many farre worse upon the neck of those so long as there is nothing but a baâ—â— supputation of Votes without any endowed with Power and Abilities to poyse them Put case their Assemblies consist of a hundred Persons will there in truth be found ten who will not rather be opinionate to cover their severall defects then be conformable to the example of their fellowes or endeavour to better themselves by their Counsells Such is that selfe-love and radicall inclination we have to sooth our selves that we do not easily hearken to the commands of reason till we be awed thereunto And seeing this distinction of degrees is so necessary for the good of the Church how shall that end be obtained if there be not some delegated both in and out of those Assemblies to represent the power of the whole to exact upon all emergencies an account of their proceedings to have the right of proposing and collecting Votes of ratifying Decrees of promulgating and putting them in execution and daring to the field whatsoever opposers of the same Is this feisible without a Bishop seeing that in such Synods as ours all enjoy an equality of Power and Authority and where according to that proverbiall censure of the Assemblies of Carthage The greater number carries it from the better Besides when the Synod is dissolved each Minister is left to his owne liberty to do what his fancy shall suggest unto him Put case he be found hipping either in manners or Doctrine he iâ— accountable to none but those of his owne Consistory who are allwaies in readinesse like so many rotten Pillars to support a crazie Wall or so many blinde guides that will needes undertake to reduce straglers into the way or such as leade men upon a praecipice So that by this meanes the offender wants no invitations nor advantages to invâ—igle those that lend an care to him he being no way accountable but to another Assembly In the interim he is proling for parties to his crimes and Abettours to his Opinions so that instead of fearing the rigour of a Judge in the Synod he is often provided of an Advocate which would be altogether impossible were there one enabled to stifle such disorders in the wombe This hints me of what I have read in
would have strucke in for their defence and engaged themselves in the same quarrell France it selfe would not have suffered them to be made such an easy prey to the house of Austria But all things seemed to conspire the ruine of that State which to the prejudice of it's owne particular interests the interests of Christendome and of all those of the North who had declared themselves both against Rome and against all such as aim'd at an universall Monarchy would needs set on foot new maximes and pursue the project of a reformation from which it had so many visible evills to feare I have long since exceeded the bounds of a Letter and contrary to my first thoughts have well-nigh swelled it into a Volume The feare I have to trespasse upon your patience makes me passe by a whole cloud of our first Reformers all jointly subscribing to the same conclusion And besides the small remnant of time behind will not suffer me to recall into your memory what those of our Age determine upon the Question I have scarce heard of any able and judicious Divine with us who values not this Ancient Order as the band and instrument of that peice which Christ preached I know very well that all your narrow and popular Judgements doe leane another way and that the number of these exceeds by much that of the more knowing sort Nor am I ignorant that there be some able malicious heads amongst us which clearely see the truth but cannot affect it they are so transported with the love of an unlawfull and counterfeite liberty that they never busy themselves about the prevention of that disorder which it will inevitably sooner or later pull upon them and all such as adhere to them Mounsieur du Mouliâ— is none of that number This gallant man whom God honoured with so many eminent gifts above all that were either the Authors or Abettours of such corruptions as had crept into the Church is peremptory in the point appealing to the generall suffrage of Ecclesiasticall story that immediately after the times of the Apostles or indeed while they were yet living there begun in every City to be one of the Pastours set over the rest distinguished by the Title of Bishop and invested with a power above his fellowes to prevent that confusion which ordinarily flowes from equality this institution met with a generall approbation whence saith He we cannot excuse Aërius for opposing the determination of the Church in his time when the difference stood onely in point of Discipline A little after he concludes that in England God made use of certaine Bishops out of the Church of Rome for accomplishing that glorious worke of the Reformation whereupon the name and dignity Episcopall hath beene derived successively unto such his Ministers whom he hath raised up to discover the errours and corruption of men That in other places where God made choice of Presbyters and Doctours the Pastours of the Church are barely stiled Ministers the People with us being not able to digest the names of Preists and Bishops the bad conversation of such as went under that name having rendred them so extreamely â—dious Which yet is but a slender ground for their extirpation as I shall cleare anon Antonius de Dominis an able mâ—n without question and a professed adversary to the Romish Tyranny under which in fine he perished maintaines with great force of reason that the Election of Ministers to wit of Bishops and Preists was made by the Apostles according to the institution of Christ that the Church hath alwaies acknowledged and professed a difference betwixt them the diversity of their functions and the generall practice of antiquity having ever ranked Bishops before Presbyters And in the same place he takes the paints to collect and salve the severall passages of Scripture which seemingly speake the contrary as also those in the Fathers and Canons of Councels Whereupon he gives us a very remarkeable observation which I gave you a light touch of before and 't is this That all such as forsooke the Communion of the Catholicke Church as the Novatians and Donatists would yet still retaine their Bishops knowing very well that the Church could not possibly subsist without them as being absolutely necessary in the Catholique Church of which every one in particular would pretend to be a Member And hence is it that in Rome there have sometimes beene three at once one of the Catholiques who was the lawfull and true one the other two of those two bodies or rather dismembred peeces of the Church which they set up for no other reason but because they would otherwise have beene convicted to be without the pale of the Church of Christ I hope Monsieur Blondell and Salmasius when they have once purged Episcopacy from such corruptions as the spirit of lying had fastened upon it on purpose to render it as pernicious in the use is it was sacred in the institution will no longer keepe aloose in thâ—â— opinions from us â—ut sadly laying to heart the evills which will inevitably oppresse the whole Church if once it be deprived of it's ancient forme of government they will contribute such advice to this miserable Country as their knowledge and honesty shall suggest unto them nor continue to stifle a knowne truth as many at this day strangers to neither of us so unconscionably doe Let the Monkes grumble as long as they please against that Order to which they cannot endure their owne extravagant rules should be any way subordinate Let the insolent and saucy Jesuite oppose their authority and slinke out of their sight for feare they should take notice of his Corruption But let us whose thoughts ought to be most pure and actions most regular submit unto those maximes to which these fifteen last Centuries have paid an universall obedience Who knowes not that if the Power delegated to the Ministers of the Gospell should be equally shared amongst all Confusion and Division must needs be the issue Had not the Jewes who were but an inconsiderable Body in respect of us Christians their High Preist answerable to our Bishop in every particular Church who marched before the rest enjoyed divers peculiar prerogatives above his Brethren and had certaine distinct functions in point of Religion apperteining to him Doth not even reason informe us that 't is impossible for any Congregation or Society of men to keepe long together if there be not some one set over the rest that like an indissoluble chaine is to restraine the severall members how different and disagreeing soever among themselves within the limits of their proper callings What would be the issue of all our Assemblyes had they not a president over them by meanes whereof we still retaine an Idea of that Churches practise which we have abandoned for it's impurities And this indeed is the onely Antidote for all sores and distempers in the Church no remedy so present and Soveraigne it being impossible for the