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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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Jeroboams policy he made Religion conform to his politick interests this was the sin that watcht over theIsraelites till their final captivity If this State principle come from the Prelates as they affect to be counted statists let them look back to Elutherius Bishop of Rome and see what he thought of the policy of England being requir'd by Lucius the first Christian King of this Iland to give his counsel for the founding of Religious Laws little thought he of this sage caution but bids him betake himselfe to the old and new Testament and receive direction from them how to administer both Church and Common-wealth that he was Gods Vicar and therfore to rule by Gods Laws that the Edicts of Caesar we may at all times disallow but the Statutes of God for no reason we may reject Now certaine if Church-goverment be taught in the Gofpel as the Bishops dare not deny we may well conclude of what late standing this Position is newly calculated for the altitude of Bishop elevation and lettice for their lips But by what example can they shew that the form of Church Discipline must be minted and modell'd out to secular pretences The ancient Republick of the Jews is evident to have run through all the changes of civil estate if we survey the Story from the giving of the Law to the Herods yet did one manner of Priestly government serve without inconvenience to all these temporal mutations it serv'd the mild Aristocracy of elective Dukes and heads of Tribes joyn'd with them the dictatorship of the Judges the easie or hard-handed Monarchy's the domestick or forrain tyrannies Lastly the Roman Senat from without the Jewish Senat at home with the Galilean Teâ—…rarch yet the Levites had some right to deal in civil affairs but seeing the Euangelical precept forbids Church-men to intermeddle with worldly imployments what interweavings or interworkings can knit the Minister and the Magistrate in their several functions to the regard of any precise correspondency Seeing that the Churchmans office is only to teach men the Christian Faith to exhort all to incourage the good to admonish the bad privately the lesse offender publickly the scandalous and stubborn to censure and separate from the communion of Christs flock the contagious and incorrigible to receive with joy and fatherly compassion the penitent all this must be don and more then this is beyond any Church autority What is all this either here or there to the temporal regiment of Wealpublick whether it be Popular Princely or Monarchical Where doth it intrench upon the temporal governor where does it come in his walk where does it make inrode upon his jurisdiction Indeed if the Ministers part be rightly discharg'd it renders him the people more conscionable quiet and easie to be govâ—…'d if otherwise his life and doctrine will declare him If therfore the Constitution of the Church be already set down by divine prescript as all sides confesse then can she not be a handmaid to wait on civil commodities and respects and if the nature and limits of Church Discipline be such as are either helpfull to all political estates indifferently or have no particular relation to any then is there no necessity nor indeed possibility of linking the one with the other in a speciall conformation Now for their second 〈◊〉 That no form of Church government is agreeable to Monarchy but that of Bishops although it fall to pieces of it selfe by that which hath 〈◊〉 sayd yet to give them play front and 〈◊〉 it shall be my task to prove that Episcopacy with that Autority which it challenges in England is not only not agreeable but tending to the destruction of Monarchy While the Primitive Pastors of the Church of God labour'd faithfully in their Ministery tending only their Sheep and not seeking but avoiding all worldly matters as clogs and indeed derogations and debasements to their high calling little needed the Princes and potentates of the earth which way soever the Gospel was spread to study ways how to make a coherence between the Churches politic and theirs therfore when Pilate heard once our Saviour Christ professing that his Kingdome was not of this world he thought the man could not stand much in Caesars light nor much indammage the Roman Empire for if the life of Christ be hid to this world much more is his Scepter unoperative but in spirituall things And thus liv'd for 2 or 3 ages the Successors of the Apostles But when through Constantines lavish Superstition they forsook their first love and set themselvs up two Gods instead Mammon and their Belly then taking advantage of the spiritual power which they had on mens consciences they began to cast a longing eye to get the body also and bodily things into their command upon which their carnal desires the Spirit dayly quenching and dying in them they knew no way to keep themselves up from falling to nothing but by bolstering and supporting their inward rottenes by a carnal and outward strength For a while they rather privily sought opportunity then hastily disclos'd their project but when Constantine was dead and 3 or 4 Emperors more their drift became notorious and offensive to the whole world for while Theodosius the younger reign'd thus writes Socrates the Historian in his 7th Book 11. chap. now began an ill name to stick upon the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria who beyond their Priestly bounds now long agoe had stept into principality and this was scarse 80. years since their raising from the meanest worldly condition Of courtesie now let any man tell me if they draw to themselves a temporall strength and power out of Caesars Dominion is not Caesars Empire thereby diminisht but this was a stolne bit hitherto hee was but a Caterpiller secretly gnawing at Monarchy the next time you shall see him a Woolfe a Lyon lifting his paw against his raiser as Petrarch exprest it and finally an open enemy and subverter of the Greeke Empire Philippicus and Leo with divers other Emperours after them not without the advice of their Patriarchs and at length of a whole Easterne Counsell of 3. hundred thirty eight Bishops threw the Images out of Churches as being decreed idolatrous Upon this goodly occasion the Bishop of Rome not only seizes the City and all the Territory about into his owne hands and makes himselfe Lord thereof which till then was govern'd by a Greeke Magistrate but absolves all Italy of their Tribute and obedience due to the Emperour because hee obey'd Gods Commandement in abolishing Idolatry Mark Sir here how the Pope came by S. Peters Patrymony as he feigns it not the donation of Constantine but idolatry and rebellion got it him Yee need but read Sigonius one of his owne Sect to know the Story at large And now to shroud himselfe against a storme from the Greek Continent and provide a Champion to beare him out in these practises hee takes upon him by Papall sentence to unthrone Chilpericus
Jesuits presum'd in Italy to give their judgement of S. Paul as of a hot headed person as Sandys in his Relations tells us Now besides all this who knows not how many surreptitious works are ingrass'd into the legitimate writings of the Fathers and of those Books that passe for authentick who knows what hath bin tamper'd withall what hath bin raz'd out what hath bin inserted besides the late legerdemain of the Papists that which Sulpitius writes concerning Origens Books gives us cause vehemently to suspect there hath bin packing of old In the third chap. of his 1. Dialogue we may read what wrangling the Bishops and Monks had about the reading or not reading of Origen some objecting that he was corrupted by Hereticks others answering that all such Books had bin so dealt with How then shall I trust these times to lead me that restifie so ill of leading themselvs certainly of their defects their own witnesse may be best receiv'd but of the rectitude and sincerity of their life and doctrine to judge rightly wee must judge by that which was to be their rule But it wil be objected that this was an 〈◊〉 state of the Church wanting the temporall Magistrate to suppresse the licence of false Brethren and the extravagancy of still-new opinions a time not imitable for Church government where the temporall and spirituall power did not close in one beleife as under Constantine I am not of opinion to thinke the Church a Vine in this respect because as they take it she cannot subsist without clasping about the Elme of worldly strength and felicity as if the heavenly City could not support it selfe without the props and buttresses of secular Authoritie They extoll Constantine because he extol'd them as our homebred Monks in their Histories blanch the Kings their Benefactors and brand those that went about to be their Correctors If he had curb'd the growing Pride Avarice and Luxury of the Clergie then every Page of his Story should have swel'd with his Faults and that which Zozimus the Heathen writes of him should have come in to boot wee should have heard then in every Declamation how hee slew his Nephew Commodus a worthy man his noble and eldest Son Crispus his Wife Fausta besides numbers of his Friends then his cruell exactions his unsoundnesse in Religion favoring the Arrians that had been condemn'd in a Counsell of which himselfe sate as it were President his hard measure and banishment of the faithfull and invincible Athanasius his living unbaptiz'd almost to his dying day these blurs are too apparent in his Life But since hee must needs bee the Lord-starre of Reformation as some men clatter it will be good to see further his knowledge of Religion what it was and by that we may likewise guesse at the sincerity of his Times in those that were not Hereticall it being likely that hee would converse with the famousest Prelates for so he had made them that were to be found for learning Of his Arianisme we heard and for the rest a pretty scantling of his Knowledge may be taken by his deferring to be baptiz'd so many yeares a thing not usuall and repugnant to the Tenor of Scripture Philip knowing nothing that should hinder the Eunuch to be baptiz'd after profession of his beleife Next by the excessive devotion that I may not say Superstition both of him and his Mother Helena to find out the Crosse on which Christ suffer'd that had long lien under the rubbish of old ruines a thing which the Disciples and Kindred of our Saviour might with more ease have done if they had thought it a pious duty some of the nailes whereof hee put into his Helmet to beare off blowes in battell others he fasten'd among the studds of his bridle to fulfill as he thought or his Court Bishops perswaded him the Prophesie of Zachariah And it shall be that that which is in the bridle shall be holy to the Lord Part of the Crosse in which he thought such Vertue to reside as would prove a kind of Palladium to save the Citie where ever it remain'd he caus'd to be laid up in a Pillar of Porphyrie by his Statue How hee or his Teachers could trifle thus with halfe an eye open upon Saint Pauls Principles I know not how to imagine How should then the dim Taper of this Emperours age that had such need of snuffing extend any beame to our Times wherewith wee might hope to be better lighted then by those Luminaries that God hath set up to shine to us far neerer hand And what Reformation he wrought for his owne time it will not be amisse to consider hee appointed certaine times for Fasts and Feasts built stately Churches gave large Immunities to the Clergie great Riches and Promotions to Bishops gave and minister'd occasion to bring in a Deluge of Ceremonies thereby either to draw in the Heathen by a resemblance of their rites or to set a glosse upon the simplicity and plainnesse of Christianity which to the gorgeous solemnities of Paganisme and the sense of the Worlds Children seem'd but a homely and Yeomanly Religion for the beauty of inward Sanctity was not within their prospect So that in this manner the Prelates both then and ever since comming from a meane and Plebeyan Life on a sudden to be Lords of stately Palaces rich furniture delicious fare and Princely attendance thought the plaine and homespun verity of Christs Gospell unfit any longer to hold their Lordships acquaintance unlesse the poore thred-bare Matron were put into better clothes her chast and modest vaile surrounded with celestiall beames they overlai'd with wanton tresses and in a aâ—…aring tire 〈◊〉 her with all the gaudy allurements of a Whore Thus flourish't the Church with Constantines wealth and thereafter were the effects that follow'd his Son Conâ—…antius prov'd a flat Arian and his Nephew Iulian an Apostate 〈◊〉 there his Race ended the Church that before by insensible degrees welk't and impair'd now with large steps went downe hill decaying at this time Antichrist began first to put forth his horne and that saying was common that former times had woodden Chalices and golden Preists but they golden Chalices and woodden Preists Formerly saith Sulpitius Martyrdome by glorious death was sought more greedily then now Bishopricks by vile Ambition are hunted after speaking of these Times and in another place they gape after possessions they tend Lands and Livings they coure over their gold they buy and sell and if there be any that neither possesse nor traffique that which is worse they sit still and expect guifts and prostitute every induâ—…ment of grace every holy thing to sale And in the end of his History thus he concludes all things went to wrack by the faction wilfulnesse and avarice of the Bishops and by this means Gods people every good man was had in scorn and derision which S. Martin found truly to be said by his friend Sulpitius for being held in admiration