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A50916
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Of reformation touching chvrch-discipline in England, and the cavses that hitherto have hindred it two bookes, written to a freind [sic]
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Milton, John, 1608-1674.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing M2134; ESTC R17896
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44,575
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96
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of all men he had onely the Bishops his enemies found God lesse favorable to him after he was Bishop then before for his last 16. yeares would come at no Bishops meeting Thus you see Sir what Constantines doings in the Church brought forth either in his own or in his Sons Reigne Now lest it should bee thought that somthing else might ayle this Author thus to hamper the Bishops of those dayes I will bring you the opinion of three the famousest men for wit and learuing that Italy at this day glories of whereby it may be concluded for a receiv'd opinion even among men professing the Romish Faith that Constantine marr'd all in the Church Dante in his 19. Canto of Inferno hath thus as I will render it you in English blank Verse Ah Constantine of how much ill was cause Not thy Conversion but those rich demaines That the first wealthy Pope receiv'd of thee So in his 20. Canto of Paradise hee makes the like complaint and Petrarch seconds him in the same mind in his 108. Sonnet which is wip't out by the Inquisitor in some Editions speaking of the Roman Antichrist as meerely bred up by Constantine Founded in chast and humble Povertie 'Gainst them that rais'd thee dost thou lift thy horn Impudent whoâ—…e where hast thou plac'd thy hope In thy Adulterers or thy ill got wealth Another Constantine comes not in hast Ariosto of Ferrara after both these in time but equall in fame following the scope of his Poem in a difficult knot how to restore Orlando his chiefe Hero to his lost senses brings Astolfe the English Knight up into the moone where S. John as he feignes met him Cant. 34. And to be short at last his guid him brings Into a goodly valley where he sees A mighty masse of things strangely confus'd Things that on earth were lost or were abus'd And amongst these so abused things listen what hee met withall under the Conduct of the Evangelist Then past hee to a flowry Mountaine greene Which once smelt sweet now stinks as 〈◊〉 This was that gift if you the truth will have That Constantine to good Sylvestro gave And this was a truth well knowne in England before this Poet was borne as our Chaucers Plowman shall tell you by and by upon another occasion By all these circumstances laid together I do not see how it can be disputed what good this Emperour Constantine wrought to the Church but rather whether ever any though perhaps not wittingly set open a dore to more mischiefe in Christendome There is just cause therefore that when the Prelates cry out Let the Church be reform'd according to Constantine it should sound to a judicious eare no otherwise then if they should say Make us rich make us lofty make us lawlesse for if any under him were not so thanks to those ancient remains of integrity which were not yet quite worne out and not to his Government Thus finally it appears that those purer Times were no such as they are cry'd up and not to be follow'd without suspicion doubt and danger The last point wherein the Antiquary is to bee dealt with at his owne weapon is to make it manifest that the ancientest and best of the Fathers have disclaim'd all sufficiency in themselves that men should rely on and sent all commers to the Scriptures as all sufficient that this is true will not be unduly gather'd by shewing what esteeme they had of Antiquity themselves and what validity they thought in it to prove Doctrine or Discipline I must of necessitie begin from the second ranke of Fathers because till then Antiquitie could have no Plea Cyprian in his 63. Epistle If any saith he of our Auncestors either ignorantly or out of simplicity hath not observ'd that which the Lord taught us by his example speaking of the Lords Supper his simplicity God may pardon of his mercy but wee cannot be excus'd for following him being instructed by the Lord And have not we the same instructions and will not this holy man with all the whole Consistorie of Saints and Martyrs that liv'd of old rise up and stop our mouthes in judgement when wee shall goe about to Father our Errors and opinions upon their Authority in the 73. Epist. hee adds in vaine doe they oppose custome to us if they be overcome by reason as if custome were greater then Truth or that in spirituall things that were not to be follow'd which is revel'd for the better by the holy Ghost In the 74. neither ought Custome to hinder that Truth should not prevaile for Custome without Truth is but agednesse of Error Next Lactantius he that was prefer'd to have the bringing up of Constantines children in his second Booke of Institutions Chap. 7. 8. disputes against the vaine trust in Antiquity as being the cheifest Argument of the Heathen against the Christians they doe not consider saith he what Religion is but they are confident it is true because the Ancients deliver'd it they count it a trespasse to examine it And in the eighth not because they went before us in time therefore in wisedome which being given alike to all Ages cannot be prepossest by the Ancients wherefore seeing that to seeke the Truth is inbred to all they bereave themselves of wisedome the gift of God who without judgement follow the Ancients and are led by others like bruit beasts St. Austin writes to Fortunatian that he counts it lawfull in the bookes of whomsoever to reject that which hee finds otherwise then true and so hee would have others deale by him He neither accounted as it seems those Fathers that went before nor himselfe nor others of his rank for men of more then ordinary spirit that might equally deceive and be deceiv'd and oftimes setting our servile humors aside yea God so ordering we may find Truth with one man as soon as in a Counsell as Cyprian agrees 71. Epist. Many things saith he are better reveal'd to single persons At 〈◊〉 in the first and best reputed Counsell of all the world there had gon out a Canon to divorce married Priests had not one old man Paphnutius stood up and reason'd against it Now remains it to shew clearly that the Fathers referre all decision of controversie to the Scriptures as all-sufficient to direct to resolve and to determine Ignatius taking his last leave of the Asian Churches as he went to martyrdome exhorted them to adhere close to the written doctrine of the Apostles necessarily written for posterity so farre was he from unwritten traditions as may be read in the 36. c. of Eusebius 3. b. In the 74. Epist. Of Cyprian against Stefan Bish. of Rome imposing upon him a tradition whence quoth he is this tradition is it fetcht from the authority of Christ in the Gospel or of the Apostles in their Epistles for God testifies that thosi things are to be done which are written and then thus what obstinacie what presumption is this to
Physick't And surely they were moderate Divines indeed neither hot nor cold 〈◊〉 Grindall the best of them afterwards Arch Bishop of Canterbury lost favour in the Court and I think was discharg'd the goverment of his See for favouring the Ministers though Camden seeme willing to finde another Cause therefore about her second Yeare in a Parliament of Men and Minds some scarce well grounded others belching the soure Crudities of yesterdayes Poperie those Constitutions of EDW. 6. which as you heard before no way satisfi'd the men that made them are now establish't for best and not to be mended From that time follow'd nothing but Imprisonments troubles disgraces on all those that found fault with the Decrees of the Convâ—…cation and strait were they branded with the Name of Puritans As for the Queene her selfe shee was made beleeve that by putting downe Bishops her Prerogative would be infring'd of which shall be spoken anon as the course of Method brings it in And why the Prelats labour'd it should be so thought ask not them but ask their Bellies They had found a good Tabernacle they sate under a spreading Vine their Lot was fallen in a faire Inheritance And these perhaps were the cheife impeachments of a more sound rectifying the Church in the Queens Time From this Period I count to begin our Times which because they concerne us more neerely and our owne eyes and eares can give us the ampler scope to judge will require a more exact search and to effect this the speedier I shall distinguish such as I esteeme to be the hinderers of Reformation into 3. sorts Antiquitarians for so I had rather call them then Antiquaries whose labours are usefull and laudable 2. Libertines 3. Polititians To the votarists of Antiquity I shall think to have fully answer'd if I shall be able to prove out of Antiquity First that if they will conform our Bishops to the purer times they must mew their feathers and their pounces and make but curttail'd Bishops of them and we know they hate to be dockt and clipt as much as to be put down outright Secondly that those purer times were corrupt and their Books corrupted soon after Thirdly that the best of those that then wrote disclaim that any man should repose on them and send all to the Scriptures First therfore if those that over-affect Antiquity will follow the square therof their Bishops must be elected by the hands of the whole Church The ancientest of the extant Fathers Ignatius writing to the Philadelphians saith that it belongs to them as to the Church of God to choose a Bishop Let no man cavill but take the Church of God as meaning the whole consistence of Orders and Members as S. Pauls Epistles expresse and this likewise being read over Besides this it is there to be mark'd that those Philadelphians are exhorted to choose a Bishop of Antioch Whence it seems by the way that there was not that wary limitation of Dioces in those times which is confirm'd even by a fast friend of Episcopacie Camden who cannot but love Bishops as well as old coins and his much lamented Monasteries for antiquities sake He writes in his description of Scotland that over all the world Bishops had no certaine Dioces till Pope Dionysius about the yeare 268. did cut them out and that the Bishops of Scotland executed their function in what place soever they came indifferently and without distinction till King Malcolm the third about the yeare 1070. whence may be guest what their function was was it to goe about circl'd with a band of rooking Officials with cloke bagges full of Citations and Processes to be serv'd by a corporalty of griffonlike Promooters and Apparitors Did he goe about to pitch down his Court as an Empirick does his banck to inveigle in all the mony of the ConÌ„trey no certainly it would not have bin permitted him to exercise any such function indifferently wherever he came And verily some such matter it was as want of a fat Dioces that kept our Britain Bishops so poore in the Primitive times that being call'd to the Councell of Ariminum in the yeare 359. they had not wherewithall to defray the charges of their journey but were fed and lodg'd upon the Emperors cost which must needs be no accidentall but usuall poverty in them for the author Sulp. Severus in his 2 Booke of Church History praises them and avouches it praise-worthy in a Bishop to be so poore as to have nothing of his own But to return to the ancient election of Bishops that it could not lawfully be without the consent of the people is so expresse in Cyprian and so often to be met with that to cite each place at large were to translate a good part of the volume therfore touching the chief passages I referre the rest to whom so list peruse the Author himselfe in the 24. Epist. If a Bishop saith he be once made and allow'd by the testimony and judgement of his collegues and the people no other can be made In the 55. When a Bishop is made by the suffrage of all the people in peace In the 68. marke but what he saies The people chiefly hath power either of choosing worthy ones or refusing unworthy this he there proves by authorities out of the old and new Testament and with solid reasons these were his antiquities This voyce of the people to be had ever in Episcopal elections was so well known before Cyprians time even to those that were without the Church that the Emperor Alexander Severus desir'd to have his governours of Provinces chosen in the same manner as 〈◊〉 can tell So little thought it he offensive to Monarchy and if single authorities perswade not hearken what the whole generall Councel of Nicaea the first and famousest of all the rest determines writing a Synodal Epist. to the African Churches to warn them of Arrianisme it exhorts them to choose orthodox Bishops in the place of the dead so they be worthy and the people choose them whereby they seem to make the peoples assent so necessary that merit without their free choyce were not sufficient to make a Bishop What would ye say now grave Fathers if you should wake and see unworthy Bishops or rather no Bishops but Egyptian task-masters of Ceremonies thrust purposely upon the groaning Church to the affliction and vexation of Gods people It was not of old that a Conspiracie of Bishops could frustrate and fob off the right of the people for we may read how S. Martin soon after Constantine was made Bishop of Turon in France by the peoples consent from all places thereabout mâ—…ugre all the opposition that the Bishops could make Thus went matters of the Church almost 400. yeare after Christ and very probably farre lower for Nicephorus Phocas the Greek Emperour whose reign fell neare the 1000. year of our Lord having done many things tyrannically is said by Cedrenus to have done nothing more grievous and