Government which St Jerome requires and ownes as exors necessaria potestas Episcoporum as a principal and eminent power necessary for the Church of Christ and specially residing in Bishops Indeed in the beginning or infancy of Churches as many learned men have observed the powers or offices of Deacon Presbyter Bishop and Apostle might possibly be resident in and exercised by one man where there was but an handful or little flock of two or three gathered together in Christs name But when Beleivers and Congregations and so their Pastors multiplied then there was a necessity of politie order and wisdom to distinguish and rank these offices and Officers into several politick distributions or helps of Government some to be the flocks others to be the Pastors some to be only as Presbyters praying preaching baptizing consecrating and blessing the people others as Presidents or Bishops ruling over the many Presbyters and people too within their inspection others as Deacons servient to Bishops Presbyters and people And all this to keep such an orderly unity as may best avoid Schismatical Confusions in the Church of Christ which ought to be as an Army with Banners where are the Ensigns of Office and Authority the directives of orderly motion the centers of union and the securers of the common safety by wise commands and ready obedience Nor may the sameness of the Names or of Naturals Morals or Religion as to faith gifts and graces nor the community of some Christian Priviledges duties or offices of charity these may not be pleaded against the primitive distinction of Eminent Honour and Authority among the Clergy any more than all priority and superiority may be denyed among men in respect of Civil Magistracy who are of the same Nature Parentage City Trade and Country or among Souldiers of the same Army or Scholars of the same Colledge and University To be sure that over-seeing presidential and gubernative power which shall authoritatively look to the Eutaxie good order and unity of the Church such as was in the prime and secondary Apostles the first as Oeconomical the second as Metropolitical or Diocesan Bishops such as was committed to Timothy and Titus and exercised by them not only as Evangelists or Preachers but as Presidents and Prelates this power cannot be either regularly or prudently or safely in England committed to any hands but to those venerable Clergy-men whom his Majesty and the Laws shall think fit to constitute as Governours over others and from whom they may have an account of all Nor can it be in better or safer hands than those of learned wise grave and godly Bishops assisted by such sober Presbyters or Ministers as his Majesty and the Laws shall either appoint or permit them to call to their counsel and assistance in their Ordinations or in their exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures and Jurisdiction Not by way of a Consistorian negative which is to alter and unhinge the whole Government turning wine into water and making way for all factions to breed even in the Nest of Church-Government but by such publick presence and venerable conspicuity of many learned and wise Counsellors as may best avoid any mistakes or errors and most contribute by their being witnesses of all transactions to that authority which is necessary to convince men of sin and to convert them from the error of their ways when they see themselves condemned by the censure not of one only but of many worthy and impartial men An Help Ornament and Honour in Church-Government which really for our own part we earnestly desire and ambitiously embrace as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Ignatius Cyprian and others so magnifie that Fraternal Consess and Ecclesiastical Council which may not only be witnesses of our publick actions but assistants in all such publick dispatches as are not safely committed to any one man nor can discreetly be managed by him without contracting too much envy anger and odium upon him which sense we believe is common with all our Worthy Brethren Indeed no wise Bishop can affect an arbitrary power or an absolute and sole Dominion Nor are we willing to be thus either exposed to others calumnies or betrayed to our selves because we know our selves to be but men and subject to the same infirmities with other sinful Mortals Nor can we be so happy as when we are both compassed encouraged and supported with our aged learned and reverend Brethren of the Clergy who may be every way as able and deserving as our selves Thus sortified and assisted we may by Gods help be capable without too great burthen to discharge the proper duties and offices of Bishops both in and out of Parliaments which is to see Nè quid detrimenti patiatur Religio Ecclesia vera Reformatio c. That our Religion as Christian as well Reformed and as by Law duly established suffer no detriment diminution or debauchery no Apostacy Schism or Division in Doctrine Discipline or Devotion in Sanctity Solemnity or Uniformity either by profaneness petulancy or faction What his Majesty your Lordships and other Gentlemen of other civil Employments cannot so well observe to be amiss in Church or Church-men we the Bishops as publick Watch-men and Over-seers may best inform you of what we cannot amâ—nd by reason of the luxuriancy or obstinacy of some refractory spirits your eminent authority may command and curb according to Law in which the publick wisdom and power safety and honour do concenter In the last place as to the great merits of the Honourable House of Commons and in them of all the ingenuous Gentry with all the Religious and Loyal People of England towards us the Bishops of this Church We shall chuse rather to dye or to be again degraded by the folly and fury of Schismatical envy and malice than not to make good by our actions their good esteem of us or to forfeit by any fault of ours their ready suffrages for us We shall never think any thing added to us by this great favour and honour shewed us if we do not find in them mighty spurs and goads to provoke us more to our duties of sound preaching sober praying discreet governing and holy living which are the solid honours of all good Bishops and true Ministers As they are the debts also which we indispensibly owe to God to this Church and to the least Member of it What may possibly be wanting in the frequency number and tale of our Sermons by reason of our age and infirmity shall be made up in their weight and when we shall not be able to preach at all we will study to live over the best of our Sermons and to preach by our examples when we cannot by our words God forbid we should suddenly forget those late horrid and long conflagrations out of which the good hand of God by the Kings favour and this Parliaments assistance hath snatched us and this whole Church yea God forbid that we the Bishops and all
naturalize or enfranchise them while they were both eagerly conspiring and fiercely strugling against Legal and Catholick Episcopacy they made a shift to strangle each other both pretending to be the eldest son the very Esau the only and primitive Church-Government of Christs Institution his entire Scepter and Discipline neither of them was by wise men believed to be so since both could not be so And to be sure neither the one nor the other was ever known or used in this or any true Church of Christ for fifteen hundred years after Christ unless all the Histories and Examples of the Church have conspired to deceive us and themselves which none but Jews and Turks can imagine The first of these Presbytery had a redder face rougher hands longer nails and a fiercer voice like Esau The second of Independency that is Church-Democracy or common peoples Ecclesiastical Politie first pretending to crown Christ as a King and then really to mock and crucifie him parting his garments among them breaking his bones and nayling him to the cross of popular Dependence as the root of all Ministerial Authority and Maintenance which is indeed but a dry tree and dead trunk This I say was at first smoother skinn'd and softer voiced like Jacob but it soon supplanted by notable disguises and vulgar insinuations its elder brother and its angry rival Presbytery At last Post varios casus post tot discrimina rerum after several risques and hazards run by Church and State the Divine Justice and Mercy to this Church and Kingdom decided the controversie between these dividers and destroyers opening a door for the happy return of ancient Monarchy to its just Supremacy in Church and State also of venerable Episcopacy to its pristine Office and Ecclesiastical Authority loyally subordinate to the Crown of the King according to Law and religiously servient to the Church of Christ according to his holy Gospel In which ancient and excellent Government if any thing be found in the decurrence of time or degeneracy of men and manners inconvenient to the publick welfare either as to its constitution or execution we humbly crave of his Majesties goodness and this Parliaments wisdom that both we and it may be so reformed and regulated in all points not by Tumults and Armies but Parliamentary Counsels as may be most conforme to Scriptural rules primitive ends and uses so far as the present times and manners of men will best bear which concession is sufficient to appease the gripes and wamblings of any who either could take or would keep their Covanant with any shew of good conscience that is guided by Reason Law and Scriptures the speediest and easiest way of reforming Government lying in good Governours For we are not so straight-laced in point of Episcopacy as to think it may not admit prudent regulations and variations yet so as the main spiritual power and Ecclesiastical Order be preserved and improved according to the primitive pattern and Catholick custom of the Church which is sacred and ought to be inviolable unless insuperable impediments give a temporary dispensation rather submitting to providence than changing the principle or subverting the order so divinely constituted so universally established and so highly blessed But if a right Evangelical Episcopacy such as for the main ever hath been in the Church of Christ and now is according to Law re-established in ENGLAND such as we are most ambitious to adorn and exercise if this be found as no doubt it will most consonant to right reason to all rules and grounds of true politie to the just proportions of good Order and measures of Government yea to the ancient models and methods of Church-Government which are set forth by God himself in the Old Testament among the Jewish Priesthood and by our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament among his 12 Apostles with the 70 Disciples and these followed as divine patterns or originals by the Catholick Church ever since the Apostles dayes as all Fathers Councils and Histories of the Church do evidently assure us O let not we beseech you this ancient fruitful goodly and venerable Cedar of Episcopacy be blasted or baffled or blown down by the profane breath of some popular Preachers or by the fury of giddy heady and ignorant people Let not its ample boughs be broken its useful bark be pilled or it s far extended roots be extirpated by the petulancy and rudeness of any unruly and insolent spirits since in its leaves shadow and fruits there hath been and still is so great a blessing for this Church and Kingdom as is evident in these necessary Offices First for holy Ordination or conferring of due and undoubtedly compleat Ministerial power such as is derived from Christ sent by his Father and from the Apostles sent by Christ Secondly for Confirmation or solemn benediction of the Cathecumens who in their Infancy were baptized that when come to years of discretion and well instructed in Christian Principles they may seriously reflect upon personally owne and solemnly assume upon their consciences the keeping of their Baptismal Vow that only sacred Covenant which is sufficient for any honest Christian Thirdly for the due examination detection reprehension and suppression of Errors Hereses and Schisms in the Church of Christ Fourthly for the autoritative reproof and reformation of Immorality Idleness Faction and Disorder among the Clergy and other Christians Fifthly for the encouraging and preserving of truth peace holiness and order among all under their care and inspection All which good works are to be done by such Ecclesiastical Monitions and Censures as are by Christ by the Church and by the Kings Authority committed to them as Bishops or Church-Magistrates furnished with spiritual Ecclesiastical and Legal Power Lastly for the giving more eminent remarkable and autoritative examples in all Christian graces and vertues proportionable to their places estates and dignities for the encouragement of piety and discountenancing of profaneness The weight and emphasis of examples consisting most in the eminency of the person and dignity of his place which make them as Dominical Letters or Capital Figures of greater note name and influence These so peculiar duties proper offices and uses of Bishops as Church-men may very well seem I dare not say below your Lordships eminent dignity since Gods glory and Christs honour are stamped upon the Ministers of the Church but less suitable to your many secular Employments And I am sure they are for the most part much above most Lay-mens abilities as they were ever judged by the Church of Christ above the ordinary capacities of meer Presbyters or inferiour Ministers who have indeed the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministerial or Liturgical power and authority as to doctrine consecration devotion parochial inspection and direction derived to them by and from the respective Bishops But not the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 political ordinative and presidential power in point of the Churches National Politie or more publick
Assemblies to repair those breaches which were made by the free Votes as it seems of but a few Lords and Commons compared to the integral numbers of either House and that in very tumultuating broken and boisterous Times whose imperious and impetuous Fury would not be satiated or stayed till they had destroyed in new ways of Judicature without any former president or future parallel we hope first a prime Counsellor of State next the chief Bishop of this Church and lastly the best of Kings in the World So fatal and unhappy it is for men either to neglect Gods ends or to vary from his means to use the Devils engines for Gods edifice doing real evil that imaginary good may come thereby Indeed the blessed God hath in the midst of his Judgements remembred Mercy HE HE hath commanded the Whales which had devoured our Jonah's the Bishops and other dignified Clergy of England with all their Cathedral Churches Honors and Revenues to cast them up again upon dry Land HE HE hath sent his good Angels even the King and his faithful Forerunner who are in this respect as Angels or Messengers of God to stop those Lions mouths who thought they had us all alive between their Teeth breaking our bones that they might more securely eat our flesh He he hath stirred up the Heart of our gracious Sovereign with this loyal Parliament as he did the Hearts of Cyrus and Darius Kings of the East to turn the Captivity of the Church of the Clergy and of the Bishops of England to make our latter end better than our beginning no less for inward Graces which we hope and pray than for outward Mercies as he did to holy and patient Job Indeed the Mercy of God is so miraculous and the Favor of King and Parliament is so remarkable to us That many of those ambiguous friends to the Church of England to Bishops and to Episcopacy who formerly stood as Jobs miserable Comforters afar off amazed to see that amidst Christians and Protestants and zealous Pretenders to Reformation such eminent Learning such powerful Eloquence such venerable Years such admirable Piety such oracular Prudence such splendid Virtues such useful Abilities and such deserved Honors as were to be seen in the late Learned and Reformed Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND should be forced to embrace the Dunghil to be trampled upon terrified scorned and cast out as the off-scouring of all things by men some of them viler than the earth who certainly would not have used Christ and his Apostles much better had they appeared among them such as indeed they were Bishops or chief Pastors and Shepherds of the Churches Even those dubious Spectators of the late Trials and cruel Mockings put upon the Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND do now many of them turn their Amazement of Horror to an Extasie and Jubile of Joy while they see what a Wonderful Change God hath made commanding dry bones to live giving beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the garment of Heaviness rebuking at once the Raging of the Sea and the madness of the People which nothing but Omnipotent Goodness can tame or set bounds unto as he hath now done among us Many of those wary Christians and superpolitick Professors who heretosore were afraid lest by their compassionate and kinde Aspect they should adopt the unjust Calamities of godly Bishops and other Worthy Church-men These now begin to look serenely and without sqinting on the Episcopal Dignity they speak reverently of and kindly to the venerable Bishops and the other industrious Episcopal Clergy They behave themselves with filial Respects to their Mother the Church of ENGLAND speaking comfortably to her and telling her That her Warfare is accomplished assuring us Bishops and all other Worthy Ministers of the Church That our Troubles are finished if our Hearts be refined our Lusts mortified our Passions conquered and our Lives amended That the former Terrors Afllictions and sad Desolations shall be requited with double Honor if we all unanimously return with double Diligence to do our Duties to God and Man That those vast Ruines which Schism Sacriledge Rebellion and other crying sins have made shall be abundantly repaired by the Justice Piety and Munificence of the King the Parliament and People of ENGLAND who have lived to see all the Vizars and Masks of Angels of Light now quite taken off from the Faces of those Satans who under the clamors of violent Non-conformity and under the colours of illegal unreasonable and deforming Reformations are found the greatest Adversaries to Law and Justice to true Reason and sober Religion to necessary Order and good Government which are the solid Foundations and onely Pillars of publique Peace of sober and lasting Reformation God himself I say hath at last pleaded by the seasonable Intervention of the King and Parliament the Cause of this Church against all its cruel Calumniators and causless Adversaries whose late sacrilegious Depredations dreadful Oppressions and endless Vastations sprang first from the root of scrupulous or sullen or scandalous Non-conformity to the Laws At length they all nestled themselves under the popular Shadow or in the spreading Branches of an Anti-episcopal novel illegal and Headless Presbytery At last they brought forth those bitter fruits and sowre Grapes which set all our teeth on edge by the Anarchy and Confusion the Waste and Ruine of this Church and Kingdom This Royal Munificence and Favor of his present Majesty is by the former Insolencies and Calamities that befel this Church and Clergy as by so many black foils and dark shadows the more set off to be as indeed it is so great so unwonted so wonderful so kingly so christian so divine so proportionable in this point for gratitude and munificence to Gods extraordinary Providences oft preserving and at last restoring his Majesty to his Kingdoms That no instance in any Age or History can parallel it nor can any thing be said worthy of it but this It is an act of magnificent Piety worthy of such a King and the Son of such a Father The Father chose to lose all his Crowns Estate and Life rather than rob God and the Church The Son when God had restored all to him as to our lawful Cesar takes care to restore all to God that is his and his Churches Give me leave to take a more leasurely and exact view of his Majesties Bounty and Justice to the Church and Clergy of ENGLAND For its Dimensions like those of the Pyramids and Colosses which were among the Wonders of the World merit more than a transient Aspect When his Majesties own Royal Estate by long Usurpation and Banishment had been wholly detained from him and much exhausted when he was now under the necessity of many and great Expences publique and private for the Payment of his Royal Navy and for the Disbanding of his Armies now His by a most happy Revolt and loyal Apostacy When He had Power as He pleased to recruit
refuse the obedience due to Civil Magistracy or who oppose the liberty and authority of this particular Church to regulate and govern its own politie agreeable to Gods Word and the practice of all other Churches Our care shall be as not to spend much precious time in things that do not edifie nor to adde the weight of substance to feathers which are but ornaments so nor to expose Religion rude and bare naked and ridiculous to the world much less to sacrifice the publick peace honour and wisdom to private petulancy and pertinacy Yet still we shall make a great difference between the weak and the willful the superstitious and supercilious the scrupulous and scornful doubters and dissenters between the humble Professors and constant Practisers of true Religion in the main of Morals and Fiducials and the turbulent Praters or pragmatick agitators who love to swim against the stream of Authority against right Reason and true Religion established Laws and good Order setled Government and due Subjection We shall first endeavour with meekness of wisdom to satisfie all sober and good men next we shall do as the Law commands against the malipert and obstinate wranglers who make no conscience to deny common Principles to swallow absurdities and reconcile contradictions between their own liberties challenged to themselves and their rigid severities imposed by them upon others There is no reason for them to complain if the same measure be measured to them which they have meted to others every way their equals and in many their betters Nor shall they ever have so much cause to cry out of what they suffer as of what they have done We are not averse from any discrect indulgence which his Majesty and the Law shall see sit to grant to some persons for some time till better instructed and brought off from their prejudices we shall not envy or grudge or deny any honest man those dispensations and forbearances so far as our Charity to private Christians may not be prejudicial to the Churches peace and publick good to which we and all men owe the greatest charity and which may not under any flourishes of zealous praying and preaching or under any pretensions of private conscience be either undermined or overthrown what ever colours of Non-conformity or thorough Reformation men carry before them We know there are many envious eyes upon us and bitter tongues sharpned against us some quarrel that we are no better though themselves be not very good others are grieved that we are not worse This impotent malice of unreasonable or uncharitable men is best silenced and confuted by our just and gentle demeanour toward all And although we are not to be encouraged or over-awed with the weak words of men yet our care shall be that nothing be spoken of us bad but it shall be false The rough tongues of our enemies shall be but as siles and whetstones to our Virtues as their rude hands have been the touchstone of our patience This is the worst and only revenge we intend to take of all our causeless Adversaries either to perswade and win them to sobriety or to overcome and disarm them by our being or doing better then they deserve or desire The injuries and indignities cast upon some of us heretofore and all of us now by the pride improbity or petulancy of any shall but give greater fervour to our industry prayers and charity The former rigors used by some Tyrants Tryers and Inquisitors against Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy shall not carry us beyond the sober bounds of Gods and mans Law nor beyond that Law of Christian charity which is the bond of perfection and which commands us to let our Christian moderation be known to all men and our love even to our enemies We will not less encourage true piety sanctity and sincerity because of the scandal and cruelty of some mens hypocrisie We have not so learned Christ in whose holy footsteps we shall endeavour to tread as the surest evidence that we succeed in his Ministry and exercise his Authority Those Ministers or people whose hearts most misgive them as fearing the return of hard measure from Bishops because of the great evil they have as Pseudo-Presbyters and Apostates done or designed against all Bishops and the whole Church of England We cannot better Answer for their security than as Joseph did to his Brethren when he was now advanced and it was in the power of his hand to hurt them as their own jealous souls justly told them when he replied to their astonishment I am Joseph whom ye sold into Aegypt Be not afraid I fear God c. Thereby implying That he could not meditate or act any revenge but that of Love against his brethren who professed to own and serve the same God and whose mercy had now turned their intended mischief into good Let our greatest enemies heretofore now repent of the evil they have done and designed against this Church and Kingdom no less than against Bishops let them shew their repentance by living so as becomes good Christians and good Subjects As the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of their head fall to the ground by our means We meditate the good of all men and most of those that have been our deluded yea their own enemies and who will now be our friends and their own on any reasonable terms As good Physitians we shall have special care of those who most need our help and cure As Fathers we shall readily embrace those penitent prodigal Sons which return to us We know that nothing will sooner end all unkind unjust and uncomfortable quarrels than the holy and unblamable lives of Us Bishops which as the presence of Christ and the shadows of the Apostles will either cast out the evil spirits that yet remain in some men after all the miracles of Gods providences or else more torment them Our Virtues and Graces shall be the only Revengers as they will be the sharpest Satyrs and severest reproaches yea and the most assured Victors of mens evil speeches and insolent carriages In this holy integrity while we justifie his Majesties Wisdom with Your Honors Counsels and comprobation we shall have none to fear or flatter whose evil designs under any popular and threed-bare quarrels against all Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies are to overthrow both Law and Gospel Church and State bringing all into Anarchy and confusion We shall indeed highly urge conformity especially in our selves and all true Ministers Conformity I say first to the Word of God to the Examples of Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles with all true Saints Next to those Canons and Laws of the Church and State which bind Us and them most to loyalty and duty Lastly We shall so far urge an external conformity in circumstantials and Ceremonies as shall be required of them and Us by Law in order to preserve decency reverence uniformity and solemnity in holy Duties also peace and unity
in Church and State as free God knows from Superstition or Will-worship or unlawful humane Inventions as some other mens affected words and modes ceremonies and forms are in their eyes hands speeches and gesticulations When His Majesty Your Lordships and the Worthy Gentlemen of the House of Commons together with all the sober English World shall see Us Bishops demeaning our selves as they would have Us and as you have deserved of Us in the way of great and good examples proportionable to our pious and venerable Predecessors before and since the Reformation no doubt Your Lordships and all Worthy Persons will be as far from repenting of Your restoring Bishops to their government and jurisdiction also to their ancient honour and capacity of Sitting in the House of Peers and therein of restoring this Church and Christian Kingdom to their pristine honour peace and safety by Gods blessing as some others are from rejoycing or not repining at Gods mercy the Kings benignity this Parliaments generosity and piety as well as policy and discretion in preferring the gray head of primitive and venerable Episcopacy before the beardless striplings of Presbytery and Independency with which new wines if any weak heads in England be still so in love as to chuse them before the old wine which is better certainly they will have this happiness in their unlucky errour as to have no learned and honest man to be their rival If any things have seemingly or really been amiss in any of our Predecessors or our selves through humane frailty or passion which easily besets the best of men in this life as our desire is not to deny or dissemble them so truly they cannot now with any modesty be remembred or objected by these Adversaries against Us or any Bishops heretofore since the covetousness ambition pride tyranny cruelty and implacableness of some Anti-Episcopal and Anarchical spirits have been so excessively insolent and outragious even to a wantonness of wickedness and to all manner of injastice far beyond the worst actions of the worst of Bishops in the worst of times since the Reformation But whatever hath really been amiss our caution shall be to avoid or amend all faults as much as Your charity and Nobleness hath this day covered and forgot both their infirmities and any of our failings What was eminent as much was in many of them and commendable in most of them our endeavour shall be to imitate where we despair to exceed That while Your Lordships or others behold us either in the Parliament or the Pulpit or the Press or the Consistory you may not have much cause to deplore the absence of our famous Predecessors whom you cannot but love and admire as we do for their piety learning industry and charity In sum we shall strive that neither Bishops nor Episcopacy shall be any burthen but a great blessing as it hath been to this Church and Kingdome to King and Subjects to the good and bad to encourage the former and to restrain and amend the latter Which happy effects will easily be attained First If we may be guided and circumscribed by good Laws and Canons beyond or short of which no Presbyter or Bishop may go no not in any exemplary ceremony or affected novelty to a super-conformity Secondly If we may be defended in doing our duties by his Majesties just power without cramping or benumming the sinnews of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by needless prohibitions Thirdly If we may be still assisted and adorned with your Lordships and the other Gentlemens love and favour Fourthly If we may be duly fortified by the desired counsel and meet assistance of our aged learned and reverend brethren of the Clergy Lastly If we may be daily commended as the Church-Liturgy hath appointed and for which passages it is so unwelcome to many who love Church Lands better than they do the best Church men or Bishops more devoted to prey upon them than for them to the marvellous workings of Gods grace by the prayers of all good Christians which we do not more want than passionately and humbly desire That since we the Bishops of this Church are again brought to this high mountain and thus transfigured our faces may so shine in good words and works that your Lordships and all this Church of England may glorifie our Father which is in heaven That we may abhor that Soloecism of Honor sublimis vita deformis Lordly Titles and Peasantly actions And since there is no greater sign of a thankful heart for mercies which our selves have received than a charitable sense of our Brethrens miseries that in the day of our Exaltation as Bishops to Estates and Honours we may not forget the depressions and afflictions of others Give leave to as many of us as are thus compassionate to present our supplication to your Honours the two Houses of Parliament and by your mediation to his Majesty A great one indeed it is and therefore worthy of so great an address to persons of large hearts and hands who are ready to answer great desires and to effect great designs It is in the behalf of many of our poor Brethren the Clergy of England and Wales That there may be some effectual means used worthy of the Wisdom Piety and Charity of His Majesty and His Two Houses of Parliament to relieve the meanness tenuity and incompetency of their scandalous livings which makes many of them as more needing so less capable of Discipline Objects also of vulgar contempt depressing their spirits starving their studies discouraging them in their duties betraying them to sordidness of living exposing them to many temptations and lastly subjecting them to all popular servilities complacencies and dependancies which are the nests and brests the seminaries and nurseries of all faction There is no way to redeem them their Ministry and this Reformed Church from these burthens and chains that enter into the very souls of many at first ingenious Scholars and hopeful Ministers but by making small livings somwhat competent His Majesty hath set a great example in this kind commanding augmentations to be allowed out of his own and the Churches impropriations But this bounty cometh short of at least 3000 livings which still remain in ENGLAND and WALES as Flats or shallows in the Sea upon which when the necessities of many young men and hopeful Scholars once drive them they seldom ever get off without shipwrack of Morals or Intellectualls However it is such a stop and hinderance to the proficiency of their studies also to the authority and efficacy of their Ministry that they seldom or never make a Prosperous voyage ever conflicting with difficulties and many times conquered by them not only to a meanness but an immorality of living It is a work worthy of His Majesties greatness and your goodness to apply in Gods good time some meet help to this crying Malady which first began by the Popes unhappy alienating of Tythes from the Incumbents or Rectors and annexing them
due respects this one Christian request to your Honours in the behalf of many poor Ministers yea and of the souls of many poor people nay in the Name of your and our Saviour whose work the poorest Minister of the Gospel if able and honest doth perform and so for Christs sake is worthy of his wages and leaving it as a matter of great and publick importance to your pious and wise consideration in due time I cannot conclude better than as I began that so I may compleat the circle of our grateful and just acknowledgments with that eternal veneration praise honour and thanke which from my self and all my Reverend Brethren the Bishops and all the sober Clergy are duly and humbly returned first to the most blessed God whose judgments are unsearchable and whose mercies are everlasting Next To His most Gracoius Majesty for His munisicent and matchless goodness to the Bishops Clergy and Church of ENGLAND Lastly To Your most Noble Selves the Lords and Commons of this present Parliament who have thus taken away the sin reproach and scandal of Sacriledge Schism and Confusion which were by some unhappy men brought upon this sometime so famous Kingdom and flourishing Church of ENGLAND For whose vindication and comfort as the Author was not wanting in her greatest agonies and blackest afflictions publickly to compassionate her sighs and tears so he thought it his duty upon a publick more than private sense seriously to rejoyce and heartily to congratulate with her in this happy restauration which he hath oft prayed for and now lived to see because he is perswaded in his conscience if rightly managed with piety and charity that it highly tends to Gods glory to the honour of our blessed Saviour to the asserting of our true Religion as Christian and Reformed to the establishment of the publick peace in Church and State and lastly to that just and ingenious compensation of good for long endured evil which is highly deserved and justly expected by this Church of England from all its genuine Children not only because it was once well reformed and most flourishing but also because it hath been so grievously and as to man most unjustly afflicted and deformed For without doubt the pious Intentions and prudent Constitutions of the Church of England were such That nothing was or now is wanting in it to make a good Christian perfect to salvation if he be not wanting in himself and to the grace of God offered to him in the Ministery of this Church Every saving truth being maintained by Her Nothing added to or diminished from the word of God as saving or necessary Every holy Duty every divine Institution every sacred Mystery every necessary part of Gods Worship every moral Vertue every Christian Grace every usefully-good Work is either celebrated or enjoined or taught or recommended to every Christian both in private and publique according to their station Nor may any Christian justly blame the Church for any defect but rather their own hearts for want of humility devotion and gratitude to God and men There is holy sap and sweetness in all its Liturgical appointments if men were not surfeited with their own fancies prejudices and pride All things being set forth by the Church without the least tincture of any known Error in Doctrine or Superstition in the substance of Religious Duties and Devotion The outward Form also or publique Reverence and Solemnity of Duties is no other than what without question is left by God to the Liberty Prudence and Authority of every Church and Christian Politie as most consonant First To the Civility and Custome of the Nation Secondly To that outward Veneration which is accordingly due to the Divine Majesty Thirdly To the publick Solemnity and Decency of holy Duties in the Church Fourthly To the ancient Use and Custome of the primitive and best Churches Fiftly No where forbidden by Gods word or by any rule of right Reason Sixthly But chosen used and imposed by this Church within its own Precincts and Politie only under no other Notion than that which is lawful and true 1. In the nature of things circumstantial as still necessary in their general adherency to all outward Actions of need 2dly Yet as free and indifferent still in their nature although cast by authority in to meet Regulations as instances of our outward obedience in them to man for the Lords sake while they continue so appointed 3dly Lawful in the divine Permission Commission and clear Approbation of the Churches Liberty and Authority in such things for publique order and decency 4thly In the necessity of such visible Order Decency and Uniformity fixed by Supreme Wisdom and Authority as most conducing to the Churches outward peace to avoid Faction Schisms Sedition Fury Confusion fires that easily kindle from small sparks if left to vulgar spirits 5thly And lastly all this pious and prudent Politie of the Church of England managed by such apt Overseers and proper Governours as this and all ancient Churches ever used from the Apostles daies under the Titles of Bishops Presidents and Fathers who are according to our Law chosen by the Clergy approved by the Church confirmed by the King as Supreme Governour inabled by Learning Matured by Experience Sanctified by Grace Consecrated by Prayer Devoted by Diligence Assisted by their Brethren of the Clergy Regulated by setled Laws and Canons to do their duty so as God their Consciences and all good men require of them in order to those great and eternal ends of saving their own and others souls besides the temporary blessings of the Churches unity and harmony as in Faith and Love so in Orderliness and Decency without which all Religion runs to Irreverence Faction and Confusion The angry eager and obstinate Quarrels then which some waspish men have long maintained and still do against some mutable words and Phrases in the Liturgy or against some little Rites and innocent yet few Ceremonies used by the Church of England are I fear much more deserved by and due to their own distempered hearts and should in all justice now be turned against the factions proud and pertinacious humours and opinions of those men who had rather quite ruine such an Ancient Famous Reformed and sometime Flourishing Church than rightly understand Her words and meaning or give Her leave to interpret them or than deny themselves in those petty Points of Reputation Opinion and Prejudice to which they may be popularly advanced as beyond a convenient retreat so beyond that humility diseretion meekness peaceableness modesty and charity which best becomes those Presbyters and people who are afraid to contest with their Princes their Bishops and their Countries united Wisdom and Authority lest they be found fighters against the God of order and peace who ought not to take courage from the Kings patience or turn his Indulgence into wantonness Nor have they any cause to be angry that they are not thought wiser than this whole Church and State or because they are not made Dictators to all Convocations Parliaments and Kings Nor should they be so ashamed to come at last from fighting and domineering to petitioning and deprecating or from sinning against God and man to return to their duty to repent and recant the evils the errors and excesses of their ways which God hath wonderfully convinced and confuted by his former blessings on this Church and his present blasting of their new Projects which have froth in their head and blood in their bottom as the water of those men who labour with the stone and Strangury and have their wounds from within What now remains but the Authors particular craving and Your Lordships with the other Gentlemens vouchsafing pardon for the great presumption of such an Orator who conscious to his many defects hath adventured by this grateful Excess to put Your Lordships and them upon the Exercise of Your and Their Noble Patience thereby to give the world a further great experiment of that Gentleness and Candor which adds Lustre to all Your other Honourable and Heroick Virtues of which no men are more witnesses than the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England not only as wondring Spectators but as thankfull Enjoyers FINIS