fraudulenter occultar nihil intentatum praetermittit 442. About the Year 1558 there being a Custom among the People of Paris in the Summer Evenings to go out of the Suburbs of St. German in great Multitudes to take the Fresco and to Solace themselves with divers kinds of Sports those of the new Religion instead of doing so began to sing the Psalms of David in French Verses the Multitude first laughed at the Novelty then leaving the Sports joyned themselves unto the Singers And the number of those who came to that place began to increase more than usually whereupon the Pope's Nuntio told the King of this Novelty as of a thing pernicious and dangerous because the Ministeries of Religion usually Celebrated in the Church in the Latin Tongue by Religious Men only were put into the Mouths of the common People in the Vulgar Language which was an invention of the Lutherans telling him that if he did not resist the beginnings in a short time all Paris would be Lutherans the King gave order that the principal Authors should be proceeded against wherein they went not very far having found Anthony King of Navar and his Wife in that Number but for hereafter it was forbid upon pain of Death Trent 410. Thus you see how both the Hugonots and Papists behaved themselves beyond Sea and that the King and Queen of Navar were not ashamed to Conventicle openly nor of Christ nor of his Words lest Christ should be ashamed of them when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of the Holy Angels Luke 9.26 not ashamed to search the Scriptures in their own Language because commanded and because in them is eternal life John 5.39 This Nation and Government did presume at least that such solemn Rebukes such severe Reprimands as the Preachers of such Doctrines received from the whole Kingdom represented in Parliament by King Lords and Commons Clergy and Layety should have forewarned and discouraged all the succeeding Clergy for ever Preaching such destructive Doctrines again of which we now see and feel the smart and sad effects which our prudent Predecessors did foresee and would have prevented by their timely Rebukes and Precautions but they have not prevailed In the Church of Ephesus there were those that boasted themselves to be Apostles but being tried by the Angel of that Church were found Lyars Is it not so with us Have we not many that boast themselves to be the only true Church of England Men that if tried by our Angels would be found but Mungrils nay Lyars making Kings glad with their Wickedness and Princes with their Lyes Hos 7.3 But the Works and Labour and Patience of our true Church of England Men true Nathaniels indeed cannot bear such Church of England Men as are so evil as to dare to Preach and Print such enslaving Doctrines Nay now at this very Day it s a shame to tell how such false Prophets use the Church of the Great God by making Her a very Tool and Slave to serve their own turns and to bring their own ends about not caring what havock they make of the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel Mr. Clifford on Psalm 51.4 pulpits That Kings as such are above the Law have Power to Dispense with the Law at their Pleasure and alter Religion at Pleasure pag. 7. Mr. J. T in his Sermon on Eccles 10.20 declares That Resistance in all Cases and in all its Degrees and Circumstances absolutely unlawful because it supposes an Appeal of the People from the King to themselves and makes them Judges of their own Causes for to place Sovereignty and the last Appeal in all the People together is perfect nonsense because all the People will never be of one mind while the World stands pag. 8.9 and I will add nor all the Clergy And yet he is so ingenious as to confess That the Interest of a Nation is to be preferred before the Interest or Welfare of one Man according to John 11.49 50 51. It is expedient for us that one man dye for the People and that the whole Nation perish not So that we have a sure word of Prophesie that it is the Testimony of God himself That a greater Interest of Mankind is to be preferred before a lesser pag. 20 21. As perfect nonsense as this Priest is pleased to make Appeals unto the People to be yet so wise were the Roman State above Fifty Years before Christ's time and so careful of their own Happiness Rights and Interests that they thought it even then a most prudent Law And therefore Publius Valerius caused it to be an Establish't Law That Appeals should be allowed from any Magistrate to the People Livy lib. 3. n. 8. And that no Man should offer to make any Magistrate without liberty of Appeal and if he did it should be lawful to kill him Ibid. lib. 3. n. 34. For which prudent Law they honored him by adding Publicola to his other name What the Power of the First Kings were appears for that Ephron Chief Prince of the Children of Heth would not grant Abraham the possession of a Sepulchre in the Land of the Children of Heth but in the presence and with the approbation of the Children of Heth before all that went in at the gate of his City Gen. 23. Nor would Hamor Prince of the Country make a League with Jacob but by the consent of all that went out of the gate of his City Gen. 34. because all the great Concerns of the Governed was referred unto the Common Council and consent of the People which in those Empires was easily done which commonly was circumscribed within one or few Cities But when Kings began to enlarge their Territorios so that all the People could not Assemble in one Place without danger of confusion there were ordinarily instituted Tribunes of the People or Officers of the Kingdom or of the Governed to assist and defend the Rights and Priviledges of the People granted to them by the Law of God and Nature and upon great Exigences great Assemblies of the Sages of the Governed were assembled as an Epitome of the Universal People were extraordinarily congregated to consider and consult thereof In the Israelitish Kingdom which by consent and judgment of all Politick Writers was the best constituted Government of the World was the same order observed the King had his particular Officers and the Kingdom theirs Seventy one Elders their Captains chosen out of every Tribe which both in War and Peace should take care of the whole Magistrates also in singulis Municipiis that as they were to take care of the whole so the several Officers were to take care of their particular Cities and Charges over which they were set For David called all the Congregation when he desired to Invest Solomon in his Kingdom when he had restored the Policy of that Nation to have it examined and approved 1 Chron. 19. So when David was to fetch back
is not necessary for the Raising of Aids and Subsidies Rush 602. An. 1628. That there was a general fear of secret Working and Combination to introduce into this Kingdom Innovation and change of our pure Religion by Persons much favoured and advanced not wanting Friends even of the Clergy near to your Majesty namely Dr. Neal Bishop of Winchester and Dr. Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells who are justly suspected to be unsound in their Opinions that way It being generally held to be the High-way to Preferment and Promotion in the Church many Scholars do bend the course of their Studies to maintain those Errors that their Books and Opinions are suffered to be printed and published and others written against them and in defence of the Orthodox Church are hindered and prohibited And we find that there hath been no small labouring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and increase our own Religion and to oppress Popery which is the diligent Teaching and Instruction of the People in the true Knowledg and Worship of God and therefore means have been sought out to depress and discountenance Pious Painful and Orthodox Preachers peaceable in their Disposition and Carriage and yet their Preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits hardly permitted to Lecture 602 632 634. 1628. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Quae peperit saepè scelerata atque impia facta 195. And our high and mighty Church of England Men did in our memories so superciliously manage their own haughty Resolutions that they necessitated the Parliament to take away their High Commission and their Parliamentary Priviledge forbidding them to meddle with any Temporal Affairs And I do not find that they are grown much more prudent yet for that they manage themselves in this intricate juncture of time at such a rate that all Mens Mouths are ready and stand half cockt against them and I fear may in time provoke the Parliament to do the like or more again they monopolizing all Government over others of themselves which is far from being Apostolical for in the Apostles times and divers Ages after all the People being under the inspection of one Bishop vulgarly the the Pastor of a Parish were wont to meet together not only for Worship but other Church Administrations all publick Acts passed at the Assemblies of the whole People they were consulted with their concurrence was thought necessary and their presence required that nothing might pass without their Cognizance Satisfaction and Consent This was observed not only in Election of Bishops Priests and Officers but in Ordination and Censures in Admission of Members and Reconciling of Penitents and in Debates and Consultations about other Emergencies but not one plain word in Scripture that one Apostle was subject to another nor one gathered Church subject to another or that any Man had lawful Authority to forbid Assembling of the Brethren together whether with or without a Priest In summ when Priest-craft had enlarged their Territories beyond their ancient Bounds which was but one Parish or a select Number scarce exceeding 150 or 200 unto many whereby they became Cardinals and Diocesans c. They thereby cajoled the People of their undoubted Rights and Priviledges and necessarily introduced an essential change of the True and Primitive Government of the Church set up by Christ and set up one to fit their own turn and ends In the very next Ages succeeding the Apostles and so for 400 Years and more one Parish or single Congregation was thought sufficient for one Bishop or Pastor so that as Christians multiplied so separate Congregations Bishops or Pastors so that there were as many Pastors or Bishops as there were several Congregations or Churches in a Province and not one Church or Congregation subject to the Laws Usages or Ordinances of any other No Churches gathered by St. Paul were subject to those gathered by St. Peter nor è contra of them or of any other of the Apostles or of any Churches gathered by their Successors Hence came several and diversity of Rites and Usages in the Ancient Churches without being accounted Schismaticks Separatists Non-cons or Phanaticks and with perfect Love Unity and Uniformity because they held the same Faith and Doctrine And 150 or 200 Souls was thought as many as one Bishop or one Pastor could take charge and give a good account of So that a single Congregation or gathered Church was esteemed a competent Charge for an Episcopal Pastor for the Episcopal Churches were daily multiplied and each Church had Power to govern and order it self and so followed such orders as every Church or gathered Congregation thought fit without being obliged to conform to those of any other Church or Congregation they had no Rule or Order in things of this nature requiring observance or did they regard such Uniformity as later Ages have been fond of to the prejudice of the Unity and Peace of the Church even to the persecuting of Righteous Men in our Kingdoms none of those Churches used the same Prayers all of them had not the same Creeds they had not the same Rites in Baptism or the Lord's Supper nor the same way in Confirming Marrying or Burying they used not the same mode either in reading the Scriptures or Singing they observed not the same methods in admitting Members or preparing them for the Communion neither proceeding to Censures or reconciling Penitents they differed also in their Habits and Postures they varied in their Fasts both for time and manner and observed not the same Festivals This was the Uniformity of the more Pure and Primitive times and no Persecution ensued no Appeals allowed from one Bishop or one Congregation to another So that the Uniformity the latter Ages have been so fond of is a down-right Novelty and Innovation which hath broken the Bond of Charity and Unity and instead thereof hath brought in Animosities Divisions and Separations nay Persecutions on God's Holy People very unworthy and unbeseeming Christian Pastors to make such actings more their business than the suppressings of Sin and promoting of real and strict Holiness All this and much more is so plain in ancient Writers that none but Novices and Chits in Story can be ignorant hereof If you will believe one of the greatest Prelates of the West and at no less than 600 Years distance from Christ In una fide nibil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae diversa consuetudo saith Gregory the first where there is one Faith it s no harm to the Church if there be diversity of usages i. e. the Church hath no harm for want of Uniformity And before him Innocent the first who lived about the Second Century in his Epist ad Decen writes that diversè in diversis locis vel Ecclesiis obtineri aut celebrari videntur To the Justification whereof and to the constant Practice thereof even from the Days of the Apostles unto
this very Day gives abundant Testimony the Churches of the Vaudois called Waldenses Albigenses poor Men of Lyons Chaignard Tramontani Lollards Siccari Fraticelli Gazares Turlepini c. and for their Simplicity Purity and Sincerity termed Evangelical having been for many Hundreds of Years injured reproached despised banished excommunicated anathematized Goods confiscated tortured wearing Miters in derision reviled spit upon Ears cropt their Flesh pincht off with Princers drawn with Horses drag'd up and down broiled roasted stoned to death burnt drowned dismembred smothered in Caves by hellish Papists c. who have preserved themselves from the infection of External Ministries of other Churches defiled with infinite human invention It being the Tenth Article of their Belief viz. That the inventions of Men are an unspeakable abomination before God And their custom is That if any of their Barbes their Pastors shall fall into any foul or unclean Sin he is cast out of their company and forbidden the Charge of Preaching They Teach also Article 15. That because the differences of Ceremonies Customs and Rites which are used in several Churches and are not prejudicial or hurtful to Piety they ought not to be offended one with another or contemn hate and persecute one another And Ph. Melancthon is of the same mind in his Epistle to Mr. Benedict and the rest of the Waldenses viz. that no difference and variety of Rites and Ceremonies ought to disunite our Minds Now if the Churches of the Valleys have been Celebrated through all Ages of the Church as they have been and are yet even to this day as the Worshippers of God in the greatest Purity and Simplicity and nearest the Purity and Simplicity of Christ and his Apostles and the least tainted with Romish Superstitions and human Inventions with what Face can Protestants Persecute Protestants for things indifferent desiring to Worship God in the same Simplicity Purity and Sincerity If the true Church of England be to be known by her Faith Doctrine Articles and Sacraments then beyond all contradiction the Non-con Presbyters and Independants are more truly right Church of England Men maugre all the Obloquies and ungrounded Prejudices against them than those that so imperiously appropriate and usurp that Name to themselves and happily a more sincere Homogeneal part of the Church Catholick without infringing Unity of Faith or true Doctrine But if Ceremonies or Usages not prescribed nor used by Christ or his Apostles in the purest Times must make the distinction then certainly their Non-conformity is more agreeable to the Practice of Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Times than the Ceremonial Usages and Practices of these later Ages for it must appear upon due examination that there was not one Ceremony either used or commanded in their times and yet Converts as many and then it will certainly and undeniably follow that all those Ceremonies introduced since are Innovations and consequently those that impose them on Severities and Censures are the Innovators and Separatists I had almost said Schismaticks tho' some with Brows of Brass have cast those odious Names on the Presbyters and Independants For those that impose Rites and Ceremonies no ways Essential to the saving of Souls on Penalties and Severities especially unto Silencing and Suspension to which conscientious Persons cannot submit must be the Schismaticks or else our Separation from Rome can hardly be justified If such Tenets and Practices must be the Test and Character of true Church of England Men I must confess my self not as yet so well qualified and I believe few others yet are more true Church of England Men for indeed I have no mind to make Religion lackey and hunt after earthly ends and purposes lest by pertaking with other Mens Sins I should receive of their Plagues also but by such Practices it is plain that they are not all Israel which are of Israel The true Church of England Men are Men of better Principles and more Honesty both Bishops and others who do comply conscientiously with the Innocent Ceremonies of our Church without Reviling Slandering Persecuting or Disturbing those who do as conscientiously Preach the same Gospel in Sincerity tho' in Conventicles without any Ceremonies as Christ and his Apostles did That the Churches of Christ are miserably rent and torn cannot be denied and that the breaches thereof hath proceeded from the Pride Ambition Laziness Uncharitableness and Contentions of the Clergy have been the chief cause thereof is as true The renting of Christ's seamless Coat began even in the days of the Apostles who rebuked them who said I am of Paul I am of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ as if Christ had been divided 1 Cor. 1.22 And therefore Paul besought them by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ That they would all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions amongst them but that they be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment ver 10. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and division are ye not carnal and walk as men Who then is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom yee believed 1 Cor. 3.3 4 5. And it is well known that the wisest and most peaceable Men tho' of different Perswasions as protestants Papists and others are of Opinion that Constantine and other Pious Emperours endowing the Clergy with great Powers Priviledges Honours Offices Dignities and Preferments hath been the occasion of the Pride Luxury Tyranny Uncharitableness and Laziness of the Clergy and consequently the bane and destruction of true Holiness Purity and Simplicity that ought to be in the Clergy they being as Baits Snares Allurements and Temptations to seek and hunt after them and so to neglect to seek the Kingdom of God in the first place as they ought to do I may also say with many other wise and peaceable minded Men as a very great truth That as through pride cometh contention Prov. 13.10 so through the Pride and Haughtiness of the Clergy more havock hath been made of Love Charity Purity Sincerity and Simplicity of the Gospel than all the bloody Persecutions that have been in the World It is the Opinion of learned and judicious Mr. Jo. Hales in his Tract of Schism That were Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private Fancies but contained only such things as in which all Christians do agree on And the event shall be that the Publick Service and Honour of God shall no ways suffer Whereas to load our Publick Forms with the private Fancies upon which we differ is the most sovereign way to perpetuate Schism unto the Worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading and Exposition of Scriptures Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy tho' nothing either of private or Church Pomp of Garments of prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the
Eyes before they go about to remove the Motes that are in their Brothers Eyes Should I rake as some naked Truths have done into the Bosome of their Regiment of their Church Discipline I doubt it would be found so foul as not to be swept cleansed and purified but by the Beesom of destruction by reducing it to what it was in the Apostles days and purest times which might easily be done if Priests were more Heavenly than Earthly minded and would first seek the Kingdom of Heaven under which easie Government the Gospel flourished tho' all Nations and Kingdoms were accursed Enemies thereunto and would flourish now again with greater Purity than now it doth did not our Tory Ecclesiasticks disdain and think it too mean and below them to live the life of the Apostles and as Christ himself did who tho' being in the Form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and to Minister and not be administred unto Remember the Reprimand and Counsels that Christ himself gave to James and John who sought high things but it shall not be so among you but whoever will be great among you let him be the Minister Math. 20. Mark 10. Luke 22. However let us consider what Government Christ left to his Church and trace that as far as we can that we may see how well it hath been observed or how far degenerated The Church the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most glorious State in the World formed in the Council of God before the Creation of the Heavens founded on the Cross of his Son in the fulness of time governed by his Eternal Self quickned by his Spirit the most valued of all his Jewels the last End of all his Works and the onely Scope of all his Marvels a State not mortal but endureth for ever against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail It is the House of Almighty God the Temple of his Holiness the Pillar of his Truth the Dwelling-place of his Grace and Glory This Church this Kingdom tho' it is not of this World yet it is first chosen gathered erected and established in this World not by the Wisdom of the mighty Potentates of this World viz. Kings Emperors and Armies but by the Preaching of the Gospel by Fishermen and other illiterate and mean Persons and would have its Administrations without Temporal or Secular mixtures of human Power or Policy as so much as of inticing words lest his People should thereby be beguiled Col. 2.4 but chose rather by the foolishness of Preaching to propagate his Gospel and to confound the wise and the mighty things of the World So Paul 1 Cor. 2. my speech and my preaching was not with inticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power v. 4. That your Faith should not stand in the wisdom of Men but in the power of God ver 5. However we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of the world ver 6. but we speak the wisdom of God in a mysterie even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory verse 7. Which none of the Princes of the world knew c. The way and manner of propagating the Gospel and gathering of Churches from the beginning was after this sort and manner viz. Christ after his Ascension having given them their Commission Matth. 28.19 20. and having filled all the Apostles with the Holy Ghost according to his promise Acts 1.8 and endued them with tongues they departed and separated and gathered several Congregations or Churches so that the sound thereof went into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World Rom. 10.18 which was after this manner viz. Christ after his Glorious Resurrection having led Captivity Captive be gave gifts unto men and called some to be his Apostles some Prophets some Teachers and Pastors c. who after they had chosen Matthias in the room of Judas the Traitor and cloven Tongues like as Fire having sate vpon each of them and all filled with the Holy Ghost and having preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and thereabouts the Word of God and Number of Disciples daily increasing from 120. to 3000. and more for which they being persecuted by the Chief Priests and Sadduces because they taught the People and preached through Jesus the Resurrection of the Dead which seems to be the same Year that Christ was Crucified viz. An. Aet suae 33. and 18. Tiberius scourging some and killing others Which Persecution occasioned divers of the Brethren to withdraw themselves into Neighbouring Places and Countries which gave occasion to the Gospel to be more universally spread throughout Palestine the Apostles yet remaining in Jerusalem Acts 8. who afterwards dispersing themselves also spread the Gospel into all Nations after this sort and manner viz. when a certain Number of Brethren being Converted and well Instructed in the true Faith agreed among themselves to build or hire a Temple Tabernacle or House for their joint meetings and exercising their Religion hired a Priest and constituted a Church and as the Number encreased so that the Church and Priest being not sufficient for them all those who were most remote did build another and fit themselves with more conveniences About the end of the First Century or beginning of the Second for good order and concord and for civility and respect they did bear to their Bishop or Priest custom began to include his consent also which in process of time soon degenerated into Luciferian Usurpation by the oblique Artifices of the Priests or Bishops of which Rome in process of time taking hold made great use to the abusing of the Power of the Brethren and to incroach upon the Priviledges of the Body of the Church It is not unworthy of our further observation That all his while the Apostles and their Successors were Independent one of the other and so were their several and select gathered Congregations And tho' there were Thousands of Churches gathered by the Apostles and their Successors yet there are no foot steps remaining that the Churches gathered by any one Apostle or Bishop or Presbyter were subject or did depend on any one or more Churches gathered by any other or more Apostles The like is as true after the death of the Apostles That no one Church by what Apostle soever gathered was left subject to any other Church gathered by any other Apostle no nor yet subject to any other Church of their own converting and gathering but every Church was to be governed by its own peculiar Body observing Gospel Precepts viz. to love one another to do all things decently and in order c. Tho' the Pope hath usurped a monstrous Supremacy over all Churches yet how and when and by what Artifices and Tricks the Popes
Prophets that divine for money and pimp for domination Mich. 3.11 and Demas-like forsake the fellowship of Saints and embrace this present World So that unless the Apostles return from Heaven or that Christ himself come again in Person and lasn them as he did the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple I see small hopes of Establishing the Government of the Church on a right Basis If they would be active in good earnest to divest themselves of all Temporal Domination and Jurisdiction and content to be reduced to the life and practise of the Apostles as they are to persecute their fellow Members for Conventicling we might be happy Yet I must do the right Reverend Author of Naked Truth that right That if the Ecclesiasticks were all of his mind and first seek the Kingdom of God it would easily be done and I do with him humbly conceive That the Bishops with the rest of the Clergy are bound in Conscience to implore the Assistance of both Houses of Parliament to Petition his Majesty for the Redress of the Abuses by Pious Laws settling the Church Government in the Primitive Purity and Authority which most evidently was very great and as greatly reverenced Bishops and Priests being the Persons to whom Christ and his Apostles committed the Souls of Men bought with his most precious Blood Therefore I think they do such Clergy-men not Priesthood not Episcopacy not true Church of England Men no wrong who esteem them as they manage their matters the very worst Interest that Protestant Kings and Kingdoms have but that of the Papists These Animosities and Differences have been ever since the beginning of the Reformation between the Conforming and Non-conforming Clergy and I may truly prophesie ever will be so long as Conscience shall be on the Earth and as long as Ministers will not be Servants but Lords over Gods heritage and will not condescend to let things made by God Almighty indifferent so to be and remain the Reasons are pregnant for that Conscience will be Conscience while the World stands and therefore there ever will be Scrupulonties and Obligations upon Conscience which are greater than all other Obligations in the World And therefore King James the First would say and that truly That the Puritans were never to be obliged and for that Reason Whereas if things indifferent might so remain and the Conventiclers permitted to preach in publick to take away all Fears Jealousies and Suspicion we should be all at quiet for then there would not be left so much as the pretence of Religion to occasion Dislentions or Quarrels Besides it is the time-serving Clergy only the Drones that vilifies and abaseth that caluminates and disturbs the Dissenters and not the Dissenters them EXtremities used against them at their Instigation Silencing Imprisoning Excommunicating making use of Laws against them that in their primary 35 Eliz. simple and sincere Institution were intended and enacted against Papists only and they not proceeded against so violently according to those very Laws in full force against them as against the Non conformists who have been Indicted under the Notion of Popish Recusants and Penalties levied upon them and the Papists either totally connived at or remissly prosecuted many Crimes through ungrounded prejudices laid to their charge as disturbing of the Government which they abhor and teach not of which they are no otherways guilty than by that Logick that the Fox his Earon his Head were Horns meer Surmizes Calumnies and Libels and nothing proved but that contrary to a human Law they following the Command and Example of Christ and his Apostles meet and assemble together to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their and our God and with one another and to make Peace and Reconciliation with God whilst they are yet in the way yet in the possibility of Salvation whcih Law in it self is null and void because it contradicts the Law of God which Commands all Men every where to call on the Name of the Lord Jesus and all Priests to teach all Nations Baptizing c. and to preach in every Church in season out of season c. to reprove exhort rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. Is not this with the Priests of old and the Captain of the Temple to be grieved at the heart that they teach the People and therefore laid hands on them and put them in hold and like Elymas the sorcerer being full of all subtlety and all mischief children of the Devil enomies of all righteousness never ceasing to pervert the right ways of the Lord Act. 4.2 and 13.10 But lying lips shall be put to silence which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous Psalm 31.18 It was St. Paul's Glory that Christ was preached any way though through strife or vain glory and I fear it is the glory of the more violent and haughty Tory Church of England Party as the road to Preferment to decry Conventicling and Preaching contrary to such a Law and to stop the Mouths of them that would Preach whereby they intitle themselves to the Character of the Shepherds described and deciphered Isai 56.10 11. Consider that in Preaching contrary to such a Law they do no more than what Christ and his Apostles did in their Days The Rulers of the Jews offended with Peter 's Sermon imprisoned him and John and having strictly examined them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus Did they therefore forbear Preaching or were they obedient to such Commands of the Rulers I tell you nay but answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to bearken unto you more than unto God judge ye and continued speaking the Wrod of God with great boldness Acts 4. The like did the rest of the Apostles even from house to house though accused of turning the World up-side down and of doing contrary to the decrees of Caesar yet preaching the Word of God boldly Act. 17.26 Either the Author to the Hebrews Preacht false Doctrine when he exhorteth us to consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is And so did St. Paul when he wrote his Chap. 14. to the Corinthians wherein he adviseth all to desire Spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesie that they may speak unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort when the Church is come together in one place with particular Directions how all should behave themselves in such Assemblies that all may profit with a general Rule that all things be done decently and in order Either I say these Apostles taught false Doctrines in so Teaching or else they that preach and prate against such Assembling as the manner of some is are false teachers I know no medium take it as you please Can it it be imagined that if St. Paul who rejoyced
SOME REMARKS Recommended unto Ecclesiasticks OF ALL PERSWASIONS NOT to trouble you with Prefaces or Apologies it is certain That as in the Church of the Jews they were not all Israel that were of Israel Rom. 9.6 so in our Church they have not all been nor yet are all true Church of England-men who boast and pride themselves in monopolizing that Character to themselves And yet I hope I may with great Truth affirm That the Independant Protestant Church of England is the best constituted Church both for Doctrine and Discipline in the World and that there are both in our Hierarchie and in our Inferior Clergy many seven shining Stars many true Nathaniels indeed in whom is no guile John 1.47 and yet I fear in the same Church that as there hath been so there are still many seven deadly Sinners Linsey-wolsey Divines not much unlike those of Samaria who feared God yet served Idols or like those of Israel who swore by the Lord and Melcom Whoever will seriously and impartially consider and examine the Prints of Dr. Leighton Pryn Bastwick and Burton and compare them with the Prints of Harsenet Parker late Bishop of Oxon Montague Sybthorp Manwaring and others must conclude the Doctrines and Positions of these Men to be far more pernicious and destructive to whole Kingdoms than the other and better deserved their punishment than to be rewarded with Preferments as they were And then if we consider how Instrumental some Prelates of those times were in Punishing the one and Preferring the other contrary to all true Religion and to the genius and sense of the most Pious of the Nation thereby manifestly espousing their Cause to be their own whereby they became participes criminis by which misbehaviour of theirs they brought upon themselves contempt and the Nation abhorred them and would not be satisfied untill they had disenabled them by Act of Parliament 17 Car. And if we consider the Opinions that the late Bishop of Oxon. otherwise a pious worthy Prelate sacrificed to the Flames in July 1683 and the purport of the Address of the other University to his Majesty in September 1681. And also the Contents of very many Sermons preached on the Ninth of September 1683. Besides very many others rank of one and the same poysonous Leaven all squinting towards Arbitrary Power and as much as in them lies alluring and encouraging Kings to attempt the same by rendring them absolutely Absolute and unaccountable until Dooms-day in the Afternoon whereby they become only Nominal I had almost said Mungril Church-of-England-men but not true Israelites not true Nathaniels indeed These things considered how can I expect less than a whole host of Chemarims about my Ears But when I consider that according to the Doctrine of the Church of England the Word of God is the only Rule of Faith and Obedience and disapproves all implicite Faith blind Obedience and Infallibility and that we are not to imbibe Doctrines on trust and expect Salvation by a deputy Faith and Obedience And that St. Paul exhorts us that we be no more henceforth children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 And the Scripture it self counts it nobleness of mind to examine the doctrines of our Teachers whether those things are so Act 17.11 And the Angel of the Church of Ephesus highly commended for that he had tried them which said they were Apostles and were not and found them lyers Revel 2.2 And St. Paul bids us prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 Sure then after such Apostolical Precepts it is no crime to inquire whether they that boast of being Church-of-England-men are so in truth or no. I appeal to your selves Is it Fair nay is it Just nay Is it not Pride and Folly to assert Truth by arrogating to your selves the only freedom of Speech and stopping of Mouths and Pens and Press and burning Opinions of others equally gifted and furnished with the same means of knowledge with your selves and have like precious Souls to save as your selves and yet can let Popish Books and other vile Tenets be published and read as common as your own without Controul Fire or Faggot and connive at them but storm against Protestant Conventicles and can let Swearers Drunkards Whoremungers and Adulterers march openly and confidently in our Streets without so much as the Summons of an Apparitor or Excommunication Tacitus intending to write the Life of Agricola Incursurus tam saeva infest a virtutibus tempora did beg Pardon which otherwise he would not have done considering that Aurelius Rusticus for praising Paetus Thrasea calling him virum sanctum was put to Death by Nero virtutem ipsam exscindere concupiscens And also Herennius Senecio because he had written the Life of Helvidius Priscus another Cato or Brutus a Person of most free Speech in behalf of the Commonwealth for calling them most Holy and Upright Persons Besides severity was used against the Writers of Books charge being given to the Aediles and Triumviri capitales that the Works of those Noble Wits should solemnly be burnt in the Market-place supposing that with that Fire they could stop the Mouths of the People of Rome abolish the Liberty of the Senate and suppress the Knowledge of all Mankind Expelling withall the Professors of Wisdom and all good Learning and Arts lest any sparks of Honesty should remain Hence Sulpitia a Poetess of that time Nunc igitur qui res Romanas imperat inter Et studia sapiens hominum nomenque genusque Omnia abice foras atque urbe excedere jussit A very noble and pious Example taken from Heathenish Princes for Christians to imitate We naturally love nay long for forbidden Fruit and are most inquisitive after Books forbidden as being always jealous that some Truths lie dormant in such ready to fly in the Faces of those that forbid them and make wise Men conclude That Reason cannot stand on their side who will not suffer the Reasons of both Parties to be read and published Gospel Truths need no such Artifices Souls purely divine without mixtures and allay of little pittiful ends and interests do scorn the motion lest happily some Divine Truths may by such sinister devices be suppressed and stifled And others being of the contrary Opinion diametrically opposite one to the other and each differing no farther from the one than the other from them and neither Infallible what would you have us poor Laicks do death and damnation being pulpited against us by both Perswasions as one Opinion or the other happeneth to possess the Pulpit 1. I say That the differences among us are occasioned not as Christians but as Men. The Gospel is the Gospel of Peace Peace was the last Legacy that Christ left to his Church My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you John 14.27 And his
in Parliament 4 Car. for that they tended to alter and subvert the whole Frame and Fabrick of this State and Commonwealth that they tended to infuse into the Conscience of his Majesty the perswasion of a Power not bounding it self with Laws which King James in his Speech March 21. 1609. to the Parliament calls Tyranny with Perjury he endeavours to perswade the Conscience of the Subjects that they are bound to obey commands illegal yea he damns them for not obeying them he robs the Subject of the Property of their Goods and seeks like Faux and his fellows to blow up Parliaments and Parliamentary Power c. That they hold it a great presumption for a private Divine to debate the Right and Power of the King which is a matter of such high Consequence as to be handled only in Parliament and that with moderation therefore upon the whole matter he was censured to be Imprisoned during the pleasure of the House Fined 1000 l. to make his submission at both Bars suspended three Years from the exercise of his Ministry disabled to have any Ecclesiastical Government or Secular Office for ever disabled to Preach at Court his Book to be burnt in London and in both Universities and the re-printing thereof to be inhibited by his Majesties Proclamation Notwithstanding all these Censures Reprimands and Judgment of Parliament yet such Juglers were the mighty Church of England Priests and Prelates and such was the Prevalency Potency and Impudency of the then Court Clergy no Nathaniels that they procured their Royal Pardons of all Errors heretofore committed by them either in Speaking Writing or Printing and Manwaring was immediately presented to the Rectory of Stampford Rivers in Essex and had a Dispensation to hold it together with the Rectory of St. Giles's in the Fields Rushwerth's Collect. when as the justness of the Nation required their severe Reprimands nay their Punishments nay the Muzling of their Mouths These and their Abettors no Nathaniels Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and others being of the same Quire and Chorus sung the same Tune and boasted themselves to be the true Church of England Men but the Archbishop-Abbot though Primate and Metropolitan of all England and multitudes of others both Bishops Priests and Lay much more Loyal and more True Church of England Men than themselves were branded for not being right Church of England Men and reviled as Puritanical Factious what not Under which Notion the Archbishop Abbot suffered being disgraced at Court commanded to withdraw into the Country Sequestred c. Whoever will seriously consider how Industriously Active and Instrumental the Bishops then in Vogue who were the Bishops of London and his Complices viz. Durham Rochester Oxon. St. Davids and others were to procure Dr. Alexander Leighton a learned Scotch-man Mr. Burton B. D. Mr. Pryn Barrister and Dr. Bastwick to be so inhumanly censured in the Star-Chamber and High Commission viz. Imprisoned Fined Whipt Pillored Ears cut off Cheeks branded with other Severities fitter for Infidels nay for Brutes rather than Christians and for what not truly for Crimes scarce Peccadilloes but rather for Rebukes of Sin as their Works do testifie in respect of what abominable Doctrines their own Priests preached countenancing and preferring those that Preached them espousing their Cause as their own and so became participes criminis tho' against the Interest and Sense of the whole Kingdom assembled in Parliament whereby and by their being a constant dead wait for the Court against the Kingdom they brought so great a Disdain and Contempt on their Hierarchy and those Courts that the Nation was not able to bear them and was forced to take away both these Courts and their Priviledge of Sitting in the House of Lords On which I shall only Remark thus much viz. That those Ecclesiasticks that preached Prerogative highest tho' to the ruine of the Nation and tho' condemned by the whole Kingdom in Parliament and that severely and with high Resentments yet when the Parliament was up Bishop Laud and his Complices no true but Mungril Church of England Men so improved their Interest at Court that they were preferred and others that did but Write and Preach against their violent and unconscionable Proceedings were barbarously censured and used which the Parliament so laid to Heart that they took away both these Courts And when those Three viz. Prin Bastwick and Burton returned from their designed perpetual Imprisonment they were met and caressed all along the Road and received by the City with great Joy and Acclamations And some while after Bishop Laud came to his unhappy Doom how deservedly I judge not If so to countenance and prefer those that Preach Doctrines so destructive to whole Nations and to Persecute learned and pious Men by the Character of a right Church of England Man I must confess that I cannot distinguish between Nathaniels and those that can swear by the Lord and Melcom I Appeal to the whole World whether of those two Contemporaries Archbishop Abbot or Bishop Laud were the Nathaniel the truest Church of England Man Abbot refusing and Laud granting an Imprimatur to Sibthorp's Sermon which was condemned to be burnt and yet Abbot Discountenanced Sequestred sent into the Country c. and Laud advanced Besides I verily believe that it cannot be proved by any plain place of Scripture that there is any Power under Heaven Ecclesiastick or Civil that hath lawful Authority to forbid any Man lawfully qualified to Preach the Gospel or to Prosecute any Man for denying submission to the use of Ceremonies no ways Essential to the Salvation of Souls If so what are we modestly to think of those Ecclesiasticks and their Adherents that ever since the Reformation Persecuted our Dissenters for Non-conforming to such commands What made so many of our Learned Pious Conscientious Clergy and Laiety Orthodox both in Life and Doctrine cry Migremus hinc and plant themselves in Foreign Barbarous Countries but Persecutions for their Consciences and for Rebukes of Sin rather than for any Crimes or Sins And yet their Persecutors had the Impudency of Abab the son of Omri who did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that went before him to tax them for Troublers of Israel when themselves Abab-like troubled it for they medled not with the Conformist but the Conformist with them not considering that Christ came to take away the heavy Yoke of Jewish Ceremonies and he and his Apostles never used nor prescribed any other and why any other Authority should impose any other Ceremonies and compel Obedience to them whereby they require other Conditions of Gospel-Communion than ever Christ himself did or his Apostles after him is past all Understanding They would oblige us to shew us by any one plain place of Scripture that Christ hath given any Charter to his Church or to any Officers thereof to require more Ceremonies to be admitted into his Fellowship and Worship than he himself hath done or to
deny their Communinn that are as capable of Heaven without the use of them as themselves with the use of them To the Council met at Jerusalem Acts 15. consisting of Apostles and all the faithful in the Church and to the Holy Ghost it seemed good to lay upon them no greater burthen than things necessary yet some of our Mungril Church of England Men taking themselves to be wiser than either the Apostles or the Holy Ghost have dared to impose Ceremonies and Observances no way necessary nor conducing to the Saving of Souls or Edification yea and more strictly requiring Conformity unto them punishing more severely the breach of them than the breach of Gods Precepts Tho' to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly befal any Christian and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any worldly Interests yet so active is the Zeal of Priests of enlarging their own Phylacteries their Greatness and Impery that they make no Bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns which in plain English is to make Godliness wait upon Gain Pride and Ambition Let us now also add and consider the grand Pique these Priestly Court Parasites pure Church of England Men have had against Puritans the sober and thinking part of the Nation and Puritanism of old and the same under the names of Whigs and Phanaticks the Arts and Tricks they have used to suppress the Purity and Power of Religion by reviling their Persons decrying and suppressing Lectures on the Week-days Sermons on Sundays in the Afternoon and Conventicles and giving encouragement to Idleness Looseness and Prophaness in the People Witness the Book allowing Sports on the Lord's Day Printed 1633. and the Countenance given thereto by the then Court Prelates and Prelatical Priests who procured a Royal Proclamation to justifie the same And Archbishop Laud sequestred Mr. Wilson four Years for not Reading that Book and prosecuted him in the High Commission Court for not Reading the Prayers of the last Edition commanded by the Archbishop Nalson 571. Who yet Countenanced Publick Sports on the Lord's-Day by the Examples of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and for the Publick Dances of our Youth upon Country Greens on Sundays after the Duties of the Day so Bishop Bramhall otherwise a pious Person and stout assertor of the Protestant Religion against Popery who sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under sort of People who likewise takes the promiscuous License to unqualified Persons to read the Scripture to be far more prejudicial nay more pernicious than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanists p. 641 642 643. This may be the Court Dialect and Prelatical Gospel but certainly not Apostolical for the same Equity for keeping the Sabbath strictly yea very strictly not Jewishly Ceremonious is as incumbent and obliging unto us under the Gospel at this Day as to the Jews under the Law I cannot understand such Liberty to be keeping of the Sabbath but rather a polluting of it Isai 56.2 6. Keeping of the Sabbath is not to rest only from bodily Labour but to abstain from doing our own pleasures and our own ways and not speaking our own words Isai 58.13 14. and abstaining from the delights of Sin as well as from the Works of our ordinary Callings What! weary of strict keeping the Sabbaths here and yet presume on the expectation of an Eternity which shall be nothing else but Sabbaths Certainly our Sabbaths here are but an Earnest and a Pledge of that Eternal Sabbath which we desire to Celebrate with Saints and Angels in Heavenly Places I wonder how so Pious a Prince and of such mighty Insight and Understanding could be so imposed upon by his Prelates and to Countenance such a Book by his Proclamation I wonder also how Bishop Bramball could shew such dislike of unqualified Persons Reading the Scriptures when to search them is a Precept Universal and to judge of Doctrines also and whereas there 's nothing in them of absolute necessity to Salvation to be believed but what is very obvious and intelligible to every indifferent capacity Bold Church of England Men that dare to be wiser than Almighty God by taking upon them to foresee Dangers that God never did foresee and to prevent them by such Methods as thwart God's own Appointments Beyond all peradventure such Doctrines such Practices such Methods can never conduce to the Benefit and Service of God's Holy Church and Chosen or to the Putity or Propagation of the Gospel but are rather a muzling of their Mouths who should tread out their Corn which should bring forth the food of Life Everlasting unto the People However tho' there have been such Priests and Prelates that have so acted yet I am not of their Opinion who therefore deemed them Papists in Heart No no some of them have given abundant Testimony to the contrary by their worthy Works as of Archbishop Laud Bramball and others But it is too plain that they improved what Interest they had at the upper end of the World towards tho Setting up and Advancing the Power Impery and Grandeur of the Church Men and to keep the Laiety under and did not improve their Interest towards advancing the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel or towards the making of a high way of Holiness through out the Land that way-fairing men though fools might not err therein Isai 35.8 that being certainly their greater Duty to have bestowed themselves and their Interest on the benefit and Service of the Church rather than of the Pride and Ambition of Church Men. Thus much by way of Caution to prevent the like for the future being of Opinion that the Persecuting Dissenters and Conventicles is as National a Sin as Drinking Drabbing and Swearing and ought to be as nationally to be lamented both by Clergy and Laiety For I must confess my self absolutely ignorant of any one thing or signal Constitution from the very beginning of the Reformation to this very day to which the Dissenters were required to conform and submit that was essentially necessary either to the Salvation of Souls or to the more pure and sincere Preaching of the Gospel unto which they deenid their Conformity or Submission They would yet very much oblige us if they would make known unto us such Constitutions if any such there be for if in truth they have not been such then the Imposers not the Dissenters are the Separatists and Schismaticks for tho very self same Reasons that the Papists are Schismaticks not Protestants And I am afraid that it is not Conscience but finister ends that makes Prelates contend so out of measure for things no way Essential to Salvation According to St. Cyprian In sinu sacerdorum ambitio dormit ibi sub umbrâ recubat in Secreto Tholami
Dead of many Superfluities which creep into the Churches under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self For to charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the beginning of all Superstition and when scruples of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schisms began to break in If the Spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities and not over-rigid in either reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there were far less danger of Schism or Superstition and all the inconveniences likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yield a little to the Imbecillity of Inferiors a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do Mean while wheresoever false and suspected Opinions are made a piece of the Church Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick for that is a like unlawful to make Profession of known or suspected Falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspect Actions Much of the same Opinion is Bishop Usher If at this day we should take a Survey of the several Professions of Christianity that have any large spread in any part of the World as of the Religion of the Romans and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Egyptians and Ethiopians in the South of the Graecians and other Christians in the East and should put by the Points wherein they differ one from another and gather from one Body the rest of the Articles wherein they all did generally agree we should find that in those Propositions which without Controversie are Universally received in the whole Christian World so much Truth is contained that being joyned with Holy Obedience may be sufficient to bring Men into everlasting Salvation His Sermon on Ephes 4.13 preached before his Majesty 1624. If our Ecclesiastical Grandees in the last Reformation of our Liturgy had been of St. Paul's mind as they ought to have been and not abuse their Power in the Gospel who though he was free from all Men yet made himself Servant unto all that he might gain the more to the Jew a Jew to them that are under the Law as under the Law to them that are without the Law as without the Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ To the weak as weak and was made all things to all men that by any means he might save some And this he did for the Gospel sake 1 Cor. 9.18 23. And by his so doing he gave no offence neither to the Jews nor the Gentiles nor to the Church of God but he pleased all men in all things not seeking his own profit but the profit of many that they might be saved chap. 10. ver 32 33. There had been no complaining of our Prelates nor any matter left to pick quarrels withall and the Kingdom much happier than now it is which Doctrine of Compliance is to be understood only of things indifferent And our Non-cons desire but the like in things indifferent Sure if St. Paul so much a more excellent Person than our Pontiffs held it his Duty thus to comply it would be no disparagement to our Prelates to do the same Certainly none will dare to aver That our Conventicles quatenus Conventicles are unlawful but unlawful only upon Presumptions and ungrounded Prejudices and Surmizes that their Non-conformist Teachers mostly Presbyterians or Independants do teach or foment Rebellion Schism Faction Now if in truth they are not guilty of such Crimes but their good Conversation is falsly abused by them 1 Pet. 3.16 What have such Conformist Church of England Men to answer for themselves that so slander them by laying such Crimes to their charge as they are no ways guilty of and in their Pulpits out of which nothing should be Preach't but what is as true as Gospel One Mr. J.T. in his Sermon on Eccl. 10.20 pag. 29 31. hath so hard thoughts of them as to believe That we shall never be free of a Plot if not against the Lafe of the King yet against the Peace and Honour of his Government so long as there is one Conventicle in England left And that as it is Death by the Laws of this Nation for a Popish Priest to be seen upon English Ground so it would be very well if it were so for a Non conforming one too Very Ghostly Councel to come from a Ministor of the Gospel of Peace I could wish that he and those of the like Junto did understand their Priesthood as it ought to be understood then they would Preach things that now were Holy Pure Peaceable and of good Report without such Trash This Gentleman is not alone in these stabbing Censures there are more of his Quire that sing to the like Tune a temper very ill becoming Preachers of the Gospel of Peace One other Mr. M. B. commonly known in the University by the Character of his Majesty's D ee Chaplain was turned out for what it 's a shame to tell tho' since crept in again in his Sermon on Luke 19.14 tells us That among Phanaticks a new Nick-name for old Puritans their Loyalty is Rebellion and their Religion is Treason and whose very Gospel is the Mystery of Iniquity and that amongst Phanaticks and Atheists transformed into malitious Fiends by the Hellish divinity of that Monster of a Priest the Author of Julian the Apostate whose whole Book it as great an Apostacy from the Practice of the Primitive Christians the Precepts of Obedience delivered by Christ and his Apostles and Christianity it self as ever Julian was guilty of pag. 19. As false a Scandal as a Priest of Baal could pulpit These are your Boanarges pure Church of England Men in their right Colours and Pontificalibus Nay the unclean Spirits like the Frogs that came out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet which are the Spirits of Devils which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth c. Rev. 26.13 14. who are not content falsly to Calumniate the Non-cons only but to Stigmatize also true Nathaniels Witness M. B. charging as a profligate Wretch and mercenary Scribler the late Writer of Julian the Apostate of which Charge the generality and best and wisest both of Clergy and Laiety do now acquit and justifie him to be the more Orthodox by their Pulpits Prints and Practices Sure sure Pulpits were never designed to spit Venome nor fulsly to Calumniate any especially for Printing and Publishing Gospel truths as that of lawful Resistance and Passive Obedience which Doctrines the generality of the Nation Lords Commons Bishops Priests Clergy and Laiety now own and practice and which was ever the Doctrine of the Church of England and of all sound Divines tho' metamorphosised and misrepresented by some Mungril Church of England Men as thwarting their sublunary designs of Pride Ambition Covetousness Honours and Preferments very ill becoming that most
they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel This is the Summ of the Discipline and Government that Christ left to his Church for ought appears by any plain Scripture And what need of more or other For if the Ministers of the Everlasting Gospel have free liberty to Instruct break Bread exhibit the Sacraments and Pray the Civil Magistrate hath sufficient Power by God's own Ordinance to order all the rest And their Commission extends no farther viz. Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. 28.19 20. Cura Animarum Salvation and Damnation of Souls being of Everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every individual is beyond all peradventure and contradiction the main Duty and Glory both of Priest and Prelate and to be apt to teach to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.1 2. for hereunto most especially and if not onely they are called as was Aaron and if not called unto this Duty they are called unto none by any Patent or Commission from Heaven This was the Government the Apostles used and left no other and the Gospel prospered under it then and why it should not prosper under it still no reason can be asscribed however let us trace the steps thereof and see by what vile arts and means it became degenerated into meer worldly Forms set up for meer worldly Ends and Interests In the Days of our Saviour whilst on Earth there was a common Purse which Judas carried which was always filled and supplied with the free-will Offerings of pious devout Princes and of private Persons who plentifully contributed their Temporal Riches to the Churches which was first instituted kept and distributed for two Ends only viz. First For the Necessities of Christ and his Apostles Preachers of the Gospel Secondly For Alms for the Poor which was distributed as the Lord commanded by Judas who was a Thief and usurped to himself the said Goods common to the Apostolical Colledge and was so Covetous that he sold to the Jews the very Person of Christ When Christ was ascended into Heaven the Holy Apostles in the Church of Jerusalem kept on foot the same Holy institution and for the self-same Ends viz. for the Necessities of the Ministers of the Gospel and for Alms for the Poor the Faithful in those Days making all their Goods common sold their Possessions for the same Purse or Stock and Uses So that the Community of the Church was not distinct from the particular of each faithful Man Yet this Custom of having all things in common went not out of Jerusalem And in other Churches planted also by the Holy Apostles this Custom was not observed neither did it last long in Jerusalem Whereupon 26 Years after Christ it is read That the publick was distinct from the private every one knowing his own but the Money being common in that Church as in others founded in Oblations which placed in common served onely for the Ministers and for the Poor The first Day of the Week which for that cause was called the Lord's-Day the Faithful met together and each one offered that which he had set apart of the foregoing Week for the Necessities of the common which was administred and distributed by the Apostles themselves for a short time after the Ascension whence arose murmurings and discontents and many dissatisfactions some thinking they were neglected and had too little and that others had too much which gave great trouble and distractions to the Apostles which they considering and finding that they could not attend this perfectly together with Preaching the Word of God they resolved to stick close to the Ministery of Preaching and Teaching and Praying continually and therefore appointed for this Office of having care of Temporal things another sort of Ministers Deacons quite disserent from that we see done in these Days wherein the Pope and Chief Prelates of the Church attend the Government of Temporal things and the Office of Preaching and Teaching and the Doctrine of the Gospel neglected and left unto Friars or Brethren and inferior Priests in the Church Wherefore they directed the Brethren to look out among themselves from the body of the Faithful Seven Men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom they appointed for that Ministery that they might give themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word And wheresoever they founded a Church they also appointed Deacons in the same manner and to the same Ministery As also they ordained Bishops and Priests and other Ecclesiastical Ministers Fasting and Praying preceeding And the common Election of the Faithful following after observing inviolably this order never deputing any Man to any Ecclesiastical Charge who was not first Elected by the Universality of the Church which is of all the Faithful together This Custom was observed not only during the life-times of the Apostles but even about two hundred Years maintaining the Ecclesiastical Ministers and the Poor also with the publick Stock raised by such Oblations And the fervent Zeal and Charity of those Times was so great that the Oblations amounted to very great Summs In the Church of Rome that rich City Marcion about the Year 170 gave a free-will Offering at one time of Five thousand Crowns of Gold in the Church of Rome who afterward holding Erroneous Opinions in matters of Faith he was expelled from the Congregation and all his Money restored to him This rich City grew so rich by those Oblations that after Two hundred and twenty Years the Roman Emperours coveted them Whereupon Decius the Prince arrested St. Lawrence a Roman Deacon to take the Ecclesiastical Treasures from him but he being aware thereof distributed them all suddenly and so disappointed the Tyrant The Church thus abounding in Riches the Clergy began then to degenerate and to live at ease not being content with the daily Food of the Church but would have their separate shares every Day or Month or longer and live where they pleased which tho' it declined from the Primitive Perfection was yet winked at by the Fathers but it rested not here for the Bishops began to fail the Poor of their due and kept more for themselves and so growing Rich with the Goods of the Church dealt also in Usury to increase in Riches and withall leaving off the Care of Teaching the Doctrines of Christ and busied themselves in getting Pelf of which St. Cyprian complains in his time Tho' the Church possessed so much Wealth yet it had no settled or stable Goods at the first Yet in France and in Italy some left or gave stable Goods to Churches which in the Year 302 were all confiscated by Dioclesian and Maniminian tho' in France
any Foreign State or Power Upon this Popish Foundation which hath not the least ground in Scripture stands our Darling Ecclesiastical or Church-Discipline and Regiment a meer Popish Relick and Hierarchy set up only not to minister unto but to domineer contrary to Christ's Precepts and Examples And our Ecclesiasticks have not as yet made it their concern or business to endeavour a farther Reformation thereof tho' designed even from the beginning of the Reformation in Henry the Eighth's Days but are very well pleased to eat the Fat and drink the Sweet thereof And tho' they know that their Incroachments and Usurpations have been all got by Popish Priest-craft and by which they have for above 1000 Years cajoled and fooled both Crowns and People out of their just Rights and subjected Caesars and great Princes and Principalities to their own Empire And instead of a pure Gospel Government have Established to themselves a mighty Throne of Iniquity and Abominations fitted for Pride Domination self-ends and Interest c. Which Priest-craft togegether with Antichrist began to work in the Days of the Apostles even from Judas's Purse and continues to this very Day which is demonstrably made out as by many Histories so more punctually and particularly by Father Paul s Treatise of Beneficiary matters shewing how and when and by what Priest-craft all their Acquisitions Friars Annals Arms Spiritual Benefices Unions and Vacancies of Benefices Canons Cardinals Coajutors Commendam's Election of Bishops and Priests Exemptions Goods Ecclesiastical Appeals Monks Monasteries Indulgencies Investitures Pluralities Non-residence Excommunication Episcopal Audience Absolutions Dispensations Prebends c. were acquired used and abused A foul Mistake and Crime to think to Establish the Church with good Government taken from human Reason as if t were a Temporal State The Church and Kingdom of Christ as it is more Excellent than any other Kingdom in the World the Scepter of Righteousness being the Scepter of his Kingdom and to which Kingdom all other Kings and Princes ought to bow down and be subservient so it and the Government thereof differs from all other Governments and Kingdoms First It hath but one Head and that not by Election or Succession but by everlasting Continuation Secondly This Head chose his Church or Kingdom and not the Church him John 15.16 Luke 32.23 Thirdly The Laws of this Kingdom are more excellent and more unchangeable than the Laws of any other Commonwealth or Kingdom as being the Dictates and Precepts of Christ the onely and Eternal Head and are the unchangeable Copies and Expressions of his Immutable and most Holy Will Fourthly The Obligements and Conformity of every Member thereof unto these Laws are far more strickt and severe than in any other Commonwealth or Kingdom viz. That every one should love his Lord and King above all and his Neighbour and fellow Citizens as himself should abstain from all appearance of Evil and resist unto Blood striving against Sin c. Fifthly In the visible Government of his Church and Kingdom he hath appointed a Priesthood by irrevocable Ordination in which it is dissimular to all Temporal Governments as Officers of his Church and Kingdom to continue after his Ascension viz. Priests and Bishops and soon after his Ascension the Apostles added Deacons also by Ordination What Powers Christ gave them what Duties be obliged them unto are visible by their Commission written in great and indelible Characters viz. Go teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and so I am with you to the end of the world Matth. 28.19 20. and they were to Preach not themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves the servants of his Church for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4.5 This is the Summ of their Commission and Authorities that Christ left them Christ well knowing that his Apostles and Ministers and their Successors were to gather him a Church from among both Jews and Gentiles all bitter Enemies to him and his Gospel and to Establish it in the Bosom of their Kingdoms did prescribe them such a Government and Laws as they might any where execute peaceably without prejudice to the Subjects of any Commonwealth or Kingdom either in their Lives or Fortunes no other Subjects being subject unto that Spiritual Regiment but onely such as embraced the Christian Religion In this Christian Church Christ ordained Officers to Teach Baptize Ordain and Administer his Sacraments but for what concerned Honesty and Dishonesty doing Good and working Wiekedness and breaking the Laws of Morality Christ gave many general Rules and Precepts to the whole Church who were to Govern its own Body and the Officers thereof and not the Officers the Church or Body viz. to love one another even our Neighbours as our selves c. And if any did trangress the Laws not peculiar to them as Men but as Christians if the Offence were private then they were privately to be admonished If publick then they that transgressed openly were to be rebuked openly but if after Friendly Admonitions and Reprimands private and publick they still continued incorrigible then not to own them as Brethren nor keep company with them with such no not to cat and in sine pursue and proecute them as Publicans and Heathens i. e. Sue them in the Civil Courts And this is the Summ of the whole Government and Discipline which Christ left to his Church and any other there is not extant in Scripture nor is there need of any more or other as is hinted before Let the Pope Prelate or Paesbyter demonstrate any other Form of Church Government if they can they know they cannot but they will pelt us with Stories of another Government and of its Antiquity and general Use thereof for many Ages Be it so let them derive it as high as they can from that very Day and Date the very beginning of Popish Priest-craft will appear which by good management heaping Pelian upon Ossa now one thing and then another it early arrived at that monstrous heap of Irregularities nay Impieties it is now at in the Irregular use of the same in both Churches Take it as it is with the best Construction can be made of it What Concord what Agreement had it with the Government set forth in the Gospel even the same that Light hath with Darkness and Christ with Belial To Day to burn Books and Tenets of Men as pious and learned and having as precious Souls to save as themselves and to morrow suspend and extravagantly punish Ministers and others for writing Rebukes of Sin or not reading a Book of Sports or for Lecturing Excommunicate others for not paying Fees or not observing the Orders of their Courts and of their Officers Chancellors Surrogates Archdeacons Officials Sumners c. And if an Excommunicate Person come into the Church in the time of Divine Service the Celebration thereof is to
Prophesie but of the Press also A shrewd sign that they disguise the truth and are afraid to be discovered and that they do distrust the Judgment of the World upon such their Actions For it is a derogation to Faith to dread the publishing of Truths All the World hath ever complained of the Vices Incroachments and Male-government of the Clergy attributing the cause of all State Distempers to be that the Clergy did creep into and busie themselves in the Courts of Princes and in the Affairs of the World being Judges Chancellors Secretaries Treasurers What not there being but few Officers of State into which some Ecclesiasticks have not insinuated themselves and crept in which is to ridicule Religion and shamefully to confound Spiritual and Temporal things together which is altogether Unapostolical This I am sure is forbidden by St. Paul and the whole tenor of the Scripture who thought it necessary that a Soldier of the Church should abstain from Secular imployments 2 Tim. 2.4 for Christianity is a continual Warfare they would take it very ill if one should say that Priesthood were not Jure Divino and happily well they may and I doubt they will take it as ill if we say that because it is Jure Divino therefore no Priest from the Presbyter to the Pope ought to busie themselves or take any Secular Imployment that may any way impede their daily Ministrations distract or avert their Thoughts or necessarily enforce their absence Vid. Canon Apost 7.80 And in the Ecclesiastical Laws there is a whole Title Ne Clerci vel Monachi secularibus negotiis innisceant Pope Clement the Seventh to serve a turn made all demonstration that he had laid aside all thoughts of Temporal things I could wish our Priests would do it in good earnest And St. Chrysostom hath a long discourse complaining of Clergy-men leaving the care of Souls and become Proctors Economists c. Preaching things unbeseeming the Ministery And it is not only against Precept Divine but against Moral and Natural right as appeareth Luke 10.7 and Matth. 10.10 1 Tim. 5.18 It is the labourer the workman not the lasie drone and loyterer that is worthy of his hire his meat and his reward It is they who minister not they who do not minister about holy things that have right to live of the things of the Temple and they that wait not they that do not wait at the Altar not at the Court or on secular Imployments that have right to be partakers of the Altar for the Lord hath so ordained that they which preach not they who preach not the Gospel should live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. For Priesthood was at first instituted not for Honours nor for Dignities nor for Rewards as now used and have been so used many hundreds of Years but for Ministeries and Charges called by St. Paul Works and those that excrcise them called by Christ Workmen tho Priest-craft hath turned them into Benefices For Priests are most properly God's Workmen And St. Paul's practice was anserable to his Doctrine and the charge is given Rom. 12.7 8. to wait on that office whereunto we are called whether to prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministery let us wait on our ministery or be that teacheth on teaching c. Where there is a Commandment there lies a Bond upon the Conscience to do To Preach the Gospel there is a Duty ever binding a Minister with a woe annexed if he Preach not Moreover the work of Preaching is so much more excellent above all other Acts of the Ministery that for my part I cannot imagine what that great and important business of the Ministery can be to which it can become preaching to submit I am sure not Sacraments and if not Sacraments I am sure nothing more excellent Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1.17 he might as well have said not to domineer not to do any thing in this sense comparatively as he desires to be understood Besides is there any thing more honourable Hear the same Apostle 1 Tim. 5.17 the Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour Call it Reverence or Maintenance or both however a specialty in it belongs to them that labour in the Word and Doctrine And it is most certain that more sound honour is to be gained in the Hearts of the People by Preaching than by all outward helps whatsoever What say I honour amongst Men yea more comfort to their Consciences and glory in God's Kingdom Hear Solomon Prov. 11.30 he that winneth Souls is wise and Daniel 12.3 they that turn others to righteousness shall shine as the Stars in the firmament And Paul 1 Thess 2.19 What is our hope our joy our crown of rejoycing are ou not it in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming What comfort like this when a Minister comes before the Lord the great Shepheard of the Sheep with the word of Isaiah applied to our Saviour Lo me and the Children thou hast given me Isai 8.18 the Sons and Daughters which by thy blessing I have begotten unto thee in the Gospel One of the Apostles on whose Shoulders lay the care of all the Churches yet denounces woe to himself if he preach not the Gospel And Timothy hath that charge laid on him with an heavy adjuration to preach the Word 2 Tim. 4.1 2. Besides their very Priesthood obligeth them to be Watchmen and therefore to watch continually on their Ministry and if any of their Flock miscarry thro' their unwatchfulness their blood will be required at their hands and they cannot be ignorant that Sathan with millions of sins and stratagems are ever besieging inticing clamoring haling rebelling intruding with Love with Strength with Law with Arguments with Importunities always importuning and diverting their Flocks from the right way and therefore they ought always to stand Sentinel to forewarn and help Certainly if the Apostles were so Puritanical so Phanatical so Whiggish and so scrupulous of entertaining any Imployment tho' never so Pious and Charitable that might any way in the least hinder the main end of their Duty viz. to preach the Gospel I humbly conceive that our Bishops and Priests accounting themselves successors of the Apostles and sent as they were sent ought also to follow their Doctrine and Examples as well in this particular as in any other And sith the Lords provision for Levites was so made that they might attend the Altar and wait continually on the Sanctuary without the distraction and cumber of any civil Imployments I cannot see how plunging conflicting earthly Imployments can consist with the duty and charge of a Minister and execution of his Commission seeing to preach the Gospel being a duty ever binding Ministers with a Woe annxed if they preach not Woe to the idle shepherds if they preach not Ezek. 34.2 as heavy as to those that are at ease in Sion They cannot
to other Churches where they were received as their own Clergy and sometimes when some Minister of their own died a stranger if eminently worthy succeeded in his Ministry and was then said to be Incardinated whereas he that was first exalted to an Office was said to be Ordinated or Ordained but he who was disposessed of his own and provided with another was called Incardinated This began in Italy Hence in process of time came Cardinals from Parish Priests to be now equal to Kings and had their maintenance out of the common Stock accordingly of which there were Episcopi Cardinales Presbyteri Cardinales Rome and Ravenna being then the richest Churchs received most of the eminent strangers and therefore they had most Cardinals and they chose the most eminent Men strangers and were called Cardinals In Rome the name remains to this Day in Ravenna it lasted until 1543 and then was taken away by Paul the Thid. It is wonderful to see how from such a low beginning they have grown to such an excessive height even from that which had neither Degree nor Order in the Church but brought in by chance or rather by Clergy-craft and subtilty is raised to be so Supreme in the Church as we see it now a days Aequiparantur Regibus was the common saying of the Court Innocent the Fourth Anno 1244 gave them the red Hat and Paul the Second gave them the red Cap the Regulars excepted which was also granted to them by Gregory the Fourteenth Tho' at first none were Ordained without a Title which continued until a little before the Year 500 yet afterwards the Bishops Ordained without a Title or any Office and therefore without Benefice which sort of Clergy in progress of time grew so excessively numerous that thence arose a Multitude of Indecencies Irregularities and Scandals which did more especially arise from the desire of many to become Clergy men for increase of their Livelihood and to enjoy the Exemptions granted by Princes the other from ambitious Prelates desiring to have a multitude of Subjects whom they might command which disorder yet remains and makes the People loose their great Respect for Religion and their Charity Before the Council of Trent such Bishops swarmed but now much lessened Tho' so great Inconveniences and Irregularities arose by Ordaining without a Title yet the Jesuits will have it that the Pope may Ordain without any Title either true or feigned whereby the Reverence to that Order hath abated in respect to that it had when Ecclesiastical Orders were only Ordained to Offices for which reason all them resided and dwelt upon their Charges which could not be left vacant there being none to supply them all being occupied in their own Likewise the distinctions of Benefices Compatibile Incompatabile found out only to cheat the World was then unknown whether fatter or leaner the Possessor was obliged to serve it personally without Unions Reserves Commenda's and Devices found out only by Clergy Craft to avoid the old and best Canons and to bring all into the Popes Power There were many Provisions made by divers Princes to prevent the many Abuses occasioned by the Ambitious and Covetous Clergy but all in vain Clergy-craft quickly found out Distinctions and Subtilties and coined Evasions to avoid both Canons and Laws made for Redress of such and other Abuses which were before the Year 800. About which time Charlemagn having reduced under his Obedience Italy France and Germany reformed in some measure the Abuses in Ecclesiastical Affairs reducing them to an Uniformity which in divers places have been variously used renewing many of the old Canons and Councels worn out of use by Clergy Craft and making of Ecclesiastical Laws for the distribution of Benefices as they ought and partly restored unto the Parishes the Possessions which the Bishops had usurped unto themselves Ordaining that every Priest should have a sufficient Benefice according to that saying Beneficium datur propter officium He restored also to the Monks that Power of chusing their own Abbot He Established also That the Bishops ought to Ordain those Priests who were presented by the People of the Parishes He Established also the Pope of Rome in like manner as he had been instituted when the Emperors of the East had the Dominion over Rome viz. That the Pope should be Elected by the Clergy and the People and the Decree of the Election should be sent to the Emperour upon whose Approbation the elected was consecrated but to the Honour of the Clergy be it remembred there was never any Law made to remedy any of their Abuses but they soon found out a way to evade them About this time the Custom of giving Tythes unto Parish-Churches passed out of France over into Italy which soon were abused as well as other Provisions made by the free-will Offerings of the Faithful and so are to this Day But what should I say more of their Abuses in other things as of Abbies and Abbots Monkery and Monasteries Annates universally reputed grievous and condemned yet justified by some their Arms Spiritual Expectancies or Reversions Benefices Pluralities Comenda's Unions Reservations Cardinals Coajutorship Decretals Donations Elelection of Popes Priests Bishops and Deacons Exemptions Mendicants Regresses Indulgences Quindeniums Investitures Reserves Pensions plentitude of Power Non-obstante's Devolution Canons Dominion of Goods Ecclesiastical Resignations Renuntiations Alienations Reservations Symony Vacancies Titles of Dukes Marquisses and Earls given to Bishops c. but that the Clergy in those times did abuse that Power they had in the Gospel endeavouring rather to acquire Empire Grandeur and Temporal Estates by any indirect means than with Paul to have made the Gospel of Christ without charges by preaching the Gospel willingly A woe always attending the neglect thereof though they which minister about holy things ought to live of the things of the Temple and that they which wait at the Altar ought to be partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 9.13 16 17 18. It is an Observation of godly Men That in those times the Court would never be induced that a gainful Abuse should be abolished or corrected until it had prepared a greater and more profitable one So great Authority tends to no good because it appears thereby that almost all the Abuses have been introduced From hence proceeded the Commendums Pensions Regresses Unions Resignations Expectancies Reservations yearly Payments Quindeniums and other kinds which no Man defends The Government of the Church was first Democratical all the Faithful being present in the chiefest Councels and Deliberations Thus we see that all were present at the Election of Matthias unto the Apostleship and in the Election of the Six Deacons and when St. Peter received Cornelius a Heathen Centurion unto the Faith he gave an account of it to all the Church Likewise in the Councel celebrated in Jerusalem the Apostles the Priests and the Faithful Brethren were present and the Letters were written in the name of all the Three Orders
When Paul writ his Advice about the incestuous Person he directed his Epistle unto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours They perverted the Spiritual Arms of Excommunication which was used only for the Correction of Sinners into the defence of their Temporal Possessions The Law of Tithes is indeed Mosaically Divine but not a Law naturally Divine nor Christian and it obliged only that People at that time now it obligeth none In the many Troubles and Uproars occasioned by the Bishops confederating with the Popes against the Emperor the Bishops obtained the Publick Incomes and the Regal Rights or Duties and when the Differences were composed they had taken so firm Possession that the Princes were necessitated to grant them in feudo that which de facto they had usurped to themselves by which they acquired also the Titles of Dukes and Marquisses and Earls Many of them are still in Germany remaining such both in Name and Fact but in Italy in Name only The Canonists say That the Poor are obliged to pay Tithes for that which is given them by Alms in Begging at Doors and the Harlots are bound to pay Tithes of their gain by Whoredom The greatest and most frequent Legacies and Gifts are from Harlots Prohibitions for Alienating which were made against Clergy-men in favour of the Laiety are turned about against the Laiety in favour of the Clergy The Popes never failed to get any Abuse whatever to be justified by Doctrines Tho' the Popes ought to feed and not share the Sheep yet they make themselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Gods holy Church and People 1 Sam. 2.29 Having thus briefly declared the Government of the Church in general which is more at large set forth by Padre Paolo that incomparable Servite in his Treatise of Beneficiary matters let us consider how the Government of the Church of England now stands In brief thus First In the British times before the Conversion of the Saxons the particular modes of Administration as all things else concerning the British Church are very obscure But this is clear enough That the Popes Tyranny and Usurpation being then unborn and Princes enjoying their whole Power both in Ecclesiasticks and Civils nothing was ordained without their Authority and Permission who yet gave large Powers to their Clergy both for Debating and Judging in their own Consistories things proper to their Care and Inspection as at large appeareth in the Imperial Constitutions of Theodosius Justinian and others Seconldy The English Saxons Church being planted by Augustine the Monk through the care and direction of Gregory the Great did bear a respect to the Roman See but owned none of its Authority and Dominion in Ecclesiastical matters The Bishops and others of the Clergy assembled often and made Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions but not without the License and Allowance of the Kings who by their own Authority indeed by Ecclesiastical Usurpation and Tyranny enacted also many things of Religious and Ecclesiastical Practise as appeareth largely in the Saxon Laws collected by Lambert and others and Sir Henry Spillman's Councels Thirdly For about 1000 Years after Christ the English Church refused thus the Roman Yoke till that proud Priest Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury first was so bold as to shake off the King's Rule and Authority in matters Ecclesiastical denying him Obedience without the Condition of Salvo Ordine suo and so as much as in him lay destroyed the Liberty of the English Church and the King's Prerogative This appeareth from Anselm's 36 Epist to Paschalis Matthew Paris and others Peter Pence indeed were formerly paid out of respect to the Bishops of Rome but the Pope never obtained the Investiture of Bishops and the right of receiving Appeals and consequently that Soveraignty and Headship over the Church till such time as Becket being killed Henry the Second to get Absolution subjected himself and his Kingdom to the Roman Jurisdiction about An. 1172. Fourthly This Foreign Authority was after 200 Years restrained by the Statute of Praemunire and other Acts of Parliament yet the Pope still kept his Foot here tho' not his Body or rather his Hand which scraped up a World of Treasure The Canon Law was the Law of the Church Archbishops without the King's leave assembled their Provincial Synods the Decrees of which bound all Men by no other Authority than that meerly Ecclesiastical and provided that they were not contrary to the Jus commune as it is called of the Pope rather than that of the King Great were the Priviledges and Exemptions of the Clergy from Secular Courts and Jurisdictions as is to be seen in Articuli Cleri and other old Laws and the History of those times abundantly testisie Fifthly This Exorbitant and Foreign Power was in part banished by Act of Parliament in Henry VIII his time Now it s provided that the King should be ordained Supreme Head or Chief and Supreme in Ecclesiastical Affairs as the Jewish Kings of old and the Ancient Christian Princes were and it is made High Treason to deny it Now consideration being had of the old Canon Law it was considered how to reform and reduce it to such a temper as would sute with this new Alteration and it was then thought fit that it should rather be quite Abolished and a new intire Body collected for the Government of the Church Sixthly To this purpose it was Enacted that Thirty or more Persons should be deputed by the King to make this Collection But it being better to live where nothing than where every thing is lawful they were not so rash to run down Root and Branch and take away the old Building before a new one was modelled and therefore till this Model should be prepared and confirmed in Parliament it was Enacted That the Canon or Ecclesiastical Laws should stand in the same force as formerly they did at that time except in such Cases wherein they thwarted the Laws of the Land Seventhly This new body of Ecclesiastical Laws was by Edward the Sixth attempted and an Essay made by Dr. Haddon since printed by the name of Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum but never was perfected nor confirmed by Act of Parliament and therefore the Canon Law is still in force as formerly but where it contradicts the Law of the Land Thus is the Crown with much ado pluckt out of the Paws of the Ecclesiastical Man of Sin and restored in Parliament to its Ancient Rights in matters Ecclesiastical It being by Act of Parliament Established That the Clergy should not Assemble without the King's License and Authority By all which it appears That the Kingdom the Church of England now hath a Supreme independent Right and Power within it self to make Coerceive Laws for the Welfare of it self without running to Rome or to