A LETTER OF A FRENCH PROTESTANT TO A SCOTISHMAN OF THE COVENANT VVherein one of their chiefe pretences is removed which is their conformitie with the French Churches in points of Discipline and Obedience LONDON Printed by R. Young and R. Badger 1640. A LETTER OF A FRENCH PROTESTANT TO A SCOTISHMAN OF THE COVENANT SIR AS there hath been for many ages a great relation between France and Scotland for matters of State the like hath been in matters of Religion betweene the Protestant Churches of both the Kingdomes ever since the reformation But I wish that our example be not mistaken and abused to our disparagement and your mine and the perpetuall disgrace of Christian Religion For whereas in one of your Petitions to his Majestie you are confident Alledged in the large Declaration of his Majestie pag. 417. that your neighbour-Churches will approve all your proceedings your neighbour-Churches of France have solemnly disapproved all your proceedings and herein given good satisfaction to his Majestie For it was ever farre from our wishes that your conformitie with the reformed Churches of France should be mis-applied as a pretence of your expulsing of your Bishops much lesse a president for you to take armes against your gracious Soveraigne Wherefore I will endeavour to remove that false colour set upon the violent counsels of the Covenant and shew to the world that for your differences with Episcopall authoritie which are now broken into a quarrell you had neither president nor incouragement from us And since it pleaseth his Majestie in the beginning of his Royal Declaration to make this one of his two ends to manifest his justice and piety to the reformed Churches abroad these reformed Churches are bound in dutie of thankfulnesse to shew how they rest satisfied of his Majesties justice and pietie For my part although I am happily engrafted into the body of the Church of England I may be admitted in this case to speake as a Frenchman borne that knoweth the tenets of that Church better then strangers that would abuse the example of the French to their owne ends And I am assured in my conscience that when I was adopted by the Church of England I was not removed into another Gospel This also I may affirme of mine owne knowledge that the French Divines and other godly men that travell into England returne home with great satisfaction seeing the soundnesse of doctrine and decencie of order so well matched together and joyne their hearty praises with the Te Deum and Magnificat of our Quires praising God chiefly because they see the puritie of the Gospel and the Royall Authority linked together with a most neere interest in their mutuall conservation The conformitie which you claime with the French is triple with their doctrine with their discipline and in the present quarrell with their actions And the French will heartily embrace a Christian conformity with you so farre as you shall not draw their necessitie into counsell nor their faults into example As for the conformitie in doctrine blessed be God that among all the reformed Churches of Europe there is neither deformity nor difformity in that point All the reformed Churches professe the same holy faith with you and of that faith the Kings Majestie is Defender of which he hath lately published many solemne protestations to the great satisfaction of all good Christians both within and without the Kingdome Here let all that love Gods glorie and the union of his Church upon earth Ezra 7.17 say Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers who hath put such a thing as this in the Kings heart Psal 61.7 The Lord prolong the Kings life O prepare mercy and truth that may preserve him It were superfluous to prove the consent of all reformed Churches with the Church of England in points of doctrine None of them but will say as much to the English Prelates as Beza to Bishop Grindall * Beza epist 8. ad Grindal Episcopum Londmensem Gallicas vestras Ecclesias in omnibus fidei capitibus consentire arbitramur Wee hold that the French Churches agree with yours in all points of faith He that set forth all the Confessions of the Reformed Churches in one volume hath not lost his praise for concealing his name Never was a more precious harmonie none more like a heaven upon earth such an evident consent needeth rather praises to God then proofes As for points of Discipline the difference of some Churches from that of England if charity were on both sides ought to set forth the consent in points of faith with more reverence and admiration As Irenaeus writing to Victor about the different Fasting of the Eastern and Western Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The difference of Fasting saith he confirmeth the union in faith For that in such a difference of climats nations manners and policies there should be such an union in faith It is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes A main point of difference pretended by the Covenanters is the superioritie of Bishops for I will not search into your other aimes which you affirme to be Antichristian and contrarie to the Word of God wherein I see not how you can claime conformitie with the French Churches The French indeed have no Bishops but they never put downe Bishops nor induced others to put downe Bishops And you know that our Saviour puts a difference between breaking of commandements Matth. 5.19 and teaching men so Now to have Bishops is a commandement and none of the least for it is an Apostolicall order Suppose then that the French breake it yet they doe not teach men so And I will endeavour to shew you that they teach men otherwise and that it is necessitie not choice that keepeth them from Episcopall order But the Scots break that commandement and teach men so and represent the Antichrist in no other habit then a Rochet and a Miter That the French Divines doe not teach men so and allow not the abolishing of Bishops it may easily bee justified For in the matter of Geneva there was more Politicall then Theologicall reasons for refusing their Bishop The Bishop of Geneva was also their Prince who had such power there as the Duke in Venice and was rather Governour then Soveraigne For the people had that right to elect foure Syndics These you have in a book called Le Citadin Genevois and give them full power It is the 22. Article of their authenticall Charter And without the counsell consent and expresse will of those Syndics and of the Citizens none was to be absolved or condemned in the Citie It is the 14. Article of their Charter Before any Bishop was admitted hee swore to observe and maintaine these liberties and so did the last Bishop Ann. 1523. Who afterwards being found to treat with the Duke of Savoy to deliver the Citie into his hands a great uproare arose in the Citie which the Bishop
of superioritie in his Church under the Old Testament They say that to place a man of little capacitie and newly received into the Ministerie in like degree with an ancient Minister of the Church whom God hath endowed with more gifts and which hath served a long time in the Ministerie with commendation is the way to nourish pride in the younger and to dishonour those whom God hath honoured and to induce confusion As also that thereby the holy Ministery is become contemptible and that the superioritie of the Bishops of England hath been approved by the most worthy Pastours of our Churches How can one say more living under a different Discipline Any man may perceive that hee speaketh feelingly as one that had an especiall knowledge and experience of the inconveniences of his Discipline And that hee thinkes more yet then he saith In the conclusion hee craveth a favourable construction of all that the Reformed Divines of those Churches write against Bishops If sometimes saith he we speake against the authoritie of Bishops we condemne not Episcopall order in it selfe but speak onely of the corruption which the Church of Rome hath brought into the Episcopacie making it a temporall principalitie depending upon the Papall throne As hee teacheth that true doctrine in his bookes hee traineth his Scholars in the same This Thesis was lately defended by him in the Academy of Sedan where hee is Doctor of the Chaire * Petrus Molinaeus Thesib de notis Ecclesiae part 2. Thes 33. Episcopos Angliae post conversionem ad fidem ejuratum Papismum asserimus fuisse fideles Dei servos nec debuisse deseâ—ere munus vel titulum Episcopi Wee affirme that the Bishops of England after their conversion and abjuration of Popery were Gods faithfull servants and that they ought not to forsake the office or title of Bishop In his Bible full of marginall notes written with his owne hand hee expoundeth this Text Titus 1.5 Therefore I left thee in Greece that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordaine Elders in every Citie as I have appointed thee This is his comment upon it a Oportuit Tito datam aliquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in caeteros symmystas jus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ut quod Timotheo dicitur Ne recipe accusationem contra Presbyterum dare videtur Timotheo tribunal supra Ministros Adde illud de Angelo Ephesi Nec si superioritas esset res mala Apostolis data esset potestas in caeteros This imports that some prebeminence was given to Titus above his other colleagues and the right of conferring orders As also that which is said to Timothy Receive no accusation against a Presbyter seemeth to give unto Timothy a tribunall over other Ministers The like is implyed in that Text of the Angell of the Church of Ephesus Revel 2.1 where there is but one Angell mentioned though there were many Priests in the Citie And if superioritie were an evill thing God would not have given power to the Apostles over the rest of the Clergie These are his private and serious thoughts upon that point wherein hee sought no mans satisfaction but his owne This is also the drift of learned Chamier in his Booke of the Papall Monarchie For hee runneth not to extremes as you doe As though because there must bee no Universall Bishop there must bee no Diocesan All his discourse comes to this c Chamier de Papali Monarchia lib. 3. cap. 14. Art 11. In Ecclesiis etiamsi singulos assignari Episcopos consultiùs existimetur tamen omnibus unum imponendum nulla ratio evincit That although it is thought more convenient to assigne Bishops unto the severall Churches yet it can bee proved with no reason that there must bee one set over all leaving that ground for granted that it is more convenient to assigne Bishops unto the severall Churches It is true he saith Lib. 10. cap. 5. that the government of the Church is not Monarchicall but Aristocraticall Lib. 10. cap. 7. Art 8. Aristocratia Episcoporum regimen quae ne tum quidem sublata est cum inducti sunt Metropolitani qui sibi subjectos Episcopos pro collegis habebant for he cals Aristocracie the government of Bishops which Aristocracie was not taken away when Metropolitanes were brought in that used the Bishops subject unto them as Colleagues He cannot more evidently condemne the Democracie of his Church than by saying that the government of the Church is Aristocraticall and the Bishops of England take not so much upon themselves as he ascribeth unto the first Bishops * Ibid. C. 5. Art 6 Constat igitur ne tum quidem cum hie Episcoporum à Presbyteris distinctorum ordo sive gradus est constitutus Episcopos fuisse tanquam Monarchas qui potestatem haberent in CleruÌ„ sed Principes Electos qui rebus deliberandis praeessent ficut necesse est in omni Aristocratia It is certaine saith he that even when the order or degree of Bishops distinct from that of Priests was established the Bishops were not like Monarchs having power over the Clergie but ELECTED PRINCES set over the deliberation and administration of businesses as it is necessary in all Aristocracies If you object since your countreymen are so good friends unto Episcopacie What is the reason that their practice is quite contrary Why have they no Bishops Why is parity of Ministers commanded in their Discipline Si licet et placidirationem admittitis edam I hope to shew to them that have some charity and equity that the French have such reasons for it which the Church of Scotland cannot borrow from them I. The Protestants of France were forced after a sort to dislike Bishops by the cruell usage which they received from them they will say with the Authour of the Apologie of the Confession of Auspurg Apolog. Confes August Art 14. Nos summâ voluntate cupimus conservare politiam Ecclesiasticam gradus in Ecclesia factos Sed Episcopi Sacerdotes nostros aut cogunt hoc doctrinae genus quod confessi sumus abjicere ac damnare aut novâ inaud itâ crudelitate miser os innocentes occidunt Hae causae impediunt quò minùs agnoscant hos Episcopos nostri Sacerdotes Wee desire with all our heart to preserve the Ecclesiasticall Policie and the degrees established in the Church But the Bishops either constraine our Priests to renounce and condemne the Doctrine of our Confession or kill the poore innocent men with new and unheard of cruelty These are the causes why our Priests will not acknowledge those Bishops And the reformed Churches may say of some of the Popish Bishops what S. Bernard was saying of those of his time * Bern. in Regist. Epist ad Maur. lib. 4. Epist 32. Heu heu Domine Deus Ipsi sunt in persecutione tua primi qui videntur in Ecclesm primatum diligere Alas alas
authority and their incroachments upon the civill power and their pretended independencie from any but the Pope whereby they make regnum in regno another kingdome in every kingdome But although I would not clip their wings so short as Calvin would have yet I wish for your owne good that the Churches of Scotland would yeeld to Bishops as much power as Calvin doth even the power of censures and of presenting and ordaining Priests c Calvin tractat de necessitate reformandae Ecclesiae Potestatem nominandi ordinandi retincant justum illud serium doctrinae vitae examen restituant quod sanè multis saeculis obsolevit Let Bishops retaine the power of naming and ordaining Priests Let them restore that just and serious examination of doctrine and life which is growne out of use many ages agone It is not then the use but the abuse of Bishops that Calvin and the Reformed Churches of France reject And were it in their power they would not put downe Bishops They onely crave the reformation of Religion and are ready to submit themselves to Episcopall power Zanchius above all the Outlandish Writers is expresse upon that point who indeed is no Frenchman but of the like Discipline This is his Protestation That before God and in his conscience Hier. Zanch. Thesib de vera reformandarum Ecclesiarum ratione Testor me coram Deo in mea conscientia non alio habere loco quà m Schismaticorum illos omnes qui in parte reformationis Ecclesiarum ponunt nullos habere Episcopos qui authoritatis gradu supra fuos compresbyteros emineant ubi liquidò possunt haberi Praeterea cum D. Calvino nullo non anathemate dignos censeo quotquot illi Hierarchiae quae se Domino Jesu submittit subjici nolunt he holds them all for no better then Schismatickes that set this downe as a part of reformation of the Churches to have no Bishops that have any eminence of degree and authoritie above their true fellow-Priests where they may well be had And besides that he holds with * That place cited out of Calvin is in his Treatise de necessitate reformandae Ecclesiae Calvin that they are all worthy of any execration that will not submit themselves unto that Hierarchie that submitteth it selfe unto the Lord Jesus Christ Here is a coard with two strings the authority of two worthy men together The same Zanchius saith a little before Hee that will receive and follow the use and the opinion of the universall Church Ibid. Qui universalis ominium locorum temporum usque ad hanc aetatem usum sensum Ecclesiae certum habet sequiturque interpretem facilè intelligit diversos gradus Presbyterorum Episcoporum in gubernatione Ecclesiastica esse secundum Dei verbum semper fuisse Proinde ubi vigent non esse abolendos ubicunque iniquitas temporum eos abolevit aut non tulit esse restituendos in all times and places unto this age for a certaine interpreter of Gods word will easily understand that the severall degrees of Priests and Bishops in the Ecclesiasticall government are and ever were according to Gods word and therefore where they stand still they must not bee abolished And where the contrarietie of times hath abolished or not suffered them they must bee set up againe This was also the tenet of Martin Bucer who assisted the reverend Bishops of England in the reformation And although he lived in a Church where Ministers were equall hee delivereth himselfe plainly a Bucer tract de reformanda Ecclesia qui invenitur tom 11. constitut Imperial Annitendum itaque ut ea omnino procurationis Ecclesiasticae ratio ordinatio quam Canones Episcopis Metropolitanis praescribunt restituatur servetur We must endeavour that all the manner and distribution of Ecclesiasticall government which the Canons prescribe unto Bishops and Metropolitans bee restored and maintained Beza himselfe who preferred equalitie before superioritie in the Church yet hath declared his dislike of those that resisted Episcopall power where it was established For in an Epistle of his to some brethren of England that would bee ruled by him rather then their Bishops at home hee b Beza Epist 12. ad quosdam Anglicarum Ecclesiarum fratres Hortamur ut omni animorum exacerbatione depositâ salvâ manente doctrinae ipsius veritate sanâ conscientiâ alii alios patienter ferant Regiae Majestati clementissimae omnibus Praesulibus suis ex animo obsequantur exhorteth them that leaving all bitternesse as long as the truth of the doctrine and puritie of conscience was safe they would beare one another with patience and obey the Queenes most gracious Majestie and all their Prelates with a free heart And writing to Bishop Grindall hee commends his c Idem Epist 23. ad Episcop Grindal Quòd tu igitur quorundam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pertulisti Reverendissime vir in eo sanè insigne patientiae lenitatis Christianae specimen edidisti quo majore posthac poenâ digni erunt qui porro authoritatem tuam aspernabuntur Christian lenitie and patience for bearing with the selfe-conceited pride of some and saith that they shall deserve a greater punishment that will reject againe his authoritie I confesse this was much from Beza who was none of the best friends to the Episcopall degree but yet his desire of concord in the Church and obedience to publike order was greater then his aversion from Bishops And I wish that many among you were no worse disposed The latter Divines among the French are very expresse upon this point My Reverend Father Doctor Du Moulin in his * Peter Du Moulin in his Buckler of the faith upon the 30. Article of the French Confession Sect. 124. Buckler of the Faith is altogether for Episcopacie and proveth the Antiquitie of it and that it begun a yeere after our Saviours death And sheweth how the Apostles were the founders of that order sending the Reader to the 32 Chapt. of the booke of Prescriptions by Tertullian where hee reckoneth the Apostolicall Churches whose Bishops were established by the Apostles And whereas it is alledged against the Episcopall degree that there was in the Primitive Church two Bishops in one Towne hee tells you that in all the Antiquitie it is hard to find three or foure examples of two Bishops in one Towne Ibid. for the generall custome was against it as Theodoret Chrysostome and Hierome upon the first to the Philippians witnesse and Saint Austin in his 110th Epistle There also hee complaineth as farre as hee may of the disorders that follow equalitie relating and allowing the just objections of the English Clergie in these words They say AND THAT WITH GOOD REASON that no societie no family no common-wealth can prosper without some degrees of superioritie and that it is so among the Angels and in the government of the universall World That God established degrees
Lord God they are the formost in persecuting of thee that seeme to love primacie in thy Church It is the lesse wonder then if after the fearefull executions at Cabrieres and Merindol by the instigation of some Popish Bishops they were afraid of their very name II. It is most considerable that the reformation began in France among the people but in England it began in the Court The French reformers were Priests but the English reformers under the King were Bishops and the French Priests could not prevaile with their Bishops as the King and Bishops of England over their Clergie For the higher spheres are not carried by the inferiour but the inferiour by the superiour It was much that the French Priests could get some retrogradation by their owne course against the rapidity of the higher sphere The reformation began among the people and inferiour Clergie and there it stayed Therefore the Discipline is popular and it was not easie for them that were opposed by Bishops to make Bishops In England the sacred oyntment of the Gospell was powred upon the head and thence it fell about upon all the limbs and to the hemmes of the garment In France it was powred upon some limbs onely whence because it could not mount to the Head the Discipline also wants a Head Neither could that holy dew spread so well because it descended not from the hils Certainly the Discipline of France deserveth rather compassion than invectives And to speake properly they refuse not Bishops but they want Bishops If you say that the reformation in Scotland began also among the people You know that the worke was never perfected till your late great King put the last hand to it by reforming and restoring Bishops Which if you will not acknowledge for a perfecting I am sure the French with whom you claim conformity would in the like case III. Besides the reformed Churches of France want means to maintain Bishops and with much adoe maintaine poore Lectures For although the Episcopall power be spirituall yet without temporall means it cannot keep either power or respect and not so much as subsistance Whence they gather that it is better to want Bishops than to expose Episcopacie to the scorne of adversaries IV. Also it would provoke envie and jealousie if there were two Bishops in one Dioecesse and would but draw oppression upon the weaker side V. And if a generall conversion happened which God in his mercy bring to passe two Bishops should meet in one See and neither would yeeld to his fellow A consideration which would ever keepe the erroneous Bishop from his conversion VI. The reformed Church of France living under the crosse and expecting the generall conversion is better without Bishops for it is a body prepared for obedience whensoever the Popish Bishops shall reforme the Church and themselves And once they were brought to that tryall as you may read in an Epistle of Peter Martyr to Beza The Bishop of Troyes who was borne Prince of Melfe having abjured Popery began to preach the pure Word of God in his Cathedrall Church and sent for the Elders of the reformed Church to know whether they would confirme and acknowledge him for their Bishop Which they all with one consent did and submitted themselves unto his authority There is none I dare say of all the Churches of France but would doe as much in the like case None but would obey Bishops if Bishops would reforme and obey God Till God extend so much mercy upon that Kingdome the poore Churches will stay for the leisure of the Bishops and keepe themselves in an estate fit for obedience VII Neither would their King suffer them to chuse Bishops of their own if they would attempt it For since their Synods provoke jealousie a Bishops Court would provoke more jealousie and authority continued in one man would be more obnoxious to envie and obloquie then consultations of amultitude intermitted from Synod to Synod and under severall Presidents et ad tempus Had our gracious King Charles and his Counsell the same necessitie to tolerate the Papists as Henry the IV. of France had to reward the Protestants that were a strong body and by whom he had beene promoted to the Crown yet I think not that his Majestie would suffer them to have Bishops or admit of any jurisdiction but immediately depending upon him The reformed Churches of France have no jurisdiction and looke for none and if your Presbyteries of Scotland would containe themselves in the same modestie the Covenant would go down and the King should be obeyed Of all these reasons there is none that can serve your turne wherefore our want of Bishops cannot be a president for your putting down of Bishops Since you live under no crosse and have such a gracious Defender of the faith for your Soveraigne and both the Kingdoms of this Island professe the same holy Doctrine to frame another Ecclesiasticall Discipline besides that which his Majestie alloweth and the Church hath kept for many ages it is framing two livers in a body that hath but one head and one heart For of this Island the King is the head and Religion is the heart both the which would have but one Discipline as it were one liver to disperse blood and spirit into the severall parts of the whole body with one and the same Oeconomie eyere where Certainly if France had but one heart for Religion I am perswaded they would never sticke for a different Oeconomie of Discipline And the truth is neither you nor they have a setled Discipline and therefore both need lesse to stand upon it This is the last Article of the French Discipline These things which are here contained concerning the Discipline are not so decreed but that if the benefit of the Church do require it they may be altered Neither doe the French busie their heads about points of Discipline else it would be seene in their writings But wheresoever they like the Doctrine they embrace the Discipline In the yeare 1615. my reverend Father was sent for by King Iames of glorious and blessed memory some discontented brethren in London seeing him highly favoured by his Majesty came to him with a bill of grievances to be represented to the King which my Father having perused returned it unto them againe saying That their exceptions were frivolous For Ceremonies and other points of Discipline I doe not finde you conformable with the French Whether you celebrate the holy Communion with such reverence as they do in France let your owne consciences answer You know there are two gestures of praying practised from the beginning in the Church kneeling and standing The English pray kneeling at the Communion the French standing For they sit not at the Table like the Dutch wherein the French Church of London consisting most of Wallons followeth the Dutch but walke to the holy Table and there with a reverent congey receive the Sacrament which the people taketh not