factiousness of people I have no Antipathies in me contracted by any Education Custome or Acquaintance against the Learned Wise and Worthy Romanists or any others either as men or Christians in both respects I love and esteem them for their many excellent parts and works which are worthy of commendation and imitation To them and their pious predecessors with whom we in England once were in full communion we thankfully owe under God as did our fore-fathers the successive honour and happinesse of our being baptized and admitted to the priviledges of Christs flock and people to them we owe that conservation for the main of true Religion as Christian although it were wrapped up in some either rotten rags or unhandsome clouts as Christ in the Manger for many years the substance of which our Reformation in England no more changed than the Angel did the person of Jehoshua the high Priest when he bid take away from him the filthy garments wherewith he was clothed and to put on him change of fair and goodly garments We owe to the Romanists though ill husbands of Religion in later ages that Word and those Sacraments which they conserved and transmitted like candles put into a dark lanterne by which when we came to open the light side we saw both our and their deviations from the good old way which is Gods right way to which we rather chuse to return under the name of pious novelty and just reformation than obstinately to continue with them in their pristine aberrations and inveterate deformities Though they were our Fathers in Nature and Religion yet we think it not onely lawfull for us but our duty without any brand of disobedient children to cure that leprosie or Hereditary disease which we had contracted from them our lesse healthfull parents especially when themselves have preserved for us and afforded to us that receipt of Gods Word which teacheth and alloweth us the proper medicine and cure The successfull use of which is not more comfortable to us than commendable in us notwithstanding our Progenitors obstinacy to continue in the same deformed maladies after they have seen the happy experiments of its Vertues and Remedy upon us who never gloried in or designed any new Christian Religion but onely the just Reformation and recovery of the old from those crazy distempers and dangerous diseases which by ill times and ill orders it had contracted I well know how little all Religion signifies without charity that next to grosse Ignorance Immorality Unbelief and Impenitence Uncharitablenesse is the pest and poyson of the Soul which infects beyond the Antidote of Gifts good works and Miracles I consider that many imperfections and failings are veniall with true charity which covers a multitude of sins of infirmitie but no perfections are acceptable to God or available to the enjoyer of them if destitute of charity that the measure of a Christian is more by his heart than his head by his humble and honest affections than his high and puffing speculations that in the bosome of the Church as many perish by the rock of uncharitablenesse as the flats of ignorance Therefore however I see the Papists are most-what so supercilious and high in the in-step that they not onely deny us Protestants of all sorts even the most noble sober and moderate which were in the Church of England their charity but they despise all our charity to them yet I cannot think it my duty to requite evil with evil or uncharitablenesse in them with the like unchristian passion in my self but rather to requite evil with good to commend what is good in them to own with thanks any good from them to pray for them to be ready to do all offices of Christian love to them to keep all inward Christian communion with them and to be cheerfully disposed to exercise all actual communion with them in all such holy Doctrines and Duties of Christian Faith Worship as agree to the Word of God and the mind of Christ which are the centre and circumference of all Ecclesiasticall union that as the guilt and fault of Schisme and Heresie is retorted on both sides so I trust it will onely be charged there where wilfull Errour and Uncharitablenesse are found but not on the Integrity and Candour of those who are onely driven and forced so farre from visible communion because they doe withdraw from what they saw to be grosse Errour Idolatry or Superstition according to the rule of Christs Word and triall of his Institution evidently cleared by the Apostles and Primitive Churches Contrary to all which unlesse we will even this whole Church of England wholly comply with the Popes Interests and Roman Errours they loudly excommunicate us renouncing all communion with us as with Schismaticks and Hereticks fitter for fire and faggot than Christian fellowship This notwithstanding on the Romanists part yet I think it my part and all true lovers of Reformation and Christian Union not to slacken or abate that Charity and Christian good will which is due to all men and especially those that professe to be Christs Disciples of the Houshold of Faith where the Sick and Lame and Blind are parts of the Polity and Members of the Oeconomy or Family to pray night and day impartially that God would remove out of his Church on all sides whatever doth offend his pure eyes and any good Christian that he would give both Protestants and Papists grace unpassionately to consider from whence the one are falne by humane policies and to what the other transported by popular zelotries that whatever pride and peevishnesse is on either side might be composed and laid aside by such Generall Synods Free Councils and Christian correspondencies as might bring forth some happy accord and harmony among Christian Churches that those sad and superstitious principles of everlasting Schisme might be removed by which on one side they think because in many things they were right therefore in nothing they could erre on the other side because in some things men have mistaken and erred therefore they can be in nothing right for to this height both Papall and Antipapall Christians are come that each thinks their greatest piety consists in perfect and implacable Antipathies that their most commendable zeale for Religion is that which is farthest from moderation Christian temper or Charity that where they like not all they must loathe all that nothing is afterward with good conscience to be used which hath once been abused that all things must be popularly cried up either upon the account of their Antiquity or Novelty without regard to that verity and charity which are the life and quintessence of true Christianity Although I shall by Gods gracious assistance keep that station and distance from Popish Errours where my judgement and conscience guided by Gods Word hath set me yet to leave the Romanists without excuse as much as in me lies I doe most earnestly desire and should
reformed Religion as to its unity order stability and constancy either in doctrine or duty Sure it was far better to have the holy complete and reverent Sacrament of the Lords Supper administred and received by humble devout and prepared Christians meekly kneeling upon their knees than to have none at all celebrated for twice seven yeares both Ministers and people willingly excommunicating themselves and starving one another as to that holy refection It was much better and more Christian-like to have infants baptized with the ancient signe of the crosse as a token of their constant profession of the Faith of Christ crucified than to have them left wholly unbaptized and so betrayed to the Anabaptistick agitators who boldly nullifie that Sacrament when they see others either vilifie and wholly reject it as to infants or dispense with so great partiality as if every petty Preacher were a Lord and Judge not a Servant and Minister of the Church of Christ It was better to have some things lesse necessary yea inconvenient that looked like order decency and harmony in the Church than daily to run thus to endlesse faction ataxie confusion and irreligion Better that Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons officiate after the ancient manner in Eastern and Western Churches in white garments under which form Angels who are ministring spirits are represented to us and Christ himself in his transfiguration duly administring holy things to the people of God than to have no true Ministers no divine or due ministrations at all as is now in many places of England and Wales where either Churches and people are desolatâ— or pitifull intruders neither truly able nor duly ordained dare to officiate in their motley and py-bald habits as they list superciliously affecting such odde and antick fashions as they most fancy to please themselves or amuse the people with over whom they seek to have an absolute dominion If those few ceremonies appointed and accustomed to be used in the Church of England were not herbs of grace or of the most fragrant and cordiall sorts of flowers yet certainly they were never found to be so noxious and unsavoury weeds as some pretend the squeamishnesse of some people was no argument of any thing pestilent or banefull in them There are noses that have Antipathies against Roses and some will faint at any sweet smell If a few modest Christistians could lesse bear the sent or sight of them for my part I could willingly indulge them such a connivence and toleration as might consist with the publick peace order and rules of charity but I can never approve the counterscuffle of those who for their private disgusting of one sawce or dish rudely overthrow an orderly feast and well-furnished table who upon the suspicion of weeds root up all the good plants in a garden who jealous of briars and thorns destroy the vines and fig-trees Ceremonies if they bear no great or fair fruit yet they may as hedges be both a fence and ornament to Religion which truly for my part I esteemed them and so used them nor did they grow so offensive as now they have proved untill over-valuing on the one side and under-valuing on the other side pertinacy and obstinacy as S. Austin expresseth his sense and sorrow like a pair of alternative bellows kindled such flames of animosity as instead of bearing and forbearing one another in love sought to consume each other in those heats and flames which would not have risen had both sides more intended the substance and lesse the ceremonies of Religion There were infinite more obligations to Christian union by the true faith they joyntly professed than there were occasions of dividing by the ceremonies about which they differed But one sharp knife will easily cut in sunder many strong cords if it be in a mad or indiscreet mans hand Although Ceremonies of mans invention be no more to be made rivals to Religion than Hagar was to Sarah or Ismael to Isaac yet it is hard to cast them out having been sons or servants to the Churches family with scorn unlesse they be found to grow too petulant either jeering or justling pure Religion of whose genuine substance indeed they are not yet they may as hair is to women and men too be given It for an ornament nor do they deserve to be suspected for superstitious much lesse irreligious untill Christians make more of them then they deserve or the Church intended either so much contending for them or against them as takes them off from intending those main things wherein the grace and kingdome of God doth consist It doth not become the children of God either so to please themselves with toyes and bagatelloes as to neglect their meat or so to wrangle about them as to forget either the mutuall love they owe as brethren or the duty they owe to their parents But those little scratches which some Anticeremoniall mens itching fingers heretofore made upon the England's beautifull face would never I believe have so far festred and deformed all things of Religion in this Church if some men had not mixed of late some things of a more venomous nature and malignant design in order to gratify the despite of those rude Demagorasses of Rome who have most ill will and evil eyes against the beauty of this Parthenia the Church of England I know the common refuge of many who eagerly opposed the Church of England in this point of its Ceremonies was when they could not answer those arguments which learned and godly men brought to justifie the lawfull nature of the things in themselves also for the Churches undoubted liberty and power in chusing and using them lawfully they then flew to that popular and plausible argument which is in it self very fallacious arguing a mind rather servile to mens persons and enslaved to their opinions than enjoying the freedome of its own reason and judgement Namely that some learned and many godly men did greatly scruple those ceremonies being so scandalized with them that they either never used them or with very great regret others bitterly inveighed against them petitioning God and man for the removall of them Thus do most men plead who were but coppy-holders under the chief Lords of this Faction against the Ceremonies of the Church of England Ans I do not unwillingly grant as having been no stranger to some of them that many of those who were no great friends to the Ceremonies were yet learned grave and godly men such as they are reputed to be by those who pretend to be their followers and have rather out-gone them in the rigour of non-conformity than kept pace with them in that moderation gravity and charity which those men seemed to have who were not therefore sworn enemies against the Church of England because they were no great friends to Ceremonies yea I am perswaded there were few of them who truly deserved in former ages the names of godly and wise
were in it self free and indifferent so as men might be baptized when they will and so baptize their children sooner or later as they please deferring it as some of old did even to their decrepit age and death-beds because they would not sin after it if this were left to an indifferency which I doe no way think it is any more than all other duties of the Lords Supper prayer hearing the Word preached c. are which have no precise measure and limited time set because they oblige alwayes as opportunity is offered Gods favours and indulgences import mans duty to accept and use them as soon as the Lord offers them to us and ours though Baptisme be not as S. Cyprian tells Fidus confined to the eighth day after infants birth nor yet to the eighth year yet when it may be duly had in the way of Gods providence it may not be delayed to the death of the child unbaptized without a great detriment to the infant so dying and crime to the parents or guardians so delaying and by their sottish negligence depriving the child of that visible means of grace which God hath allowed in his Church both to parents and their children which is the judgement of Gregory Nazianzen one of the ablest Divines that the Church ever had As a due debt unlimited to any day of payment is every day due so the favours of God and priviledges of his Church not precisely confined but daily offered us and not accepted contract upon us a great sin either of unbelief under the means or affected negligence undervaluing and ingratitude toward Divine Mercies sins under which no Christian of a truly tender conscience will dare to lie seven yeares no nor seven dayes meerly upon the delayes and scruples of his own or other mens both foolish and sluggish hearts As that soul among the Jews was precisely cut off from the Church of God both parents and children who was not unlesse in Gods connivence and speciall dispensation as in the fourty yeares pilgrimage in the wildernesse circumcised the eighth day so may those among Christians justly seem to be cut off from the Church of Christ here and hereafter which do presume to slight neglect and so not at all use Baptisme to their children according as God gives them in the uncertainties of life both opportunity and conveniency Gods leaving some things to our choice discretion and ingenuity must not be any remission but an excitation to speedy duty especially in setled Churches where daily at least weekly opportunities are offered which if denied by hot persecutions the delay is more excusable and it may be in some cases commendable where parents have just cause to fear lest their baptized children shall never attain by their paternall care such education as is correspondent to their Baptisme In which cases I conceive it was of old deferred not because it was thought either unlawfull or undesirable in it self to baptize infants born in the Church but for feare of the mischiefs attending persecution and sometimes the parents were cold and negligent in their duty If I say the time of Baptisme were left to our freedome which it is not as I have shewed yet still the black brand and grosse impudence of such a reproch contempt and errour as the ruder and spitefuller sort of Anabaptists cast upon this and all other Christian Churches is most intolerable while they dare to re-baptize such who have been once duly baptized if it be indifferent when in their infancy which re-baptizing of such as were once duly baptized in the Church was ever judged as much a monster and most insolent in all Christian Churches as it would have been to renew or repeat circumcision among the Jews which was not so much in expresse letter of Scripture forbidden as made indeed impossible in nature nor is repeating of Baptism so expresly forbidden in the Word of God where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Baptisme is mentioned which place the Hemerobaptists or daily dippers slighted as indeed it is and alwayes was excluded by the interpretation tradition and practise of the Catholick Church which no more allowed any to be twice baptized in Religion or twice ordained to the Ministry than twice born in nature yea this fancy heresie and novell insolency was looked upon as the setting up of a new Gospel another Jesus and more Gods than one as the ancient Councils and Fathers alwayes determined even in the case of S. Cyprians candid errour Against whose judgement for invalidating and so repeating Baptisme where administred by Hereticks and obstinate Schismaticks the Councils both of Africk Europe and Asia determined upon the ground of Scripture and Primitive custome both as to the use of Infant-baptisme and the not repeating of that or any other true baptisme once received Both which being such Catholick determinations of the Church it is with me not in the least degree disputable whether I should chuse to conform to the Churches universall testimony constant practise and primitive tradition in this and other modern disputes as that of the government of Churches in larger distributions by Bishops above Presbyters and Deacons so the use of the Lords day instead of the Judaick Sabath c. which are conforme to the generall scope tenour and direction of Scripture or rather comply both sillily and shamefully with those modern captious novelties and perverse disputings of some private spirits of yesterday who dare to cast so great jealousies blame and dishonour upon the Catholick Churches of Christ in all ages and places as not onely to suspect but to proclaime them both socially and singly to have been either grosly ignorant or most basely unfaithfull as to what the Apostles had delivered to them for the mind and will of the Lord either by Epistle word or Example No I had far rather with humility and charity though in infirmity and ignorance conform to the Catholick Church in errours and mistakes not fundamentall or immorall of which it never was guilty nor will be rather I say than by proud and pernicious curiosity or by scepticall and schismaticall novelty either blemish the Churches Integrity or break its Unity Both which the Anabaptists ever have done and ever will doe since their first eggshell and spawning in Germany by their endlesse and peevish litigations touching Infant-baptisme which though to some it seem but a small and circumstantiall businesse in point of time yet the scorn contempt and abhorrency of the Sacrament as applied to infants is an errour as I have shewed of so spreading a venome and dangerous consequences that it tends to overthrow all that is or hath been of religious polity and power too of essence and order in this and all true Churches of which we have any record in Scripture or other Writers CHAP. XIII BEsides this poysonous and now so swoln errour of the Anabaptists in Engl. against Infant-baptism is further sowred by other seditious principles
dissociate sever and withdraw it self from that grand community and Nationall subordination which is justly esteemed by all wise men and therefore exacted by wise Governours as most necessary for the safety peace strength and honour of the Nation And can it I beseech YOU be thought by any wise and honest men to be lesse safe honourable and necessary for the people of England who were all heretofore professedly Christians and baptized to live in an Ecclesiasticall unity in a Catholick order in a Nationall religious polity Is there no weaknesse deformity or danger to be observed feared and avoided in all these breakings dividings shatterings schismes separatings sidings strifes envies animosities contempts cruelties factions furies whence grow confusion and every evill work as S. James tells us Jam. 3.16 with all which this Church and so the whole Nation is now much over-grown as to matters of Religion past all private help and recovery Requiring no lesse publique care united counsels and authoritative endeavours to compose and heale these Ecclesiastique or Church-distempers than those civill disjoyntings and disaffections doe under which this State hath long laboured and which are yet scarce fully healed After so many cuttings and lancings blisterings and blood-lettings which I doe not think proper remedies for such religious maladies as are not yet ulcerated to immoralities 'T is true indeed as Optatus speaks That each particular Churches welfare is much concerned in that of the Civill State or Common-wealth where it is imbarqued Yet it is as true which the Emperour Theodosius said to S. Cyril That the happinesse of these doth no lesse depend upon the purity of Religion and peace of the Church in which they are so bound up as Jacobs soule was in Benjamins that they live and die together As some of your Fore-fathers and Countrymen have in my memory found it so will YOU and your Posteritie That it is no piece of Good husbandry so to look to your own sieled houses as to neglect the Temple of God yea that part of the Bodie of Christ which is at least was in this Nation under the glorious name and title of The Church of England Sometimes famous and flourishing now grievously wounded and wasted torn and mangled dis-joynted and divided having many yeers suffered the Strapado in England as to the Christian and Reformed Religion In which behalf as the freedome of my present publique Addresse to YOU my Honoured and beloved Countrymen ariseth from the highest and best motives in the world so I hope it confines it self to that Sphere which is most proper for Me as a Minister of the Gospel Not onely a Professor with You but duly ordained to be a Preacher among You of that Christian reformed Religion which hath been wisely established and mightily prospered in the Church of England In whose honour and happinesse which chiefly depend upon the continuation and restauration of the true Christian and Reformed Religion since I know You are as good Christians and honest Englishmen most highly concerned both as to your persons and your posteritie I presume it will not be either unsuitable to Me or unacceptable to You That I here endeavour with all Christian freedome and faithfulnesse to present to your serious consideration First The present distresses of the Church of England Secondly The causes or occasions of them Thirdly The evill and dangerous consequences of them Fourthly The probable remedies and preventions of them So far as God hath enabled me to understand and expresse them Whose gracious assistance in the first place I most humbly implore Next I crave the pardon prayers and acceptance of all wise and worthy persons Their pardon for my boldnesse and defects Their prayers for Gods gracious direction Their acceptance of my honest endeavours which I chiefly devote after the Divine glory to your service under the most endearing notions of my Countrymen and Fellow-Christians Whose judicious affections tender compassions prudent counsels and consciencious endeavours attended with discreet zeal fervent prayers and unfeigned tears which are as the sweat of industrious and devout souls in their holy labours and agonies if I may be so far blest as to excite in YOU proportionable to the Majesty sanctity and concernment of this great Subject set before you under the name of The distressed Church of England I make no doubt but I shall by Gods help be an happy instrument at once to procure some peace and rest at least some ease and relief to Her while she may however see her selfe pitied by so many worthy persons which is no small comfort to any in affliction And possibly I may be some means to stave off abate or defeat the restlesse agitations and unreasonable expectations of Her most implacable enemies both at home and abroad Who as the Dragon that gaped upon the woman in the Revelation have already swallowed up whilst it is yet quick and alive this Reformed and sometime united Church of England in their malice and presumptions between Rome and Babylon Superstition and Separation Papal tyrannie and Popular Anarchy Hoping on all sides to make their advantages not onely by this Churches sufferings but by the want of sympathie in her children Whose silence and restivenesse in behalf of this Church and its Reformed Religion must needs prove their sin before God and their shame before all wise and good men in this and after-Ages when they shall see how infinitely this generation of English-men and Christians come short of that duty they owed to their God their Saviour their countrie their own souls and the good of their posteritie which are all included in the welfare of this Church to which they are neerly related in a double regard naturall and spirituall civill and religious as they were born and baptized in Her And here because I know infinite prejudices sinister suspicions and undeserved jealousies are prone like Flies in summer to light upon every thing that is publique and sold as it were in the Shambles I crave leave to present YOU and all men in this Porch or Preface with a true Prospect of my own Integrity as void of private passions and interests a qualification necessary for those that will meddle with Religious concernments This my present importunity and publique Addresse to YOU my worthie and honoured Countrymen is not to give vent to any private discontent forced by any such pressures as Solomon tells us are capable to make a wise man mad nor is it to take or seek revenge upon any that hath offered injury or insolency against me in particular As for private petulancies and indignities I thank God through his mercy and my own Integrity though I am not wholly without them yet I am as much above them as Armour of Proof is above the stings of wasps or hornets As for my publique station or fruitions I must ever with all gratefull humility to God and ingenuity to men acknowledge the great experiences
popular Conventicles where either Piety or Prudence or Learning or Gravity besides authentick and due authority yea Civility and all good manners many times are prone to be very much wanting or if they be there in some few yet a thousand to one but they are quite over-born routed silenced over-voted and cryed down by the plebeian confidences of those many whose ignorance and rudenesse delights in nothing more than either to smother and crowd to death by numbers or to assassinate by downright clamours and brutish violence any thing that looks like sober Reason holy Order just Restraint and due Authority all which the vulgar esteem as their implacable enemies and intolerable burdens So little do those men seem masters of true Reason pious Policy Christian Prudence or sociable Charity who advise endeavour or encourage to divide and consequently to destroy Episcopall Metropoliticall and Nationall Churches by dissolving the noble frames the ancient and harmonious junctures of them onely to make up small Independent bodies or Presbyterian Classes Parochiall Consistories as the sole and supreme Tribunals or ultimate Judicatories beyond any remedy or appeal in Church-affairs which is much like the digging down of Mount Lebanon with a design to make it into many fine mole-hills In which a few poor yet pragmatick Christians like so many ants may busie themselves solely and absolutely about themselves as arrogating to themselves though but two or three or seven at most the perfect name complete nature entire power and highest emphasis of a Church of Christ to all uses ends and purposes without any regard to any other higher authority or to any greater and completer Society further than they list to advise or associate with them for a time as occasion serves and till some new invention offers it self Mean time they are not ashamed or concerned as to that rude and ingratefull violation of those duties which they owe and those relations which they ought to beare as Christians by the right of an holy propagation spirituall descent and ecclesiasticall derivation of their baptisme faith and religion to that Church which was their Mother and to those chief Pastors or Shepherds which were their spirituall Fathers by an Apostolick title designation and succession both in place order and power Which spirituall relation certainly imports no lesse duty love thanks reverence and submission than those of naturall and civill relations doe since the blessing is at least equall if not far beyond to those that value their souls or their Saviour who will not easily abdicate their ghostly parents or renounce their spirituall Fathers though they should see many infirmities and some frowardnesse in them I shall not need to instance in the many defects inconveniences disorders and mischiefs incident to these Ecclesiolae and Congregatiunculae little Churchlets and scattered Conventicles which cannot but be as S. Jerome observes the Seminaries of Schisme Nurseries of Faction strife and emulation since the Sire of them seems to be Ignorance and Weaknesse or pride and arrogancy as the Dam of them usually is faction private ends and popularity Nor will their Issue faile to multiply and swarm in a few years with grosse ignorance and rudenesse with all manner of errors and heresies accompanied with vulgar petulancie atheisme irreligion anarchy confusion and barbarity which like vermine will devoure both themselves and those completer Churches from whose communion order light strength discipline integrity and safety they have withdrawn themselves by needlesse divisions to the weakning shaking subverting and endangering of the faith charity and salvation of many thousands of poore soules the strength beauty honour safety and comfort of particular congregations as of private Christians and families consisting in that orderly conjuncture as parts with the whole body politick which may best preserve both It and themselves there being not onely more virtue in the whole than in any part but more vigour in each part while it is continuous to the whole than when it is divided Which as all Reason and Religion so most sad experience in the Church of England sufficiently assures us For however private Christians have indeed some power as to counsell admonish reprove comfort pray for and by charitable offices to help and edifie one another also private congregations have yet more advantages being many in their number to joyn in publique duties to comprobate and execute Ecclesiasticall censures further each single Minister or lawfull Presbyter hath yet greater authority in his place and office to administer holy things by preaching baptizing consecrating binding loosing exhorting rebuking likewise every Bishop hath still an higher order and authority regularly to ordaine to confirme to examine to censure to rebuke to suspend to absolve to excommunicate any private Presbyter or other Christians under his inspection Yet where the Bishop is assisted with the desires consent and approbation of many Christian congregations also with the joynt assistance of many learned and godly Presbyters yea and with the united suffrages and authority of many Bishops as in cases of great and generall concernment in matters of doctrine censure and discipline is requisite O how ponderous how solemn how celebrious how powerfull how Apostolick how divine must the majesty and authority of such transactions be in any Church thus combined established and fortified against both secret contagions and violent incursions of any mischiefs which easily grow too hard for private Christians and petty Congregations yea many times for particular Presbyters and single Bishops Nor can the remedy expectable from these in their solitary capacities and small proportions either cure or encounter the pregnancy and potency of those maladies which many times infest the flock of Christ as was evident in those Epidemick pests of Arianisme Nestorianisme Donatisme Pelagianisme and others which malignities required not onely the influence and authority of a few private Presbyters with their Congregations or of particular Bishops and their Churches but of Provinciall Synods and Nationall Churches yea of the Catholick Church as much as could be united in those General Councils which were as grand Ecclesiasticall Parlaments by their majority deputation inspection and authority representing all Churches in all the World that so the salve might still be wisely commensurate to the sore The danger of a divided Church being no lesse than that of of a divided State or Kingdome which our Saviour tells us cannot stand it must not be imagined that Christ hath left his Church destitute of defence and help in such cases of distraction These grand combinations of Christian people Presbyters and Bishops convening as occasion required not onely to serve God in the piety of his daily worship but for the right ordering and guiding of themselves and others in such publick concernments as Christian polity and gubernative prudence required these made Christian primitive Churches appear in their Synodicall Provinciall Nationall and Oecumenicall Assemblies as the fairest sides and goodliest prospects
and measure as I received from his Word and Spirit for I learned not those manifestations of Divine love from any other Church Pristine or Modern so much as the speciall dispensations and discoveries of Gods Graces and Gifts to me in which few equalled none seemed to exceed me in all the world From this great and pure fountain of all perfection and comfort the sweetnesse merit and fulnesse of my Saviour I recommended to my children every Grace every Vertue every holy Duty every necessary Precept every precious Promise every imitable Example and this was done with all the advantages of good Learning of sound Knowledge of most potent and pathetick eloquence which at once was able to inform the weakest capacity to satisfie any sober curiosity and to silence the subtilest adversary To this purpose that the great work of saving their souls might be effectually carried on with order power and authority I furnished them not with precarious praters bold intruders or pitifull pieces of Plebeian oratory in whom ignorance and impudence inability and inauthoritativeness contend which shall be greatest but I provided and prepared for them with much study and industry with many prayers and teares with long education and diligent care excellent Bishops orderly Presbyters able and authoritative Ministers workmen that needed not be ashamed of a lawful ordination and right descent of a mediate divine mission after the Apostolick line and Catholick succession after the form of an uninterrupted and authentick commission duly and truly exemplified in the consecration of Bishops and ordination of Presbyters and Deacons through all ages of the Church agreeable to that originall Institution which was from Christ Jesus the great High Priest the unerring Prophet the soveraign King of his Church the chief Preacher of Righteousnesse and Bishop of our souls who instituted first his twelve Apostles afterward the seventy Disciples whose commission was not so large nor their mission so solemn as that of the twelve whose Episcopacy and number was to be completed and upon whom the promised power from on high specially came in the miraculous and ministeriall gifts of the Holy Ghost After this pattern which was ever followed by all Churches in all the world I supplied those under my care with such a succession of Bishops and Ministers of holy things as for solid learning for powerfull preaching for devout and discreet praying for reverend celebrating for acute disputing for exact writing for wise governing and holy living were no where exeeded in all the Christian world and hardly equalled in any age since the Apostles times whose ministeriall sufficiencies and successes were sometime highly magnified and almost deified by many of those that now would stone them and destroy me by a late transport of malice as much unexpected as undeserved by me which looks more like a fascination and fury than any thing of true Zeal and sober Reformation For no men of any weight or worth for parts and piety for judgement and ingenuity for conscience and integrity have hitherto convinced me or those men that were my prime servants sons and supports of any Heresie or Idolatry of any Superstition or Apostasy of any just scandall or notable defect What some have urged for my not exercising a more severe and strict Discipline after the manner of some ancient Primitive Churches it is not imputable to any unwillingnesse in those worthy Bishops and Presbyters whom I employed but to the general wantonness or refractorinesse of all sorts of people in that point who were so farre from enduring a stricter discipline to be set up that many grudged at any Ecclesiastick authority exercised over them though it were established by their own publick consent and lawes If any of my Bishops Presbyters or people failed to do the duties which I required or rather Christ commanded them it was to be reckoned as the fruit of mens private temptations and personall infirmities but not of my constitutions or directions which were so pious and perspicuous that people could not justly plead invincible ignorance to excuse their immoralities and impieties which indeed they owed to their own negligences or corruptions Yea where the seeds of Religion were thinnest sown and thrived least in some parts of this nation it was not so much from the want of labourers as from the labourers wants the poverty of many places and barrennesse of the soyle was such that either impropriations or sacriledge or both had not left for any competent workman a competent maintenance both my Dower and Patrimony Glebes and Tithes being almost wholly alienated by hard lawes and evil customes from my use and enjoyment that holy Portion which is Gods being oft perverted to feed Hinds and Dogs and Horses which was originally devoted to feed such Shepherds as might feed my flock in every place Nor could in those cases either my prayers or teares the sordid necessities of many poor Ministers or the cryes of poor peoples famished souls ever yet move the civil State effectually to restore or remit or to make other necessary supplyes for Pastors and peoples good Yet even in this distresse which befell too many places much against my will my care and endeavour was so to keep up the life health and soundnesse of the true Reformed Christian Religion that people every where had what was necessary wholsome and decent for their souls good though possibly they had not nor was it needfull the same plenty variety dainties and superfluity in a constant way which some places did so long enjoy untill as with the Jews the Manna and Quailes Sunday Sermons and week-day Lectures came out of their nostrils while the heavenly food was rowling in their curious palates and wanton jawes the wrath of God brake forth upon them and upon me as upon Moses for their sakes who was indeed as jealous of their surfeitings of holy things as of the others famishings both being contrary to my care and desire which were God knows first to preserve the Foundation of necessary and saving Truth among them next to adde the beauty of holinesse to humility to joyn decency to sincerity to maintain the power of godlinesse with the wholsome formes of it that so Truth and Peace Order and Unity the leaves and the fruits of the tree of life might grow together for the nutriment muniment and ornament of piety Nor do I doubt to plead and affirm before Gods Tribunall That if those people who seemed to fare hardliest though the greatest complainers against my treatment of them were such as enjoyed most and fared deliciously every day wantonness being more querulous than want if they had made so good use as they might and ought to have done of that holy light and rule which was duly held forth to them in the plain parts of Scripture every year read to them in the Sacraments duly administred among them in the Articles Creeds Homilies Catechise and Liturgy with which they were
it hath been delivered to me by the most credible testimony of the Catholick Church in the books of Canonicall Scripture truly so called Nor did I ever teach for Doctrines the Traditions of men which some have blasphemed As for the circumstantial and ceremonial parts of Religion I used in Them modestly cautiously and charitably that liberty and power for order and decency which I conceive Gods indulgence who is not the author of confusion but of peace allowed me no lesse than any of those Primitive or later Churches whose best examples I sought to follow If any of my children had discovered something in me lesse agreeable to that beauty order and gravity which had been desirable by them in a Christian and Reformed Church if any matter of reall uncomelinesse had been espied in me as what Church is there upon earth so fair but as the Moon it may have some spots wainings and eclipses what state of Christians so complete that God may not have a few things against them yet it had been their duty with the veile of Christian love and pity modestly to have covered silently concealed and dutifully reformed what was indeed amisse and not like so many Chams to have exposed such a parent such a mother to the petulancy and derision both of her enemies abroad and the plebs at home who are as prone as ever the Jews were to worship any new Calves they fancy to set up and to cast off Moses and Aaron that God and those Governours who had done such wonders among them If while men slept the enemy sowed some tares there where my Saviour had plentifully sowed good seed was I presently to be trampled under the feet of the beasts of the people or quite to be rooted up burnt and consumed because some tares appeared if my garments were in time a little spotted and sullied yet was my honour still unblemished and the sanctity of my profession as Christian and Reformed unviolated nor did my garments deserve thus to be rinced in the blood of my Children if the ceremonious lace and fringe of my coat were a little unript or torn with time yet there was no cause to rend it quite off or tear my coat in pieces if my garb and fashion seemed somewhat more grave Catholick and ancient than agreed with some mens singular and novellizing fancies yet did I not deserve to be stripp'd and stigmatiz'd to be thus exposed to shame and nakednesse much lesse to have my Flesh thus torn my Eyes pull'd out my Throat cut and my Skin to be flayed off which are the merciful endeavours of some of my reforming that is ruining enemies If some weak or unwise servants whom I trusted with the management of my affaires discharged their duties less piously or prudently than I expected or exacted of them as Church-Governours Ministers if the licentiousnesse of others was impatient to be governed so strictly as they should have been most men abhorring true Christian Discipline even then when they most clamoured for it intending extravagancies when they pretended severities yet was I not on the sudden to have been wholly deprived of all Church-government and order once duly established untill such time as my new Discipliners and wise Masters had found out some fitter way for me than that Catholick fabrick form and fashion which all Churches ever had and enjoyed from the Apostles times and constitutions Certainly the failings of Church-Governours ought not to have been so severely avenged upon the Church-government it self nor are any mens male-administrations to be laid to the charge of those good lawes and constitutions which are setled in either Church or State The very Apostolick Churches are oft blamed yea and threatened for their early degenerations without any reproch to their first institution which certainly was holy and good It savours too much of humane passion to pervert divine order under pretence of Reforming humane disorders Which in me were never so predominant as to remove me from that posture of Christian piety honour order and integrity wherein I stood firm and conspicuous in all the world as a Christian and well-Reformed Church hated indeed and many times opposed by my forraign adversaries of the Papall interest and perswasion but they despaired ever to prevail against me unlesse they first divided my children within me and armed my own bowels by home-bred and strange animosities against me These by infinite artifices and undiscerned stratagems have by them been heightened of late to such factious petulancies and furies as to adde scorns to the others thornes contempt to the others crosses gall to my vinegar scurrility to my agonies As if I could not be miserable enough to satisfie the malice of my enemies abroad unlesse I were made a scorn to my children and a shame to my friends both at home and abroad leaving me few that dare pity me fewer that can plead for me and fewest that are able and willing to relieve me My spitefull persecutors are so cruell that they are impatient to see any sympathize with me threatning those my children that dare yet own me for a true Church or their Mother the very name of which they seek to deprive me of hoping to make me quite forgotten who was sometime so renowned among the most celebrated Churches of the world Alas among some Furies it is not safe for sober Christians to speake one good word of me or for me they cannot endure any should pray for me no nor weep for me Teares are offensive and Charity it self is scandalous to my implacable enemies who labour to be my cruell and totall oppressors To this dreadfull height hath the Lord been pleased to afflict me with my children in the day of his fierce wrath in which He hath given me ashes for bread and mingled my drink with weeping filling me with blacknesse instead of beauty with war for peace with faction for union with confusion for order with impudent patricides and ungratefull matricides instead of modest thankfull and tender-hearted children Behold He hath smitten me into the place of Dragons and given me a cup of deadly wine to drink But it is the Lord let him do as seemeth good in his sight If my prayers and sighs and teares cannot yet possibly the exorbitant and implacable malice of my enemies who in the end will not appear Gods friends may provoke him to remember his tender mercies which have been ever of old and to repent him as a Father of the evil he hath suffered to be brought upon me by those that delight not in His justice but in their own sacrilegious advantages It may be he will return to be gracious as in former times and not shut up his loving kindnesse wholly from me since his oft-repeated mercy endureth for ever yea it is because his compassions fail not that I am not utterly consumed Though thou kill me yet will I trust in thee O Lord who hast wounded
S. Paul tells Philemon as to whatever they can rightly pretend of the true honour priviledge and power of Christiany What is less Saintly than to cry up novell partiall and factious Reformations to magnifie uncouth and exotick wayes of Ministry and Christianity Church-fellowship and Communion while in the mean time they ungratefully despise and cruelly crucifie their proper Mother the Church of England together with those whom they sometime justly esteemed as their Fathers in God and brethren in Christ What is less Saintly than to endeavour to rob God in a land of peace and plenty to expose his servants and service after the order of Christs Evangelicall Priesthood to as great contempts deformities and diminutions in all points both for order and authority learning and maintenance as ever Julian the Apostate did design with great impudence crying down the rare and indeed incomparable Ministers of the Church of England who had been liberally treated and honourably maintained that they may with vulgar easiness and credulity by a penurious covetous and sacrilegious sophistry cry up some cheap new-fashioned Teachers as rare Angels that had no stomachs and would preach gratis who I believe are found in many places as greedy and voracious as Bell and the Dragon in the Apocrypha Nor can I think them other than Apocryphall Preachers so far from Angels of light sent from God to comfort the Reformed Religion in its bloody sweat and agonies that they seem rather as Messengers of Satan sent to buffet this Reformed Church and the renowned Clergie of England whose fame and flourishing whose piety and prosperity whose honour and unity whose Catholick order and authority heretofore was so conspicuous by the rare indulgence of Gods providence by the generous munificence of pious Princes and by the moderation of wise and worthy Parliaments that God it seems saw it in danger as S. Paul to be exalted above measure by reason of those excellent endowments and enjoyments both spirituall and temporall which were bestowed upon it All which are prone to threaten themselves by their excess the usuall temper of humane frailty being such that it is never so fixed sweetened and seasoned by any temporall blessings in the best of men but it is subject to warp to sowre or to putrifie if it stand too long in the warm sun of prosperity However it becomes all holy and humble Ministers to bless God with holy Job though he take what he once gave it is his mercy that he chuseth rather by impoverishing of us to correct us than to leave us wholly to that crookedness and putrefaction which we were ready of our selves in peace and plenty to contract it is better for any Church any Clergie any Christians to be healed by the sharpness of Gods corrosives and vinegar than too much softned by the suppleness of his oyles and lenitives I hope the health and soundness of the Church and Clergie of England are Gods last designs that his blessings to both shall in due time be restored and enjoyed again when being better prepared to use and value them we shall be less subject to abuse and loose them CHAP. XX. MEan time while many grave and excellent Ministers are faine patiently to hang their harps upon the willowes while they and other sober Christians daily weep over the waters of Babylon our sad confusions a generall astonishment hath seised upon all sober and serious wise and worthy men true lovers of this Church and Nation who with sad hearts and moistened eyes do hear and see the more then childish petulancies the rude insolencies the impudent familiarities the irreverent behaviours which in many places the common sort of people are grown to affect and presume to use even in our religious duties and sacred assemblies expressing less outward respect or reverence in the presence of God when his Ministers and his people assemble to worship him than they are wont to use either for fear or civility or shame before the Steward and Jury of a Court Leet or the meanest Justice of Peace and his Clark in the countrey From the rude examples and daring indulgences of some men whose years and education might have taught them better manners there daily growes up a numerous generation a rustick heady and impudent fry of younger people who carry no more regard to any duties of Religion or respect to the Ministers of them than the fourty children did to the Prophet Elisha when they mocked him and were for their ill breeding and irreligious rudeness torn in pieces by the she-Bears to teach both parents and children better manners towards Gods Prophets as was of old observed Yea there are some grown so clownish and Cyclopick Christians that their very Religion consists not a little in their morose undecent uncivil untractable spirits and demeanour if others have their heads reverently uncovered in the presence and service of God these must have their hats on not to relieve the tenderness and infirmity of their heads but to shew the liberty and surliness of their wills and spirits If others testifie their inward veneration of the divine Majesty by their outward comely gestures as either standing or kneeling according to the variety of duties these by all means affect to fit or loll after such a lazy and neglective fashion that easily discovers and openly proclaims neither much fear of God nor reverence of man yea some people are not satisfied thus to express their sullen tempers by their churlish and unconformable gestures as to our religious duties and decencies in case they vouchsafe to be present but they must be railing and reviling prating and opposing cavilling and disputing in publick What eare not wholly uncircumcised can bear the vain bablings the unprofitable unpleasing and profane janglings of such sophisters the unharmonious noise of such Low-bels whose sound is neither with verity certainty harmony nor gravity yet do they every where seek to drown or confound the sacred concent of Aarons bells and that sweet musick which was wont to be in Gods sanctuary in our Churches here in England when good Christians did orderly and reverently meet together with their lawfull Ministers in one place with one accord with one heart one mind one mouth to serve the Lord and to edifie one another in truth and love with all modesty humility decency and solemnity CHAP. XXI WHich comfort honour solemnity and blessing of Religion formerly enjoyed in most Congregations of the Church of England how many of later yeares have dared not more with rudeness than profaneness to exchange for a kind of Sibylline ravings Bacchinal raptures They obtrude upon poor people sudden correptions licentious rantings ridiculous quakings fanatick ravings senselesse vapourings and such like rallieries or gallantries in Religion which seek to turn Christianity to a kind of buffoonery If these corrept corrupt extasies or extravagancies be not permitted to such fanatick triflers troublers of travagancies be not permitted to such
once the North-wind ceased to fill its sailes Besides this Independency confining all its authority to a little body and narrow compasse of one Congregation hath a stroke or knack in it of greater popularity than Presbytery it self which having many heads and hands soon grew terrible to great men as well as common people threatning them not onely with one sword or scepter but with the combined force of many Presbyters and Presbyteries with appeales from one Consistory to another which looked like dew-rakes and harrowes armed with so many teeth that none great or small should escape them but he must needs fall under the first second third or fourth Consistorian Power either Parochiall or Classicall or Provinciall or Nationall new names and great words which common people would hardly learn in one yeare nor understand in seven Furthermore the Magistratick genius and Emperiall spirits of this Nation intending intirely to govern it both in Civil and Ecclesiasticall respects began in time to be better advised and so to be aware how they or the Nation fell under the Discipline of any Populacy or Presbytery whose Rods nay Scorpions castigated King James during his pupillage or minority in Scotland so severely that he could never forgive or forget their insolency to his dying day as he bitterly complains in his Basilicon Doron every petty Presbyter that had twenty Marks a year salary to live upon fancying himself a Peer not onely to the Lords but to the Prince himself This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many-headed Hydra of Government King James did and so might all wise men see cause enough perfectly to abhorre both in Church and State that it was not onely folly but madnesse to buy the experience of it in England at the charge of our own miseries when we had our neighbours late examples so near us that they were enough to have scared any wise men from such an hare-brain'd and plebeian Presbytery as King James and others describe specially the Learned Reverend and Impartiall Arch-bishop of S. Andrews who modestly sets it forth in his late excellent History of the Church of Scotland in its rise progresse activity and recesse which was a Government popularly at first extorted from Bishops Peers and Princes by a company of minute Ministers or petty Preachers whose extravancies the wisdome of King James after reduced to a well-regulated Episcopacy under which Scotland as well as England enjoyed I believe its best dayes Thus when Presbytery had lopped Episcopacy to the stumps in Engl. yea and thought it had grubbed it up by the Mattock and Pickax of the Covenant when it self from a small Shrub had set it self up began to take root and to fill the land against the will of the chief Cedar in the Forrest fancying it was now full of sap both of Divine and Humane Right as if it were in high favour both with God and man yet then it suddenly dwindled and looked so withered as if it had been Planet-struck or smitten with a sharp East-wind when indeed it was nothing else but the spirit of Independency and other Novelties which like Palmer-worms or Caterpillers secretly bred in every corner of the land and which have now also made their way even into Scotland it self sometime the great Scene and Throne of Presbytery now very tottering and much weakned as to that part of affected soveraignty in Church-affairs Nor is this young tall and seemingly so thrifty shoot of Independency which is yet but slender and more run up in height than spread in bulk this is not so firmly fixed that it cannot be removed having little root in Scripture or in the true reason of Government and Polity nor more in any Church-patterns or practise of Antiquity being like Jonah's gourd the child of a night of yesterday in comparison of Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy yea and a younger brother to Presbytery which was but a modern shift used among some Reformed Churches when they could not have as they desired Reforming and Reformed Bishops to rule them for else they had never God knows dreamed any thing of such a Presbytery as should tend to the extirpation of Apostolick Episcopacy Nor is Independency with all its easie rootings and windings in our loose and broken soyle of England as yet far spread in the judgements of the most learned grave and sober persons of England looking upon it as incongruous in its Novelty Feebleness Factiousness and popular temper to the Genius and interest of the English people who are never to be long or well ruled by those whom they think their equals or inferiours Even Independency it self which hath a pretty soft phrase and easier cords to bind people together in small bodies will in time find its weaknesse in it self and betray it to others whence will follow other variations from it oppositions against it and contempts of it Who knows what way fierce Anabaptists ambitious Millenaries Seraphick Familists rude Ranters and silly Quakers wil affect for their Church-government or any other new and yet namelesse Faction which may hereafter be spawned more agreeable to the vulgar humour which loves greater Latitudes Indifferencies Loosenesses and Cheapnesses of Religion both in Opinon and Practise than learned and modest Independents will allow Who sees not how much the uncivil confidence and childish clownery of Quakers takes with the vulgar beyond any thing while to set off their Enthusiasmes with a greater emphasis they affect a rude and levelling Conversation with a familiarity of Thouing their betters and superiours at every word fancying great holinesse in their simple and superstitious Yea and Nay which are not the sole and confined but onely the shortest expressions of true and honest meanings disdaining to use any signs of Duty common Courtesie or Respect which by the Laws of God and man are due to Parents Equals or Superiours according to the gentle courteous and humble behaviour of all Christians in all Countreys and Ages yet do these sort of new leaders pretend they come nearer to Jesus Christ and to God because they have no respect of any persons but themselves and no doubt in order further to relieve their Necessities and Obscurities these men would be content to have all things common after the fashion of primitive Charity when the Churches necessities had an empire of love not force over particular Christians proprieties These and the like discriminations of parties in Religion which are but lately grown out of the distempers of the Church of England as wormes out of Job's sores or dunghill have already not onely their Founders and Patrons which must be almost deified by their respective Disciples but they have also their grand Masters Abettors Propagators Followers and Champions each challengeth to themselves the titles of Christians Saints godly people the Church c. not as good fellowes in a charitable community and Catholick correspondency but in a supercilious reserve almost excluding all others and unchurching them who are not just of their
all other Apostles in their severall Bishopricks or Distributions To the second as Presbyters or a lesser kind of Bishops and Apostles over private and particular congregations they gave power to preach the Gospel administer Sacraments and assist their chief Pastor or Bishop in governing the Church according as they were required and appointed to their severall duties and charges But no where in Scripture that I see do we find either the sole or chief power of ordaining Ministers or of exercising any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction over them by correption or rejection given to any one or more Presbyters as such unlesse men list for ever to play the children and cavill with the identity or samenesse of the names used of old which calls Apostles Presbyters as a word of honor and Presbyters Bishops as overseers and all of them Deacons as servants to Christ and the Church and all may be called Apostles too in some sense as sent by Christ on his work Which Crambe is so fulsome a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cavilling about words to confound all good sense and order that all sober men are now weary of it when they clearly see that all ages and actions of the Catholick Church have sufficiently declared beyond any fallacy of identity as to Names and titles the reall and actuall differences of persons and duties or offices to which words may at first be indifferently applied without implying any such confusion of places and powers in the Church any more than when the name of ruler is applyed to supreame and subordinate Magistrates or when the name of Officer is given to Corporalls Lieutenants Captaines Colonells and Generalls or that of Alderman to such as are so by age or office or estate just as if one should obstinately maintain that the petty Constables of every parish the High Constables of every Hundred and the Lord high Constable of England or France were the same things as to office power and honor because the same name of Constable is applyed to all of them It may with as much reason be urged that every Master of Arts in a Colledg and the Master of the Colledg are the same in office place and power or that every one who is called Father by nature age affinity adoption merit or relation either Domestick Civil or Ecclesiasticall presently may challenge the same Authority over us and the same Duty or Obedience from us as our naturall parents have and do expect because all are called Fathers So we shall have many Gods and Lords to justifie the Polytheisme of the heathens because there are many that are in Scripture called Gods and Lords as the Apostle tells us These Sophisticall equivocations from names and words have been indeed the bushes or thickets the borrowes and refuges a long time of those men who aimed to bring in all factions innovations and confusions into this and other Churches onely under such empty colours and fallacious pretentions out of all which they have been lately so stripped ferreted by many learned unanswerable assertors of Episcopacy in its just presidency and authority that they are now naked and ridiculous to all sober spectators who see that all the judgement and practice of antiquity besides the Scriptures analogy is so clear and distinct against all their petty cavillings and popular levellings that the reall differences of the powers orders degrees and offices in the Church as begun by Christ exercised by the Apostles also continued in that method and series through all ages are not lesse evident than their peevishnesse and pertinacy are who list to urge the first indifferency or latitude of words against the after and evident distinctions of things declared and confirmed by the constant judgement and practice of all Churches which is in my judgement the best and surest interpreter and distinguisher of what ever seems wrapped up or any way obscured and confused in Scripture-expressions otherwaies we must with the Papists own as many Sacraments and Mysteries as these words are applyed to in Scripture either in the Greek or Latine Presbyters might well enough be then called Bishops in a generall and lower sense when there were so many Apostles as chief Bishops above them which Name of Apostle the modesty of after Bishops refusing they contented themselves with the peculiar title of Bishops and confined that of Presbyter to that second order or degree of Clergy-men as that of Deacon to the third which yet in their latitude are applyed to Bishops and Apostles themselves I know there have been many things speciously urged for Presbytery and odiously against Episcopacy all which have been so abundantly answered that it is time they were forgotten and all enmity buried with them My aime in this pacificatory addresse to all worthy Ministers is not to revive the cavils and disputes but to reconcile all interests to compose all differences and to satisfie all demands Onely because I know there is no closing or glewing of pieces together with firmnesse where there is not first made an evennesse and smoothness on all sides for their apt meeting I shall here further endeavour fairly to take away some remaining roughnesse swelling and protuberancy which possibly may be still in some sober mens minds as great hinderances of the desired closure and composure of all sides I know it is further urged by some that every Presbyter singly and much more socially that is in a joynt body and Associate fraternity may be rationally thought to have the full power and divine authority of a Bishop to all ends offices and purposes since it is well known in all antiquity as St Jerome tells us and it is confessed by all Episcopall men that Presbyters as such primitively chose their respective Bishops as at Antioch Jerusalem Alexandria from S. Marks time in other places so that Bishops may seem primarily to receive all their authority and eminency from Presbyters who certainly can conferre no more upon any of Bishop than is radically seminally and eminently in themselves as a superiour Magistrate that nominates an inferiour or a Corporation that chooseth a Major or chief officer or as Fellowes of a Colledge who choose a Master or President over them or as an army which is St. Jeromes instance who choose their Imperator or Generall From this ancient and well-known priviledge of Presbyters to choose their respective Bishops many conclude their joynt power at least to be equall to any Bishops yea superiour to them as causall and efficient insomuch that they may if they please exercise it apart from and wholly without any Bishop by choosing none to be over them or among them but serving their occasionall meetings with a temporary Moderator rather than a constant Superintendent To this it is easily answered That however Presbyters of old did and of right as I conceive ought by the leave and permission of Christian Princes to choose and appove the persons of their Bishops as being the fittest men in
Religion For I have found by experience that no men have proved move factious affected and fanatick than those men and women who have been most conscious to their youthful Enormities They presently apply to the gentlest Confessors and easiest Repentance which is rather to quarrel with and forsake the Religion they have most violated than seriously to repent and amend without which severities Papists and Separatists think their Converts sufficient if they do but turn to their side and party The second Novellers will be content with any meer fancies or factions in Religion The third the Jesuited Papists with no pure united and well-reformed Religion among us And the fourth the Devil will be content with any Religion that is called Catholick Reformed and Christian so it be not true or not pure or not well-reformed or not orderly setled and uniform or not charitably united or not authoritatively managed and governed Any of which will in time very much unchristen any Christians and unchurch any Church by deforming and dividing them from the Beauty and Communion of the Church Catholick Take heed of betraying your selves and your posterity to Atheisticall licentious immorall and irreligious courses by your Apostasies from and despiciencies of the Learning and Piety Gifts and Graces Ministry and Ministrations Order and Government which were happily setled in the Church of England Go over all the world search all successions of the Church from the Apostles to our daies you shall not find any thing more worthy your Love and Esteem your Veneration and addiction Have you found any thing comparable to it in all the new vapours and florishes of Reformations in any new Inventions Conventions Associations Separations Distractions Distortions Confusions Which may make you giddy by turning you round but they will never make you any progresse in Wisdome or Piety or Charity The Church of England was a most rare and Paragon Jewel shining with admirable lustre on all sides First in its Doctrine or Articles of Religion which were few cleare and sound Secondly in its Sermons or Homilies which were learnedly plain pious and practicall Thirdly in its Liturgy or Devotions which were easie to be understood very apt pathetick and complete Fourthly in its paucity and decency of ceremonies which adorned not incumbred Religion or over-laid the Modesty and Majesty of a comely Reformation Fifthly in the Sanctity and Solemnity of its publick duties which were neither excessive nor defective Sixthly in its Ministry which had good Abilities due Ordination and divine Authority Seventhly it its good Government and Ecclesiasticall Discipline where good Presbyters and good Bishops had leave and courage to do their duties and discharge their consciences whose Fatherly Inspection Catholick Ordination and Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction being wisely managed by worthy men in their severall stations did justly deserve the name of an Hierarchy an holy Regiment or happy Government when it was exercised with that Authority yet Charity and discretion which were ever intended by the Church for the common good of all those Christians that were within her bosome and kept her Communion If others do forget her through fatuity or faction covetousnesse or ambition pride or petulancy as undutifull and ungratefull children yet you may not you will not you cannot so far neglect your own and your posterities happinesse or forfeit your own honor or violate your consciences as to neglect the relief and recovery of your Spirituall Mother But if you of the better sort of men and Christians from whom all good men expect all good things should slight and neglect Her after the vulgar rate which God forbid yet must I never so far comply with you or all the world as to call her former light darknesse or her present darknesse light Pretious with me must the name of the Church of England ever be whose record is in Heaven and in all gracious hearts who were Born and Baptized Instructed Sanctified and Saved in her To this Church of England as I owe with many thousands so I returne with some few the Charity of a Christian as to all Christian Churches the duty of a Son as to a deserving parent the order of a part or member as united and devoted to the whole the obedience of an Inferiour as to a Superiour the gratitude of acknowledging Her Worth and Merit the love of adhering to her unity the candor of approving and conforming to her decent ceremonies the modesty of preferring her Wisdome before my own or any other mens understanding the Humility of submitting to her Spirituall Authority and Governours the Piety and Prudence of relieving and restoring as much as lies in me Her Catholick Order Polity Peace and Government all which I believe were allowed of God and I am sure have been approved by as Learned Wise and Holy men as the world affords I am deeply sensible of the many and great obligations which I have to this Nationall Church and to its Ministers and Bishops for my Baptisme Instruction Confirmation Communion and Ordination not onely as a Member but as a Minister which I account my greatest Honour notwithstanding the great depression of the times in which I have late ward lived I am ambitious to do not onely what becomes my private station but to preserve and expresse the publick respects which are due to this Church whose Despisers and Destroyers have never appeared to me with any Remarques of Beauty or Honour for Learning or Grace for Modesty or Charity for Prudence or Policy comparable to those that were the first Founders Reformers Defenders and Preservers of this Church I must ever professe that I find nothing like her Adversaries nor any thing exceeding her friends in all that was commendable in Catholick and true Antiquity In behalf of this Church having offered many things to the consideration of all good Christians which are my worthy Countrymen I hope as my infirmities may exercise their Charity so my integrity may expiate my infirmities if I have in any thing expressed my self lesse becoming the honest and holy designe which I undertook and have now by Gods help finished which was to set forth First the Teares and Sighâ— of the Church of England Secondly the originall of her Disorders and Distractions Thirdly the dangers and distresses if not remedied Fourthly the probable waies of cure and recovery by Gods blessing to such Order Honour Unity Purity and Peace as becomes so famous a Church and so renowned a Nation whose greatest Crown was Christianity I know there will be many who cannot well beare that freedom of sobernesse and Truth which either my self or others may use in speaking or writing for the Church of England and its pristine Honour Order and Government although themselves use never so great Liberties Reproches and Injuries in Speaking Writing and Acting against them For my part I appeare in this onely as wrapt my self in my Scholastick and Ecclesiastick Gown I meddle not with any civil affaires or Military transactions properly