Examination of the mistakes falsities and defects in some modern Histories Lond. 1659. Certamen Epistolare or the Letter-Combat managed with Mr. Baxter Dr. Bernard Mr. Hickman 8. Lond. 1659. Historia Quinqu-Articularis 4. Lond. 1660. Respondet Petrus or the Answer of Peter Heylyn D. D. to Dr. Bernards book entituled The Judgment of the late Primate c. Lond. 4. 1658. Observations on Mr. Hammond L' Estranges History of the Life of King Charles I. 1658. Extraneus Vapulans or a Defence of those Observations Lond. 1658. A short History of King Charles the First from his Cradle to his Grave 1658. Thirteen Sermons some of which are an Exposition of the Parable of the Tares printed at London 1659 and again 1661. A help to English History containing a succession of all the Kings Dukes Marquesses Earls Bishops c. of England and Wales first written in the Year 1641 under the name of Robert Hall but now enlarged and in Dr. Heylyns name Ecclesia Vindicata or the Church of England Justified c. 4. 1657. Bibliotheca Regia or the Royal Library 8. Ecclesia Restaurata or the History of the Reformation Fol. Lond. 1661. Cyprianus Anglicus or the History of the Life and Death of William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Fol. Aerius Redivivus or the History of the Presbyterians Fol. ECCLESIA VINDICATA OR THE Church of England JUSTIFIED I. In the Way and Manner of her Reformation II. In Officiating by a Publick Liturgy III. In prescribing a Set Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons IV. In her Right and Patrimony of Tithes V. In retaining the Episcopal Government And therewith VI. The Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons By PETER HEYLIN D. D. PSAL. CXXXVI 6 7. Si oblitus fuero tui O Jerusalem oblivioni detur dextra med Adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis si non proposuero tui in principio laetitiae meae LONDON Printed by M. Clark for C. Harper 1681. A General Preface TO THE READER CONCERNING The Design and Method of the following WORK 1. The Authors Address to those of the same persuasion with him 2. As also to those of different Opinion 3. His humble application to all such as be in Authority 4. Persecution a true note of the Church verified in the Jews the primitive Christians and the Church of England 5. The several Quarrels of the Genevians and Papists against the way and manner of our Reformation 6. The Authors Method and Design in answering the Clamors and Objections of either party 7. The first Quarrels against the Liturgies of King Edward the sixth and the grounds thereof 8. The Liturgy of Queen Elizabeth approved by the Pope subscribed by the Scots and the Church frequented by the Papists for the first ten years of that Queens reign 9. The Puritans and Papists separate from the Church at the same time and the hot pursuance of this Quarrel by the Puritan party 10. The Quarrel after some repose revived by the Smectymnuans and their actings in it 11. The Author undertakes the Defence of Liturgies as also the Times and Places of Publick Worship against all Opponents unto each 12. The Prayer prescribed to be used by Preachers before their Sermons the reasons why it was prescribed and the Church justified for so doing in a Brief Discourse upon that subject of the Authors making 13. An Answer to the Objection touching the free exercise of the Gift of Prayer 14. Set Forms of Prayer condemned in Churches by the Devisers of the Directory and prescribed for Ships 15. The Liturgy cryed down by the Lay-Brethren in Order to the taking away of Tithes 16. The same Design renewed by some late Projectors the Author undertakes against them and his Reasons for it 17. The first Bishops of Queen Elizabeths time quarrelled by the Papists and the grounds thereof 18. Covetousness and Ambition in the Presbyterians the two main grounds of their Pursuit against Episcopacy 19. Set on by Calvin and Beza they break out into action their violent proceedings in it and cessation from it 20. The Quarrel reassumed by the Smectymnuans outwitted in the close thereof by the Lay-Brethren without obtaining their own ends in advancing Presbytery 21. The Author undertakes against Smectymnuus and proves Episcopacy to be agreeable to all Forms of Civil Government 22. His History of Episcopacy grounded on the Authority of the Ancient Fathers and what the Reader is desired in Relation to them 23. Ordination by the Imposition of Hands generally in use in all Churches and how the Ordinance of March 20. 1653. is to be understood as to that particular 24. No Ordination lawful but by Bishops and what the Author hath done in it 25. The close of all and the submission of the whole to the Readers judgment READER of what persuasion or condition soever thou art I here present and submit unto thee these ensuing Tracts If thou art of the same persuasion and opinion with me I doubt not but thou wilt interpret favourably of my Undertakings and find much comfort in thy Soul for thy Adhesion to a Church so rightly constituted so warrantably reformed so punctually modelled by the pattern of the purest and most happy times of Christianity A Church which for her Power and Polity her sacred Offices and Administrations hath not alone the grounds of Scripture the testimony of Antiquity and consent of Fathers but as good countenance and support as the Established Laws of the Land could give her which Laws if they be still in force as they seem to be thy sufferings for adhering to the Church in her Forms and Government may not improperly be said to have faln upon thee for thy obedience and conformity to the Laws themselves Smectym Answ 85. For though it may be supposed with the Smectymnians the Author of The True Cavalier c. and some other of our modern Politicks that Government and Forms of Worship are but matters of humane appointment and being such may lawfully abrogated by the same Authority by which at first they were Established yet then it must be still by the same Authority and not by any other which is less sufficient for that end and purpose And I presume it will not be affirmed by any that an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons occasionally made and fitted for some present exigent is of as good authority as an Act of Parliament made by the King with the consent and approbation of the three Estates in due form of Law Or if it be I would then very fain know the reason why the Ordinance of the third of January Anno 1644. should be in force as to the taking away of the Book of Common Prayer and yet be absolutely void or of no effect as to the establishing and imposing of the Directory thereby authorized which bears an equal share in the title of it or why the Ordinance of the ninth of October Anno 1646. for abolishing Arch-bishops and Bishops should be still in
Divinity as well as undertake the profession of it but afterward persuaded thereto by a Right Reverend and Learned Person Mr. Buckner he seriously applied himself to this Study and holy Profession receiving the Orders of Deacon and Priest but at distinct times in S. Aldates Church in Oxon from the Right Reverend Bishop Howson And when he was Ordained Priest he Preach'd the Ordination Sermon upon these words of our Blessed Saviour to S. Peter Luk. 22.32 And when thou art Converted strengthen thy Brethren What course and method he observed in his Theological Studies he informs us with his own Pen Theol. Vit. praef to the Reader When I began my Studies in Divinity I thought no course so proper and expedient for me as the way commended by King James which was that young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversie and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators His Geography was in less than three years Reprinted And in this second Edition was enlarged and again presented by him to the Prince of Wales and by him graciously received with most affectionate commendations of the Author But it met with another kind of entertainment from King James for the Book being put into the hands of that Learned Monarch by Dr. Young then Dean of Winton who design'd nothing but the highest kindness to Mr. Heylyn thereby the King at first exprest his great value he had for the Author but unfortunatly falling on a passage wherein Mr. Heylyn gave Precedency to the French King and called France the more famous Kingdom King James became very much offended and ordered the Lord Keeper to call the Book in The Dean gave notice to Mr. Heylyn of his Majesties displeasure and advised him to repair to Court and make use of the Princes Patronage as the best lenitive to prevent the rankling of this wound But he rather chose to abide in Oxford and acquainting the Lord Danvers with the business afterward sent an Apology and Explanation of his meaning That the burden under which he suffered was rather a mistake than a crime and that mistake not his own but the Printers which was after corrected and amended In the year 1625. he took a Journey with Mr. Levet of Lincolns-Inn into France where he visited more Cities and made more observations in five weeks time for he stayed no longer than many others have done in so many years The particulars of this Journey he reduced into writing and some years after gratifi'd his Countrey with the publication of it together with some other excellent remarks made by him when he went in attendance upon the Earl of Danby to the Isle of Gernsey and Jersey Anno Dom. 1628. Had King James lived to have perused that Book Mr. Heylyn had needed no other Advocate to have restored him to his Princely favour and protection For never was the vanity and levity of the Monsieurs and deformity and sluttishness of their Madams more ingeniously exposed both in Verse and Prose than in the account that he gives of his Voyage into France On April the 18th 1627. he opposed in the Divinity-School and on Tuesday the 24th following he answered pro formâ upon these two Questions viz. An Ecclesia unquam fuerit invisibilis An Ecclesia possit errare Both which he determined in the Negative Upon occasional discourse with him he was pleased once to shew me his Supposition which I read over in his House at Lacies-Court in Abingdon but I had not then either the leisure or good luck to transcribe a Copy of it which would have been worth my pains and more worthy of the Press to the great satisfaction of others For my part I can truly say that I never read any thing with more delight for good Latin Reason and History which that Exercise was full of but since both it and many other choice Papers in his Study through the carelesness of those to whose custody they are committed I suppose are utterly lost and gone ad blattarum tinearum Epulas In stating of the first Question that caused the heats of that day he fell upon a quite different way from that of Dr. Prideaux the Professor in his Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and contrary to the common opinion of other Divines who generally prove the visibility of the Protestant Church from the poor persecuted Christians dispersed in several places as the Berengarians in Italy the Waldenses in France the Wicklifists in England and the Hussiets in Bohemia which manner of proceeding being disliked by Mr. Heylyn as that which utterly discontinued the Succession of the Hierarchy which the Church of England claims from the very Apostles and their immediate Successors He rather chose to find out a continual visible Church in Asia Ethiopia Greece Italy yea and Rome it self as also in all the Western Provinces then subject to the power of the Roman Bishop when he was the chief Patriarch which Mr. Heylyn from his great knowledge and more than ordinary abilities in History strenuously asserted and proved to which the Professor could make but weak replies as I have heard from knowing persons who were present at that Disputation because he was drawn out of his ordinany byass from Scholastical Disputation to forein Histories in which encounter Mr. Heylyn was the invincible Ajax Nec quisquam Ajacem superare possit nisi Ajax But chiefly the quarrel did arise for two words in Mr. Heylyns Hypothesis after he had proved the Church of England received no Succession of Doctrine or Government from the Berengarians Wicklifists c. who held many Heterodoxies in Religion as different from the established Doctrine of our Church as any point which was maintained at that time in the Church of Rome that the Writers of that Church Bellarmin himself hath stood up as cordially in maintenance of some fundamental points of the Christian Faith against Anti-Trinitarians Anabaptists and other Heretiques of these last Ages as any our Divines and other Learned men of the Protestant Churches which point Mr. Heylyn closed up with these words Vtinam quod ipse de Calvino sic semper errasset nobilissimus Cardinalis at which words the Reverend Doctor was so impatient in his Chair that he fell upon the Respondent in most vile terms calling him Papicola Bellarminianus Pontificius c. to draw the hatred of the University upon him according to the saying Fortiter calumniare aliquid adhaerebit grievously complaining to the younger sort of his Auditors unto whom he made his chiefest addresses of the unprofitable pains he took among them if Bellarmin whom he had laboured to confute for so many years should be honoured with the Title of Nobilissimus Notwithstanding the Respondent acquitted himself bravely before the Company ascribing no more honour to Bellarmin
the Lord Commissioners the Right of Sitting there 1. The Prebends Original Right 2. Their Derivative Right and lastly their Possessory Right Upon hearing the proofs on both sides it was ordered by general consent of the Lord Commissioners That the Prebends should be restored to their old Seat and that none should sit there with them but Lords of the Parliament and Earls eldest Sons according to the ancient custom After this there was no Bishop of Lincoln to be seen at any Morning-Prayer and seldom at Evening At this time came out the Doctor 's History of the Sabbath the Argumentative or Scholastick part of which subject was referred to White Bishop of Eli the Historical part to the Doctor And no sooner had the Doctor perfected his Book of the Sabbath but the Dean of Peterborough engages him to answer the Bishop of Lincoln's Letter to the Vicar of Grantham He received it upon good Friday and by the Thursday following discovered the sophistry mistakes and falshoods of it It was approved by the King and by him given to the Bishop of London to be Licens'd and Publish'd under the title of a Coal from the Altar In less than a twelve-month the Bishop of Lincoln writ an Answer to it Entituled The Holy Table Name and Thing but pretended that it was writ long ago by a Minister in Lincolnshire against Dr. Cole a Divine in the days of Queen Mary Dr. Heylyn receiv'd a Message from the King to return a reply to it and not in the least to spare him And he did it in the space of seven weeks presenting it ready Printed to his Majesty and called it Antidotum Lincolniense But before this he answered Mr. Burtons Seditious Sermon being thereunto also appointed by the King In July 1637. the Bishop of Lincoln was censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering with Witnesses in the Kings Cause suspended à Beneficio officio and sent to the Tower where he continued three years and did not in all that space of time hear either Sermon or publick Prayers The College of Westminster about this time presented the Doctor to the Parsonage of Islip now void by the death of Dr. King By reason of its great distance from Alresford the Doctor exchanged it for South-warnborough that was more near and convenient At which time recovering from an ill fit of Sickness he studiously set on writing the History of the Church of England since the Reformation in order to which he obtained the freedom of Sir Robert Cottons Library and by Arch-bishop Laud's commendation had liberty granted him to carry home some of the Books leaving 200 l. as a Pawn behind him The Commotions in Scotland now began and the Arch Bishop of Canterbury intending to set out an Apology for vindicating the Liturgy which he had commended to that Kirk desired the Doctor to translate the Scottish Liturgy into Latin that being Published with the Apology all the World might be satisfied in his Majesties piety as well as the Arch-Bishops care as also that the perverse and rebellious temper of the Scots might be apparent to all who would raise such troubles upon the Recommendation of a book that was so Venerable and Orthodox Dr. Heylyn undertook and went through with it but the distemper and trouble of those times put a period to the undertaking and the Book went no farther than the hands of that Learned Martyr In Feb. 1639. the Doctor was put into Commission of Peace for the County of Hampshire residing then upon this Living into which place he was no sooner admitted but he occasioned the discovery of a horrid Murther that had been committed many years before in that Countrey In the April following he was chosen Clerk of the Convocation for the College of Westminster at which time the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sending a Canon to them for suppressing the farther growth of Popery and reducing Papists to the Church our Doctor moved his Grace that the Canon might be enlarged for the Peoples farther satisfaction as well as the Churches benefit what was done therein and many other notable things by that Convocation may be seen at large in the History of the Arch-Bishops Life Friday being May the 29th the Canons were formally subscribed unto by the Bishops and Clergy no one dissenting except the Bishop of Glocester who afterward turn'd Papist and died in the Communion of the Romish Church and was all that time of his Life in which he revolted from the Church of England a very great Servant of Oliver Cromwel unto whom he dedicated some of his Books But for his Contumacy in refusing to subscribe the Articles he was voted worthy of Suspension in the Convocation and was actually Suspended by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which being done the Convocation was ended In Novemb. 3. A.D. 1640. began the Session of the long Parliament At the opening of which a general Rumor was spread abroad that Dr. Heylyn was run away for fear of an approaching storm that was like to fall upon his head as well as on his Grace the Arch-Bishop of Cauterbury but he who was ever of an undaunted spirit would not pusillanimously desert the Cause of the King and Church then in question but speedily hastned up to London from Alresford to confute the common calumny and false report raised on him by the Puritan faction that he appeared the next day in his Gown and Tippet at Westminster-Hall and in the Church with the accustomed formalities of his Cap Hood and Surplice employed then his Pen boldly in defence of the Bishops Rights when the Lords began to shake the Hierarchy in passing a Vote That no Bishop should be of the Committe for Examination of the Earl of Strafford being Causa sanguinis upon which the Doctor drew up a brief and excellent Discourse entituled De jure paritatis Episcopum wherein he asserted all the Bishops Rights of Peerage and principally of this as well as the rest That they ought to sit in that Committee with other Priviledges and Rights maintained by him which either by Law or ancient custom did belong unto them A rare Commendation at this juncture of time for which the Doctor is to be admired that he could command his Parts and Pen of a sudden to write on this subject or any other if there was need that did conduce to the publick good and above all make a quick dispatch in accomplishing what he had once undertaken and begun But for those quick dispatches the Doctor afterward endured many tedious waitings at the backs of Committe-men in that Parliament especially in the business of Mr. Pryn about his Histriomastix for which he was kept four days under examination because he had furnished the Lords of the Privy Council with matters out of that Book which Mr. Pryn alledged was the cause of all his sufferings Great hopes had the Committee by his often dancing attendance after them to sift the Doctor if they could gather any thing by his speeches
Submission brought down the Convocation to the same Level with the Houses of Parliament yet being made unto the King in his single person and not as in conjunction with his House of Parliament it neither brought the Convocation under the command of Parliaments nor rendred them obnoxious to the power thereof That which they did in former times of their self-authority in matters which concerned the Church without the Kings consent co-operating and concurring with them the same they did and might do in the times succeeding the Kings Authority and Consent being superadded without the help and midwifery of an Act of Parliament though sometimes that Authority was made Use of also for binding of the subject under Temporal and Legal penalties to yield obedience and conformity to the Churches Orders Which being the true state of the present business it makes the clamour of the Papists the more unreasonable but then withal it makes it the more easily answered Temporal punishments inflicted on the refractory and disobedient in a Temporal Court may add some strength unto the Decrees and Constitutions of the Church but hey take none from it Or if they did the Religion of the Church of Rome the whole Mass of Popery as it was received and settled here in Qu. Maries Reign would have a sorry crutch to stand upon and might as justly bear the name of a Parliament-Faith as the reformed Religion of the Church of England It is true indeed that had those Convocations which were active in that Reformation being either called or summoned by the King in Parliament or by the Houses separately or convenedly without the King Or had the Members of the same been nominated and impowered by the House alone and intermixt with a considerable number of the Lords and Commons which being by the way the Case of this New Assembly I do not see how any thing which they agree on can bind the Clergy otherwise than imposed by a strong hand and against their privileges Or finally had the conclusions or results thereof been of no effect but as reported to and confirmed in Parliament the Papists might have had some ground for so gross a calumny in calling the Religion which is now established by the name of a Parliament-Religion and a Parliament-Gospel But so it is not in the Case which is now before us the said Submission notwithstanding For being the Body being still the same privileged with the same freedom of debate and determination and which is more the Procurators of the Clergy invested with the same power and Trust which before they had There was no alteration made by the said Submission in the whole constitution and composure of it but only the addition of a greater and more excellent power Nor was there any thing done here in that Reformation but either by the Clergy in their Convocations and in their Convocations rightly called and Canonically constituted or with the councel and advice of the Heads thereof in more private conferences the Parliaments of these times contributing very little towards it but acquiescing in the Wisdom of the Sovereign Prince and in the piety and zeal of the Ghostly Fathers This is the ground-work or foundation of the following Building I now time I should proceed to the Superstructures beginning first with the Ejection of the Pope and vesting the Supremacy in the Regal Crown 2. Of the Ejection of the Pope and vesting the Supremacy in the Regal Crown AND first beginning with the Ejection of the Pope and his Authority that led the way unto the Reformation of Religion which did after follow It was first voted and decreed in the Convocation before ever it became the subject of an Act of Parliament For in the year 1530. 22 Hen. 8. the Clergy being caught in a premunire were willing to redeem their danger by a sum of money and to that end the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury bestowed upon the King the sum of 100000 l. to be paid by equal portions in the same year following but the King would not so be satisfied unless they would acknowledge him for the supream Head on earth for the Church of England which though it was hard meat and would not easily down amongst amongst them yet it passed at last For being throughly debated in a Synodical way both in the upper and lower Houses of Convocation they did in sine agree upon this expression Cujus Ecclesiae sc Anglicanae Singularem protectorem unicum Supremum Dominum quantum per Christi leges licet Supremum caput ipsius Majestatem recognoscimus To this they all consented and subscribed their Hands and afterwards incorporated it into the publik Act or Instrument which was presented to the King in the Name of his Clergy for the redeeming of their errour and the grant of their money which as it doth at large appear in the Records and Acts of the Convocation so it is touched upon in a Historical way in the Antiq. Britan. Mason de Minist Anglic. and other Authors by whom it also doth appear that what was thus concluded on by the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury was also ratified and confirmed by the Convocation of the Province of York according to the usual custom save that they did not buy their pardon at so dear a rate This was the leading Card to the Game that followed For on this ground were built the Statutes prohibiting all Appeals to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiastical suits and controversies within the Kingdoms 24 H. 8. c. 12. That for the manner of electing and consecrating of arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops 25 H. 8. c. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all Impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtaining all such dispensations from the See of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25 H. 8. c. 21. Which last is builkt expresly upon this foundation That the King is the only supream Head of the Church of England and was so recognized by the Prelates and Clergy representing the said Church in their Convocation And on the very same foundation was the Statute raised 26 H. 8. c. 1. wherein the King is declared to be the supream Head of the Church of England and to have all honour and preheminences which were annexed unto that Title as by the Act it self doth at full appear Which Act being made I speak it from the Act it self only for corroboration and confirmation of that which had been done in the Convocation did afterwards draw on the Statute for the Tenths and first fruits as the point incident to the Headship or supream Authority 26 H. 8. c. 3. The second step to the Ejection of the Pope was the submission of the Clergy to the said King Henry whom they had recognizanced for their supream Head And this was first concluded on in the Convocation before it was proposed or agitated in the Houses of Parliament and was commended only to the care of the
the curiosity of the Ministers and mistakes of the people rather than for any other weighty cause As the Statutes 5 and 6 Ed. 6. cap. 1. it was thought expedient by the King with the assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled that the said Order of Common Service should be faithfully and godly perused explained and made fully perfect Perused and explained by whom Why questionless by those who made it or else by those if they were not the same men who were appointed by the King to draw up and compose a Form of Ordination for the Use of the Church And this Assent of theirs for it was no more was the only part that was ever acted by the Parliament in matter of this present nature save that a Statute passed in the former Parliament 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. unto this effect that such form and manner of making and consecrating Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Deacons and other Ministers of the Church which before I spake of as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in Gods Laws by the King to be appointed and assigned shall be devised to that purpose and set forth under the great Seal shall be lawfully used and exercised and none other Where note that the King only was to nominate and appoint the men the Bishops and other learned men were to make the Book and that the Parliament in a blind obedience or at the least upon a charitable confidence in the integrity of the men so nominated did confirm that Book before any of their Members had ever seen it though afterwards indeed in the following Parliament this Book together with the Book of Common-prayer so Printed and explained obtained a more formal confirmation as to the use thereof throughout the Kingdom but in no other respect for which see the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c. 1. As for the time of Q. Elizabeth when the Common-prayer book now in use being the same almost with the last of King Edward was to be brought again into the Church from whence it was cast out in Queen Maries Reign it was committed to the care of some learned men that is to say to M. Whitehead once Chaplain to Q. Anne Bullen Dr. Parker after Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Grindal after Bishop of London Dr. Cox after Bishop of Ely Dr. Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr. May Dean of Saint Pauls Dr. Bill Provost of Eaton after Dean of Westminster and Sir Tho. Smith By whom being altered in some few passages which the Statute points to 1 Eliz. c. 21. it was presented to the Parliament and by the Parliament received and established without more ado or troubling any Committee of both or either Houses to consider of it for ought appears in their Records All that the Parliament did in it being to put it into the condition in which it stood before in Kings Edwards Reign partly by repealing the Repeal of King Edw. Statutes made in the first of Q. Mary c. 2. and partly by the adding of some farther penalties on such as did deprave the Book or neglect to use it or wilfully did absent themselves from their Parish-Churches And for the Alterations made in King James his time being small in the Rubrick only and for the additions of the Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany the Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue and the Doctrine of the Sacraments at the end of the Catechisme which were not in the Book before they were never referred unto the Parliament but were done only by Authority of the Kings Commission and stand in force by virtue only of His Proclamation which you may find before the Book the charge of buying the said Book so explained and altered being laid upon the several and respective Parishes by no other Authority than that of the eightieth Canon made in Convocation Anno 1603. The like may also be affirmed of the Forms of Prayer for the Inauguration-day of our Kings and Queens the Prayer-books for the fifth of November and the fifth of August and those which have been used in all publick Fasts All which without the help of Parliaments have been composed by the Bishops and imposed by the King Now unto this discourse of the Forms of Worship I shall subjoyn a word or two of the times of Worship that is to say the Holy-days observed in the Church of England and so observed that they do owe that observation chiefly to the Churches power For whereas it was found in the former times that the number of the Holy-days was grown so great that they became a burthen to the common people and a great hinderance to the thrift and manufactures of the Kingdom there was a Canon made in the Convocation An. 1536. For cutting off of many superstitious and superfluous Holy-days and the reducing them into the number in which they now stand save that St. George's day and Mary Magdalens day and all the Festivals of the blessed Virgin had their place amongst them according to which Canon there went out a Monitory from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to all the Suffragans of his Province respectively to see the same observed in their several Diocesses which is still extant on Record But being the Authority of the Church was then in the wane it was thought necessary to confirm their Acts and see execution done upon it by the Kings Injunction which did accordingly come forth with this Form or preamble That the abolishing of the said Holy-days was decreed ordained and established by the Kings Highness Authority as Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England with the common consent and assent of the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation lawfully Assembled and Congregate Of which see Fox his Acts and Monuments fol. 1246 1247. Afterwards in the year 1541. the King perceiving with what difficulty the people were induced to leave off those Holy-days to which they had been so long accustomed published his Proclamation of the twenty-third of July for the abolishing of such Holy-days amongst other things as were prohibited before by his Injunctions both built upon the same foundation namely the resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation And so it stood until the Reign of King E. 6. at which time the Reformation of the publick Liturgie drew after it by consequence an alteration in the present business no days being to be kept or accounted Holy but those for which the Church had set apart a peculiar office and not all those neither For whereas there are several and peculiar offices for the day of the Conversion of St. Paul and the day of St. Barnabas the Apostles neither of these are kept as Holy-days nor reckoned or esteemed as such in the Act of Parliament wherein the names and number of the Holy-days is precisely specified which makes some think the Act of Parliament to have had an over-ruling power on the Common-prayer-Book but it is not so
came out in some years succeeding for the taking away of Images and Reliques with all the Ornaments of the same and all the Monumens and writings of feigned Miracles and for restraint of offering or setting up Lights in any Churches but only to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar in which he was directed chiefly by Arch-Bishop Cranmer as also those for eating of white meats in the time of Lent the abolishing the Fast on St. Marks day and the ridiculous but superstitious sports accustomably used on the days of St. Clement St. Katherine and St. Nicholas All which and more was done in the said Kings Reign without help of Parliament For which I shall refer you to the Acts and Mon. fol. 1385 1425 1441. The like may also be affirmed of the Injunctions published in the name of K. E. 6. An. 1547. and printed also then for the Use of the Subjects And of the several Letters missive which went forth in his Name prohibiting the bearing of Candles on Candlemas-day of Ashes in Lent and of Palms on Palm-sunday for the taking down of all the Images throughout the Kingdom for administring the Communion in both kinds dated March 13 1548. for abrogating of private Masses June 24 1549. for bringing in all Missals Graduals Processionals Legends and Ordinals about the latter end of December of the same year for taking down of Altars and setting up Tables instead thereof An. 1550. and the like to these All which particulars you have in Foxes Book of Acts and Mon. in King Edwards life which whether they were done of the Kings meer motion or by advice of his Council or by consultation with his Bishops for there is little left upon Record of the Convocations of that time more than the Articles of the year 1552 certain I am that there was nothing done nor yet pretended to be done in all these particulars by the Authority of Parliament Thus also in Q. Elizabeths time before the new Bishops were well settled and the Queen assured of the affections of her Clergy she went that way to work in the Reformation which not only her two Predecessors but all the Godly Kings and Princes in the Jewish State and many of the Christian Emperours in the Primitive times had done before her in the well ordering of the Church and People committed to their care and government by Almighty God and to that end she published her Injunctions An. 1559. A Book of Orders An. 1561. Another of Advertisements An. 1562. All tending unto Reformation unto the building up of the new Jerusalem with the advice and counsel of the Metropolitan and some other Godly Prelates who were then a-about her by whom they were agreed on and subscribed unto before they were presented to her without the least concurrence of her Court of Parliament But when the times were better settled and the first difficulties of her Reign passed over she left Church-work to the disposing of Church-men who by their place and calling were most proper for it and they being met in Convocation and thereto Authorised as the Laws required did make and publish several Books of Canons as viz. 1571. An. 1584. An. 1597. Which being confirmed by the Queen under the broad Seal of England were in force of Laws to all intents and purposes which they were first made but being confirmed without those formal words Her Heirs and Successors are not binding now but expired together with the Queen No Act of Parliament required to confirm them then nor never required ever since on the like occasion A fuller evidence whereof we cannot have than in the Canons of year 1603. being the first year of King James made by the Clergy only in the Convocation and confirmed only by the King for though the old Canons were in force which had been made before the submission of the Clergy as before I shewed you which served in all these wavering and unsettled times for the perpetual standing rule of the Churches Government yet many new emergent cases did require new rules and whilst there is a possibility of Mali mores there will be a necessity of bonae Leges Now in the confirmation of these Canons we shall find it thus That the Clergy being met in their Convocation according to the Tenour and effect of his Majesties Writ his Majesty was pleased by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in causes Ecclesiastical to give and grant unto them by his Letters Patents dated April 12. and June 25. full free and lawful liberty licence power and authority to convene treat debate consider consult and agree upon such Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they should think necessary fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better government thereof from time to time c. to be kept by all persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being members of the Church it may concern them which being agreed on by the Clergy and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his Royal assent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25 of K. H. 8. and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for himself his Heirs and lawful Successors straightly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjects diligently to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they do or may concern all or any of them No running to the Parliament to confirm these Canons nor any question made till this present by temperate and knowing men that there wanted any Act for their confirmation which the law could give them 7. An Answer to the main Objections of either Party BUT against this all which hath been said before it will be objected That being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more Authority and Jurisdiction nisi à Parliamentis derivatum but that which is conferred upon them by the power of Parliaments as both Sanders and Schultingius do expresly say whatsoever they shall do or conclude upon either in Convocation or in more private conferences may be called Parliamentarian also And this last calumny they build on the several Statutes 24 H. 8. c. 12. touching the manner of Electing and Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops that of the 1 E. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what Seals they shall use these of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. 5. 6 E. 6. for Authorizing of the Book of Ordination But chiefly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in Consecrating any Arch Bishop or bishop within this Realm To give a general answer to each several cavil you may please to know that the Bishops as they now stand in the Church of England derive their Calling together with
of England And for a further proof hereof he that consults the Saxon Councils collected by that Learned and Industrious Gentleman Sir H. Spelman will find how little there was in them of a Papal influence from the first planting of the Gospel to the Norman Conquest If we look lower we shall find that the Popes Legat à Latere whensoever sent durst not set foot on English ground till he was licensed and indemnified by the Kings Authority but all Appeals in case of grievance were to be made by a Decree of Henry II. from the Arch-Deacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Metropolitan Et si Archiepiscopus defecerit in justitia exhibenda ad Dominum Regem deveniendum est postremo and last of all from the Metropolitan to the King himself no Appeal hence unto the Pope as in other places so that the Clergy of this Land had a Self-authority of treating and concluding in any business which concerned their own peace and happiness without resorting to the Pope for a confirmation Out of which Canons and Determinations made amongst our selves Lindwood composed his Provincial though framed according to the method of the Roman Decretal to be the standing body of our Canon-Law that on the other side neither the Canons of that Church or Decretals of the Popes were concluding here but either by a voluntary submission of some fawning and ambitious Prelates or as they were received Synodically by the English Clergy of which the constitutions made by Otho and Othobon Legats à latere from the Pope may be proof sufficient and finally that Anselm the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was welcomed by Pope Vrban II. to the Council of Bari in Apulia tanquam alterius orbis Papa as in William of Malmesbury tanquam Patriarcham Apostolicum as John Capgrave hat it as the Pope Patriarch and Apostolick Pastor of another World Divisos orbe Britannos as you know who said Which titles questionless the Pope would never have conferred upon him had he not been as absolute and supream in his own jurisdiction succeeding in the Patriarchal Rights of the British Diocess as the Pope was within the Churches subject unto his Authority And this perhaps might be the reason why Innocent II. bestowed on Theobald the third from Anselm and on his Successors in that See the Title of Legati nati that they might seem to act rather in the time to come as Servants and Ministers to the Pope than as the Primates and chief Pastors of the Church of England And by all this it may appear that the Popes Apostleship was never looked on here as a matter of so great concernment that the Church might not lawfully proceed to a Reformation without his allowance and consent Were that plea good the Germans might not lawfully have reformed themselves without the allowance of the English it being evident in story that not only Boniface Arch-Bishop of Mentz called generally the Apostle of Germany was an English man but that Willibald the first Bishop of Eystel Willibad the first Bishop of Bremen Willibrod the first Bishop of Vtretcht Swibert the first Bishop of Virdem and the first converters of those parts were of England also Men instigated to this great work all except the first not so much by the Popes zeal as their own great piety By this that hath been said it is clear enough that the Church of England at the time of the Reformation was not indeed a Member of the Church of Rome under the Pope as the chief Pastor and Supream Head of the Church of Christ but a Fellow-member with it of that Body Mystical whereof Christ only is the Head part of that Flock whereof he only is the Shepherd a sister Church to that of Rome though with relation to the time of her last conversion but a younger Sister And if a Fellow-member and a Sister-Church she might make use of that Authority which naturally and originally was vested in her to reform her self without the leave of the particular Church of Rome or any other whatsoever of the Sister-Churches The Church is likened to a City in the Book of God a City at Vnity in it self as the Psalmist calls it and as a City it consisteth of many houses and in each house a several and particular Family Suppose this City visited with some general sickness may not each Family take care to preserve it self advise with the Physitian and apply the Remedy without consulting with the rest Or if consulting with the rest must they needs ask leave also of the Mayor or principal Magistrate take counsel with no other Doctors and follow no other course of Physick than such as he commends unto them or imposeth on them Or must the lesser languish irremediably under the calamity because the greater and more potent Families do not like the cure Assuredly it was not so in the Primitive times when it was held a commendable and lawful thing for National and particular Churches to reform such errors and corruptions as they found amongst them nor in the Church of Judah neither when the Idolatries of their Neighbours had got ground upon them Though Israel transgress let not Judah sin saith the Prophet Hosea chap. 4. Yet Israel was the greater and more numerous people Ten Tribes to two two of the ten the Eldest Sons of their Father Jacob all of them older than Benjamin the last begotten being the second of the two which notwithstanding the Kings of Judah might and did proceed to a Reformation though those of Israel did refuse to co-operate with them The like was also done de facto and dejure too in the best and happiest times of Christianity there being many errors and unsound opinions condemned in the Councils of Gangra Aquilia Carthage Milevis and not a few corruptions in the practical part of Religion reformed in the Synods of Eliberis Laodicea Arles and others in the fourth Century of the Church without advising or consulting with the Roman Oracle or running to the Church of Rome for a confirmation of their Acts and doing though at that time invested with a greater and more powerful principality than the others were No such regard had in those times to the Church of Rome though the elder Sister but that another National Church might reform without her nor any such consideration had of the younger Sisters that one should tarry for another till they all agreed though possibly they might all be sensible of the inconvenience and all alike desirous of a speedy Remedy But of this more anon in Answer to the next Objections Proceed we now a little further and let us grant for once that the Church of England was a Member at that time of the Church of Rome acknowledging the Pope for the Head thereof Yet this could be no hindrance to a Reformation when the pretended Head would not yield unto it or that the Members could not meet to consult about it The whole Body of the Church was
others with the Bishops of so many distant Nations as were there assembled suffice to make a General Council the Council of Antioch might as well have the name of General as almost any of the rest which are so entituled But laying by these thoughts as too strong of the Paradox and looking on a General Council in the common notion for an Assembly of the Prelates of the East and West to which the four Patriarchs are invited and from which no Bishop is excluded that comes commissionated and instructed to attend the service I cannot think them of such consequence to the Church of God but that it may proceed without them to a Reformation For certainly that saying of S. Augustine in his 4th Book against the two Epistles of the Pelagians cap. 12. is exceeding true Paucas fuisse haereses ad quas superandas necessarium fuerit Concilium plenarium occidentis orientis that very few Heresies have been crushed in such General Councils And so far we may say with the Learned Cardinal that for seven Heresies suppressed in seven General Councils though by his leave the seventh did not so much suppress as advance an Heresie an hundred have been quashed in National and Provincial Synods whether confirmed or not confirmed by the Popes Authority we regard not here Some instances hereof in the Synods of Aquileia Carthage Gaugra Milevis we have seen before and might add many others now did we think it necessary The Church had been in ill condition if it had been otherwise especially under the power of Heathen Emperors when such a confluence of the Prelates from all parts of the world would have been construed a Conspiracy against the State and drawn destruction on the Church and the Persons both Or granting that they might assemble without any such danger yet being great bodies moving slowly and not without long time and many difficulties and disputes to be rightly constituted The Church would suffer more under such delay by the spreading of Heresie than receive benefit by their care to suppress the same Had the same course been taken at Alexandria for suppressing Arius as was before at Antioch for condemning Paulus we never had heard news of the Council of Nice the calling and assembling whereof took up so long time that Arianism was diffused over all the world before the Fathers met together and could not be suppressed though it were condemned in many Ages following after The plague of Heresie and leprosie of sin would quickly over-run the whole face of the Church if capable of no other cure than a General Council The case of Arius and the universal spreading of his Heresie compared with the quick rooting out of so many others makes this clear enough To go a little further yet we will suppose a General Council to be the best and safest Physick that the Church can take on all occasions of Epidemical distemper but then we must suppose it at such times and in such cases only when it may conveniently be had For where it is not to be had or not had conveniently it will either prove to be no Physick or not worth the taking But so it was that at the time of the Reformation a General Council could not conveniently be Assembled and more than so it was impossible that any such Council should Assemble I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted according to the Rules laid down by our Controversors For first they say it must be called by such as have power to do it 2. That it must be intimated to all Christian Churches that so no Church nor people may plead ignorance of it 3. The Pope and the four chief Patriarchs must be present at it either in person or by Proxie And lastly that no Bishop is to be excluded if he be known to be a Bishop and not excommunicated According to which Rules it was impossible I say that any General Council should be assembled at the time of the Reformation of the Church of England It was not then as when the greatest part of the Christian world was under the command of the Roman Emperors whose Edict for a General Council might speedily be posted over all the Provinces The Messengers who should now be sent on such an errand unto the Countreys of the Turk the Persian the Tartarian and the great Mogul in which are many Christian Churches and more perhaps than in all the rest of the world besides would find but sorry entertainment Nor was it then as when the four chief Patriarchs together with their Metropolitans and Suffragan Bishops were under the protection of the Christian Emperors and might without danger to themselves or unto their Churches obey the intimation and attend the service those Patriarchs with their Metropolitans and Suffragans both then and now languishing under the tyranny and power of the Turk to whom so general a confluence of Christian Bishops must needs give matter of suspicion of just fears and jealousies and therefore not to be permitted as far as he can possibly hinder it on good Reason of State For who knows better than themselves how long and dangerous a War was raised against their Predecessors by the Western Christians for recovery of the Holy Land on a resolution taken up at the Council of Clermont and that making War against the Turks is still esteemed a cause sufficient for a General Council And then besides it would be known by whom this General Council was to be assembled If by the Pope as generally the Papists say he and his Court were looked on as the greatest grievance of the Christian Church and 't was not probable that he would call a Council against himself unless he might have leave to pack it to govern it by his own Legats fill it with Titular Bishops of his own creating and send the Holy-Ghost to them in a Cloakbag as he did to Trent If joyntly by all Christian Princes which is the common Tenet of the Protestant Schools what hopes could any man conceive as the time then were that they should lay aside their particular interesses to center all together upon one design Or if they had agreed about it what power had they to call the Prelates of the East to attend the business or to protect them for so doing at their going home So that I look upon the hopes of a General Council I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted as an empty Dream The most that was to be expected was but a meeting of some Bishops of the West of Europe and those but of one party only such as were Excommunicated and that might be as many as the Pope should please being to be excluded by the Cardinals Rule Which how it may be called an Oecumenical or General Council unless it be a Topical-Oecumenical a Particular-general as great an absurdity in Grammar as a Roman Catholick I can hardly see Which being so and so no question but it was either
the third Council of Carthage I shall bethink my self of an Answer to it But sure I am that in the third Council of Carthage Caesario Attico Coss as it is said to be in all Collections of the Councils were made but 24 Canons as it is in balsamon but five and twenty as in zonaras whereof this is none And no less sure that it is told me by Baronius haud omnes in hac Synodo sanciri that all the Canons attributed to this Council were not made therein Baron Annal. Eccla An. 397. n. 46. nor is it to be found in the Collection of the Canons of the Councils of Carthage either of Zonaras or Balsamon or in the Codex Canonum published by Justellus and therefore in all probability made in none at all Next look we on the other parts of the publick Liturgies for other parts there were besides the ministration of the Sacraments and the daily Service and we shall find as undeniable Authorities for defence of those as any of the former before remembred Of these I shall insist upon no more at this present time than the Form of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons and that of solemnizing Matrimony to which we shall adjoyn their Form and Rites of Burial and so descend at last to a conclusion And first for that of Ordination whereas the ancient Form thereof had been interrupted and many of the Rulers of the Church had been too sensibly indulgent to their own affections in the dispensing of the same it pleased the Fathers in the fourth Council of Carthage not so much to ordain and constitute new Forms and Ordinances as revive the old A Council of that note and eminance that as the Acts thereof were approved and ratified by Pope Leo the great if that add any thing unto them Binius in titulo Concil To. 1. p. 587. edit Col. Id. Ibid. p. 591. so by the same the following Ages of the Church did use to regulate and dispose the publick Discipline Adeo ut hoc Concilium Ecclesiae disciplinae ad pristinam consuetudinem revocatae quasi promptuarium semper meritoque apud posteros habitum fuit as saith Binius truly Now amongst those they which first lead the way unto all the rest declare the Form and manner to be used in all Ordinations whether of Bishops Priests and Deacons or of inferiour Officers in the Church of Christ And first for Bishops especial care being taken for an inquisition into their Doctrine Life and Conversation Concil Carthag IV. can 1. it is decreed that when a Bishop is to be ordained two other Bishops are to hold the Book of the holy Gospel over his head and whilest one of them doth pronounce the blessing the rest there present lay their hands upon his head Episcopus cum ordinatur Ib. Can. 2. duo Episcopi panant teneant Evangeliorum codicem super caput cervicem or rather verticem ejus uno super eum fundente benedictionem reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant So the canon goeth And this is still observed in the Church of England save that the laying of the Book on the parties head is turned and as I think with more significancy into the putting of the same into his hand Then for the ordering of the Priest or Presbyter it is thus declared Presbyter cum ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente Ib. Can. 3. etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneant When a Presbyter is to be ordained the Bishop giving the benediction or saying the words of Consecration and holding his hand upon his head all other Presbyters then present are to lay their hands upon his head near the hand of the Bishop And this is also used and required in the Church of England save that more near unto the Rule and prescript of Antiquity three Presbyters at least are to be assistant in laying hands upon the party to be ordained And last of all for that of Deacons it was thus provided solus Episcopus qui eum benedicit manum super caput illius ponat Ibid. Can. 4. that the Bishop only who ordains should lay his hand upon his head The reason of the which is this quia non ad Sacerdotium sed ad ministerium consecratur because he is not consecrated to the Office of Priesthood but to an inferiour ministry in the house of God Nor is the Deacon otherwise ordained than thus in the Church of England Here are the Rites the visible and external signs but where I pray you are the Forms the prescribed words and prayers which are now in use I answer that they are included in those two phrases benedicere and fundere benedictionem to bless to give the benediction or pronounce the blessing For as a Writer of our own very well observes Benedicere hic nibil aliud est quam verba proferre Mason de Minist Angl. l. 2. cap. 17. per quae horum Ordinum potestas traditur To bless saith he or give the benediction is nothing more nor less than to say those words by which the power of Order is conferred on every or either of the parties which receive the same And that the Form of words then used was prescribed and set not left unto the liberty of every Prelate to use what Form of words he pleased so he kept the sense we saw before in that of Zonaras where he affirmed that the Canon formerly remembred about the using prescribed Forms in the Church of God did reach to Ordination also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Ordinations Zonaras in Concil Carth. Can. 117. saith the Scholiast the Bishop or Chief Priest laying his hands on him that came to be ordained was to recite the usual and accustomed Prayers Statas preces exequi solitus est as the Translator of the Scholiast And this may be observed withal that though this Council be of good antiquity as being held An. 398. yet almost all the Acts thereof and those especially amongst the rest were rather declaratory of the antient Customs of the Church of CHRIST Baron Annal. Eccl. An. 398. than introductory of new as both Baronius and Binius do affirm and justifie That which remains concerns the Form of Marriage and Rites of Burial to which a little shall be added of those pious Gestures used by them in the Act of publick Worship and that being done I shall conclude And first for Marriage there is no question to be made but that from the beginning of Christianity it hath been celebrated by the Priest or Minister with publick Prayers and Benedictions and most times with the celebration of the blessed Eucharist whereof thus Tertullian Vnde sufficiam ad felicitatem ejus matrimonii enarrandam Tertullian ad uxorem l. 2. quod Ecclesia conciliat confirmat
these two arguments First that he blessed Abraham And secondly that he Tithed him or received Tithes of him For though in our English translation it be only said that he received Tithes of Abraham which might imply that Abraham gave them as a gift or a Free-will-offering and that Melchisedech received them in no other sense Yet in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in plain English is that he Tithed Abraham and took them of him as his due Heb. 7.6 If then our Saviour be a Priest after the order of Melchisedech as no doubt he is he must have power to Tithe the people as well as to Bless them or else he comes not home to the Type or figure Which power of Tithing of the people or receiving Tithes of them since he exerciseth not in person it seems to me to follow upon very good consequence that he hath devolved this part of his power on those whom he hath called and authorised for to bless the people Certain I am the Fathers of the Primitive times though they enjoyed not Tithes in specie by reason that the Church was then unsetled and as it were in motion to the land of rest in which condition those of Israel paid no Tithes to Levi yet they still kept their claim unto them as appears clearly out of Origen and some other Ancients And of this truth I think no question need be made amongst knowing men The only question will be this Whether the maintenance which they had till the Tithes were paid were not as chargeable to the people as the Tithes now are supposing that the Tithes were the Subjects own For my part I conceive it was the people of those pious times not thinking any thing too much to bestow on God for the incouragement of his Ministers and the reward of his Prophets They had not else sold off their Lands and Houses and brought the prices of the things which were sold and laid them at the Apostles feet as we know they did Acts 4.34 35. but that they meant that the Apostles should supply their own wants out of those oblations as well as the necessities of their poorer Brethren I trow the selling of all and trusting it to the dispensing of their Teachers was matter of more charge to such as had Lands and Houses than paying the tenth part of their House-rent or the Tithe of their Lands And when this custom was laid by as possibly it might end with the Apostles themselves the Offerings which succeeded in the place thereof and are required or injoyned by the Apostolical Canons were so great and manifold that there was nothing necessary to the life of man as Honey Milk Fowl Flesh Grapes Corn Oyl Frankincense Fruits of the season yea Strong drink and Sweet-meats which was not liberally offered on the Altars or Oblation-Tables Insomuch as the Author of the Book called the Holy Table name and thing c. according to his scornful manner saith of them that they were rather Pantaries Larders or Store-houses than so many Consecrated Altars And though he make those Canons but as so many Pot-guns yet as great Criticks as himself esteem otherwise of them as his Antagonist in that quarrel proves sufficiently And as for that particular Canon which requires these Offerings it is but an exemplification or particularizing of that which is more generally prescribed by S. Paul Gal. 6.6 where he enjoyneth him that is taught to communicate to him that teacheth him in omnibus bonis in all his goods as the Rhemists read it very rightly and not in all good things as our late translation Now this Injunction reacheth to all sorts of people to the poor as well as to the rich as it appears plainly by a passage in S. Cyprians works where he upbraids a wealthy Widow for coming empty-handed and without her Offering to the Altar of God and eating of that part of the Sacrifice which the poor had offered Locuples dives in dominicum sine sacrificio venis partem sacrificii quod pauper obtulit sumis Cyp. de piet Eleemos To the improvement of the maintenance of him that teacheth not only the rich men were to offer out of their abundance but the poor Woman also was to bring her Mite They had not else come home to S. Pauls commandment which reacheth unto all sorts of people without any exception to every one according to that measure of fortune which God hath given him Which clearly sheweth that though the payment of Tithes fall heavier upon Landed men than possibly it might do in the Primitive times before the Church was in a condition to demand her rights yet speaking generally of the people of a Church or Parish the charge was greater to them then than it hath been since the greatest numbers of the people being freed from Tithes because they have no Lands from whence Tithes are payable who could not be discharged from the communication of their goods and substance without a manifest neglect of S. Pauls Injunction More than this yet besides what was communicated in a private way for the encouragement and support of him that taught which we may well conceive to be no small matter The publick Offerings of the people were of so great confequence as did not only serve to maintain the Bishop according to his place and calling and to provide also for the Priests or Ministers which served under him but also to relieve the Poor and repair their Churches Beda in histor Eccles l. 1. And therefore certainly the faithful of those times were generally at more charge to maintain their Ministry than the Subject is with us in England the greatest part of which by far pay no Tithes at all to the Parish-Minister and no man any thing at all towards the maintenance of the Bishop as in former days Follow we our design through several Countries and we shall find the Clergy of most parts in Christendom either more plentifully endowed or else maintained with greater charge unto the Subject than the Clergy of the Church of England In France the Author of the Cabinet computes the Tithes and temporal Revenues of the Clergy besides provisions of all sorts to 80 millions of Crowns but his accompt is disallowed by all knowing men Bodin reporteth from the mouth of Monsieur d'Alemant one of the Presidents of Accompts in Paris that they amount to 12 millions and 300000 of their Livres which is 1230000 l. of our English money and he himself conceives that they possess seven parts of twelve of the whole Revenues of that Kingdom The book inscribed Comment d'Estat gives a lower estimate and reckoning that there are in France 200 millions of Arpens which is a measure somewhat bigger than our Acre assigneth 47 millions which is neer a fourth part of the whole to the Gallican Clergy But which of these soever it be we think fit to stand to it is resolved by them all that
their hands for none but they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present business the whole election of these Presbyters must be given to them But indeed it was neither so nor so Neither the Apostle nor the People had any hand in the elections of those times but the Spirit of God which evidently did design and mark out those men whom God intended to imploy in his holy Ministery The words of Paul to Timothy make this clear enough where it is said Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophesie 1 Tim. 4.14 1 Tim. 1.18 c. and that there went some Prophesies before concerning Timothy the same Saint Paul hath told us in the first Chapter of that first Epistle Hom. 5. in 1. ad Tim. c. 1. Chrysostom notes upon these words that in those times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priests and Ministers of God were made by Prophesie that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Holy Ghost And this he proves by the selection of Paul and Barnabas to the work of God which was done by Prophesie and by the Spirit And finally glossing on those words Noli negligere gratiam c. he doth thus express it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God saith he did elect thee to this weighty charge he hath committed no small part of his Church unto thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no mortal man had any hand in that designation and therefore take thou beed that thou disgrace not nor dishonour so Divine a calling More might be said both from Theodoret and Oecumenius to confirm this Truth Theodor. Oecum in locum but that I think it is sufficiently confirmed already So then the Presbyters of these times being of Gods special choice his own designation and those upon the laying on of such holy hands furnished by the Spirit with such gifts and graces as might enable them sufficiently to discharge their calling The marvel is the less if in those early days at the first dawning as it were of Christianity we find so little speech of Bishops In the ordaining of these Presbyters as also of the like in other places the Apostles might and did no question communicate unto them such and so much Authority as might invest them with a power of government during the times of their own necessary absence from those several Churches So that however they were Presbyters in degree and order yet they both were and might be trusted with an Episcopal jurisdiction in their several Cities even as some Deans although but simply Presbyters are with us in England And of this rank I take it were the Presbyters in the Church of Ephesus Act. 20.28 whom the Apostle calleth by the name of Bishops that is to say Presbyters by their Order and Degree but Bishops in regard of their jurisdiction Such also those ordained by Saint Paul in the Church of Philippos Phil. 1.1 whom the Apostle mentioneth in the very entrance of his Epistle to that people Which as it may be some occasion why Bishops properly so called were not ordained by the Apostles in the first planting of some Churches so there are other reasons alledged for it and are briefly these For first although the Presbyters in those times were by the Holy Ghost endued with many excellent gifts and graces requisite to the Preaching of the Word yet the Apostles might not think fit to trust them with the chief government till they had fully seen and perfectly made tryal of their abilities and parts that way Epiphan adv haeres 75. n. 5. And this is that which Epiphanius meaneth in his dispute against Aerius saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that where there were no fit men to discharge that Office the place remained without a Bishop but where necessity required and that there wanted not fit men to supply the place there Bishops forthwith were appointed But that which I conceive to be the principal reason was this that the Apostle did reserve unto himself the chief Authority in all the Churches of his planting so long as he continued in or about those places And this he exercised either by personal Visitations mention whereof is made in the 14.21 and 15.36 of the Book of Acts or else by his rescripts and mandates as in his sentencing of the incestuous Corinthian although absent thence But when he was resolved to take a journey to Hierusalem Act. 19.21 and from thence to Rome not knowing when he should return to those Eastern parts and knowing well that multitude of governours do oft breed confusions and that equality of Ministers did oft end in factions he then resolved to give them Bishops to place a Chief in and above each several Presbytery over every City committing unto them that power aswell of Ordinations as inflicting censures which he had formerly reserved to himself alone This great Apostle as for some space of time he taught the Church without help of Presbyters so for another while he did rule the same without help of Bishops A time there was wherein there were no Bishops but the Apostles only to direct the Church and so there was a time wherein there were no Presbyters but they to instruct the same However it must be confessed that there was a time in which some Churches had no Bishops And this Hieron in Tit. c. 1. if any was the time that Saint Hierom speaks of Cum communi Presbyterorum consilio ecclesiae gubernabantur when as the Churches were governed by the common counsel of the Presbyters But sure it was so short a time that had not the good Father taken a distaste against Episcopacy by reason of some differences which he had with John the Bishop of Hierusalem he could not easily have observed it For whether Bishops were ordained Id. ad Evagrium In Schismatis remedium as he saith elsewhere for the preventing of those Schisms and factions which were then risen in the Church or that they were appointed by the Apostles to supply their absence when they withdrew themselves unto further Countreys This government of the Church in common by the Presbyters will prove of very short continuance For from the first planting of the Church in Corinth Baronius so computes it Annal. Hieron in Titâ—m c. 1. which was in Anno 53. unto the writing of his first Epistle to that Church and people in which he doth complain of the Schisms amongst them was but four whole years And yet it doth appear by that place in Hierom for ought can see that the divisions of the people in Religion some saying I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas every one cleaving unto him by whom he had received Baptism were the occasion that it was decreed throughout the world as that Father saith Vt unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris that one of the Presbyters should be set over the rest to whom
in person or sent from place to place on his occasions and dispatches as may appear by looking on the concordances of holy Scripture Now that Titus was ordained the first Bishop of Crete hath been affirmed by several Authors of good both credit and antiquity For first Eccles hist l. 3. c. 4. Eusebius making a Catalogue of Saint Pauls assistants or fellow-labourers and reckoning Timothy amongst them whom he recordeth for the first Bishop of the Church of Ephesus adds presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so was Titus also the first Bishop of Crete Ambr. praef in ep ad Titum Saint Ambrose in the Preface to his Commentaries on the Epistle unto Titus doth affirm as much Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum the Apostle consecrated Titus a Bishop and therefore doth admonish him to be solicitous for the well ordering of the Church committed to him Saint Hierom writing on these words in that Epistle Hieron in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete c. doth apply them thus Audiant Episcopi qui habent constituendi Presbyteres per singulas urbes potestatem Let Bishops mark this well who have authority to ordain Presbyters in every City on what conditions to what persons for that I take to be his meaning Ecclesiastical orders are to be conferred Which is a strong insinuation that Titus having that authority must be needs a Bishop More evidently in his Catalogue of Writers or in Sophronius at the least Id. de Scrip. Eccles in Tit. if those few names were by him added to that Catalogue Titus Episcopus Cretae Titus the Bishop of Crete did preach the Gospel both in that and the adjacent Islands Apud Oecumen Praef. ad Tim. Theodoret proposing first this question why Paul should rather write to Timothy and Titus than to Luke and Silas returns this answer to the same that Luke and Silas were still with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but those had entrusted with the government of Churches But more particularly Titus a famous Disciple of Saint Paul Ap. eund in Praef. ad Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was by him ordained Bishop of Crete being a place of great extent with a Commission also to ordain Bishops under him Theoph. in praef ad Tit. Oecum in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. Theophylact in his preface unto this Epistle doth affirm the same using almost his very words And Oecumenius on the Text doth declare as much saying that Paul gave Titus authority of ordaining Bishops Crete being of too large a quantity to be committed unto one alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having first consecrate or made him Bishop Finally the subscription of this Epistle calls Titus the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians which evidence though questioned now of late is of good Authority For some of late who are not willing that Antiquity should afford such grounds for Titus being Bishop of the Church of Crete have amongst other arguments devised against it found an irreparable flaw as they conceive in this Subscription Beza Annot at in Ep. ad Tit. in fine who herein led the way disproves the whole Subscription as supposititious because it is there said that it was written from Nieopolis of Macedonia A thing saith he which cannot be for the Apostle doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will winter here but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illic I will winter there and therefore he was somewhere else when he wrote this Epistle But Athanasius who lived neerer the Apostles times In Synopsi sacr script Ad Paulum Eustochium Comment in Ep. ad Tit. affirms it to be written from Nicopolis and so doth Hierome in his Preface unto that Epistle The Syriack translation dates it also thence as is confessed by them that adhere to Beza Theophylact and Oecumenius agree herein with Athanasius and the ancient Copies As for the criticism it is neither here nor there for Saint Paul being still in motion might appoint Titus to repair unto Nicopolis letting him understand that howsoever he disposed of himself in the mean time yet he intended there to Winter and so he might well say though he was at Nicopolis when he writ the same That Titus is there called the first Bishop of Crete Smectym p. 54. or of the Church of the Cretians is another hint that some have taken to vilifie the credit of the said Subscription asking if ever there were such a second Bishop Assuredly the Realm of England is as fair and large a circuit as the Isle of Crete And yet I do not find it used as argument that Austin the Monk had neither any hand in the converting of the English or was not the first Archbishop of the See of Canterbury Beda hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. because it is affirmed in Beda's History Archiepiscopus genti Anglorum ordinatus est that he was ordained the Archbishop of the English Nation Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for an answer to the question we need but look into Eusebius where we shall find Pinytus a right godly man called in plain terms Bishop of Crete Cretae Episcopus saith the Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Original the self-same stile which is excepted at in Titus Now whereas it is said that Titus was left no otherwise in Crete than as Pauls Vicar General Commissary or Substitute to order those things in such sort as he had appointed which he could not dispatch himself when he was there present this can by no means be admitted the Rules prescribed unto him and Timothy being for the most part of that nature as do agree with the condition of perpetual Governours and not of temporary and removable Substitutes As for the anticipation of the time which I see some use relating that Saint Paul with Titus having passed through Syria and Cilicia to confirm the Churches did from Cilicia pass over into Crete where the Apostle having preached the Gospel left Titus for a while to set things in Order although I cannot easily tell on what Authority the report is built yet I can easily discern that it can hardly stand with Scripture We read indeed in the 15. Chapter of the Acts that he went thorow Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches ver ult and in the first words of the following Chapter Acts 14.6 Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find him at Derbe and Lystra Cities of Lycaonia the very next Province to Cilicia Northward from which it is divided by a branch of the Mountain Taurus Now whether of the two it be more probable that Paul should pass immediately from Cilicia unto Lycaonia upon the usual common Road or fetch a voyage into Crete Smectymn p. 50. as these men suppose and be transported back again into Lycaonia being an in-land Countrey far from any Sea which could not be without
with them in these sacred Actions are by him said Id. ibid. paulo post to break the concord of the Church and destroy her Order and consequently are worthy of a greater punishment than he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth rebel against his King Never did Advocate for his see plead a cause more throughly So throughly that I dare take up the Conclusion of that blessed Martyr Id. ad Tarsens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Soul for theirs who carefully observe this Order and keep themselves unto the Rules which are here prescribed Now that which by Ignatius is laid down before us as to the ministration of the Sacrament by the Bishop in way of observation or direction the same we find in Justin Martyr who lived about the middle of this second Century exemplified and represented in the way of Practice For shewing how a Convert was to be admitted in the Congregation and that he was received with Common Prayers both for himself Justin Mart. in Apolog. 2. and for the holy Catholick Church he doth thus proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers being done we salute one another with an holy kiss Then do we offer Bread and Wine mixt with Water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the President or Ruler of the brethren which he receiving presenteth to the Father of all by the name of the Son and holy Ghost the sacrifice of praise and glory rendring immortal thanks unto him in that he hath vouchsafed those his gifts unto us who having offered this oblation of Prayer and Thanksgiving the Congregation present say Amen The President or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having done his part in celebrating of the Eucharist and the People crowning his performance with their best Devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who by us are called Ministers or Deacons for both these words the Latin useth distribute unto every one there present a portion of the blessed bread and wine mixt with water that he may communicate thereof and also carry part thereof unto such as are absent Which aliment being thus consecrated and received we call the Eucharist and is delivered unto none but such as do believe our doctrine and have been washed in the laver of Regeneration And not long after making a description of their Assemblies on the Sunday he first relates that the Commentaries of the Apostles and writings of the Prophets as much as the time will suffer are read before them Then addeth that the Reader having done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the President or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes a Sermon wherein he doth instruct the People in the performance of those excellent things which are contained in the same Which done we all arise and make our Prayers unto the Lord and then the Bread and Wine and Water as before is offered the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proceeding to the Eucharist according to the manner formerly described Here then we have the celebration of the Eucharist and the Preaching of Gods holy Word performed ordinarily by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or President of the Congregation but what this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be is the point in question For resolution of which doubt it is clear and evident that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anciently was meant the Bishop as may appear by that of Eusebius calling Publius Bishop of Athens by this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he stiles him there Euseb hist Ec. l. 4. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so in other places and in other Writers Nor do I find that it was any way applyed to inferiour Presbyters till after the division of the Church into several Parishes not in some Cities only but in all parts else after which times the Presbyters or Ministers of Parochial Churches having cure of Souls by and from the Bishop and having got the name of Rectors came to be called in some Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also as we shall see hereafter in its proper place But what need any of the Ancients come in for evidence when as the matter is confessed by those who were the greatest adversaries of Episcopacy For Beza making Timothy whom we have proved sufficiently to have been a Bishop to be the President or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Ephesine Presbytery and such a President or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Justinus vocat Beza Annot. in Tim. 5.19 as Justin Martyr speaks of in the present place it must needs be that Justin Martyrs President or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a Bishop also as Timothy is proved to be Which if it be not clear enough we have a second that speaks plainer and he the greatest Champion of the adverse Party which had the honour to be bred in the Church of England Cartwright I mean Cited by Bish Downham in his defence l. 4. c. 1. sect 17. who tells us with great grief no question that even in Justins time there began to peep out something which went from the simplicity of the Gospel as that the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was common to the Elders with the Ministers of the Word was it seemeth appropriated unto one So that by the confession of the Adversaries to Episcopal Government we have gained thus much that the administration of the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist did properly and in chief belong unto the Bishop as was affirmed by Ignatius and proved in point of practice out of Justin Martyr And so much for the first half of the second Century what is presented to us in the other half we are next to see CHAP. II. The setling of Episcopacy together with the Gospel in the Isle of Britain by Pope Eleutherius 1. What Bishops Egesippus met with in his Peregrination and what he testifieth of them 2. Of Dionysius Bishop of Corinth and of the Bishops by him mentioned 3. How Bishops came to be ordained where none were left by the Apostles 4. The setling of the Gospel in the Isle of Britain by Pope Eleutherius 5. Of the Condition of the Church of Britain from the first preaching of the Gospel there till the time of Lucius 6. That Lucius was a King in those parts of Britain which we now call England 7. Of the Episcopal Sees here founded by King Lucius at that time 8. Touching the Flamines and Arch-flamines which those stories speak of 9. What is most like to be the reason of the number of the Archbishopricks and Bishopricks here of old established 10. Of the Successors which the Bishops of this Ordination are found to have on true Record 11. Which of the British Metropolitans was anciently the Primate of that Nation AMongst those several Writers of the Primitive times out of whose works Eusebius collected his materials for the composing of the Ecclesiastical History which we still enjoy one of the antientest was Egesippus one that took great pains in the self-same kind Euseb Hist
The like he also proves by the electing of Matthias Bishop in the place of Judas which was performed in medio Discentium in the middest of the Disciples and in the chusing of the seven done in the face of all the People This is the sum of what is there delivered by St. Cyprian and out of this I find three Corollaries or Conclusions gathered Smectymn p. 34. First that the special Power of judging of the worthiness and unworthiness of a man for the Prelacy was in the brest of the People Secondly The special Power of chusing or rejecting to his place according as they judged him worthy or unworthy resided in the People Thirdly That this power did descend upon the People de Divina Autoritate by Divine authority These are the points collected from St. Cyprians words which with the words themselves out of the which they are collected are to be taken into consideration because the weight of all this business doth rest upon them And first as for St. Cyprians words there is no such command of God touching Eleazar Pamel Annot. in Cypr. fol. 68. in any Bibles now remaining as is there laid down which thing Pamelius well observed And more than so the Text of Scripture now remaining is contrary to that which is there alledged God willing or commanding Moses to bring Aaron and Eleazar his son up into Mount Hor whither the people neither did nor might ascend Government of the Church c. 15. Numb 20.27 c. as it is well observed by our learned Bilson So that Eleazar not being chosen by the People but by God immediatly and his Ordination solemnized on the top of the Mount Moses and Aaron being only at the doing of it this can be no good Argument that the Election of the Prelate doth specially pertain unto the People And therefore it is very probable that Cyprian met with some corrupted Copy of the Book of God or else that we have none but corrupted Copies of the books of Cyprian As for the Election of Matthias Acts 1.15 though it was done in medio Discentium in the presence of the Disciples as the Scripture tells us yet surely the Disciples had no hand in the Hection the calling of an Apostle being too high a work for any of the sons of men to aspire unto ibid. ver 24. peculiar only to the Lord our God to whom the choice is also attributed in holy Scripture As for the Seven being they were to be the Stewards of the People in the disposing of their goods for the common benefit of the Church as before was noted good reason that the Election should be made by them whose goods and fortunes were to be disposed of So that there is no Law of God no Divine Ordinance of his expressed in Scripture by which the People are entituled either unto a special power of chusing their Bishops or to a necessary presence of the action though there be many good and weighty reasons which might induce the Fathers in the Primitive times not only to require their presence but sometimes also to crave their approbation and consent in the Elections of the Prelate Now for the presence of the People that seemeth to be required on this reason chiefly that their testimony should be had touching the life and behaviour of the party that was to be Ordained lest a wicked and unworthy person should get by stealth into the function of a Bishop it being required of a Bishop by St. Paul amongst other things that he must have a good report And who more able to make this report than the People are 1 Tim. 3. quae plebs viz. singulorum vitam plenissime novit who being naturally inquisitive Cypr. Epi. 68. know each mans life and hath had experience of his Conversation And as for their consent there wanted not some reasons why it was required especially before the Church was setled in a constant maintenance and under the protection and defence of a Christian Magistrate For certainly as our Reverend Bilson well observeth Bilson's perpetual Government c. 15. the People did more willingly maintain more quietly receive more diligently hear and more heartily love their Bishops when their desires were satisfied in the choice though merely formal of the man than when he was imposed upon them or that their fancies and affections had been crossed therein But yet I cannot find upon good authority that the special power of chusing or rejecting did reside in them though indeed somewhat did depend upon their approbation of the party and this no otherwise than according to the custom of particular Churches In Africk as it seems the use was this that on the death or deposition of a Bishop Cypr. Ep. 68. Episcopi ejusdem Provinciae quique proximi conveniant the neighbouring Bishops of the Province did meet together and repair unto that People who were to be provided of a Pastor that so he might be chosen praesente Plebe the People being present at the doing of it and certifying what they knew of his Conversation And this appears to be the general usage per Provincias fere universas through almost all parts of Christendom Where plainly the Election of the new Prelate resided in the Bishops of the same Province so convened together and if upon examination of his life and actions there was no just exception laid against him manus ei imponebatur he was forthwith ordained Bishop and put into possession of his place and Office But it was otherwise for a long while together in the great Patriarchal Church of Alexandria in which the Presbyters had the Election of their Bishop Presbyteri unum ex se Electum as St. Hierom noteth Hieron ad Euagrium the Presbyters of that Church did chuse their Bishop from amongst themselves no care being had for ought appeareth in the Father either unto the Peoples consent or presence And this continued till the time of Heraclas and Dionysius as he there informeth us of whom we shall speak more hereafter But whatsoever interest either the Clergy in the one Church or the People challenged in the other there is remaining still a possession of it in the Church of England the Chapter of the Cathedral or mother-Mother-Church making the Election in the name of the Clergy the King as Caput Reipublicae the head and heart also of his people designing or commending a man unto them and freedom left unto the People to be present if they will at his Election and to except against the man as also at his Confirmation if there be any legal and just exception to be laid against him Next for the Ordination of the Presbyters it was St. Cyprians usual custom to take the approbation of the People along with him as he himself doth inform us in an Epistle of his to his charge at Carthage inscribed unto the Presbyters and Deacons and the whole body of the people In ordinandis clericis
fratres charissimi Cypr. Ep. 33. vii l. 2. Ep. 5. solemus vos ante consulere mores merita singulorum communi consilio ponderare which is full and large Whatever he saith elsewhere to the same effect is in effect no more than what here is said and therefore we shall save the labour of a further search Nor was this Cyprians custom only It had prevailed as it seems in most parts of Christendom and was so universally received that even the Roman Emperours took notice of it For Alexander Severus one of the hopefullest young Princes in the declining times of the Roman Empire noting this custom of the Christians Lamprid. in vita Alex. Siveri was wont when he promoted any unto the Government of Provinces to post up as it were the names of the persons inviting the People to come in against them if they could charge them on just proof with any crimes And used to say it were a shame not to observe that care in chusing of the Rulers of Provinces to whom mens lives and fortunes were to be committed cum id Christiani Judaei facerent in praedicandis sacerdotibus qui sunt ordinandi when as the Jews and Christians did it in publishing the merit of those Priests which were to be ordained by them Which kind of publication of the life and merits of the party that was to be Ordained may possibly relate as well unto the popular manner of Electing Bishops at that time in use But as there is no general observation but doth and must give way unto particular occasions so neither was this Rule so generally observed but that sometimes it was neglected Even Cyprian himself how much soever it concerned him to continue in the Peoples favour would many times make use of his own authority in chusing and ordaining men to Functions and Employments in the Church without consulting with the People or making them acquainted with his mind therein Cypr. Ep. 33. For minding to advance Aurelius unto the Office of a Reader an Office but no Order in the Church of God he tarried not the Peoples liking and consent but did it first and after gave them notice of it not doubting of their taking it in good part quod vos scio libenter amplecti and so commends him to their Prayers Id. Epi. 34. The like we find of Celerinus a man highly prized admitted first into the Clergy by him and his Colleagues then present with him in his exile and then acquainteth the People that he had so done non humana suffragatione sed divina dignatione not being guided in it by any humane suffrage but by Gods appointment And although Celerinus and Aurelius being known unto the People by their former merits the matter might be taken with the less resentment yet this no way can be affirmed of Numidicus who being before a Presbyter in some other Church Baron in Annal Anno 253. n. 94. Cypr. Ep. 35. as Baronius very well observeth and in all likelihood utterly unknown de facie to those of Carthage was by Saint Cyprian of his sole authority without consulting either with Presbyters or People for ought which doth appear taken into the number of the Presbyters of that Church ut nobiscum sedeat in Clero and so to have a place together with the Bishop himself amongst the Clergy of the same and that we do not find as yet in Saint Cyprians Writings that the People had any special power either in the Election or Ordination of their Presbyters more than to give testimony of their well deservings or to object against them if they were delinquent And more than that is still remaining to them in the Church of England in which the People are required at all Ordinations Book of Ordination that if they know any notable crime in any of them which are to be Ordained for which he ought not to be received into the Ministery to declare the same and on the declaration of the same the Bishop must desist from proceeding further This is as much as was permitted to them in the Primitive times for ought I perceive and yet the Church of England gives them more than this the Presbyter who is to serve the Cure in particular Churches being elected by the Patrons of them for and in the name of the rest of the People As for the power of Excommunication I do not find but that St. Cyprian reckoned of it as his own prerogative a point peculiar to the Bishop in which he neither did advise either with the Presbyters or People When as the wickedness of Felicissimus the leader of the Faction raised against him was grown unto the height the Father of his own authority denounced him Excommunicant abstentum se à nobis sciat Cypr. Ep. 38. vel l. 5. Ep. 1. as the phrase then was as he did also on Augendus and divers others of that desperate party committing the execution of his sentence to Herculanus and Caldonius two of his Suffragan Bishops and to Rogatianus and Numidicus two of the Presbyters of his charge whom as for other matters so for that he had made his Substitutes or Commissaries if you will Cum ego vos pro me Vicarios miserim as the words are And they accordingly being thus authorized proceed in execution of the same and that in a formality of words which being they present unto us the ancient form of the Letters of Excommunication used of old Apud Cypr. Epist 39. I will here lay down Abstinuimus communicatione Felicissimum Augendum item Repostum de extorribus Irenem Rutilorum Paulam Sarcinatricem quod ex annotatione mea scire debuistis In which we may observe that this Excommunication was so published that all the residue of the Clergy to whom the publication of it was committed might take notice of it quod ex Annotatione mea or nostra rather as Pamelius very probably conjectureth scire debuistis So that the process of the whole is this that those Incendiaries were denounced excommunicate by St. Cyprian himself the execution of it left to those above remembred whom he had authorized in that behalf and they accordingly proceeding made certificate of it unto the Clergy of Carthage that publication might be made thereof unto the People Which differs very little in effect from what is now in use amongst us Nor did St. Cyprian do thus only of himself de facto but he adviseth Rogatianus one of his neighbouring Bishops to exercise the like authority as properly belonging to his place de jure Rogatianus had complained as it seems Cyp. Ep. 65. of some indignities and affronts which had been offered to him by his Deacon which his respect in making his complaint unto him as Cyprian took exceeding kindly so he informeth him withal that he had the Law in his own hands and that pro Episcopatus vigore Cathedrae authoritate haberet potestatem qua
the honour of giving Confirmation hath always been reserved to this very day Another thing which followed upon this setting forth of Parishes by Dionysius was the institution of a new Order in the Church betwixt the Bishop and the Presbyter being neither of the two but both Those they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rural Bishops Of which being that there were two sorts according to the times and Ages when they were imployed we must distinguish them accordingly Now of these Chorepiscopi or Countrey Bishops some in the point and power of Order were no more than Presbyters having received no higher Ordination than to that function in the Ministery but were inabled by the Bishop under whom they served to exercise some parts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction as much as was thought fit to commit unto them for the better reiglement of the Church And these I take it were more ancient than the present times appointed as the Bishops Visitors to go abroad into the Countrey to parts more remote to oversee such Presbyters as had been sent forth for the instruction of the people in small Towns and Villages and to perform such further Offices which the ordinary Presbyter for want of the like latitude of Jurisdiction was defective in Con. Neo-Caesaviens Can. 13. These I conceive to be of the same nature with our Rural Deans in some parts of England And these are they which in the Council of Neo-Caesarea are said to be ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of the Seventy and if no more than so then but simply Presbyters in the power of Order though ranked above them in regard of their Jurisdiction To which Pope Damasus agreeth also affirming quod ipsi iidem sunt qui Presbyteri Damas Ep. 5. ap Bin. Concil T. 1. Bellarm. de Clericis l. 1. c. 17. that they are the very same with Presbyters being first ordained ad exemplum Septuaginta after the example of the Seventy Others there were whom we find furnished with a further power qui verè Episcopalem consecrationem acceperant which really and truly had received Episcopal Consecration and yet were called Chorepiscopi because they had no Church nor Diocess of their own sed in aliena Ecclesia ministrabant but executed their authority in anothers charge And these saith Bellarmine are such as we now call Titular or Suffragan Bishops such as those heretofore admitted in the Church of England whereof consult the Act of Parliament 26 H. 8. cap. 14. Now that they had Episcopal consecration appeareth evidently by the Council of Antioch where it is said expresly of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had received the Ordination of Bishops Conc. Anti. cap. 10. and so by vertue of their Ordination might execute all manner of Episcopal Acts which the Bishop of the City might perform And to this Power they were admitted on two special reasons whereof the first was to supply the absence of the Bishop who being intent upon the business of the City where his charge was greatest could not so well attend the business of the Countrey or see how well the Presbyters behaved themselves in their several Parishes to which upon the late division they were sent abroad And this is called in the said Council of Antioch Id. Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the looking to the Administration of the Churches under their authority The other was to content such of the Novatian Bishops who rather would continue in their schism and faction than return unto the Catholick Church with the loss of the honour and calling which they had before whom they thought fit if they were willing to return to the Church again to suffer in the state of a Chorepiscopus And this is that which was so prudently resolved on in the Council of Nice in which fifteen of those which assembled there were of this Order or Estate viz. Conc. Nicen. can 8. That if any of them did return to the Catholick Church either in City or Village wherein there was a Bishop or a Presbyter before provided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should enjoy the place and honour of a Presbyter but if that pleased him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should be fitted with the Office of a Chorepiscopus Which being the true condition of those Chorepiscopi it seems to me a plain and evident mistake that the Chorepiscopus who was but a Presbyter Smectymn pag. 36. should be affirmed to have power to impose hands and to ordain within his Precincts with the Bishops licence For certainly it is apparent by the Council of Antioch that the Chorepiscopi which had power of conferring Orders had to that end received Episcopal consecration and consequently could not but be more than Presbyters though at the first indeed they medled not therewith without the leave and licence of the Bishop whose Suffragans and Substitutes they were But when they had forgot their ancient modesty and did not keep themselves within the bounds and limits appointed to them which was to make two Bishops in one Diocess contrary to the ancient Canons the Church thought fitting to reduce them to their first condition And thereupon it was decreed in the Council of Ancyra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Ancyran can 13. that it should no more be lawful for them to ordain either Presbyters or Deacons that is to say as it was afterwards explained in the Council of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Antio can 10. without the liking of the Bishop under whom he served Howsoever that they might have somewhat of the Bishop in them they were permitted by that Canon to ordain Sub-Deacons Exorcists and Readers with which they were required to rest contented as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to send abroad their Letters unto other Bishops Ibid. can 8. which they called Literas Formatas Communicatorias as before was noted as those that had the full authority and power of Bishops did use of old to do at their Ordinations A point of honour denied unto the ordinary Presbyters in that very Canon Now to proceed The next Successor unto Dionysius in the See of Rome Ibid. Sept. 18. is called Felix but no more happy in some things than his Predecessour the Heresie of Paulus Samosatenus taking beginning in the time or Government in the one that of the Manichees commencing almost with the other Hujus tempore Manes quidam gente Persa vita moribus barbarus c. During his time saith Platina arose one Manes Platina in vita Felicis by birth a Persian in life and manners a Barbarian who took upon him to be Christ gathering unto him Twelve Disciples for the dispersing of his frenzies In this he differed amongst many things from Samosatenus he making Christ to be no better than a man and Manes making a vile sinful man to be the Christ I know Baronius doth place the rising of this Manicbean Heresie
the more easily divert himself in the ways of Godliness and consequently merit and obtain eternal life which otherwise he might do without any such Grace by his own free will though with more difficulty and trouble And therefore if any man shall say that without the preventing Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and his heavenly Influences a man is able to even hope love or repent as he ought to do that so he may be justified in the sight of God let him be Anathema 4. Of the manner of Conversion The Freedom of the Will is not so utterly lost in man Sess 6. c. 5. though it be diminished and impaired as to be accounted nothing but an empty Name or the name of no such thing existing in Nature in that the Will of man moved and stirred up by the grace of God retains a power of co-operating with the heavenly Grace by which he doth prepare and dispose himself for the obtaining of the Justification which is given unto him Can. 4. And therefore if any one shall say that a man cannot resist this grace though he would or that he is meerly passive not acting any thing but as a stock or sensless stone in his own Conversion let him be also held accurst And so are they who have presumed to affirm and teach that it is not in the power of man to do evil but as well bad as good works are done not only by Gods permission but by his proper working so that as well the Treason of Judas as the Calling of Paul is to be reckoned for the work of Almighty God 5. Of the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance No man is so far to presume on the secret Mystery of Predestination Sess 6. Can. 13. as to account himself for certain to be within the number of the Elect as if he were assured of this that being justified he could neither sin no more nor were sure of Repentance if he did And therefore no man is to flatter himself with any such certainty of perseverance though all men ought to place a constant and firm hope for the obtaining of the same in the help of God Can. 14. They which by sin have fallen away from the grace received may recover their lost Justification if being stirred up from above they endeavour the recovery of it by sincere Repentance Can. 15. or by the Sacrament of Pennance as the words there are And finally the grace of Justification or the grace by which a man is justified is not only lost by infidelity by which the Faith it self doth suffer Shipwrack but even by every mortal sin though Faith be not lost also at the same time with it Such is the Doctrine of this Council in the Points disputed extracted fainfully out of the Canons and Decrees thereof one only clause being added to the Article of Predestination agreeable to the Opinion in the Conferences and Debates about it which prevailed most upon the Prelates and all others who were interessed and intrusted in drawing up the Products and Conclusions of it which how far it agreeth or disagreeth with or from hat which is maintained by the opposite Parties in the Reformed and Protestant Churches we are next to see CHAP. IV. The Judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these Five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in the Five Points betwixt the Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves 1. The Judgement of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans Rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus paralleled by that of Bishop Overal 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said Five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hauge Anno 1610. 8. The Doctrien of the Synodists in the said Points 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the Example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin SUCH being the Doctrines of this Council in the Points disputed we need not not take much pains in looking after the Judgment of the Lutheran Chruches which comes so near to that of the Church of Rome as to be reckoned for the same For in the History of the Council Hist of the Council of Tr. p. 210. it is said expresly as before is noted that in the Books of Luther in the Augustane Confession and in Aplogies and Colloquies there was nothing found as to the Doctrine of Predestination which deserved to be censured And therefore they were sain to have recourse unto the Writings of the Zuinglian party amongst which Calvin and his followers were to be accounted to find out matter to proceed upon in their Fulminations And in particular it is said by Andreas Vega one of the stiffest and most learned men amongst the whole pack of the Franciscans Ibid. f. 208. when the Points about Free will were in agitation that between themselves and the Protestants there was no difference of Opinion as to that particular How near they came to one another in the other Points may easily be found in the Debates and Conferences before laid down compared with the Judgment of the Lutheran Doctors not only in their private Writings but their publick Colloquies But then we are to understand that this Agreement of the Lutheran Doctors expressed in their private Writings and their publick Colloquies and especially the solemn Confession at Ausperge relates to that interpretation of the Decrees and Canons of the Tridentine Council which is made by the Jesuits and Franciscans and not unto the Gloss or Exposition which is made thereof by the Preaching and Dominican Fryers But not to leave so great a matter to a Logical Inference I shall lay down the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches in the said Five Points extracted faithfully out of the Augustan Confession with the Addition of one Clause only to the first Article the Makers of the Confession declining purposely the Point of Predestination out of the Writings of Melancthon and other learned men of the same persuasion Now the Doctrine of the said Churches so delivered is this that followeth Viz. 1. Of Divine Predestinction
Proclamation from the States General to banish them from their Native Countrey with their Wives and Children and so compelling them to beg their Bread even in desolate places But yet this was no end of their sorrows neither He must come under a new Cross and be calumniated for maintaining many horrid Blasphemies and gross impieties which they most abhorred For in the continuation of the History of the Netherlands written by one Cross a fellow of no parts or judgment and so more apt to be abused with a false report It is there affirmed whether with greater ignorance or malice it is hard to say That there was a Synod called at Dort to suppress the Arminians and that the said Arminians held amongst other Heresies First That God was the Authorâ—â— sin and Secondly That he created the far greater part of Man-kind only of purpose for to damn them with several others of that kind Which every man of reason knows not only to be the consequence and results of Calvins Doctrine but to be positively maintained and taught by some of his followers By which and such like subtile and malicious practises they endeavoured to expose their Adversaries to the publick hatred and make th em odious with the people till at last these poor men might have said most justly as one the primitive Christians did under the burden of the like Calumnies and Imputations Condemnati sumus quia nominamur non quia convincimur as Tertullian hath it the name of an Arminian carried a Condemnation in it self without any conviction Nor was their fury satisfied in Exauctorating Banishing and destroying those of the adverse party who lived within the compass of the Belgick Provinces the genius of the Sect being active in all parts alike in none more visibly than the neighbouring City of Ledan the principal seat and Signory of the Dukes of Bovillon Out of which Francisous Auratus a most faithful Minister of that Church is said to have been shamefully ejected for no other reason by those of the Calvinian party but because preaching on the Text of St. James 1.13 God tempteth no man c. he largely declared that God was not the Author of sin With what severity they proceeded in England when they had gotten the advantage of Power and Number and with what Calumnies and Reproaches they aspersed all those which were of a contrary persuasion to them the sequestring and ejecting of so many hundreds of learned and religious men from their several Benefices the most odious Pamphet called The first Century of Scandalous and MALIGNANT PRIESTS together with many uncharitable and disgraceful passages against them in the Writings of some Presbyterian Ministers do most clearly evidence CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the Opposite Party 1. The Introduction to the said Objections 2. The first Objection touching their being Enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of St. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard Expressions which were used of them by King James 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Propery began in Holland and pressed more importunatly in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who objected the same 6. The fourth CHarge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious people began in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridly 7. What moved King Jmaes to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesom nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party 9. Nothing in the Arminian doctrine which may incline a man to seditious courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin 10. The Racrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England IT may be thought that some strange mystery of iniquity lay hidden under the Mask or Vail of the Five Articles last mentioned which made the Synodists so furiously to rage against them to use such cruelty for security is too mild a name to express their rigour towards all those who did maintain them For justifying whereof in the eye of the World both before and after the Synod course was taken to impeach their Doctrine in these points of no smaller crimes than to be destructive of Gods Grace introductory of Popery tending unto spiritual pride and to Sedition or Rebellion in the Civil Government Which Objections I shall here present as I have done the Arguments of most importance which were Excogitated and enforced against the Conclusions and Determinations of the Synod in the said five points and that being done I shall return such Answers as are made unto them First then it is objected that this Doctrine is destructive of Gods Free Grace reviving the old Pelagian Heresies â—â—â—man Annot Grotii Putat so long since condemned This is press'd by Boyerman in his Annotations on the Book of Grotius called Pietas Ordinum c. where he brings in Pareus charging them with having proceeded E Schola Caelestii Pelagii from no other School than that of Pelagius and Caelestius those accursed Hereticks Thycius another of the Contra-Remonstrants but somewhat more moderate than the rest in this particular conceives their Doctrine to incline rather to Semi-Pelagianism Et aut eandem esse aut non multo diversam and either to be the very same or not much different Declar. against Vorstius But the authority of King James was of greatest weight who in his heats against Vorstius calls them the Enemies of Gods grace Atheistical Sectaries and more particularly the Enemy of God Arminius as the King once called him To which Objection it is answered that whatsoever Paraeus and the rest might please to call them they had but little reason for it the Remonstrants speaking as honourably of the Grace of God as any other whatsoever And this they prove by comparing the first branch of the Fourth Article with that Golden saying of St. Augustine yiz. Sine gratia Dei praeveniente ut velimus subsequente ne frustra velimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus
albeit the light of Reason doth abide yet is it much darkned and with much difficulty doth discern things that be inferiour and pertain to this present life but to understand and perceive things that be spiritual and pertain to that everlasting life it is of it self unable And so likewise there remains a certain freedom of the will in those things which do pertain unto the desires and works of this present life yet to perform spiritual and heavenly things Freewill of it self is unsufficient and therefore the power of mans Freewill being thus wounded and decayed hath need of a Physician to heal it and one help to repair it that it may receive light and strength whereby it may be so and have power to do those godly and spiritual things which before the fall of Adam it was able and might have done To this blindness and infirmity of mans Nature proceeding of Original sin the Prophet David hath regard when he desired his eyes to be lightened of Almighty God that he might consider the marvellous things that be in his Law And also the Prophet Jeremy saying Psalm 115. Jer. 16. Heal me O Lord and I shall be made whole Augustin also plainly declareth the same saying We conclude that Freewill is in man after his fall which thing whoso denieth is not a Catholick man but in spiritual desires and works to please God it is so weak and feeble hat it cannot eithre begin or perform them unless by the Grace and help of God it be prevented and holpen And hereby it appeareth that mans strength and Will in all things which be helpful to the soul and shall please God hath need of the graces of the holy Ghost by which such things be inspired to men and strength and constancy given to perform them if we do not wilfully refuse the said Grace effered to them And likewise as many things be in the Scripture which do shew Freewill to be in man so there be now fewer places in Scripture which declare the Grace of God to be so necessary that if by it Freewill be not prevented and holpen it neither can do nor will any thing good and godly of which sort be these Scriptures following Without me you can do nothing no man cometh to me except it be given him of my Father John 15. Jon. 6.1 Cor. 3. We be not sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any good thing According unto which Scriptures and such other like it followeth That Freewill before it may will or think any godly thing must be holpen with the grace of Christ and by his Spirit be prevented and inspired that it may be able thereunto And being so made able may from thenceforth work together with grace and by the same sustained holpen and maintained may both accomplish good works and avoid sin and persevere also and increase in grace It is true of the grace of God only that first we are inspired and moved to any good thing but to resist temptations and to persist in goodness and go forward it is both of the Grace of God and our Freewill and endeavour And finally after we have persevered unto the end to be crowned with glory therefore is the gift and mercy of God who of his bountiful goodness hath ordained that reward to be given after this life according to such good works as be done in this life by his Grace Therefore men ought with much diligence and gratitude of mind to consider and regard the inspiration wholesom motions of the holy Ghost and to embrace the Grace of God which is offered to them in Christ and moveth them to work good things And furthermore to go about by all means to shew themselves such as unto whom the Grace of God is not given in vain And when they do settle that notwithstanding their diligence yet through their infirmity they be not able to do that they desire then they ought earnestly and with a fervent devotion and stedfast faith to ask of him which gave the beginning that he would vouchsafe to perform it which thing God will undoubtedly grant according to his promise to such as persevere in calling upon him For he is naturally good and willeth all men to be saved and careth for them and provideth all things by which they may be saved except BY THEIR OWN MALICE they will be evil and so by the righteous judgment of God perish and be lost For truly men be to themselves the AVTHOR OF SIN and DAMNATION God is neither the AVTHOR OF SIN nor the CAVSE OF DAMNATION and yet doth he most righteously damn those men that do with Vices corrupt their Nature which he made good and do abuse the same to evil desires against his most holy will wherefore men be to be warned that they do not impute to God their Vice or their damnation but to themselves who by Freewill have abused the grace and benefits of God All men be also to be monished and chiefly Preachers that in this high matter they looking on both sides so attemper and moderate themselves that neither they so preach the Grace of God as to take away thereby Freewill Nor on the other side so extol Freewill that injury be done to the grace of God Such was the judgment of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1543. touching the nature of Freewill and the co-operations of it with the grace of God In which I can see nothing not agreeable to the present establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England And if it be objected as perhaps it may that this Convocation was held in times of Popery and managed by a Popish Clergy it may be answered that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled were such as had a principal hand in the Reformation and generally subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon and published in King Edwards time Anno 1552. At which time fifteen of the Bishops which had been present at the Convocation Anno 1543. were not only living but present and consenting to the Articles in King Edwards time that is to say Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Parfew Bishop of Saint Asaph Buchely Bishop of Bangor Bush Bishop of Bristol Sampson Bishop of Litchfield Barlow Bishop of Saint David Goodrich Bishop of Ely Ship Bishop of Hereford Folgate Bishop of Landaff and afterwards Archbishop of York King Bishop of Oxon Chambers Bishop of Peterborough Cepon Bishop of Sarum Thirlby then Bishop of Westminster Aldrich then Bishop of Carlile and Bird Bishop of Chester By which proportion we may conclude that a far greater number of the Deans and Arch-deacons who have a personal right of voting in all Convocations and coming to the number of eighty and thereabouts must be living and consenting also to the Reformation as being younger men than the Bishops were not to say any thing of the Clerks or Procurates of Cathedral Churches and those of the Diocesan Clergy as being variable and changeable
works of the spirit 2. More plainly doth he speak in the second place of Universal Redemption Id. in cap. 1 6. telling us that all men which either for their Original sin or for their Actual sin were out of Gods favour and had offended God should by Christ only be reconciled to Gods favour and have remission of their sins and be made partakers of everlasting life that Christs death was a full and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Id Ibid. 〈◊〉 1. and for all them that shall be sanctified and saved that Christ by his death once for all Id. Ibid. 〈…〉 hath fully and perfectly satisfied for the sins of all men and finally that there re this is an undoubted truth ever to be believed of all Christians that Christ by his Passion and Death hath taken away all the sins of the World In the next place he puts the question with reference to the application of so great a benefit for what causes God would not have his Word preached unto the Gentiles till Christs time and makes this answer thereunto First That it is a point not to be too curiously searched or enquired after Secondly That it is enough for us to know that it was so ordered by Gods Will Id. Ibid. G. 2 3. But thirdly That it might yet be done either because by their sins they had deserved their blindness and damnation as indeed they had or that God saw their hard hearts or their stiff necks and that they would not have received it before Christs comings if the Gospel had been preached unto them or finally that God reserved that mystery unto the coming of our Saviour Christ that by him all goodness should be known to come to us Id. cap. 2. H. 7. c. As for the necessary influences of Gods Grace and mans co-working with the same he telleth us briefly That no man ought to ascribe the good works that he dâ—th â—s himself or to his own might and power but to God the Author of all goodness but then withal that it is not enough for men to have knowledge of Christ and his benefits but that they must encrease in the knowledge of God Idâ—â— cap. 4. which knowledge cometh by Gods Word And finally as to the point of falling away he gives us first the example of Demas who as long as all things were prosperous with S. Paul was a faithful Minister to him and a faithful Disciple of Christ but when he saw Paul cast into Prison he forsook Paul and his Doctrine and followed the World then he inferreth that many such there be in the World c. of whom speaketh Christ Matth. 13. Many for a time do believe but in time of tribulations they shrink away And finally he concludes with this advice That he that standeth should look that he did not fall and that he do no trust too much to his own might and power for if he did he should deceive himself and have a fall as Demas had And so much for the judgment and opinion of Master L. Ridley in the points disputed who being Arch-deacon of Canterbury as before was said may be presum'd to be one of those who concurred in Convocation to the making of the Articles of K. Edwards book 1552. to find the true and natural meaning of which Articles we have taken this pains CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Catechism as also of the judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. The Catechism published by the Authority of King Edward VI. Ann. 1553. affirmed to have been writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrines were the true genuine and ancient Doctrines of the Church of England 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgment of Bishop Pointer in most of the Controverted Points 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon. as after his return to Zurick and Calvins Neighbourhood 7. The judgment of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the four Evangelists proposed first in the general view and after more particularly in every of the Points disputed SEcuri de salute de gloria certemus Having shewed the cause by so many pregnant Evidences derived from the Articles and Homilies Tacit in vita Agric. and backt by the consenting Testimonies of Learned men and godly Martyrs it would add something at the least in point of Reputation if not of glory also to gain Bishop Poinet to the side of whom as to his personal capacity we have spoken already and must now look back upon him in relation to a Catechism of his setting forth Printed by Wolfe in Latine and by Day in English Anno 1553. being the next year after the Articles were agreed upon in the Convocation a Catechism which comes commended to us with these advantages that it was put forth by the Authority of King Edward VI. to be taught by all School-masters in the Kingdom By another of the same persuasion Prin. Anti-Armin Pag. 44. that the King committed the perusal of it to certain Bishops and other Learned men whom he much esteemed by whom it was certified to be agreeable to the Scripture and Statutes of the Realm that thereupon he presixt his Epistle before it in which he commands and charges all School-masters whatsoever within his Dominions as they did reverence his Authority Anti-Armin Page 48. and as they would avoid his Royal displeasure to teach this Catechism diligently and carefully in all and every their Schools that so the youth of the Kingdom might be setled in the grounds of true Religion and furthered in Gods worship The Church Historian seems to give it some further countenance Ch Hist lib. 7. fol. 421. by making it of the same extraction with the book of Articles telling us that by the Bishops and Learned men before-mentioned we are to understand the Convocation and that it was not commanded by his Majesties Letters Patents to all School-masters only but by him commended to the rest of the Subjects which cost these several Authors have bestowed upon it out of an hope of gaining some greater matter by it towards the countenancing and advancing of the Calvinian Doctrine Predestination as the true genuine and ancient Doctrine of this Church certain I am that both Mr.
that not only he did not revenge the ungracious acts that had been committed therein but also sent down his only Son from Heaven unto Earth and delivered him to suffer death yea even the most shamesful death of the Crost to the intent that what man soever would believe in him were he Jew Grecian or never so barbarous should not perish but obtain eternal life through the faith of the Gospel For albeit that in time to come the Father should judge the universal World by his Son at his lâ—st coming yet at this time which is appointed for mercy God hath not sent his Son to condemnn the World for the wicked deeds thereof but by his death to give free salvation to the world through saith And lest any body perishing wilfully should have whereby to exercise his own malice there is given to all folks an easie entry to salvation For satisfaction of the faults committed before is not required Neither yet observation of the Law nor circumcision only he that believeth in him shall not be condemned for asmuch as he hath embraced that thing by which eternal salvation is given to all folk be they never so much burdened with sins so that the same person after he hath professed the Gospel do abstain from the evil deeds of his former life and labour to go forward to perfect holiness according to the doctrine of him whose name he hath professed But whosoever condemning so great charity of God towards him and putting from himself the salvation that was freely offered doth not believe the Gospel he hath no need to be judged of any body for as much as he doth openly condemn himself and rejecting the thing whereby he might obtain everlasting life maketh himself guilty of eternal pain By which passages and the rest that follow on this Text of Scripture we may have a plain view of the judgment of this learned man in the Points disputed as to the designation of eternal life to all that do believe in Christ the universality of Redemption by his death and passion the general offer of the benefit and effect thereof to all sorts of people the freedom of mans will in co-operating with the grace of God or in rejecting and refusing it when it is so offered and relapsing from the same when it is received All which we find in many other passages of those Paraphrases as occasion is presented to him But more particularly it appears first that he groundeth our Election to eternal life on the eternaland divine prescience of Almighty God telling us in his Explication of the 25. Chap. of Sain Matthews Gospel Ibid. fol. 96. that the inheritance o the heavenly Kingdom was prepared by the providenceand determination of God the fore-knower of all things before the World was made Secondly of Vniversal Redemption in his gloss on the first Chap. of Saint John Ibid. fol. 414. he telleth us thus This Lamb saith he is so far from being subject to an kind of sin that he alone is able to take away all the sins of the whole World He is so well beloved of God that he only may turn his wrath into mercy He is also so gentle and so desirous of mans salvation that he is ready to suffer pains for the sins of all men and to take upon him our evils because he would bestow upon us his good things Thirdly of the manner of the working of Gods grace he speaks as plainly in his Explication of the sixth Chap. of the same Evangelist where he telleth us that of a truth whosoever cometh unto Christ shall obtaineternal life that by faith must men come to him and that faith cometh not at all adventures Ibid. fol. 443. but is had by the inspiration of God the Father who like as he draweth to him mens minds by his Son in such wife that through the operation of both jointly together men come to them both the Father not giving this so great gift but to them that be willing and desirous to have it so that who with a ready will and godly diligence deserves to be drawn of the Father he shall obtain everlasting life by the Son No violent drawing in these words but such as may be capable of resistance on the part of man as appears by his descant on that plain Song of our Saviour in Matt. 23. in which he makes him speaking in this manner unto those of Hierusalem viz. Nothing is let pass on my behalf whereby thou mightest be saved but contrariwise thou hast done what thou canst to bring destruction upon thy self Ibid. fol. 90. and to exclude salvation from thee But to whom Freewill is once given he cannot be saved against his will Your will ought to be agreeable to my Will But behold as miserable calamity c. More plainly thus in the like descant on the same words in Saint Lukes Gospel viz. How many a time and oft have I assaved to gather thy children together and to join them to my self none otherwise than the Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings that they may not miscarry But thy stubbornness hath gone beyond my goodness and as though thou hadst even vowed and devoted thy self to utter ruin so dost thou refuse all things whereby thou mightest be recovered and made whole And finally as to the possibility of falling from the faith of Christ he thus declares himself in the Exposition of our Saviours Parable touching the Sower and the seed viz. There is another sort of men which greedily hear the word of the Gospel Ibid. fol. â— and set it deep enough in their mind and keep it long but their minds being intangled and choaked with troublesom cares of this World and especially of Riches as it were with certain thick thorns they cannot freely follow that he loveth because they will not suffer these Thorns which cleave together and be entangled one with another among themselves to be cut away the fruit of the seed which is sown doth utterly perish Which being so either we must conclude the doctrine of this Church in the book of articles to be the same with that which is contained in the Paraphrases of this learned man or else condemn the godly Bishops of this Church and the religious Princes above mentioned of a great imprudence in recommending them to the diligent and careful reading both of Priest and People Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the WESTERN-CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In the Five Controverted Points PART III. Containing the first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians in the Church of England and the pursuance of those Quarrels from the Reign of K. EDWARD the sixth to the death of K. JAMES CHAP. XVI Of the first breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. The Predestinarians called at first by the name of Gospellers 2. Campneys a professed enemy to the Predestinarians but neither
was then so generally received and taught in the Reformed Church of England as not to be known to Artificers Tradesmen and Mechanicks and that they were so well instructed in the niceties of it as to believe that though Christ died effectually for all yet the benefit thereof should be effectually applied to none but those who do effectually repent Fourthly I consider that if the Popish Clergy of those times did believe no otherwise of Predestination than that men be elected in respect of good works and so long elected as they do them and no longer as Carelese hath reported of them the Doctrine of the Church hath been somewhat altered since those times there being now no such Doctrine taught in the Schools of Rome as that a man continues no longer in the state of Election than whilst he is exercised in good works And finally I consider the unfortunate estate of those who living under no certain rule of Doctrine or Discipline lie open to the practices of cunning and malicious men by whom they are many times drawn aside from the true Religion For witnesses whereof we have Trew and Carelese above mentioned the one being wrought on by the Papists the other endangered by the Gospellers or Zuinglian Sectaries For that Carelese had been tampered with by the Gospellers or Zuinglian Sectaries doth appear most clearly first by the confidence which he had of his own salvation and of the final perseverance of all others also which are the chosen members of the Church of Christ and secondly but more especially for giving the scornful title of a Free-will man to one of his fellow Prisoners who was it seems of different persuasion from him For which consult his Letter to Henry Adlington in the Act. and Mon. Fol. 1749. which happened unto him as to many others when that Doctrine of the Church wanted the countenance of Law and the Doctors of the Church here scattered and dispersed abroad not being able to assist them In which condition the affairs of the holy Church remained till the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and for some years after But no sooner had that gracious Lady attained the Crown when she took order for the reviewing of the publick Liturgy formerly Authorized by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward VI. The men appointed for which work were Dr. Parker after Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Grindal after Bishop of London Dr. Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr. Cox after Bishop of Elie Dr. May Dean of Pauls Dr. Bill Provost of Eaton after Dean of Westminster Mr. Whitehead sometimes Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen designed to be the first Archbishp of this new Plantation and finally Sir Thomas Smith a man of great esteem with King Edw. VI. and the Queen now Reigning By thesE men was the Liturgy reviewed approved and passed without any sensible alteration in any of the Rubricks Prayers and Contents thereof but only the giving of some contentment to the Papists and all moderate Protestants in two particulars the first whereof was the taking away of a clause in the Letany in which the People had been taught to pray to Almighty God to deliver them from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities The second was the adding of the sentences in the distribution of the Sacrament viz. The Body of our Lord Jesus which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee c. which sentences exclusive of the now following words of participation as they were only in the first so were they totally left out of the second Liturgy of King Edward VI. Other alterations I find none mentioned in the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. but the appointing of certain Lessons for every Sunday in the year which made no change at all in the publick Doctrine before contained in that book and that the People might be the better trained up in the same Religion which had been taught and preacht unto them in the time of King Edward VI. She gave command by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign Ann. 1559. that the Paraphrases of Erasmus should be diligently studied both by Priest and People And to that end it was required as formerly in the Injunctions of the said King Edward 1. That the Paraphrases of the said Erasmus Injunct 6. and on the Gospel in the English tongue should be provided at the joynt charges of the Parson and Parishioners and being so provided should be set up in some convenient place of every Church so as the Parishioners may most commodiously resort unto the same and read the same out of the time of common service And secondly Injunct 16. that every Parson Vicar Curate and Stipendary Priest shall provide and have of his own within the time therein limitted the New Testament in Latine and English with the Paraphrases on the same conferring the one with the other And the Bishops by themselves and other Ordinaries and their Officers in Synods and Visitations shall examine the said Ecclesiastical Priests how they have profited in the study of holy Scripture Evident Arguments that there was no intent of setling any other Doctrine in the Church of England than such as was agreeable to the Judgment of that Learned man The next care was for making and perfecting those Homilies of which we find mention at the end of King Edwards book for the necessary edifying of Christian People and the increase of godly living both books sufficiently provided for besides the confirmation of that first Article of the year 1552. in the Rubrick of the second Liturgy where it is said that after the Creed if there be no Sermon shall follow one of the Homilies already set forth or to be set forth by common authority which Rubrick being revised with the rest of the Liturgy put the said books of Homilies as well the second as first part of them into the service of the Church and thereby made them no small part of the publick doctrine But who they were which laboured in this second book whether they were the same that drew up the first or those who in Queen Elizabeths time reviewed the Liturgy or whether they were made by the one and reviewed by the other I have no where found though I have taken no small pains in the search thereof But those few doctrinals which were contained in the Book of Common Prayer or deducible from it not being much taken notice of and the Homilies not confirm'd by that common Authority which was required in the Rubrick the Zuinglians or Gospellers took the opportunity to disperse their doctrines before the door of utterance should be shut against them or any publick course be taken to suppress their practices And this they did with so much diligence and cunning that they encreased exceedingly both in power and numbers of
being thus discharged he shews in the next place Ibid. 48. that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinful man or of the wicked sinful man but rather that they shoudl turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Goats in St. Matthews Gospel Ite malidicti in ignem paratum he doth not say Maledicti patris Go ye cursed of the Father as it is Benedicti patris when he speaks of the sheep God intituling himself to the blessing only and that the fire is prepared but for whom Non vobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither Death nor Hell for damned men The last branch of his Discourse he resolves into six consequences as links depending on his Chain 1. Gods absolute Will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by Gods grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth every living soul to be saved and to come to the Kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his Son to save every soul and to bring it to the Kingdom of Heaven 5. God offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of Heaven 6. The nelgect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Council and Determination of God The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of che old Zuinglian Gospellers and the modern Calvinians as they take up the rest of the Sermon so to the Sermon I refer the Reader for his furtehr satisfaction in them I note this only in the close that there is none of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly call them which is not contained in terms express or may not easily be found by way of Deduction in one or more of the six consequences before recited Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be considered as namely first That the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel in these points was grown so strong that the Preacher calls it their Goliah so huge and monstrous that many quaked and trembled at it but none that is to say but few or none vel duo vel nemo in the words of Persius durst take up Davids sling to throw it down Secondly That in canvasing the absolute Decree of Reprobation the Preacher spared none of those odious aggravations which have been charged upon the Doctrines of the modern Calvinists by the Remonstrants and their party in these latter times Thirdly That the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross the greatest Auditory of the Kingdom consisting not only of the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and the rest of the chief men in the City but in those times of such Bishops and other learned men as lived occasionally in London and the City of Westminster as also of the Judges and most learned Lawyers some of the Lords of the Council being for the most part present also Fourthly That for all this we cannot find that any offence was taken at it or any Recantation enjoyned upon it either by the high Commission or Bishop of London or any other having Authority in the Church of England nor any complaint made of it to the Queen or the Council-Table as certainly there would have been if the matter of the Sermon had been contrary to the Rules of the Church and the appointments of the same And finally we may observe that though he was made Archbiship of York in the Reign of King Charles 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook Hill Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwich in the time of King James And thereupon we may conclude that King James neither thought this Doctrine to be against the Articles of Religion here by Law established nor was so great an Enemy to them or the men that held them as some of our Calvinians have lately made him But against this it is objected by Mr. Prin in his book of Perpetuity c. printed at London in the year 1627. 1. That the said Mr. Harsnet was convented for this Sermon and forced to recant it as Heretical 2. That upon this Sermon Perpetulty c. 304. and the Controversies that arose upon it in Cambridg between Baroe and Whitacres not only the Articles of Lambeth were composed of which more hereafter but Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same 3. That the siad Sermon was so far from being published or printed that it was injoyned by Authority to be recanted For Answer whereunto it would first be known where the said Sermon was recanted and by whose Authority Not in or by the University of Cambridg where Mr. Harsnet lived both then and a long time after for the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross and so the University could take no cognisance of it nor proceed against him for the same And if the Recantation was madea t St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given it would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the Bishop of London in whose Diocess the Sermon was preached for his Authority did not reach so far as Cambridg whither the Preacher had retited after he had performed the service he was called unto and if it were injoyned by the High Commission and performed accordingly there is no question to be made but that we should have heard of in the Anti-Arminianism where there are no less than eight leaves spend in relating the story of a like Recantation pretended to be made by one Mr. Barret on the tenth of May 1595. and where it is affirmed that the said Mr. Harsnet held and maintained the same errors for which Barret was to make his Recantation But as it will be proved hereafter that no such Recantation wass made by Barret so we have reason to believe that no such Recantation was imposed on Harsnet Nor secondly can it be made good that the Controversies between Doctor Whitacres and Dr. Baroe were first occasioned by this Sermon or that Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same For it appears by a Letter written from the heads of that University to their Chancellor the Lord Treasurer Burleigh dated March 18. 1595. that Baroe had maintained the same Doctrines and his Lectures and Determinations above 14 years before by their own account for which see Chap. 21. Numb 80. which must be three years at the least before the preaching of that Sermon by Mr. Harsnet And though it is probable enopugh that Mr. Wotton might give himself the trouble of confuting the Sermon yet it is more than probable that he was not required so to do by that
University For if it had been so appointed by the University he would have been rewarded for it by the same power and authority which had so appointed when he appeared a Candidate for the Professorship on the death of Whitacres but could not find a party of sufficient power to carry it for him of which see also Chap. 21. Numb 4. And thirdly as for the not Priting of the Sermon it is easily answered the genius of the time not carrying men so generally to the Printing of Sermons as it hath done since But it was Printed at the last though long first And being Printed at the last hath met with none so forward in the Confutation as Mr. Wotton is affirmed to be when at first it was Preached And therefore notwithstanding these three surmises which the Author of the Perpetuity c. hath presented to us it may be said for certain as before it was that Mr. Harsnet was never called in question for that Sermon of his by any having Authority to convent him for it and much less that he ever made any such Recantation as by the said Author is suggested In the next place we will behold a passage in one of the Lectures upon Jonah delivered at York Anno 1594. by the right learned Dr. John King discended from a Brother of Robert King the first Bishop of Oxon afterwards made Dean of Christ Church and from thence presented by the power and favour of Archbishop Bancroft to the See of London A Prelate of too known a zeal to the Church of England to be accused of Popery or any other Heterodoxies in Religion of what sort soever who in his Lecture on these words Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown cap. 3. verse 4. discoursed on them in this manner The only matter of Question herein Bishop King's Lecture upon Jonath Lect. 33. p. 450. is how it may stand with the constancy and truth of eternal God to pronounce a Judgment against a place which taketh not effect within one hundred years For either he weas ignorant of his own time which we cannot imagine of an omniscient God or his mind was altered which is unproble to suspect Numb 23. Heb. 13. Rev. 1. For is the strength of Israel a man that he should lie or as the Son of man that be should repent Is he not yesterday and to day and the same for ever that was that is and that which is to come I mean not only in substance but in Will and Intention Doth he use lightness Are the words that he speaketh yea and nay Doth he both affirm and deny too 2 Cor. 1. Are not all his Promises are not all his Threatnings are not all his Mercies are not all his Judgments are not all his Words are not all the titles and jots of his words yea and amen so firmly ratified that they cannot be broken Doubtless it shall stand immutable When the Heaven and the Earth shall be changed Mal. 3. and wax old like a garment Ego Deus non mutor I am God that am not changed Aliud mutare voluntatem aliud velle mutationem Aquin 1. qu. 19. art 7. The School in this respect hath a wise distinction It is one thing to change the will and another to will a change or to be willed that a change should be God will have the Law and Ceremony at one time Gospel without Ceremony at another this was his Will from Everlasting constant and unmoveable that in their several courses both should be Though there be a change in the matter and subject there is not a change in him that disposeth it Our Will is in Winter to use the fire in Summer a cold and an open air the thing is changed according to the season but our Will whereby we all decreed and determined in our selves so to do remain the same Sometimes the Decrees and purposes of God consist of two parts the one whereof God revealeth at the first and the other he concealeth a while and keepeth in his own knowledge as in the action enjoyned to Abraham the purpose of God was twofold 1. To try his Obedience 2. To save the Child A man may impute it inconstancy to bid and unbid Mutat seo tentiam non mutat consilium lib. 10. mor. cap. 23. but that the Will of the Lord was not plenarily understood in the first part This is it which Gregory expresseth in apt terms God changeth his intent pronounced sometimes but never his Counsel intended Sometimes things are decreed and spoken of according to inferiour cause which by the highest and over-ruling cause are otherwise disposed of One might have said and said truly both ways Lazarus shall rise again and Lazarus shall not rise again if we esteem it by the power and finger of God it shall be but if we leave it to nature and to the arm of flesh it shall never be The Prophet Esay told Hezekias the King put thy house in order Esa 38. for thou shalt die considering the weakness of his body and the extremity of his disease he had reason to warrant the same but if he told him contrariwise according to that which came to pass thou shalt not die looking to the might and merecy of God who received the prayers of the King he had said as truly But the best definition is that in most of these threatning there is a condition annexed unto them either exprest or understood which is as the hinges to the door Jer. 18. and turneth forward and backward the whole matter In Jeremy it is exprest I will speak suddenly against a Nation or a Kingdom to pluck it up to root it out and to destroy it But if this Nation Jer. 18. against whom I have pronounced turn from their wickedness I will repent of the plague which I thought to bring upon them So likewise for his mercy I will speak suddenly concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build it and to plant it but if yet do evil in my sight and hear not my voice I will repent of the good I thought to do for them Gen. 20. it is exprest where God telleth Abimeleck with-holding Abrahams Wife Thou art a dead man because of the Woman which thou hast taken the event fell out otherwise and Abimeleck purged himself with God With an upright mind and innocent hands have I done this There is no question but God inclosed a condition with his speech Thou art a dead man if thou restore not the Woman withoput touching her body and dishonouring her Husband Thus we may answer the scruple by all these ways 1. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and yet forty and forty days and Nineveh shall not be overthrown Wy Because Nineveh is changed and the unchangable will of God ever was that if Nineveh shewed a change it should be spared 2. There were two parts of Gods purpose the one disclosed
absolute will and pleasure yet he is fain to have recourse to some certain condition telling us that though the mercy of God his Grace Election Vocation and other precedent Causes do justifie us yet this is upon condition of believing in Christ And finally it is to be observed also that after all his pains taken in defending such a personal and eternal Election as the Calvinians now contend for he adviseth us to wrap up our selves wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and not to cumber our heads with any further speculations knowing that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish c. And so I take my leave of our Martyrologist the publishing of those discourse I look on as the first great battery which was made on the Bulwarks of this Church in point of doctrine by any member of her own after the setling of the Articles by the Queens Authority Ann. 1562. the brables raised by Crowley in his Book against Campneys though it came out after the said Articles were confirmed and published being but as hail-shot in comparison of this great piece of Ordnance Not that the Arguments were so strong as to make any great breach in the publick Doctrine had it been published in a time less capable of innovations or rather if the great esteem which many had of that man and the universal reception which his Book found with all sorts of People had not gained more authority unto his discourse than the merit or solidness of it could deserve The inconveniencies whereof as also the many marginal Notes and other passages visibly tending to faction and sedition in most parts of that Book were either not observed at first or winked at in regard of the great animosities which were ingendred by it in all sorts of People as well against the persons of the Papists as against the doctrine Insomuch that in the Convocation of the year 1571. there passed some Canons requiring that not only the Deans of all Cathedrals should take a special care that the said Book should be so conveniently placed in their several Churches that people of all conditions might resort unto it but also that all and every Arch-Bishop Bishops Deans Residentiaries and Arch-Deacons should choose the same to be placed in some convenient publick room of their several houses not only for the entertainment and instruction of their menial servants but of such strangers also as occasionally repaired unto them If it be hereupon inferred that Fox his doctrine was approved by that Convocation and therefore that it is agreeable to the true intent and meaning of the Articles of the Church of England besides what hath been said already by Anticipation it may as logically be inferred that the Convocation approved all his marginal Notes all the factious and seditious passages and more particularly the scorn which he puts upon the Episcopal habit and other Ceremonies of the Church Touching which last for the other are too many to be here recited let us behold how he describes the difference which hapned between Hooper Bishop of Glocester on the one side Cranmer and Ridley on the other about the ordinary habit and attire then used by the Bishops of this Church we shall find it thus viz. Acts and Mon. so 1366 1367. For notwithstanding the godly reformation of Religion that was begun in the Church of England besides other ceremonies that were more ambitious than profitable or tended to edification they used to wear such garments and apparel as the Romish Bishops were wont to do First a Chimere and under that a white Rocket then a Mathematical cap with four Angles dividing the whole world into four parts These trifles being more for superstition than otherwise as he could never abide so in no wise could he be persuaded to wear them But in conclusion this Theological contestation came to this end that the Bishops having the upper hand Mr. Hooper was fain to agree to this condition that sometimes he should in his Sermon shew himself apparalled as the Bishops were Wherefore appointed to preach before the King as a new Player in a strange apparel he cometh forth on the stage His upper garment was a long skarlet Chimere down to the foot and under that a white linnen Rocket that covered all his shoulders upon his head he had a Geometrical that is a square cap albeit that his head was round What case of shame the strangeness hereof was that day to the good Preacher every man may easily judge But this private contumely and reproach in respect of the publick profit of the Church which he only sought he bare and suffered patiently Here have we the Episcopal habit affirmed to be a contumely and reproach to that godly man slighted contemptuously by the name of trifles and condemned in the marginal Note for a Popish attire the other ceremonies of the Church being censured as more ambitious than profitable and tending more to superstition than to edification which as no man of sense or reason can believe to be approved and allowed of by that Convocation so neither is it to be believed that they allowed of his opinion in the present point For a counterballance whereunto there was another Canon passed in this Convocation by which all Preachers were enjoyned to take special care â—ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi testamenti quodque ex'illa ipsa doctrina Cathotici Patres veteres Episcopi Collegerint that is to say that they should maintain no other doctrine in their publicki Sermons to be believed of the People but that which was agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament and had from thence been gathered by the Catholick or Orthodox Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church To which rule if they held themselves as they ought to do no countenance could be given to Calvines Doctrines or Fox his judgment in these points maintained by one of the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church but St. Augustine only who though he were a godly man and a learned Prelate yet was he but one Bishop not Bishops in the plural number but one father and not all the fathers and therefore his opinion not to be maintained against all the rest CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. Of Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination which his recital of the four opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrine according to the Supralapsarian or Supra-creatarian way 3. The several censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply than by Dr. Rob. Abbots after Bishop of Sarum 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in the Vniversity and his Doctrine
long professed and received doctrine but continue to use all good means and seek at your Lordships hands some effectual Remedy hereof lest by petmitting passage to these Errors the whole body of Popery should by little and little break in upon us to the overthrow of our Religion and consequently the withdrawing of many here and elsewhere from true obedience to her Majesty May it therefore please your Lordship to have an honourable consideration of the premises and for the better maintaining of peace and the truth of Religion so long received in this University and Church to vouchsafe your Lordships good aid and advice both to the comfort of us wholly consenting and agreeing in judgment and all others of the University truly affected and to the suppression in time not only of these errors but even of gross Popery like by such means in time easily to creep in amongst us as we find by late experience it hath dangerously begun Thus craving pardon for troubling your Lordship and commending the same in praise to Almighty God we humbly take our leave From Cambridge March 8th 1595. Your Lordships humble and bounden to be commanded Roger Goad Procan R. Some Tho. Leg John Jegon Thomas Nevil Thomas Preston Hump. Tyndal James Mountague Edmond Barwel Laurence Cutterton Such was the condition of Affairs at Cambridge at the expiring of the year 1595. the genuine Doctrine of the Church beginning then to break through the clouds of Calvinism wherewith it was before obscured and to shine forth again in its former lustre To the advancement of which work as the long continuance of Baroe in the University for the space of 20 years and upwards the discreet activity of Dr. Harsnet Fellow and Master of Pembrook Colledge for the term of 40 yeaas and more gave a good encouragement so the invincible constancy of Mr. Barret and the slender opposition made by Overald contributed to the confirmation and encrease thereof For scarce had Overald warmed his Chair when he found himself under a necessity of encountring some of the remainder of Baroes Adversaries though he followed not the blow so far as Baroe did for some there were of the old Predestination Leven who publickly had taught as he related it in the conference at Hampton Court all such persons as were once truly justified though after they fell into never so grievous sins yet remained still just or in the state of Justification before they actually repented of those sins yea though they never repented of them through forgetfulness or sudden death yet they should be justified and saved without Repentance Against which Overald maintained that whosoever although before justified did commit any grievous sin as Adultery Murder Treason or the like did become ipso facto Conf. at Ham. C. p. 42. subject to Gods wrath and guilty of damnation or were in the state of damnation quoad presentem statum until they repented And so far he had followed Baroe but he went no further holding as he continued his own story that such persons as were called and justified according to the purpose of Gods Election did neither fall totally from all the graces of God though how a justified man may bring himself into a present state of Wrath and Damnation without a total falling from all the graces of God is beyond my reason and that they were in time renewed by the Spirit of God unto a lively faith and repentance and thereby justified from those sins with the guilt and wrath annexed unto them into which they had fallen nor can it be denied but that some other Learned men of those times were of the same opinion also Amongst which I find Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarum Anti-Armini pag. 202. and afterwards Lord Bishop of Oxon to be reckoned for one and Mr. Richard Hooker of whom more anon to be accounted for another But being but the compositions of private men they are not to be heard against the express words of the two Homilies touching falling from God in case the point had not been positively determined in the sixteenth Article But so it hapned notwithstanding that Overald not concurring with the Calvinists concerning the estate of such justified persons as afterwards fell into grievous sins there grew some diffidences and distrust between them which afterwards widned themselves into greater differences Insomuch that diffenting from them also touching the absolute decree of Reprobation and the restraining of the benefit of Christs death and Gods grace unto a few particulars and that too in Gods primitive purpose and intent concerning the salvation and damnation of man-kind those of the Anti-Calvinian party went on securely with little or no opposition and less disturbance At Oxford all things in the mean time were calm and quiet no publick opposition shewing it self in the Schools or Pulpits The reasons of that which might be first that the Students of that University did more incline unto the canvasing of such points as were in difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome than unto those which were disputed against the Calvinists in these points of Doctrine for witness whereof we may call in the works of Sanders Stapleton Allyns Parsons Campian and many others of that sid as those of Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson Dr. Humphreys Mr. Nowel Dr. Sparks 〈◊〉 Hist l. 9. Dr. Reynolds and many others which stood firm to the Church of England And secondly though Dr. Humphreys the Queens Professor for Divinity was not without cause reckoned for a Non conformist yet had he the reputation of a moderate man a moderate Non-conformist as my Author calls him and therefore might permit that liberty of opinion unto other men which was indulged unto himself neither did Dr. Holland who succeeded him give any such countenance to the propagating of Calvins doctrines as to make them the subject of his Lectures and Disputations Insomuch that Mr. Prin with all his diligence can find but seven men who publickly maintained any point of Calvianism in the Schools of Oxon from the year 1596. to the year 1616. and yet to make that number also he is fain to take in Dr. George Abbot and Dr. Benfield on no other account but for maintaining Deum non esse authorem peccati that God is not the Author of sin which any Papist Lutheran or Arminian might have maintained as well as they And yet it cannot be denied but that by errour of these times the reputation which Calvin had attained to in both Universities and the extream diligence of his followers for the better carrying on of their own designs there was a general tendency unto his opinions in the present controversies so that it is no marvel if many men of good affection to that Church in government and forms of worship might unawares be seasoned with his Principles in point of Doctrine Instit fathers in the Pref. his book of Institutes being for the most part the foundation on which the young Divines of
continual Prevalency of a busie faction And I have carried it on no further because at this time Bishop Laud to whom the raising and promoting of the Arminian doctrines as they call them is of late ascribed was hardly able to promote and preserve himself opprest with a hard hand by Archbishop Abbot secretly traduced unto the King for the unfortunate business of Early of Devonshire attaining with great difficulty to the poor Bishoprick of St. Davids after ten years service and yet but green in favour with the Duke of Buckingham What happened afterwards towards the countenancing of these Doctrines by the appearing of King Charles in the behalf of Mountague the Letter of the three Bishops to the Duke in defence of the man and his Opinion his questioning and impeachment by the House of Commons and his preferment by the King to the See of Chichester are all of them beyond the bounds which I have prescribed unto my self in this Narration Nor shall I now take notice of his Majesties Proclamation of the 14. of June Anno 1626. For establishing the peace and quiet of the Church of England by which he interdicted all such preaching and printing as might create any fresh disturbance to the Church of England or for his smart Answer to that part of the Remonstrance of the House of Commons Anno 1628. which concerned the danger like to fall on this Church and Kingdom by the growth of Arminianism or of the Declaration prefixed before the book of Articles in the same year also for silencing the said Disputes or finally of his Majesties Instructions bearing date Decemb. 30. 1629. for causing the Contents of the Declaration to be put in execution and punctually observed for the time to come By means whereof and many fair encouragements from many of our Prelates and other great men of the Realm the Anti-Calvinist party became considerable both for power and number A POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER Concerning some particulars in a scurrilous Pamphlet intituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. PRimâ dicta mihi summâ dicenda camaenâ with thee good Reader I began and with thee I must end I gave thee notice in the Preface of a scurrilous Libel the Author whereof had disgorged his foul stomach on me and seemed to glory in the shame But whether this Author be a Cerberus with three heads or a Smectymnuus with fire or but a single Shimei only for it is differently reported is all one to me who am as little troubled with the noise of Billings-gate as the cry of an Oyster-wife It is my confidence that none of the dirt which he most shamefully confesseth himself to have thrown in my face will be found upon it P. 175. notwithstanding that necesse est ut aliquid haereat may be sometimes true Omitting therefore the consideration of his many Obscenities which every where are intermingled for the flowers of his Rhetorick I cannot but do my self so much justice as to satisfie the Reader in the truth of some things which otherwise may be believed to my disadvantage I am content to suffer under as much obloquie as any foul-mouth'd Presbyterian can spit upon me but I am not willing to be thought a slanderer a profane person or ungrateful for the sinallest favours all which the Author of that scurrilous Pamphlet hath imposed upon me In the first place it is much laboured to make me guilty of ingratitude and disaffection to Magd. Coll. of which I had the honour to be once a member P. 22. and do retain so high an estimation of it that whensoever I shall write or speak any thing to the reproach of that foundation let my tongue cleave unto the roof of my mouth and my right hand forget its cunning But I am able to distinguish between the duty I own to the House it self and that which every member of it is to challenge from me quid civitati quid civibus debeam in the Orators Criticism And therefore I would not have the Libeller or his Partners think that his or their taking Sanctuary under the name of Magdalen Colledge shall so far priviledge them in their actings either against the Church in general or my own particular but that I shall as boldly venture to attacque them there without fear of sacriledge as Joab was smitten by Benaiah at the horns of the Altar But the best is that I am made to have some ground for my disaffection though there be no less falshood in the fundamentals than the superstructure And a fine tale is told of some endeavours by me used for bringing one of my own brood into that foundation the failing of which hopes must of necessity occasion such an undervaluing of that Colledge as to change it from a nest of Sparrows to a nest of Cucknes P. 22. But the truth is that the party for whom I was a suitor was so far from being one of my own brood as not to be within the compass of my Relations so much a stranger to my blood that he was no otherwise endeared unto me than by the extraordinary opinion which I had of his parts and industry And therefore I commended him no further unto Dr. Goodwin than that it was not my desire to have him chosen if any abler Scholar should appear for the place And it was well for the young man that I sped no better Periisset nisi periisset as we know who said For within less than two years after he was elected into the Society of Merton Colledge to their great honour be it spoken upon no other commendation than his own abilities In the next place I am made a slanderer for saying that the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. bound and his adherents had been embraced more passionately of late than any one Article of Religion here by Law established How so Because saith he or they 't is no matter which it is well known that they do more passionately embrace the great truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of Scripture c. than any opinion about the Sabbath What may be meant by the c. it is hard to say perhaps the Presbyterian Discipline or the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestination the two dear Helena's of the Sects as sacred and inviolable in their estimation as any of their new opinions about the Sabbath But whether the great truths of Christs Divinity the Divine Authority of Scripture or any Article of Religion here by Law established be embraced by them with the like passion as their new Saint Sabbath may be discerned by that impunity which is indulged by them to all Anabaptists Familists Ranters Quakers and all other Sectaries by whom the great Truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of holy Scripture and almost all the Articles of the Christian Faith have been called in question And yet we cannot choose but know with what severity they proceeded when they were in power against all persons whatsoever
c. convenit ut per consilium testimonium ejus omne legis scitum Burgi mensura omne pondus sit secundum dictionem ejus institutum that is to say it belongeth of right unto the Bishop to promote Justifice in matters which concern both the Church and State and unto him it appertaineth that by his counsel and award all Laws and Weights and Measures be ordained throughout the Kingdom 2. Next we will have recourse to the old Record entituled Modus tenendi Parliamentum In which it is affirmed ad Parliamentum summoneri venire debere Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Priores alios majores cleri qui tenent per Comitatum aut Baroniam ratione hujusmodi tenurae Modus tenendi Parliament that all the Archbishops Bishops Abbats Priors and other Prelates of the Church who hold their Lands either by an Earls fee or a Barons fee were to be summoned and to come to Parliament in regard of their Tenure 3. Next look we on the chartularies of King Henry the first recognized in full Parliament at Clarendon under Henry the 2d where they are called avitas consuetudines which declare it thus Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae personae qui de Rege tenent in Capite habeant possessiones suas de Rege sicut Baroniam c. sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse juditiis Curiae Regis cum Baronibus quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Matth. Paris in Hen. 2. The meaning is in brief that Archbishops Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical persons which hold in Capite of the King are to have and hold their Lands in Barony and that they ought as Barons to be present in all Judgments with the other Barons in the Court of Parliament until the very sentence of death or mutilation which was very common in those times was to be pronounced And then they commonly did use to withdraw themselves not out of any incapacity supposed to be in them by the Law of England but out of a restraint imposed upon them by the Canons of the Church of Rome 4. In the great Charter made by King John in the last of his Reign we have the Form of summoning a Parliament and calling those together who have Votes therein thus expressed at large Ad habendum commune consilium Regni de auxilio assidendo c. de scutagiis assidendis faciemus summoneri Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Comites Majores Barones Regni sigillatim per literas nostras Et praeterea summoneri faciemus in generali per Vice Comites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in Capite tenent ad certum diem Id. in Joh. sc ad terminum 40. dierum ad minus ad certum locum c. In which we have not only a most evident proof that the Bishops are of right to be called to Parliament for granting Subsidies and Escuago and treating of the great Affairs which concern the Kingdom but that they are to be summoned by particular Letters as well as the Earls and Barons or either of them A Form or copy of which summons issued in the time of the said King John is extant on Record and put in print of late in the Titles of Honour Pr. 2. c. 5. And we have here I note this only by the way a brief intimation touching the Form of summoning the Commons to attend in Parliament and the time of 40 days expresly specified to intervene between the summons and the beginning of the Parliament Which Commons being such as anciently did hold in Capite and either having a Knights fee or the degree of Knighthood did first promiscuously attend in these publick meetings and after were reduced to four quatuor discretos milites de Comitatu tuo Id. ibid. as the Writ ran unto the Sheriff and at last to two as they continue to this day 5. We have it thus in the Magna Charta of King Henry the 3d. the birth-right of the English Subject according as it stands translated in the book of Statutes First we have granted to God and by this our present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever that the Church of England shall be free Magna Charta ca. 1. and shall enjoy all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable But it was a known Right and Liberty of the Church of England that all the Bishops and many of the greater Clergy and peradventure also the inferiour Clergy whereof more anon had their Votes in Parliament and therefore is to be preserved inviolable by the Kings of England their heirs and Successors for ever Which Charter as it was confirmed by a solemn Curse denounced on all the Infringers of it by Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury Matth. Paris in Henr. 3. and ratified in no fewer than 30 succeeding Parliaments so was it enacted in the reign of Edward the first that it should be sent under the great Seal of England to all the Cathedral Churches of the Kingdom to be read twice a year before the people 25 Edw. 1. c. 2. 28 Edw. 1. c. 1. 25 Edw. 1. c. 3. that they should be read four times every year in a full County-Court and finally that all judgments given against it should be void 6. We have the Protestation of John Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury in the time of King Edward the 3d. who being in disfavour with the King and denied entrance into the House of Peers â—â—llenged his place and suffrage there as the first Peer of the Realm and one that ought to have the first Voice in Parliament in right of his See But hear him speak his own words which are these that follow Amici for he spake to those who took witness of it Rex me ad hoc Parliamentum scripto suo vocavit ego tanquam major Par Regni post Regem primam vocem habere debens in Parliamento jura Ecclesiae meae Cantuariensis vendico Antiqu. Britan. in Joh. Stratford ideo ingressum in Parliamentum peto which is full and plain 7. And lastly there is the Protestation on Record of all the Bishops in the reign of King Richard the 2d at what time William Courtney was Arch-bishop of Canterbury who being to withdraw themselves from the House of Peers at the pronouncing of the sentence of death on some guilty Lords first made their Procurators to supply their rooms and then put up their Protestation to preserve their Rights the sum whereof for as much as doth concern this business in their own words thus De jure consuetudine regni Angliae ad Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem qui pro tempore fuerit necnon caeteros Suffraganeos confratres compatres Abbates Priores aliosque Prelatos quoscunque per Baroniam de domino Rege tenentes pertinet in Parliamentis Regis quibuscunque ut Pares regni praedicti personaliter interesse ibidemque de
must needs follow thereupon that all which held their Lands of the Crown in Capite were capable in those times of a place in Parliament And so it seems they had in the Reign of King John and afterwards in the Reign of King Henry the 3d but in the last years of the said King Henry and by the power and prudence of King Edward the first were brought into a narrower compass none being admitted to appear and attend in Parliament but such as he thought fit to summon by his Royal Mandate And hereunto as well our choicest Antiquaries as our most eminent Lawyers do consent unanimously But here is to be noted saith Chief Justice Coke that if the King give Lands to any one tenendum per servitium Baronis de Rege he is no Lord of Parliament till he be called by Writ to the Parliament which as he there declares for a point of Law so is it also verified in point of practice out of the old Record entituled Modus tenendi Parliamentum in which it is affirmed Ad Parliamentum summoniri venire debere Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Priores alios majores Cleri qui tenent per Comitatum aut Baroniam ratione hujusmodi Tenurae that all Arch-bishops Bishops Priors and other Prelates of the Church who hold their Lands either in right of their Counties or in right of their Baronages were to be summoned and come to Parliament in regard of their Tenures Where we may see that though they had a jus ad rem in regard of their Tenures yet they had no pretence to their Jus in re but only by the Writ of Summons And secondly whereas the Modus speaks of some Bishops which were to be called to the Parliament in the right of their Counties I think he means it of the Bishops of Durham and Ely which enjoyed all the Rights and priviledges of a County Palatine in their several Circuits By which we see that to the making of a Baron or a Lord of Parliament it is not only necessary that he hold by Barony but that he have his Writ of Summons to attend the service which puts a signal difference between Lords of Parliament and such as are called Lords in respect of their birth or in regard of some great Offices which they hold in the State of the first sort whereof are all the eldest sons of Earls and upwards who are not only honoured with the name of Lords but challenge a precedence by the Rules of Herauldry before all the Barons of the Realm and yet can lay no claim to the Rights of Peerage unless perhaps they may be summoned to the Parliament in their fathers life time And so it hapned in the Case of the Earl of Surrey the eldest son of Thomas Lord Howard Duke of Norfolk arraigned in the last days of King Henry the eighth and tried by a Jury of twelve men because not being called to Parliament in his fathers life-time he could not be considered as a Peer of the Realm And in the last sort we may reckon the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Lord Privy Seal the Lord President of his Majesties Council the Lord High Chamberlain the Lord Admiral the Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold the Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and the three Chief Judges who if they be not otherwise of the Rank of Barons can plead no Title to their Peerage nor to Vote in Parliament and so it hapned in the Case of Sir William Stanly Lord Chamberlain to King Henry the seventh tried by a Jury of twelve men in a case of Treason without relation to his great Office or Title of Lord. Most true it is that some of these great Officers have their place in Parliament and so have all the Judges of the Courts of Westminster the Master of the Rolls the Masters of the Chancery the Kings Attorney General and perhaps some others all summoned to attend the service by Especial Writs but they are only called to advise the Court to give their Judgment and Opinion when it is demanded but not to canvass or debate and much less to conclude in any business which is there discoursed of as both the Bishops and the Temporal Lords are impowred to do Which difference appears in the Writs themselves For in the Writ of Summons to the Judges and the rest here mentioned the words run thus viz. Quod intersitis nobiscum cum caeteris de concilio nostro and sometimes nobiscum only supra praemissis tractaturi vestrumque consilium impensuri But in the Writ of Summons to the Bishops and the rest of the Peers we shall find it thus viz. quod intersitis cum praelatis magnatibus proceribus super dictis negotiis tractaturi vestrumque consilium impensuri c. which Writs of Summons to the Bishops and the Temporal Peers are the same verbatim but that the Bishops are required to attend the service sub fide dilectione the Temporal Peers sub fide ligeantia quibus nobis tenemini Upon which Premises it may be rationally inferred that the Bishops of this Church were reputed Barons a Baron and a Barony being conjugata and being Barons have as good a Claim to the right of Peerage as any of the Temporal Lords who hold as well their Peerage as their place in Parliament by no other Tenure for that a Baron of Realm and a Peer of the Realm are but terms synonymous and that the Bishops of the the Church of England are both Peers and Barons hath been proved before and may be further evidenced from that which they affirmed to the Temporal Lords convened in Parliament at Northampton under Henry the 2d for the determining of the differences betwixt the King and Thomas Becket Arch bishop of Canterbury which the Temporal Lords would fain have thrust upon the Bishops as more competent Judges to which the Bishops thus replied viz. non sedemus hic Episcopi sed Barones nos Barones vos Barones Pares hic sumus We sit not here say they as Bishops only Seldens Titles of Honour pag. â—18 but as Barons also we are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Their sitting in the Parliament was in a right of their Baronies And in the right of their Baronage they were also Peers and Peers to all intents and purposes as well as any others whether Earls or Barons who had Vote in Parliament This appears further by the words of Arch-bishop Stratford who being suspended from his place in Parliament by King Edward the 3d came boldly to the Doors of the House and turning towards those that attended there thus maintained his Claim Amice Rex me ad hoe Parliamentum scripto sua vocavit Antiq. Brittan ego tanquam major Par regni post Regem primam vocem habere debens in Parliamento Jura Ecclesiae meae Cantuariensis vendico ideo Ingressum in Parliamentum peto Which
Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves Page 518 2. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge ibid. 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus parallell'd by that of Bishop Overal Page 519 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors Page 520 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer Page 521 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it Page 522 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1610. ibid. 8. The Doctrine of the Synodists in the said Points Page 523 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God ibid. 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin Page 524 CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the story of them until their final Condemnation in the Synod of Dort 1. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter than Calvinism in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius Page 525 2. The first undertakings of Arminius his preferment to the Divinity-Chair at Leiden his Commendations and death Page 526 3. The occasion of the Name Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to five Points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference ibid. 4 The said five Points according to their several Heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod at Dort Page 527 5. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtained a collection of their Doctrine Barnevelt seised and put to death by the Prince of Orange Page 528 6. The Calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Council at Trent both in the conduct of the business against their Adversaries and the differences amongst themselves Page 529 7. The breaking out of the differences in the Synod in open Quarrels between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions ibid. 8. A Copy of the Letter from Dr. Belconqual to S. Dudly Carleton his Majesties Resident at the Hague working the violent prosecutions of those Quarrels by the Dutch Divines Page 530 9. A further prosecution of the parallel between the Council and the Synod in reference to the Articles used in the draught upon the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtful meaning of them both Page 531 10. The quarrelling Parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying them any place in the Synod and finally dismist them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing Page 532 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and unmerciful in the banishment or extermnation of the poor Remonstrants ibid. 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their persuasions in other places Ejected Persecuted and Disgraced Page 533 CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the opposite Party 1. An Introduction to the said Objections Page 534 2. The first Objection touching their being enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of S. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther ibid. 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard expressions which were used of them by King James Page 535 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Popery begun in Holland and pressed more importunately in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it ibid. 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who object the same Page 536 6. The fourth Charge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious People begun in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridley ibid. 7. What moved King James to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them Page 537 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesome nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party ibid. 9. Nothing in the Arminian Doctrine which may incline a man to sediti us courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin Page 538 10. The Recrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop ibid. 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant Page 539 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England ibid. CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the points disputed with the Removal of some rubs which are laid in the way 1. The Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the Endowments of man at his first Creation Page 541 2. His miserable fall Page 542 3. And the promised hopes of his Restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus ibid. 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy ibid. 5. The contrary judgment of Wicklif objected answered and applied to all modern Heresies Page 543 6. A general answer to the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the Writings of Frith Tyndal and Barns But more particularly Page 444 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present point and the grounds on which he builded the same ibid. 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndal in favour of the Calvinian Doctrines Page 545 9. The falsifyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndal Page 546 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to fight in the eighth of Saint Mark. ibid. CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. The danger of ascribing
the Article to the present Established Doctrine in the Church of Rome ibid. CHAP. XIII The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance 1. The certainty of Grace debated in the Council of Trent and maintained in the Affirmative by the Dominicans and some others Page 573 2. The contrary affirmed by Catarinus and his adherents ibid. 3. The doubtful resolution of the Council in it Page 574 4. The Calvinists not content with certainty of Grace quoad statum praesentem presume upon it also quoad statum futurum ibid. 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the judgment in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed Page 575 6. The Doctrine of the Church of England in the present Article ibid. 7. Justified by the testimonies of Bishop Latimer Bishoop Hooper and Master Tyndal Page 576 8. And proved by several arguments from the publick Liturgie ibid. 9. The Homily commends a probable and stedfast hope Page 577 But 10. Allows no certainty of Grace and perseverance in any ordinary way to the Sons of men ibid. CHAP. XIV The Plain Song of the second Homily touching the falling from God and the Descants made upon it 1. More from some other Homilies touching the possibility of falling from the grace received Page 578 2. The second Homily or Sermon touching falling from God laid down verbatim Page 579 3. The sorry shifts of Mr. Yates to illude the true meaning of the Homily plainly discovered and consuted Page 581 4. An Answer unto his Objection touching the passage cited from the former Homily in Mr. Mountagues Appeal ibid. 5. The judgment of Mr. Ridley Arch-Deacon of Canterbury in the points of Election and Redemption Page 582 6. As also touching the reasons why the Word was not preached unto the Gentiles till the coming of Christ the influences of grace the co-workings of man and the possibility of falling from the truth of Christ ibid. CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Chatechism as also of the judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. The Catechism published by the Authority of King Edward VI. Anno 1553. affirmed to have been Writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy Page 583 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrins were the true genuine and ancient Doctrins of the Church of England Page 584 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation Page 585 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgment of Bishop Poinet in most of the Controverted Points Page 586 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation ibid. 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon as after his return to Zurick and Calvins Neighbourhood Page 587 7. The judgment of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the four Evangelists proposed first in the general view and after more particularly in every of the Points disputed Page 588 PART III. CHAP. XVI Of the first breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. The Predestinarians called at first by the name of Gospellers Page 589 2. Campney's a professed Enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagian Page 590 3. The common practices of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free-will men to whom given why ibid. 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God Page 591 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only ibid. 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it ibid. 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys Page 592 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his Book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxie in the point of universal Redemption and what he builds upon the same ibid. 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitain Page 593 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin Page 594 CHAP. XVII Of the disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days and the resetling of the Church on her former principles under Queen Elizabeth 1. The Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days Page 595 2. The Examination of John Carelese between Dr. Martin in reference to the said Disputes ibid. 3. Considerations on some passages in the conference betwixt Dr. Martin and the said John Carelesse Page 596 4. Review made of the publick Liturgie by the command of Queen Elizabeth and the â—araphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priest and People Page 597 5. The second Book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviewing and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority ibid. 6. Of the reviewing and authority of the Book of Articles Anno 1562. and what may be from thence inferred Page 598 7. An Answer from the Agreement drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulty wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same ibid. 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechism set forth by Mr. Alexander Nowel and the strength thereof Page 599 9. Several considerations on the said Catechism and the rest of the Authors making and what his being Prolocutor in the Convocation might add to any of them in point of Orthodoxie ibid. 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Nowels Catechism in favour of the Calvinian doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and less than nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authors meaning and the determination of the Church Page 600 CHAP. XVIII A Declaration of the
wakened by a Sermon preach'd at Saint Pauls Cross by Dr. Bancroft then Chaplain unto Chancellor Hatton Feb. 9. 1588. upon that passage in S. John Believe not every spirit c. 1 Joh. 4.1 After which time the Earl of Leicester their great Patron being newly dead so vigilant an eye was carried towards them and such quick execution done upon them that it was high time for them to give over their open and seditious practices Their privity to Hacket's Treasons together with learned and industrious Treatises of Dr. Bilson in defence of Episcopal Government of Dr. Bancroft in discovering their dangerous proceedings and positions his Anatomy or Survey of their pretended holy Discipline Dr. Cousens his Apology for the proceeding in Courts Ecclesiastical all publish'd in the year 1593. the execution of Penry the condemnation of Vdal and the imprisonment of Cartwright happening all together gave such a check unto their fortunes that they durst never venture on the like Disturbances in Queen Elizabeths time But as once Florus said of the Affairs of Rome and Carthage so may we also say in respect of the Bishops and these Men Semper inter eos populos aut bellum Flor. Hist Rom. lib. 4. aut belli praeparatio aut infida pax fuit They either were at open War or preparing for it or at a peace more doubtful and uncertain than the War it self And in this interval while the Brethren had nothing so much as peace in their mouths they made themselves ready for the battel and drew unto their side a party like to Davids Army resorted to by every one that was in distress and every one that was in debt 1 Sam. 22.2 and every one that was discontented or otherwise were desirous of Novelties and hoped to mend their Fortunes by the change of Government Yet had they not courage enough to discover themselves excepting some preparatory Libels about the year 1635. till the Scots having in a Tumult expelled their Bishops and falling not long after into England with a puissant Army gave them the confidence of effecting that without any hazard which with such danger they had tugged for in the former times And in that confidence the Smectymnuans came to act their part on the publick Theater addressing their Discourse against Episcopacy to the Lords and Commons amongst whom they were sure enough to find very good friends and having tired out with their numbers and continual exercise the Patience of the Humble Remonstrant they began to triumph in the Victory before they had it and thought themselves as sure of setting up their beloved Presbyteries in every corner of the Kingdom as if already they were cantoned out and confirmed by Parliament Never so much outwitted as by being ingaged in that employment in which they served the turns of others without speeding their own For though they had the hap to obtain an Ordinance for abolishing all Arch-bishops and Bishops bearing date October 9.1646 and several Ordinances thereupon for setling the Presbyterian Government as they had projected it yet these last Ordinances being but Probationers expired before their time within few months after they had passed the Houses These great contrivers of our Troubles and the Churches Ruine not having the good luck to see their Discipline establish'd in any one Church within the Kingdom The Lay-brethren had other fish to fry and having made use of these hot spirits to effect their purposes laid by all care of gratifying them with that Supremacy which they affected in the Church and presently fell to the division of the Spoil among themselves Which Prey as it had been in chase from the 37 year of K. Henry the VIII who laid his first hand on that part of the Churches Patrimony 37 Harry 8. cap 16. as appears by the Statutes of that year so was it followed more or less from that time forwards except the short parenthesis of Queen Maries reign till the first Parliament of King James who past an Act against the diminution of the possessions and Estates of Bishops repealing in the same some clauses of an unprinted Statute made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth by which their Land both Sede plena and vacante were wrested from them But this Pale being broken down by the Ordinance of Octob. 9 which before we spake of there past another on the 16th of November following for the sale of those Lands which was the Game so closely followed by their Fore-fathers in the Faction and sometimes brought unto the Bay but never could be hunted to the Fall before But I return to the Smectymnuans whom though I left triumphing before the Victory as before was said yet seeing my self engaged by Duty and Provocation which I have spoken of elsewhere I was resolved to undertake them Pref. to the Hist of Episco notwithstanding all advantages which they had against me as the times then were And I resolved to undertake them in a way less capable of Contradiction of Answers and Replies than than that of Polemical Discourses to fashion my Design into the form of an History tracing Episcopacy with all the parts and powers thereof from the first Institution of it by our Lord and Saviour to the reign of Constantine at what time it had attained to its full Establishment One only Argument which I have heard of late from the mouths of many must be answered here and that is that Episcopacy is so fitted to the Kingly or Monarchical Government that it is altogether inconsistent with any other And for this they have no other proof but because King James did use to say No Bishop no King meaning thereby that there could be no King where there was no Bishop therefore it followeth è converso that there can be no Bishop where there is no King An Argument to be answered without further trouble than by looking into the three principal Estates of Italy as they stood at and before the year 1520. that is to say the Kingdom of Naples the Aristocratie of Venice and the Democraty or popular Estate of Florence with each of which Episcopacy did so well comply that it created no disturbance unto any of them but peace and comfort to them all Some of the Scots the greatest Enemies to Episcopacy in the Christian World have now of late confest ingenuoufly enough that they have buried their antient Monarchy in the same grave with it But I could never hear from any that when the Kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed in Italy and distracted into many popular and petit Signories each independent to the other the Government of the Church by Bishops as it had been formerly was ruin'd or determin'd with it And so this Argument being Topical only calculated for the Meridian of the present Times with reference to the temper of a broken and unsetled State can neither serve for any place else nor for this in fine when our Affairs shall be reduced to a setled Government
Parliament that is might have the force of a Law by a civil Sanction The whole debate with all the Traverses and emergent difficulties which appeared therein are specified at large in the Records of Convocation Anno 1532. But being you have not opportunity to consult those Records I shall prove it by the Act of Parliament called commonly The Act of submission of the Clergy but bearing this Title in the Abridgment of the Statutes set out by Poulton That the Clergy in their Convocations shall enact no constitutions without the Kings assent In which it is premised for granted that the Clergy of the Realm of England had not only acknowledged according to the truth that the Convocation of the same Celrgy is always hath been and ought to be assembled always by the Kings Writ but also submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty had promised in verbo Sacerdotis That they would never from henceforth presume to attempt alleadge claim or put in ure enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances provincial or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the Kings most Royal Assent may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and that his Majesty do giv his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf Upon which ground-work of the Clergies the Parliament shortly after built this superstructure to the same effect viz. That none of the said Clergy from henceforth should presume to attempt alleadge claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons norshall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever names or names they may be called in their Convocations in time coming which always shall be assembled by the Kings Writ unless the same Clergy may have the Kings most Royal Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodical upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convicted to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the Kings Will 25 H. 8. c. 19. So that the Statute in effect is no more than this An Act to bind the Clergy to perform their promise to keep them fast unto their word for the time to come that no new Canon should be made in the times succeeding in the favour of the Pope or by his Authority or to the diminution of the Kings Royal Prerogative or contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England as many Papal Constitutions were in the former Ages Which Statute I desire you nto take notice of because it is the Rule and Measure of the Churches power in making Canons Constitutions or whatsoever else you shall please to call them in their Convocations The third and final Act conducing to the Popes Ejection was an Act of Parliament 28 H. 8 c. 10. entituled An Act extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome By which it was enacted That if any person should extol the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he should incur the penalty of a preamunire that every Officer both Ecclesiastioal and Lay should be Sworn to renounce the said Bishop and his Authority and to resist it to his power and to repute any Oath formerly taken in maintenance of the said Bishop or his Authority to be void and finally that the refusal of the said Oath should be judged High Treason But this was also usher'd in by the determination first and after by the practice of all the Clergy For in the year 1534. which was two years before the passing of this Act the King had sent this Proposition to be agitated in both Vniversities and in the greatest and most famous Monasteries of the Kingdom that is to say An aliquid authoritatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicunque Episcopo extero By whom it was determined Negatively that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of Right in the Kingdom of England than any other forreign Bishop Which being testified returned under the hands and seals respectively the Originals whereof are still remaining in the Library of Sr. Robert Cotton was a good preamble to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy assembled in their Convocation to conclude the like And so accordingly they did and made an Instrument thereof subscribed by the hands of all the Bishops and others of the Clergy and afterwards confirmed the same by their corporal Oaths The copies of which Oaths and Instrument you shall find in Foxes Acts and Monumets Vol. 2. fol. 1203. and fol. 1210 1211. of the Edition of John Day Anno 1570. And this was semblably the ground of a following Statute 35 H. 8. c. 1. wherein another Oath was devised and ratified to be imposed upon the Subject for the more clear asserting of the Kings Supremacy and the utter exclusion fo the Popes for ever which Statutes though they were all repealed by an Act of Parliament 1 and 2 d. of Phil. and Mary c. 1. yet were they all revived in 1 Elize save that the name of supream Head was changed unto that of the supream Governour and certain clauses altered in the Oath of Supremacy Where by the way you must take notice that the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy are not introductory of any new Right that was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old as our best Lawyers tell us and the Statute of the 26 of H. 8. c. 1. doth clearly intimate So that in the Ejection of the Pope of Rome which was the firt and greatest steptowards the work of Reformation the Parliament did nothing for ought it appears but what was done before in the Convocation and did no more than fortifie the Results of Holy Church by the addition and corroboration of the Secular Power 3. Of the Translation of the Scriptures and permitting them to be read in the English Tongue THE second step towards the work of Reformation and indeed one of the most especial parts thereof was the Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue and the permitting all sorts of people to peruse the same as that which visibly did tend to the discovery of the errours and corruptions in the Church of Rome and the intolerable pride and tyranny of the Roman Prelates upon which grounds it had been formerly translated into English by the hand of Wickliff and after on the spreading of Luthers Doctrine by the pains of Tindal a stout and active man in K. Henries days but not so well befriended as the work deserved especially considering that it hapned in such a time when many Printed Pamphlets did disturb the State and some of them of Tindals making which seemed to tend unto sedition and the change of Government Which being remonstrated to the King he caused divers of his Bishops together with sundry of the Learned'st and
Articles had been concluded and condescended upon by the Prelates and Clergy of the Realm in their Convocation as appeareth in the very words of the Injunction For which see Fox his Acts and Monuments fol. 1247. I find not any thing in Parliament which relates to this either to countenance the work or to require obedience and conformity from the hand of the people And to say truth neither the King nor Clergy did account it necessary but thought their own Authority sufficient to go through with it though certainly it was more necessary at that time than in any since The power and reputation of the Clergy being under foot the King scarce setled in the Supremacy so lately recognized unto him and therefore the Authority of the Parliament of more Use than afterward in Times well ballanced and established 'T is true that in some other year of that Princes Reign we find some Use and mention of an Act of Parliament in matters which concerned Religion but it was only in such Times when the hopes of Reformation were in the Wane and the Work went retrogade For in the year 1539. being the 31. H. 8. When the Lord Comwels power began to decline and the King was in a necessity of compliance with His Neighbouring Princes there passed an Act of Parliament commonly called the Statute of the six Articles or the Whip with six strings In which it was Enacted That whosoever by word or writing should Preach Teach or publish that in the blessed Sacraments of the Altar under form of Bread and Wine there is not really the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or affirm otherwise thereof than was maintained and taught in the Church of Rome should be adjudged an Heretick and suffer death by burning and forfeit all his Lands and Goods as in case of High Treason Secondly That whosoever should Teach or Preach that the Communion of the blessed Sacrament in both kinds is necessary for the health of mans soul and ought to be maintained Thirdly Or that any man ofter the Order of Priesthood received might Marry or contract Matrimony Fourthly Or that any Woman which had vowed and professed Chastity might contract Marriage Fifthly Or that private Masses were not lawful and laudable or agreable to the Word of God Or sixthly That auricular Confession was not necessary and expedient to be used in the Church of God should suffer death and forfeit Lands and Goods as a Felon 31 H. 8. c. 14. The rigour of which terrible Statute was shortly after mitigated in the said King's Reign 32 H. 8. c. 10. and 35 H. 8. c. 5. and the whole Statute absolutely repealed by Act of Parliament 1 E. 6. c. 12. But then it is to be observed first that this Parliament of K. H. 8. did not determine any thing in those six points of Doctrine which are therein recited but only took upon them to devise a course for the suppressing of the contrary Opinions by adding by the secular Power the punishment of Death and forfeiture of Lands and Goods unto the censures of the Church which were grown weak if not unvalid and consequently by degrees became neglected ever since the said K. Henry took the Headship on Him and exercised the same by a Lay Vicar General And secondly you must observe that it appeareth evidently by the Act it self that at the same time the King had called a Synod and Convocation of all the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Learned men of the Clergy that the Articles were first deliberately and advisedly debated argued and reasoned by the said Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Learned men of the Clergy and their opinions in the same declared and made known before the matter came in Parliament And finally That being brought into the Parliament there was not any thing declared and passed as doctrinal but by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and other Learned men of the Clergy as by the Act it self doth at large appear Finally Whatsoever may be drawn from thence can be only this That K. Hen. did make use of his Court of Parliament for the establishing and confirming of some points of Popery which seemed to be in danger of a Reformation And this compared with the Statute of the 34. and 35. prohibiting the reading of the Bible by most sorts of people doth clearly shew that the Parliaments of those times did rather hinder and retard the work of Reformation in some especial parts thereof than give any furtherance to the same But to proceed There was another point of Reformation begun in the Lord Cromwels time but not produced nor brought to perfection till after his decease and then too not without the Midwifery of an Act of Parliament For in the year 1537. the Bishops and others of the Clergy of the Convocation had composed a Book entituled The Institution of a Christian Man which being subscribed by all their hands was by them presented to the King by His most excellent judgment to be allowed of or condemned This Book containing the chief Heads of Christian Religion was forthwith Printed and exposed to publick view But some things not being clearly explicated or otherwise subject to exception he caused it to be reviewed and to that end as Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Engl. I speak the very words of the Act of Parl. 32. H. 8. c. 26. appointed the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and also a great number of the best learned honestest and most vertuous sort of the Doctors of Divinity men of discretion judgment and good disposition to be called together to the intent that according to the very Gospel and Law of God without any partial respect or affection to the Papistical sort or any other Sect or Sects whatsoever they should declare by writing and publish as well the principal Articles and points of our Faith and Belief with the Declaration true understanding and observation of such other expedient points as by them with his Graces advice counsel and consent shall be thought needful and expedient as also for the lawful Rights Ceremonies and observation of Gods Service within this Realm This was in the year 1540. at what time the Parliament was also sitting of which the King was pleased to make this special use That whereas the work which was in hand I use again the words of the Statute required ripe and mature deliberation and was not rashly to be defined and set forth and so not fit to be restrained to the present Session an Act was passed to this effect That all Determinations Declarations Decrees Definitions and Ordinances as according to God's Word and Christ's Gospel should at any time hereafter be set forth by the said arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops and Doctors in Divinity now appointed or hereafter to be appointed by his Royal Majesty or else by the whole Clergy of England in and upon the matter of Christ's Religion and the Christian Faith
Saxons by such as he employed in that Holy work The instances whereof dispersed in several places of our English Histories and other Monuments and Records which concern this Church are handsomely summed up together by Sir Edward Cook in the fifth part of his Reports if I well remember but I am sure in Cawdries Case entituled De Jure Regis Ecclesiastico And though Parsons the Jesuite in his Answer unto that Report hath took much pains to vindicate the Popes Supremacy in this Kingdom from the first planting of the Gospel among the Saxons yet all he hath effected by it proves no more than this That the Popes by permission of some weak Princes did exercise a kind of concurrent jurisdiction here with the Kings themselves but came not to the full and entire Supremacy till they had brought all other Kings and Princes of the Western Empire nay even the Emperors themselves under their command So that when the Supremacy was recognized by the Clergy in their Convocation to K. H. 8. it was only the restoring of him to his proper and original power invaded by the Popes of these latter Ages though possibly the Title of Supream Head seemed to have somewhat in it of an Innovation At which Title when the Papists generally and Calvin in his Comment on the Prophet Amos did seem to be much scandalized it was with much wisdom changed by Q. Elizabeth into that of Supream Governour which is still in use And when that also would not down with some queasie stomacks the Queen her self by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign and the Clergy in their book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation about five years after did declare and signifie That there was no Authority in sacred matters contained under that Title but that only Prerogative which had been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and to restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers as also to exclude thereby the Bishop of Rome from having any jurisdiction in the Realm of England Artic. 37. Lay this unto the rest before and tell me if you can what hath been acted by the Kings of England in the Reformation of Religion but what is warranted unto them by the practice and example of the most godly Kings of Jewry seconded by the most godly Emperours in the Christian Church and by the usage also of their own Predecessors in this Kingdom till Papal Usurpation carried all before it And being that all the Popes pretended to in this Realm was but Usurpation it was no Wrong to take that from him which he had no Right to and to restore it at the last to the proper Owner Neither prescription on the one side nor discontinuance on the other change the case at all that noted Maxim of our Lawyers that no prescription binds the King or Nullum tempus occurrit Regi as their own words are being as good against the Pope as against the Subject This leads me to the second part of this Dispute the dispossessing of the Pope of that Supream Power so long enjoyed and exercised in this Realm by his Predecessors To which we say that though the pretensions of the Pope were antient yet they were not primitive and therefore we may answer in our Saviours words Ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning For it is evident enough in the course of story that the Pope neither claimed nor exercised any such Supremacy within this Kingdom in the first Ages of this Church nor in many after till by gaining from the King the Investiture of Bishops under Henry the First the exemption of the Clergy from the Courts of Justice under Henry the Second and the submission of King John to the See of Rome they found themselves of strength sufficient to make good their Plea And though by the like artifices seconded by some Texts of Scripture which the ignorance of those times incouraged them to abuse as they pleased they had attained the like Supremacy in France Spain and Germany and all the Churches of the West Yet his Incroachments were opposed and his Authority disputed upon all occasions especially as the light of Letters did begin to shine Insomuch as it was not only determined essentially in the Council of Constance one of the Imperial Cities of High germany that the Council was above the Pope and his Authority much curbed by the Pragmatick Sanction which thence took beginning But Gerson the learned Chancellor of Paris wrote a full Discourse entituled De auferibilitate Papae touching the total abrogating of the Papal Office which certainly he had never done in case the Papal Office had been found essential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ According to the Position of that learned man The greatest Princes in these times did look upon the Pope and the Papal power as an Excrescence at the best in the body mystical subject and fit to be pared off as occasion served though on self ends Reasons of State and to serve their several turns by him as their needs required they did and do permit him to continue in his former greatness For Lewis the 11th King of France in a Council of his own Bishops held at Lions cited Pope Julius the 2d to appear before him and Laustrech Governour of Millaine under Francis the 1st conceived the Popes Authority to be so unnecessary yea even in Italy it self that taking a displeasure against Leo the 10th he outed him of all his jurisdiction within that Dukedom anno 1528. and so disposed of all Ecclesiastical affairs ut praefecto sacris Bigorrano Episcopo omnia sine Romani Pontificis authoritate administrarentur as Thuanus hath it that the Church there was supreamly governed by the Bishop of Bigor a Bishop of the Church of France without the intermedling of the Pope at all The like we find to have been done about six years after by Charles the Fifth Emperor and King of Spain who being no less displeased with Pope Clement the 7th Abolished the Papal power and jurisdiction out of all the Churches of his Kingdoms in Spain Which though it held but for a while till the breach was closed yet left he an example by it as my Author noteth Ecclesiasticam disciplinam citra Romani nominis autoritatem posse conservari that there was no necessity of a Pope at all And when K. Henry the 8th following these examples had banished the Popes Authority out of his Dominions Religion still remaining here as before it did the Popes Supremacy not being at the time an Article of the Churistian Faith as it hath since been made by Pope Pius the 4th that Act of his was much commended by most knowing men in that without more alteration in the face of the Church
and adjuncts of it which had been utterly abolished in Zuinglian Churches and much impaired in power and jurisdiction by the Lutherans also and keeping up a Liturgy or set form of worship according to the rites and usages of the primitive times which those of the Calvinian Congregations would not hearken to God certainly had so disposed it in his Heavenly wisdom that so this Church without respect unto the names and Dictates of particular Doctors might found its Reformation on the Prophets and Apostles only according to the Explications and Traditions of the ancient Fathers And being so founded in it self without respect to any of the differing parties might in succeeding Ages sit as Judge between them as being more inclinable by her constitution to mediate a peace amongst them than to espouse the quarrel of either side And though Spalato in the Book of his Retractations which he calls Consilium redeundi objects against us That besides the publick Articles and confession authorised by the Churches we had embraced some Lutheran and Calvinian Fancies multa Lutheri Calvini dogmata so his own words run yet this was but the error of particular men not to be charged upon the Church as maintaining either The Church is constant to her safe and her first conclusions though many private men take liberty to imbrace new Doctrines 4. That the Church did not innovate in translating the Scriptures and the publick Liturgie into vulgar tongues and of the consequents thereof in the Church of England The next thing faulted as you say in the Reformation is the committing so much heavenly treasure to such rotten vessels the trusting so much excellent Wine to such musty bottles I mean the versions of the Scriptures and the publick Liturgies into the usual Languages of the common people and the promiscuous liberty indulged them in it And this they charge not as an Innovation simply but as an Innovation of a dangerous consequence the sad effects whereof we now see so clearly A charge which doth alike concern all the Protestant and Reformed Churches so that I should have passed it over at the present time but that it is made ours more specially in the application the sad effects which the enemy doth so much insult in being said to be more visible in the Church of England than in other places This make it ours and therefore here to be considered as the former were First then they charge it on the Church as an Innovation it being affirmed by Bellarmine l. 2. De verbo Dei c. 15. whether with less truth or modesty it is hard to say Vniversam Ecclesiam semper his tantum linguis c. that in the Universal Church in all times foregoing the Scriptures were not commonly and publickly read in any other language but in the Hebrew Greek and Latine This is you see a two-edged sword and strikes not only against all Translations of the Scriptures into vulgar Languages for common use but against reading those Translations publickly as a part of Liturgy in which are many things as the Cardinal tells us quae secreta esse debent which are not fit to be made known to the common people This is the substance of the charge and herein we joyn issue in the usual Form with Absque hoc sans ceo no such matter really the constant current of Antiquity doth affirm the contrary by which it will appear most plainly that the Church did neither Innovate in the act of hers nor deviate therein from the Word of God or from the usage of the best and happiest times of the Church of Christ Not from the Word of God there 's no doubt of that which was committed unto writing that it might be read and read by all that were to be directed and guided by it The Scriptures of the Old Testament first writ in Hebrew the Vulgar Language of that people and read unto them publickly on the Sabbath days as appears clearly Act. 13.15 15.21 translated afterwards by the cost and care of Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt into the Greek tongue the most known and sTudied Language of the Eastern World The New Testament first writ in Greek for the self-same reason but that S. Matthew's Gospel is affirmed by some Learned men to have been written in the Hebrew and written to this end and purpose that men might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing they might have life in his Name Joh. 20. vers ult But being that all the Faithful did not understand these Languages and that the light of holy Scripture might not be likened to a Candle hidden under a Bushel It was thought good by many godly men in the Primitive times to translate the same into the Languages of the Countreys in which they lived or of the which they had been Natives In which respect S. Chrysostom then banished into Armenia translated the New Testament and the Psalms of David into the Language of that people S. Hierom a Pannonian born translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick tongue as Vulphilas Bishop of the Gothes did into the Gothick all which we find together without further search in the Bibliotheque of Sixtus Senensis a learned and ingenuous man but a Pontifician and so less partial in this cause The like done here in England by the care of Athelstan causing a Translation of it into the Saxon Tongue the like done by Methodius the Apostle General of the Sclaves translating it into the Sclavonian for the use of those Nations not to say any thing of the Syriack Aethiopick Arabick the Persian and Chaldaean Versions of which the times and Authors are not so well known And what I pray you is the vulgar or old Latine Edition of late times made Authentick by the Popes of Rome but a Translation of the Scriptures out of Greek and Hebrew for the instruction of the Roman and Italian Nations to whom the Latine at that time was the Vulgar Tongue And when that Tongue by reason of the breaking in of the barbarous Nations was worn out of knowledge I mean as to the common people did not God stir up James Arch-Bishop of Genoa when the times were darkest that is to say Anno 1290. or thereabouts to give some light to them by translating the whole Bible into the Italian the modern Language of that Countrey As he did Wiclef not long after to translate the same into the English of those times the Saxon Tongue not being then commonly understood a copy of whose Version in a fair Velom Manuscript I have now here by me by the gift of my noble Friend Charles Dymoke Hereditary Champion to the Kings of England So then it is no Innovation to translate the Scriptures and less to suffer these Translations to be promiscuously read by all sorts of people the Scripture being as well Milk for Babes as strong Meat for the man of more able judgment Why else doth the Apostle note it
the Baise-maine which consists of Offerings Churchings Burials Diriges and such other casualties amounteth to as much per annum as their standing rents Upon which ground Sir Edwin Sandys computeth their Revenue at six millions yearly In Italy besides the temporal Estate of the Popes of Rome the Clergy are conceived to have in some places a third part of the whole but in most a moiety In Spain the certain rents of the Archbishoprick of Toledo are said to be no less than 300000 Crowns per annum which is far more than all the Bishops Deans and Prebendaries do possess in England In Germany the Bishops for the most part are powerful Princes and the Canons of some Churches of so fair an Intrado and of such estimation amongst the people that the Emperours have thought it no disparagement to them to have a Canons place in some of their Churches And as for the Parochial Clergy in these three last Countreys especially in Spain and Italy where the people are more superstitious than they be in Germany there is no question but that the Vailes and Casualties are as beneficial to them as the Baise-main is to the French But here perhaps it will be said that this is nothing unto us of the Realm of England who have shook off the superstitions of the Church of Rome and that our pains is spent but to little purpose unless we can make good our Thesis in the Churches Protestant We must therefore cast about again and first beginning with France as before we did we shall find that those of the Reformed party there not only pay their Tithes to the Beneficiary who is presented by the Patron to the Cure or Title or to the Church or Monastery to which the Tithes are settled by Appropriations but over and above do raise a yearly maintenance for those that minister amongst them Just as the Irish Papists pay their Tithes and duties unto the Protestant Incumbent and yet maintain their own Priests too by their gifts and offerings or as the people in some places with us in England do pay their Tithes unto the Parson or Vicar whom the Law sets over them and raise a contribution also for their Lecturer whom they set over themselves In other Countreys where the Supream Governours are Reformed or Protestant the case is somewhat better with the common people although not generally so easie as with us in England For there the Tithes are taken up by the Prince or State and yearly pensions assigned out of them to maintain the Ministers which for the most part are so small and so far short of a Competency though by that name they love to call it that the Subject having paid his Tithes to the Prince or State is fain to add something out of his purse towards the mending of the Stipend Besides there being for the most part in every Church two distinct sorts of Ministers that is to say a Pastor who hath Cure of souls and performs all Ministerial offices in his Congregation and a Doctor like our English Lecturers which took hint from hence who only medleth with the Word The Pastor only hath his Stipend from the publick treasury the Doctor being maintained wholly as I am credibly informed at the charge of the people and that not only by the bounty or benevolence of Landed men but in the way of Contribution from which no sort of people of what rank soever but such as live on Alms or the poor Mans box is to be exempted But this is only in the Churches of Calvins platform those of the Lutheran party in Denmark Swethland and high Germany having their Tithes and Glebe as they had before and so much more in Offerings than with us in England by how much they come nearer to the Church of Rome both in their practice and opinions especially in the point of the holy Sacrament than the English do And as for our dear Brethren of the Kirk of Scotland who cannot be so soon forgotten by a true born English man the Tithes being setled for the most part on Religious houses came in their fall unto the Crown and out of them a third was granted to maintain their Minister but also ill paid while the Tithes remained in the Crown and worse than alienated to the use of private Gentlemen that the greatest part of the burden for support of the Ministry lay in the way of contribution on the backs of the people And as one ill example doth beget another such Lords and Gentlemen as had right to present to Churches following the steps of those who held the Tithes from the Crown soon made Lay-fees of all the Tithes of their own demesnes and left the Presentee such a sorry pittance as made him burthensome to his Neighbours for his better maintenance How it stands with them now since these late alterations those who have took the National Covenant and I presume are well acquainted with the Discipline and estate of the Scottish Kirk which they have bound themselves to defend and keep are better able to resolve us And so much for the proof of the first proposition namely That never any Clergy in in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge of the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England And yet the proof hereof will be more convincing if we can bring good evidence for the second also which is II. That there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance and support of his Parish Minister but his Easter-Offering And that is a Paradox indeed will the Reader say Is it not visible to the eye that the Clergy have the tenth part of our Corn and Cattel and of other the increase and fruits of the Earth Do not the people give them the tenth part of their Estates saith one of my Pamphlets Have they not all their livelihoods out of our purses saith another of them Assuredly neither so nor so All that the Clergy doth receive from the purse of the Subject for all the pains he takes amongst them is two pence at Easter He claims no more than this as due unless the custom of the place as I think in some parts it is bring it up to six pence If any thing be given him over this by some bountiful hand he takes it for a favour and is thankful for it Such profits as come in by Marriages Churchings and Funeral-Sermons as they are generally small and but accidental so he is bound unto some special service and attendance for it His constant standing fee which properly may be said to come out of the Subjects Purse for the administration of the Word and Sacraments is nothing but the Easter-offering The Tithes are legally his own not given unto him by the Subject as is now pretended but paid unto him as a Rent-charge laid upon the Land and that before the Subject either Lord or Tenant
They are all now for Root and Branch for the very Calling that having grubbed up those goodly Cedars of the Church the Bishops they might plant a stinking Elder as a noble person well observed in the place thereof Never was Learning so employed to cry down the encouragements and rewards of Learning The Branches needs must wither when the Root decays and what could else befall Cathedras as we see it too evidently but the inevitable exposing of them to a present ruin by making them Oblations unto Spoil and Rapine And now or never was the time for those that had a care of the Churches safety to put themselves into a posture of defence and be provided for the Battel In which if few appeared at the first on the Churches side it was not that they durst not give the onset but that they were reserved for succours For whilst the Humbly reverend Remonstrant was pleased to vindicate as well his own as the Churches honour there was small cause or rather none that other men should interpose themselves at all or rob him of the glory of a sole encounter Parque novum fortuna videt concurrere Bellum atque virum as in a case not much unlike was observed by Lucan But when that Reverend pen grew wearied not with the strength or number of his Adversaries but their importunity who were resolved to have the last words as himself observeth and that he hath been pleased to give way to others to shew their duty and affection in so just a cause it was then no hard matter to persuade me to such further courses as might be thought on and pursued for the Churches peace And I the rather was resolved to do somewhat in it because the Smectymnuans in a manner had ingaged me in the undertaking It seems they have forgotten what their own Darling HEILTN c. Smectym pag. 16 17. by giving me the Title of the Bishops Darling a Title which though given in scorn had been ill bestowed should I be wanting unto those of that Sacred Order which were supposed to let me hold so principal a place in their affections Doubly ingaged by duty and this provocation which I could not take but for a challenge I took their Book into my hand in which I found the whole dispute as it relates to the Episcopal Government reduced to these Propositions viz. 1. That the Impropriation of name and Imparity of place between Bishops and Presbyters was not of divine right and Apostolical institution but of humane invention and occasionally only and that a Diabolical occasion also and no more than so 2. That the eminent Superiority and Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction which our Bishops claim was both unknown to the Scripture and the Primitive times 3. That antiently in some places of the World the Episcopal Government was never known for many years together the people in those places being instructed in the faith without help of Bishops Hereupon they infer in the close of all That Bishops or Episcopacy being at the best a meer humane Ordinance may by the same Authority be abrogated by which it was first established This last I must confess delivered in the way of Quere but so delivered as to carry a Position in it more pertinent to their aim and purpose than the other three In prosecuting of which points as they have shewed the greatest of their wit and cunning to give the fairest colours to a rotten Cause so have they brought no new Objections against the Episcopal Order and Jurisdiction but what are either answered or prevented in the Learned works of B. Bilson B. Downham and other Worthies of this Church now in bliss with God Nihil dictum quod non dictum fuit prius had been an Answer new enough for an old Objection But seeing that these Men though they could bring no new supply of Arguments is make good their Cause would not rest satisfied with those old Answers which had been given in former times to their Predecessors I was resolved to deal with them in another way than what hath formerly been travelled Not in the way of Argumentation or a Polemical discourse there being no likelihood of any end in such Disputations as long as men had so much Sophistry as either to evade the Argument or find some sleight to weaken and shift off the Answer I rather chose having found good success in that kind before to manage the whole Controversie as it lay between us in the way of an Historical Narration as in point of fact which I conceive to be the readiest means to convince gainsayers and silence the dispute for the times to come For if History be Testis temporum the surest and most faithful witness of mens actions in the carriage of all publick businesses as no doubt it is it cannot but be also Magistra vitae both which the Orator affirms of it the best Instructress we can have in all Affairs of like nature as they come before us The History of Episcopacy collected from the Writings of the Antient Fathers cannot but be of special use and efficacy in setting forth the Government of the Church in the purest times especially when those Fathers are produced on no other occasion but either as writing on those Texts of Scripture in which the Institution and Authority of Bishops is most clearly evidenced or speaking of the condition of the Church in their several times in the Administration and Government whereof they had most of them some especial interess Out of whose testimonies so digested and compared together I doubt not but it will appear most evidently to an indifferent and impartial Reader first That our Lord and Saviour JESVS CHRIST laid the foundation of his Church in an imparity of Ministers and that according unto his example the Apostles did the like ordaining the three several Orders and Degrees of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the holy Ministry Next that the Government of Bishops being founded thus was propagated over all the World with the faith it self there being no Nation which received the one without the other And finally that in matter of Authority and Jurisdiction the Bishops of the primitive and purest Ages had full as much as ours of England in these latter times And if I have done this as I hope I have it may more rationally be inferred though perhaps not so safely as the times now are that Bishops or Episcopacy being of Divine and Apostolical institution no humane invention cannot with piety be abrogated by a less Authority than that by which it was ordained at the first appointment This is the sum and this is the end of my design In prosecution of the which I had drawn down my story to the times of Constantine by whose power and favour the Church began to settle in all parts of the Empire where it had formerly been persecuted with all kind of Extremities which either the wit of Tyranny could invent or an
besides the Church of Rome before remembred We find Epaphroditus not he that is commemorated by S. Paul In Annal. Eccles A. 60. Rom. Martyr Mart. 22. April 3. Jun. 4. Julii 12. Julii 12. Julii 23. Chrys serm 128. in his Epistle to the Philippians as Baronius witnesseth against himself à beato Petro Apostolo Episcopus illius Civitatis ordinatus made Bishop by S. Peter of Tarracina of old called Anxur Pancratius made by S. Peter Bishop of Tauromenium in the Isle of Sicily as the Greeks also do affirm in their Menologia Marcianus Bishop of Syracusa to whom the said Menologies do bear record also Hermagoras a Disciple of S. Mark the first Bishop of Aquileia now in the Signeurie of Venice Panlinus the first Bishop of Luques in Tuscanie Apollinaris created by S. Peter the first Bishop of Ravenna in praise of whom Chrysologus one of his Successors and an holy Father hath composed a Panegyrick Marcus ordained Bishop of Atina at S. Peters first coming into Italy Rom. Martyr Apr. 28. Novemb. 7. Sept. 1. Octob. 25. Jan. 27. Acts. Martyrol Rom. Decem. 29. And last of all Prosdocimus the first Bishop of Padua à Beato Petro ordinatus made Bishop thereof by S. Peter Next to pass over into France we find there Xystus the first Bishop of Rhemes and Fronto Bishop of Perigort Petragorricis ordained both by this Apostle As also Julianus the first Bishop of Mayne Cononiensium in the Latine of his Ordination And besides these we read that Trophimus once one of S. Pauls Disciples was by S. Peter made the first Bishop of Arles And this besides the Martyrologies and other Authors cited by Baronius in his Annotations appeareth by that memorable controversie in the time of Pope Leo before the Bishop of Vienna the chief City of Daulphine and him of Arles for the place and dignity of Metropolitan In prosecution of the which it is affirmed by the Suffragans Epist contr Provinc ad S. Leonem in fine lib. or Com-provincial Bishops of the Province of Arles Quod prima inter Gallias Arelatensis Civitas missum à Beatissimo Petro Apostolo Sauctum Trophimum habere meruit Sacerdotem that first of all the Cities of Gaul that of Arles did obtain the happiness to have Saint Trophimus for their Bishop for so Sacerdos must be read in that whole Epistle sent to them from the most blessed Apostle S. Peter to preach the Gospel For Spain we find this testimony once for all that Ctesiphon Torquatus Secundus Caecilius Judaletius Hesychius Rom. Martyr Maij 15. and Euphrasius Romae à Sanctis Apostolis Episcopi ordinati ad praedicandum verbum Dei in Hispanias directi Having been ordained Bishops at Rome by the Apostles viz. S. Peter and S. Paul were sent unto Spain to preach the Gospel and in most likelihood were Bishops of those Cities in which they suffered the names whereof occur in the Martyrologie If we pass further into Germany we may there see Eucherius one of S. Peters Disciples also by him employed to preach the Gospel to that Nation which having done with good effect in the City of Triers Primus ejusdem Civitatis Episcopus Decemb. 8. he was made the first Bishop of that City And unto this Methodius also doth attest Ap. Mar. Scotum in An. 72.74 as he is cited by Marianus Scotus who tells us that after he had held the Bishoprick 23 years Valerio Trevericae Ecclesiae culmen dereliquit he left the government of that Church unto Valerius who together with Maternus both being Disciples of Saint Peper did attend him thither and that Maternus after fifteen years did succeed Valerius continuing Bishop there 40 years together I should much wrong our part of Britain should I leave out that as if neglected by the Apostle concerning which we are informed by Metaphrastes whose credit hath been elsewhere vindicated that this Apostle coming into Britain Commem Petri Pauli ad diem 29 Junii and tarrying there a certain time and enlightning many with the word of grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did constitute Churches and ordain Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the same Which action as he placeth in the twelfth year of Nero being the 67. of our Redeemer so he professeth that he had his information out of some writings of Eusebius which have not come unto our hands but with a great deal more of that Authors works have perished in the ruins and wrack of time Nor is it strange that the Apostle should make so many of his Disciples Bishops before or shortly after they were sent abroad to gain the nations to the Faith Beda hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. that being the usual course in the like imployments as may appear by Austins being consecrated Bishop immediately after his first coming into England The reason was as I conceive it that if God prospered their endeavours with desired success they might be furnished with a power of ordaining Presbyters for their assistance in that service And so much for the Churches planted by Saint Peter and by his Disciples CHAP. IV. The Bishoping of Timothy and Titus and others of Saint Pauls Disciples 1. The Conversion of Paul and his ordaining to the place of an Apostle 2. The Presbyters created by Saint Paul Act. 14. of what sort they were 3. Whether the Presbyters or Presbytery did lay on hands with Paul in any of his Ordinations 4. The people had no voice in the Election of their Presbyters in these early times 5. Bishops not founded by S. Paul at first in the particular Churches by him planted and upon what reasons 6. The short time of the Churches of S. Pauls plantation continued without Bishops over them 7. Timothy made Bishop of Ephesus by S. Paul according to the general consent of Fathers 8. The time when Timothy was first made Bishop according to the Holy Scripture 9. Titus made Bishop of the Cretans and the truth verified herein by the ancient Writers 10. An Answer unto such Objections as have been made against the Subscription of the Epistle unto Titus 11. The Bishopping of Dionysius the Areopagite Aristarchus Gaius Epaphroditus Epaphras and Archippus 12. As also of Silus Sosthenes Sosipater Crescens and Aristobulus 13. The Office of a Bishop not incompatible with that of an Evangelist WE are now come unto S. Paul and to the Churches by him planted where we shall meet with clearer evidence from Scripture than before we had A man that did at first most eagerly afflict the poor Church of Christ as if it were the destiny not of David only but also of the Son of David to be persecuted by the hands of Saul Rhemist Testam Act. 15. But as the Rhemists well observe that the contention between Paul and Barnabas fell out unto the great increase of Christianity So did this persecution raised by Saul fall out unto the great improvement of the Gospel For by this means the Disciples being
Craec in Martii 14. was by him ordained Bishop of Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the words there are a region full of fierce and savage people and that having there setled the Church and ordained Presbyters and Deacons in the same he did there also end his life The Reverend Primate of Armagh out of a fragment attributed to Heleca De Britannic Eccl. prim c. 1. sometimes Bishop of Saragossa in Spain doth recite a passage wherein it is affirmed of this Aristobulus missum in Angliam Episcopum that he was sent Bishop into England for so the Author calleth this Countrey according to the name it had when he writ the same But these things which relate to the British Churches I rather shall refer to our learned Antiquaries to be considered of more fully than affirm any thing my self But to look back on Timothy and Titus whom we left lately in their several Churches I hear it said that notwithstanding all those proofs before produced from the ancient yet being Evangelists as they were they could be no Bishops Smectymn p. 48. Bishops being tied to the particular care of that flock or Church over which God had made them Overseers but the Evangelists being Planetary sent up and down from place to place by the Apostles as the necessities of the Church required Besides that moving in an higher sphere than that of Bishops and being Co-partners with Saint Paul in his Apostleship or Apostolical function Unbishopping of Tim. Tit. p. 36. it had been a devesting of themselves of their Apostolical jurisdiction and preheminence to become Bishops at the last and so descend from a superiour to an inferiour Office For answer whereunto we need say but this that the gift of being an Evangelist might and did fall on any rank of ordinary Ministers as might that also of the Prophet Philip one of the seven a Deacon as it is generally conceived but howsoever Ministring unto the Church in an inferiour place or Office was notwithstanding an Evangelist and Agabus though perhaps but a simple Presbyter one of the Seventy past all question was a Prophet too Philip as he was one of the Seven was tied to a particular employment and of necessity sometimes Acts 6.12 must leave the Word of God to serve Tables Yet the same Philip as he was furnished by the Lord with gifts and graces for gaining Souls to God Almighty and doing the work of an Evangelist must leave the serving of those Tables to preach the Word And Agabus Acts 11.27 28. 21.10 if he were a Presbyter whether of Hierusalem from whence he is twice said to come or of some other Church that I will not say might notwithstanding his employment in a particular Church repair to Antioch or Caesarea as the Spirit willed him there to discharge the Office of a Prophet So then both Timothy and Titus might be Bishops as to their ordinary place and calling though in relation unto their extraordinary gifts they were both Evangelists As for their falling from a higher to a lower function from an Evangelist unto a Bishop I cannot possibly perceive where the fall should be They that object this will not say but Timothy at the least was made a Presbyter for wherefore else did the Presbytery which they so much stand on lay hands upon him And certainly if it were no diminution from an Evangelist to become a I resbyter it was a preferment unto the Evangelist from being but a Presbyter to become a Bishop But for the Bishopping of Timothy and Titus as to the quod sit of it that so they were in the opinion of all ancient Writers we have said enough We will next look on the authority committed to them to see what further proof hereof may be brought for that CHAP. V. Of the Authority and Jurisdiction given by the Word of God to Timothy and Titus and in them to all other Bishops 1. The Authority committed to Timothy and Titus was to be perpetual and not personal only 2. The power of Ordination intrusted only unto Bishops by the Word of God according to the judgments of the Fathers 3. Bishops alone both might and did Ordain without their Presbyters 4. That Presbyters might not Ordain without a Bishop proved by the memorable case of Coluthus and Ischyras 5. As by those also of Maximus and a Spanish Bishop 6. In what respects the joint assistance of the Presbyters was required herein 7. The case of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas declared and qualified 8. The care of ordering Gods Divine Service a work peouliar to the Bishop 9. To whom the Ministration also of the Saoraments doth in chief belong 10. Bishops to have a care that Gods Word be preached and to encourage those that take pains that way 11. Bishops to silence and correct such Presbyters as preach other doctrines 12. As also to reprove and reject the Heretick 13. The censure and correction of inferiour Presbyters doth belong to Bishops 14. And of Lay-people also if they walk unworthy of their Christian calling 15. Conjectural proofs that the description of a Bishop in the first to Timothy is of a Bishop truly and properly so called THEY who object that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and so by consequence no Bishops Unbishopping of Tim. Tit. p. 60 61 c. have also said and left in writing that the authority committed to them by Saint Paul did not belong to them at all as Bishops but Evangelists only But this if pondered as it ought hath no ground to stand on The calling of Evangelists as it was Extraordinary so it was but temporary to last no longer than the first planting of the Church for which so many signal gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit were at first poured on the Disciples I know not any Orthodox Writer who doth not in this point agree with Calvin Com. in 4. ad Eph. v. 11. who in his Comment on the Epistle to the Ephesians gives us this instruction Deum Apostolis Evangelistis Prophetis Ecclesiam suam non nisi ad tempus ornasse that God adorned his Church with Prophets Evangelists and Apostles for a season only having before observed that of all those holy ministrations there recited Postrema tantum duo perpetua esse the two last viz. Pastors and Teachers which he takes for two were to be perpetual But on the other side power to ordain fit Ministers of what sort soever as also to reprove and censure those that behaved themselves unworthily authority to convent and reject an Heretick to punish by the censures of the Church all such as give offence and scandal to the Congregation by their exhorbitant and unruly living this ought to be perpetual in the Church of Christ This the Apostle seems to intimate when he said to Timothy I charge thee in the sight of God 1 Tim. 6.14 and before Jesus Christ that thou keep this Commandment without spot
Battels and Assaults which we shall sum up briefly in their place and time And first for Coronations which as before I said are mixt kind of actions compound of sacred and of civil William surnamed Rufus was crowned at Canterbury by Archbishop Lanfrancke the 25 of Septemb. being Sunday Anno 1087. So was King Stephen the 21 of Decemb. being Sunday too Anno 1135. On Sunday before Christmas day was Henry the second crowned at London by Archbishop Theobald Anno 1155. and on the Sunday before Septuagesima his Daughter Joane was at Palermo crowned Queen of Sicily Of Richard the first it is recorded that hoysing Sail from Barbeflet in Normandy he arrived safely here upon the Sunday before our Lady day in Harvest whence setting towards London there met him his Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons cum copiosa militum multitudine with a great multitude of Knightly rank by whose advise and Councel he was crowned on a Sunday in September following Anno 1189. and after crowned a second time on his return from Thraldom and the Holy Land Anno 1194. on a Sunday too The Royal and magnificent form of his first Coronation they who list to see may find it most exactly represented in Rog. de Hoveden And last of all King John was first inaugurated Duke of Normandy by Walter Archbishop of Roane the Sunday after Easter day Anno 1200. and on a Sunday after crowned King of England together with Isabel his Queen by Hubert at that time Archbishop of Canterbury For Synods next Anno 1070. A Council was assembled at Winchester by the appointment of King William the first and the consent of Alexander then Pope of Rome for the degrading of Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury and this upon the Sunday next after Easter And we find mention of a Synod called by Richard Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 1175. the Sunday before holy Thursday ad quod concilium venerunt fere omnes Episcopi Abbates Cantuariensis dioeceseos where were assembled almost all the Bishops and Abbots of the whole Province For Councils of Estate there was a solemn meeting called on Trinity Sunday Anno 1143. in which assembled Maud the Empress and all the Lords which held her party where the Ambassadours from Anjou gave up their account and thereupon it was concluded that the Earl of Gloucester should be sent thither to negotiate his Sisters business So in the year 1185 when some Embassadours from the East had offered to King Henry the second the Kingdom of Hierusalem the King designed the first Sunday in Lent for his day of answer Upon which day there met at London the King the Patriarch of Hierusalem the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons of the Realm of England as also William King of Scotland and his Brother David with the Earls and Barons of the Countrey habito inde cum deliberatione concilio c. and then and there upon mature deliberation it was concluded that though the King accepted not the Title yet he would give his people leave to put themselves into the action and take up the Cross For civil Business of another nature we find it on Record that on the fourth Sunday in Lent next following the same King Henry Knighted his Son John and sent him forthwith into Ireland Knighthood at those times being far more full of ceremony than now it is Which being but a preparation to War and military matters leads us unto such Battels as in these times were fought on Sunday Of which we find it in our Annals that in the year 1142. upon a Sunday being Candlemas day King Stephen was taken prisoner at the battel of Lincoln as also that on Holy-Cross day next after being Sunday too Robert Earl of Gloucester Commander of the adverse force was taken Prisoner at the battel of Winchester So read we that on Sunday the 25th of August Anno 1173. the King of France besieged and forced the Castle of Dole in Brittain belonging to the King of England As also that on Sunday the 26th of Septemb. Anno 1198. King Richard took the Castle of Curceles from the King of France More of the kind might be remembred were not these sufficient to shew how anciently it hath been the use of the Kings of England to create Knights and hold their Councils of estate on the Lords day as now they do Were not the others here remembred sufficient to let us know that our Progenitours did not think so superstitiously of this day as not to come upon the same unto the Crowning of their Kings or the publick Synods of the Church or if need were and their occasions so required it to fight as well on the Lords day as on any other Therefore no Lords day Sabbath hitherto in the Realm of England Not hitherto indeed But in the Age that followed next there were some overtures thereof some strange preparatives to begin one For in the very entrance of the 13th Age Fulco a French Priest and a notable Hypocrite Rog. de Hoteden as our King Richard counted him and the story proves lighted upon a new Sabbatarian fancy which one of his Associates Eustathius Abbat of Flay in Normandy was sent to scatter here in England but finding opposition to his doctrine he went back again the next year after being 1202. he comes better fortified preaching from town to town and from place to place ne quis forum rerum venalium diebus Dominicis exerceret that no man should presume to market on the Lords day Where by the way we may observe that notwithstanding all the Canons and Edicts before remembred in the fifth Chapter of this book and the third Section of this Chapter the English kept their markets on the Lords day as they had done formerly as neither being bound to those which had been made by foreign states or such as being made at home had long before been cut in peeces by the sword of the Norman Conqueror Now for the easier bringing of the people to obey their dictates they had to shew a warrant sent from God himself as they gave it out The title this Mandatum sanctum Dominicae diei quod de coelo venit in Hierusalem c. An holy mandat touching the Lords day which came down from Heaven unto Hierusalem found on S. Simeons Altar in Golgotha where Christ was Crucified for the sins of all the world which lying there three days and as many nights strook with such terrour all that saw it that falling on the ground they besought Gods mercy At last the Patriarch and Akarias the Archbishop of I know not whence ventured to take into their bands that dreadful letter which was written thus Now wipe your eyes and look a while on the Contents which I shall render with as much brevity as the thing requires Ego Dominus qui praecepi vobis ut observaretis diem sanctum Dominicum non custodistis eum c. I am the Lord which hath commanded to keep
Clergy Mr. John Hooker Bishop of Gloucester and Martyr of whose Exposition of the Ten Commandments and his short Paraphrase on Romans 13. we shall make frequent use hereafter a man whose works were well approved of by Bishop Ridley the most learned and judicious of all the Prelates who notwithstanding they differed in some points of Ceremony professeth an agreement with him in all points of Doctrine as appears by a Letter written to him when they were both Prisoners for the truth and ready to give up their lives as they after did in defence thereof Now the words of the Letter are as followeth But now my dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your works which I have but superficially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion Acts and Mon. fol. 1366. against the which the world now so rageth in these our days Howsoever in times past in certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity and ignorance have jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgment Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is the witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in truth and for the truths sake that abideth in us and I am persuaded by the grace of God shall abide in us for evermore The like agreement there was also between Ridley and Cranmer Cranmer ascribing very much to the judgment and opinion of the learned Prelate as himself was not ashamed to confess at his Examination for which see Fox in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1702. By these men and the rest of the Convocation the Articles of Religion being in number 41 were agreed upon ratified by the Kings Authority and published both in Latine and English with these following Titles viz. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinens A.D. 1552. ad tollendam opinionum dissentionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat Regia authoritate Londin editi that is to say Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned men assembled in the Synod at London Anno 1552. and published by the Kings Authority for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent touching true Religion Amongst which Articles countenanced in Convocation by Queen Elizabeth Ann. 1562. the Doctrine of the Church in the five controverted points is thus delivered according to the form and order which we have observed in the rest before 1. Of Divine Predestination Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly ordered by his Council Artic. 17. secret unto us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom be hath chosen in Christ out of man-kind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise at they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doing the will of God that is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in the Word of God 2. Of the Redemption of the World by the faith of Christ The Son which is the Word begotten of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father c. and being very God and very Man did truly suffer was Crucified Dead and Buried Artic. 2. to reconcile his Father to us and be a Sacrifice not only for Original guilt but also for the actual sins of men The Offering of Christ once made Artic. 31. is this perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction to all the sins of the whole world both Original and Actual 3. Of mans will in the state of depraved nature Artic. 9. Man by Original sin is so far gone from Original righteousness that of his own nature be is inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore Works done before the grace of Christ Artic. 13. and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School Authors say deserve grace of Congruity 4. Of the manner of Conversion The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works Artic. 10. to faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will 5. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance The Grace of Repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism in regard that after we have received the Holy Ghost Artic. 16. we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives and therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here or deny the place of Repentance to such as truly repent Now in these Articles as in all others of the book there are these two things to be observed 1. What Authority they carried in respect of the making And 2. How we are to understand them in respect of the meaning And first for their Authority it was as good in all regards as the Laws could give them being first treated and agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation and afterwards confirmed by the Letters Patents of Edw. VI. under the Great Seal of England But against this it is objected That the Records of this Convocation are but a degree above blanks that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled had no Commission from the King to meddle in Church business that the King durst not trust the Clergy of that time in so great a matter on a just jealousie which he had of the ill affections of the major part and therefore the trust of this great business was committed unto some few Confidents cordial to the cause of Religion and not unto the body of a Convocation To which it hath been already answered That the Objector is here guilty of a greater crime than that of Scandalum magnatum making King Edward VI. of pious memory no better than an impious and lewd Impostor in fathering those children on the Convocation which had not been of their begetting For first the Title to the Articles runneth thus at large Articuli de quibus c. as before we had it which Title none durst adventure to set before them had they not really been the products of the Convocation Secondly the King had no reason to have any such jealousie at that time of the major part of the Clergy but that he might
Realm Apud eund p. 219. Thus do we read that Egbert who first united the seven Kingdoms of the Saxons under the name of England did cause to be convened at London his Bishops and the Peers of the highest rank pro consilio capiendo adversus Danicos Piratas Charta Whitlafii Merciorum Regis ap Ingulf to advise upon some course against the Danish Pirates who infested the Sea coasts of England Another Parliament or Council call it which you will called at Kingsbury Anno 855. in the time of Ethelwolph the Son of Egbert pro negotiis regni to treat of the affairs of the Kingdom Chart. Bertulfi Merc. Regis ap Ingulf Ingulfi Croyland hist the Acts whereof are ratified and subscribed by the Bishops Abbots and other great men of the Realm The same King Ethelwolph in a Parliament or Assembly of his States at Winchester Anno 855. Cum consilio Episcoporum principum by the advice and counsel of the Bishops and Nobility confirmed unto the Clergy the tenth part of all mens goods and ordered that the Tithe so confirmed unto them should be free ab omnibus secularibus servitutibus from all secular services and impositions In the Reign of Edred we find this Anno 948. In Festo igitur nativitatis B. Mariae cum universi Magnates regni per Regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi Episcopi ac Abbates quam caeteri totius Regni proceres optimates Londoniis convenissent ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni Id ibid. p. 49. edit Lond. viz. That in the Feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin the great men of the Realm that is to say Archbishops Bishops Abbots Nobles Peers were summoned by the Kings Writ to appear at London to handle and conclude about the publick affairs of the Kingdom Mention of this Assembly is made again at the foundation and endowment of the Abbie of Crowland Id. p. 500. and afterwards a confirmation of the same by Edgar Anno 966. praesentibus Archiepiscopis Espiscopi Abbatibus Optimatibus Regni in the presence of the Archbishops Bishops Id. pag. 501. 502. Abbots and Peers of the Kingdom Like convention of Estates we find to have been called by Canutus after the death of Edmund Ironside for the setling of the Crown on his own head of which thus the Author Rog. Hoveden Annal. pars prior p. 250. Cujus post mortem Rex Canutus omnes Episcopos Duces necnon principes cunctosque optimates gentis Angliae Londoniae congregari jussit Where still we find the Bishops to be called to Parliament as well as the Dukes Princes and the rest of the Nobility and to be ranked and marshalled first which clearly shews that they were always reckoned for the first Estate before the greatest and most eminent of the secular Peers And so we find it also in a Charter of King Edward the Confessor the last King of the Saxon race by which he granted certain Lands and priviledges to the Church of Westminster Anno 1066. Cum consilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque Optimatum Ap. H. Spelman in Concil p. 630. with the Council and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earls and others of his Nobles And all this while the Bishops and other Prelates of the Church did hold their Lands by no other Tenure than in pura perpetua eleemosyna or Frank almoigne Cambden in Brit. as our Lawyers call it and therefore sat in Parliament in no other capacity than as spiritual persons meerly who by their extraordinary knowledg in the Word of God and in such other parts of Learning as the World then knew were thought best able to direct and advise their Princes in points of judgment In which capacity and no other the Priors of the Cathedral Churches of Canterbury Ely Winchester Coventry Bath Worcester Norwich and Durham the Deans of Exeter York Wells Salisbury and Lincoln the Official of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of the Arches the Guardian of the Spiritualties of any Bishoprick when the See was vacant Selden Titles of hon part 2. c. 5. and the Vicars general of such Bishops as were absent beyond the Seas had sometimes place and suffrage in the house of Lords in the Ages following But when the Norman Conqueror had possest the State then the case was altered the Prelates of the Church were no longer suffered to hold their Lands in Frankalmoigne as before they did or to be free from secular services and commands as before they were Although they kept their Lands yet they changed their Tenure and by the Conqueror Mat. Paris in Will 1. Auno 1.70 were ordained to hold their Lands sub militari servitute either in Capite or by Baronage or some such military hold and thereby were compâ—â—lable to aid the Kings in all times of War with Men Arms and Horses as the Lay subjects of the same Tenures were required to do Which though it were conceived to be a great Disfranchisement at the first and an heavy burden to the Prelacy yet it conduced at last to their greater honour in giving them a further Title to their place in Parliament than that which formerly they could pretend to Before they claimed a place therein ratione Officii only by reason of their Offices or spiritual Dignities but after this by reason also of those ancient Baronies which were annexed unto their Dignities Stamfords Pleas l. 3. c. 1. en respect de lour possessions l'antient Baronies annexes a lour dignities as our Lawyers have it From this time forwards we must look upon them in the House of Parliament not as Bishops only but as Peers and Barons of the Realm also and so themselves affirmed to the Temporal Lords in the Parliament holden at Northamptâ—n under Henry 2. Non sedimus hic Episcopi sed Barones nos Barones vos Barones Ap. Selden Titles of hon p. 2. c. 5. Pares hic sumus We fit not here say they as Bishops only but as Barons We are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Which last is also verified in terminis by the words of a Statute or Act of Parliament wherein the Bishops are acknowledged to be Peers of the Land Stat. 25 Edw. 3. c. 5. Now that the Bishops are a fundamental and essential part of the Parliament of England I shall endeavour to make good by two manner of proofs whereof the one shall be de jure and the other de facto And first we shall begin with the proofs de jure and therein first with that which doth occur in the Laws of King Athelstan amongst the which there is a Chapter it is Cap. 11. entituled De officio Episcopi quid pertinet ad officium ejus and therein it is thus declared Spelm. concil p. 402. Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei scilicet seculi
regni negotiis ac aliis tractari consuetis cum caeteris dicti regni Paribus aliis ibidem jus interessendi habentibus consulere tractare ordinare statuere diffinire ac caetera facere quae Parliamento ibidem imminent facienda In vita Gul. Courtney This put together makes enough abundantly for the proofs de jure and makes the Bishops right to have Vote in Parliament to be undeniable Let us next see whether this right of theirs be not confirmed and countenanced by continual practice and that they have not lost it by discontinuance which is my second kind of proofs those I mean de facto And first beginning with the reign of the Norman Conqueror we find a Parliament assembled in the fifth year of that King wherein are present Episcopi Abbates Comites Primates toties Angliae the Bishops Abbots Earls and the rest of the Baronage of England Matth. Paris in Williglmo 1. In the 9th year of William Rufus an old Author telleth us de regni statu acturus Episcopos Abbates quoscunque Regni proceres in unum praecepti sui sanctione egit that being to consult of the affairs of the Kingdom he called together by his Writ the Bishops Abbots and all the Peers of the Realm Eadmer hist Nov. l. 2. During the reign of Henry the 2d for we will take but one Example out of each Kings reign though each Kings reign would yield us more a Patliament was called at London wherein were many things dispatched as well so Ecclesiastical as secular nature the Bishops and Abbots being present with the other Lords Coacto apud Londoniam magno Episcoporum Procerum Abbatumque Concilio multa ecclesiasticarum secularium rerum ordinata negotia decisa litigia saith the Monk of Malmesbury Malmesb. hist reg Angl. l. 5. And of this Parliament it is I take it that Eadmer speaketh Hist Novel l. 4. p. 91. Proceed we to King Henry the 2d for King Stephens reign was so full of Wars and Tumults that there is very little to be found of Parliaments and there we find the Bishops with the other Peers convened in Parliament for the determination of the points in controversie between Alfonso K. of Castile and Sancho K. of Navarre referred by compremise to that King of England and here determined by K. Henry amongst other things habito cum Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus cum deliberatione consilio as in Roger Hoveden Hoveder Annal pars posterin Hen. 2. Next him comes Richard the first his Son during whose imprisonment by the D. of Austria his Brother John then Earl of Moriton endeavoured by force and cunning in Normandy to set the Crown on his own head which caused Hubert the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to call a Parliament Convocatis coram eo Episcois Comitibus Baronibus regni wherein the Bishops Id in Joh. Earls and Barons did with one consent agree to seiz on his Estate and suppress his power the better to preserve the Kingdom in wealth peace and safety After succeded John and he calls a Parliament wherein were certain Laws made for the defence of his Kingdom Communi assensu Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum Baronum omnium fidelium suorum Angliae by the common Council and assent of the Arch-bishops Bishops Earls Barons and the rest of his Leiges Remember what was said before touching the Writ of Summons in the said Kings time From this time till the last Parliament of King Charles there is no Kings reign of which we have not many though not all the Acts of Parliament still in print amongst us Nor is there any Act of Parliament in the printed Books to the enactig of the which the Bishops approbation and consent is not plainly spectified either in the general Prome set before the Acts or in the body of the Act it self as by the books themselves doth at large appear And to this kind of proof may be further added the form and manner of the Writ by which the Prelates in all times have been called to Parliament being the very same verbatim with that which is directed to the Temporal Barons save that the Spiritual Lords are commanded to attend to the service in fide dilectione the Temporal in fide homagio and of late times in fide legeantia A form or copy of which summons as ancient as King Johns time V. Titles of Hon. pt 2. c. 5. is still preserved upon Record directed nominatim to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and then a scriptum est similiter to the residue of the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons Then add the Priviledg of Parliament for themselves and their servants during the time of the Sessions the liberty to kill and take one or two of the Kings Deer as they pass by any of his Forests in coming to the Parliament upon his commandment Charta de Foresta cap. Cambden in Britannia their enjoying of the same immunities which are and have been heretofore enjoyed by the Temporaal Barons and tell me if the Bishops did not sit in Parliament by as good a Title and have not sat there longer by some hundreds of years in their Predecessors as or than any of the Temporal Lords do sit or have sat there in their Progenitours and therefore certainly Essential Fundamental parts of the Court of Parliament But against this it is objected first that some Acts have passed in Parliament to which the Prelates did not Vote not could be present in the House when the Bill was passed as in the sentencing to death or mutilation of a guilty person as doth appear both by the Laws and constitutions recognized at Clarendon and the following practice This hath been touched on before and we told you then that this restraint was laid upon them not by the Common Law of England or an Act or Ordinance of the House of Peers by which they were disabled to attend that service It was their own voluntary Act none compelled them to it but only out of a copnformity to some former Canons ad sanctorum Canonum instituta Antiqu. Brit. in Gul. Conrineâ— Constitut Othobon fol. 45. as their own words are by which it was not lawful for the Clergy-men to be either Judges or Assessors in causa Sanguinis And yet they took such care to preserve their Interests that they did not only give their Proxies for the representing of their persons but did put up their Protestation with a salvo jure for the preserving of their rights for the time to come jure Paritatis interessendi in dicto Parliamento quaod omnia singula ibi exercenda in omnibus semper salvo Antiqu. Britan. in Gul. Courtney as the manner was Examples of the which are as full and frequent as their withdrawing themselves on the said occasions But then the main Objection is that as some Acts have passed in Parliament absentibus Praelatis when the Bishops
together can conclude on any thing unto the prejudice of the third Bodinus that renowned States-man doth resolve it Negatively and states it thus nihil à duobus ordinibus discerni posse quo uni ex tribus incommodum inferatur Bodin de Rep. l. 3. c. 7. si res ad singulos ordines seorsum pertinet that nothing can be done by two of the Estates to the disprofit of the third in case the point proposed be such as concerns them severally The point was brought into debate upon this occasion Henry the 3d. of France had summoned an Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ondinum to be held at Bloys Anno 1577. the Form and Order of the which we have at large by Thuanus Lib. 63. But finding that he could not bring his ends about so easily with that numerous body as if they were contracted to a narrower compass he caused it to be mov'd unto them that they should make choice of 36 twelve of each Estate Tonanus in hist temp l. 63. quox Rex cum de postulatis decerneret in consilium adhibere dignaretur whom the King would deign call to Council for the dispatch of such Affairs and motions as had been either moved or proposed unto him Which being very readily assented to by the Clergy and Nobility who hoped thereby to find some favour in the Court and by degrees to be admitted to the Privy Council was very earnestly opposed by Bodinus being then Delegate or Commissioner for the Province of Veromandois who saw full well that if businesses were so carried the Commons which made the third Estate would find but little hopes to have their grievances redressed â—â—iin de Rep. â— 1. c. 7. their petitions answered And therefore laboured the rest of the Commissioners not to yield unto it as being utterly destructive of the Rights and Liberties of the common people which having done he was by them intrusted to debate the business before the other two Estates and did it to so good effect that at the last he took them off from their resolution and obtained the cause What Arguments he used in particular neither himself nor Thuanus telleth us But sure I am that he insisted both on the ancient customs of the Realm of France as also of the Realm of Spain and England and the Roman Empire in each of which it was received for a ruled case nihil à duobus ordinibus statui posse quo uni ex tribus prejudicium crearetur that nothing could be done by any of the two Estates unto the prejudice of the third And if it were a ruled case then in the Parliament of England there is no reason why it should be otherwise in the present times the equity and justice of it being still the same and the same reasons for it now as forcible as they could be then Had it been otherwise resolved of in the former Ages wherein the Clergy were so prevalent in all publick Councils how easie a matter had it been for them either by joyning with all the Nobility to exclude the Commons or by joyning with the Commonalty to exclude the Nobles Or having too much conscience to adventure to so great a change an alteration so incompatible and inconsistent with the Constitution of a Parliament how easily might they have suppressed the potency and impair the Priviledges of either of the other two by working on the humours or affections of the one to keep down the other But these were Arts not known in the former days nor had been thought of in these last but by men of Ruine who were resolved to change the Government as the event doth shew too clearly both of Church and State Nor doth it help the matter in the least degree to say that the exclusion of the Bishops from the House of Peers was not done meerly by the practice of the two other Estates but by the assent of the King of whom the Laws say he can do no wrong and by an Act of Parliament whereof our Laws yet say quae nul doit imaginer chose dishonourable that no man is to think dishonourably Plowden in Commentar For we know well in what condition the King was when he passed that Act to what extremities he was reduced on what terms he stood how he was forced to flye from his City of London to part with his dear Wife and Children and in a word so overpowred by the prevailing party in the two Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him as his case then was to deny them any thing And for the Act of Parliament so unduly gained besides that the Bill had been rejected when it was first brought unto the Lords and that the greater part of the Lords were frighted out of the House when contrary unto the course of Parliament it was brought again it is a point resolved both in Law and Reason that the Parliament can do nothing to the destruction of it self and that such Acts as are extorted from the King are not good and valid whereof we have a fair Example in the book of Statutes 15 Ed. 3. For whereasz the King had granted certain Articles pretended to be granted in the Form of a statute expresly contrary to the Laws of the Realm and his own Prerogative and Rights Royal mark it for this is just the case which he had yielded to eschew the dangers which by denying of the same were like to follow in the same Parliament it was repealed in these following words It seemed good to the said Earls Barons and other wise men that since the Statute did not proceed of our Free will the same be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsel and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. Or if it should not be repealed in a formal manner yet is this Act however gotten void in effect already by a former Statute in which it was enacted in full Parliament and at the self-same place where this Act was gained that the Great Charter by which and many other Titles the Bishops held their place in Parliament should be kept in all points and if any Statute be made to the contrary 42 Ed. 3. c. 1. it shall be holden for none CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or control the actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the Kings make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or
inquisition or Impeachment the Lords in that of Judicature and determination with the consent and approbation of the King though many times without his personal assent and presence The King may be abused in his Grants and Patents to the oppression of the people or the dilapidation and destruction of the Royal Patrimony Judges and other the great Officers of Law and Equity are subject to corruptions and may smell of gifts whereby the passages of Justices do become obstructed The Ministers of inferiour Courts as well Ecclesiastical as Civil either exhaust the miserable Subject by Extortions or else consume him by delays Erroneous judgments may be given through fear or favour to the undoing of a man and his whole posterity in which his Majesties Justices of either Bench can afford no remedy The great Ones of the State may become too insolent and the poor too miserable and many other ways there are by which the Fabrick of the State may be out of Order for the removing of which mischiefs the rectifying of which abuses the Lords and Commons in their several ways before remembred are of special use yet so that if the King's Grants do come in question or any of his Officers are called to a reckoning they used heretofore to signifie unto his Majesty what they found therein and he accordingly either revoked his Grants or displaced his Servants or by some other means gave way unto their contentment the Kings consent being always necessary and received as a part of the final sentence if they went so far So that we may conclude this point with these words of Bodin who being well acquainted with the Government of this State and Nation partly by way of Conference with Dr. Dale the Queens Ambassadour in France and partly in the way of observation when he was in England doth give this resolution of the point in Controversie Bodin de Repub l. 1. o. 8. Habere quidem Ordines Anglorum authoritatem quandam jura vero majestatis imperii summam in unius Principis arbitrio versari The States saith he of England have a kind of Authority but all the Rights of Sovereignty and command in chief are at the will and pleasure of the Prince alone And to say truth although the Lords and Commons met in Parliament are of great Authority especially as they have improved it in these later times yet were they never of such power but that the Kings have for the most part over-ruled them and made them pliant and conformable to their own desires and this not only by themselves but sometimes also by their Judges by their Council often For such was the great care and wisdom of our former Kings as not to venture single on that numerous Body of the two Houses of Parliament whereby the Sovereignty might be so easily over-matched but to take with them for Affistants as well the Lords of their Privy Council with whom they might advise in matters which concerned them in their Sovereign Rights as their learned Council as they call them consisting of the Judges and most eminent Lawyers from whom they might receive instruction as the case required and neither do nor suffer wrong in point of Law and by both these as well as by the power and awe of their personal presence have they not only regulated but restrained their Parliaments And this is easily demonstrable by continual practice 4 Ed. 1. For in the Statute of Bigamie made in the fourth year of King Edward I. it is said expresly That in the prefence of certain Reverend Fathers Bishops of England and others of the Kings Council the Constitutions under-written were recited and after published before the King his Council forasmuch as all the Kings Council as well Justices as others did agree that they should be put in writing and observed In the Articuli super Chartas when the Great Charter was confirmed at the request of the Prelates 28 Ed. 1. c. 2. Earls and Barons we find these two claufes the one in the beginning thus Nevertheless the King and his Council do not intend by reason of this Statute Ibid. c. 20. to diminish the Kings right c. The other in the clofe of all in these following words And notwithstanding all these things mentioned or any part of them both the King and his Council and all they which were present at the making of this Ordinance do will and intend that the Right and Prerogative of his Crown shall be saved in all things In the 27th of King Edward the 3d. The Commons presenting a Petition to the King 27 Ed. 3. which the Kings Council did mislike were content thereupon to mend and explain their Petition the Form of which Petition is in these words following To their most redoubted Sovereign Lord the King praying the Commons that whereas they have prayed him to be discharged of all manner of Articles of the Lyre c. which Petition seemeth to his Council to be prejudicial unto him and in disherison of his Crown if it were so generally granted his said Commons not willing not desiring to demand things of him which should fall in disherison of him or of his Crown perpetually as of Escheats c. but of Trespasses Misprifions Negligences and Ignorances c. In the 13th of the reign of King Richard the 2d when the Commons did pray that upon pain of forfeiture the Chancellor or Council of the King should not after the end of the Parliament make any Ordinance against the Common Law 13 Rich. 2. the King by the advice of his Council answered Let it be used as it hath been used before this time so as the Regality of the King be saved for the King will save his Regalities 4 Hen. 4. as his Predecessors have done In the 4th year of King Henry IV. when the Commons complained against Sub-poenae's and other Writs grounded upon false suggestions the King upon the same advice returned this Answer that he would give in charge to his Officers that they should abstain more than before time they had to send for his Subjects in that manner But yet saith he it is not our intention that our Officers shall so abstain that they may not send for our Subjects in matters and causes necessary as it hath been used in the time of our good Progenitors Finally not to bring forth more particulars in a case so clear it was the constant custom in all Parliaments till the Reign of King Henry V. that when any Bill had passed both Houses Henr. 5. and was presented to the King for his Royal Assent the King by the abvice of his Privy Council or his Council learned in the Laws or sometimes of both did use to cross out and obliterate as much or as little of it as he pleased to leave out what he liked not and confirmed the rest that only which the King confirmed being held for Law And though in the succeeding
the Body of Christ Nay their labour was blessed by God first for the Conversion and then for the Resormation of this Church and Kingdom and therefore I hope there is no sober Protestant in England but will heartily say Amen to that Prayer of Mr. Beza's who although no great Adorer of Episcopacy yet considerdering the Blessings that God brought to this Nation by their Ministry put up this devout Petition Si nunc Anglicanae Ecclesiae instauratae suorum Episcoporum Archiepiscoporum auctoritate suffultae perstant quemadmodum hoc illi nostra memoria contigit ut ejus ordininis homines non tantum insignes Dei martyres sed etiam praestantissimos pastores ac Doctores habuerit fruatur sane istâ singulari Dei beneficentia quae utinam sit illi perpetua Theod. Bez. ad Tract de min. Evang. Grad ab Hadr. Sarav cap. 18. Fruatur Anglia ista singulari Dei Beneficentiâ quae utinam sit illi perpetua Let England enjoy that singular Blessing of God which I pray to God may be perpetual to it There are others that envy them their Honours and Dignities For though the Holy Spirit of God does oblige all Christians to esteem their Bishops very highly or more than abundantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in love for their work sake 1 Thes 5.12 13. and reason it self dictates that the honours confer'd upon Representatives and Embassadors redound to the Prince that delegates and imploys them though Jews Heathens and Mahomâ—tans ever paid the profoundest Veneration to their Priests Caliphs and Musti's and our Relig ous Ancestors in the Saxon Danish and Norman times set the highest value upon their Bishops yet the Religion of this Age is to load them with all possible Calumnies and Reproaches and with Corah and his Complices to charge them with taking too much upon them and to disdain to set them with the Dogs of their Flocks The Priests were Judges in Egypt and so were the Magi and Areopagites who were sacred persons in Persia and Athens and it was no other wise with the Druids amongst the Ancient Britains and Gauls For Caesar tells us how their Office extended to things Temporal as well as Religious Sacrificia publica privata procurant religiones interpretantur Druides a bello a besse consueverunt ni que tributa una cum reliquis pendunt St quod admissum est facinus si caedes facta si de haereditate de finibus controversia est iidem decernunt Caesar Com. lib. 6. that they did not only order publick and private Sacrifices and expound Religion and instruct Youth but were free from Contribution and Warfare and all burthens of State and determined all Controversies both publick and private and executed the place both of Priests and Judges for if any offence were committed as Murther or Man-slaughter or any Controversie arose touching Lands or Inheritance they sentenced it rewarding the Vertuous and punishing the Wicked The Patricii the noblest Romans were ambitious to be admitted into the College of the Priests and when the Government became Monarchical the Emperors took upon them the pontifical Dignity thinking it no diminution of them Grandeur to be imployed about the Service of the gods but rather conceiving the Priesthood too noble an imployment to be confer'd upon a Subject But we need no other Testimonies to convince us of the Rights of Church-men for the management of the civil concerns of human Society that the holy Scriptures Amongst the Jews the Civil and Ecclesiastical power were not so distinguished but one and the same person exercised both For not to expatiate upon particular instances Melchisedeck Eli Samuel Ezra Esdras were all Priests and had the power not only of Ecclesiastical but Civil jurisaictior Neither could Samuel have hewed Agag in pieces with his own hand 1 Sam. 15.33 if it had been unlawful for persons dedicated to the sacred Offices of Religion to havè intermeddled in causes of blood Which very instance proves that Clergy-men are not excluded from managing the highest secular concerns by any immutable Laws of God or Nature And if there are any Canons or Councils that forbid them to meddle in things of that kind that so they may the better attend upon the sacred Offices and Exercises of Religion let those be obligatory to the persons unto whom they were delivered but not be pleaded or produced to the prejudice of English Bishops who have distinct Priviledges and Laws For there have been Constitutions that have forbidden Church-men to Marry to make Wills to be Executors of mens Wills and Testaments to be the Wards of Orphans c. And these Constitutions are of as great force to bind the Clergy of England as the Council of Toledo to thrust the Bishops out of the House of Lords in Causes of Attainder and Blood Let the Archbishops of Ments and Colen with other Princes of the Empire look to it if it be unlawful for Ecclesiastical persons to adjudge Criminals to death It will be infinite to shew how St. Ambrose St. Augustin and the Godly Bishops of all Ages had no Supersedeas given them to intermeddle in things civil and secular because of their Wisdom and Knowledge in things Sacred and Divine Certainly the Holy Spirit of God did not conceive it unfit that Worldly matters and Controversies should be committed to Church-men for it is highly reasonable to think that those who are the Pastors of mens Souls will be the best Judges in determining their civil Rights It could not indeed be expected whilst the Empire was Heathen that Bishops should be busied and employed in Secular affairs unless it were in those Controversies which arose among the Christians themselves wherein St. Paul gives direction that they should rather determine their Contentions by a private Arbitrement of their own than by the publick judgments of their Enemies 1 Cor. 6. But when Kings became Christians Soz. lib. 1. c. 9. we find persons making their Appeals from the Tribunals of Princes to the Consistory of Bishops For then Bishops had power to reverse the sentence of death and to stay the hands of Executioners when the poor Criminals were going to receive the reward of their Iniquities just as the Praetors and Consuls of Rome would submit their Fasces those Ensigns of Authority when they did but casually meet with some of the Priests Constantine granted the Bishops this priviledge that condemned Malefactors might appeal unto their Courts and when such appeals were made the Bishops had power as well to deliver them over into the hands of Justice as to extend unto them a Pardon or Reprieve For the priviledge confer'd on them was as well for the punishment and terror of the Wicked as for mitigating the rigour of Justice and encouraging Criminals to Vertue and Repentance Mr. Selden himself who was none of the best Friends to Church-men grants that for four thousand years the Civil and Ecclesiastick jurisdiction went always hand in hand
together Ex hisce simul sanè ex primo secundo libro hoc satis puto constabit per Annos amplius M. M. M. M. tam sacrorum regimen qua forense esset atque à functione facrâ ritè distinctum quam profanorum five res spectes five personas juxta jus etiam divinum ex Ecclesiae Judaicae populorumque Dei anteriorum disciplinâ perpetuâ ad eosdem attinuisse judices seu Magistratus ejusdem Religionis atque ad synedria eadem neutiquam omnino ex juris istius instituto aliquo sacrorum prosanorum instar Ecclesiarum seu Spiritualium laicorum seu teorporalium Nominibus nullatenus discriminata Seld. de syn praefat libr. secundi And so it did till Pope Nicolas made the one independent upon the other So that their disunion is a Popish Innovation for till his time the Judges of Church and State ever sate together affairs Sacred and Religious were scan'd and determined in the morning and those that were Secular and Civil in the afternoon There was not till that time any clashing between Moses and Aaron no prohibitions out of one Court to stop or evacuate the proceedings of another and then it was that Justice run down like a stream and Righteousness like a mighty River If it be said that there are many corruptions among Church-men and especially in Ecclesiastical Courts The answer is That Callings must be distinguish'd from persons or else those two noble professions of Law and Physick will fall under the same condemnation with Divinity No man of any sobriety will condemn either of those professions because there are some Empericks in the World who kill mens Bodies and some Petifoggers that intangle and ruine their Estates And I hope Divines may have some grains of allowance granted them as well as the Inns of Court and Chancery and the College of Physicians if they cannot let that Calling which is most innocent cast the first stone It cannot be hoped that there will in this Age be a Revival of the primitive usage of these two Jurisdictions But yet this ought to be seriously regarded by all who have any belief of a Deity and regard for their native Country I mean that either our English Monarchs might be totally excused from their Coronation-Oath or not be put upon a necessity of violating thereof Their Oath in favour of the Clergy is that they will grant and keep the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward their Predecessor according to the Laws of God Rushw Hist Collect. part 1◠pag. 204. the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the Ancient customs of the Realm But how this Oath is observed when the Bishops are infringed in their ancient and indisputable priviledges let it be considered by all persons of sober mind and principles And let it be declared what order of men in the whole Nation the King can rely upon with so much safety and confidence as upon the Bishops and that not only upon the account of their Learning Wisdom Sanctity and Integrity qualifications not every day to be met withal in State-Politicians but upon the score of Gratitude and Interest For 't is from their Prince that they derive their Honours Dignities Titles Revenues Priviledges Power Jurisdictions with all other secular advantages and upon this account there is greater probability that they will be faithful to his Concerns and Interests than those who receive nothing from him but the common advantages of Government But this argument is known too well by our Anti-Episcopal Democraticks And perhaps 't is the chief if not the only reason of their enmity against an Order of men of so sacred and venerable an Institution As for this little Treatise the Author of it is too well known unto this Nation to invite any Scholar to peruse it It was written when the Bishops were Voted by the House of Lords not to be of the Committee in the Examination of the Earl of Strafford For then it was that Dr. Heylyn considered the case and put these few Sheets as a MSS. into the hands of several of the Bishops that they might be the better enabled to assert and vindicate their own Rights It was only intended for private use and therefore the Reader is not to expect so punctual an accuracy as he may find in other Treatises of this Learned Author It has been perused by some persons of good Eminency for judgment and station in the Church of England and by them approved and commended All that is wished by the Publisher is that it may produce the effects which he proposes to himself in exposing it to publick view and that those Lords who are now Prisoners in the Tower and from whose tryal some have laboured to exclude the Bishops were able to give unto the World as convincing Evidence of their Innocency as that great and generous States man did who fell a Sacrifice to a prevailing Faction and whose Innocent Blood was so far from being a lustration to the Court as some thought it would have proved as it drew after it such a deluge of Gore as for many preceding years had never been spilt in this Kingdom But 't is not my design or desire to revive any of the Injustice or Inhumanities of the last Age. Suffice it to say that it was for this Apostolical Government of Bishops that King Charles the First lost his Kingdoms his Crown his Life And the exclusion of Bishops from Voting in causes of blood was the prologue to all those Tragical mischiefs that happened to that Religion and Renowned Prince And those who have the least veneration for his present Majesty cannot certainly conceive him a King of such slender and weak abilities as to permit Himself and Family to be ruined by those very methods with which his Father was before him De jure Paritatis Episcoporum OR The Right of Peerage vindicated to the BISHOPS OF ENGLAND SINCE the restoring of the Bishops to their place and Vote in the House of Peers I find a difference to be raised between a Peer of the Realm and a Lord of the Parliament and then this Inference or Insinuation to be built upon it that though the Bishops are admitted to be Lords of Parliament yet they are not to be reckoned amongst the Peers of the Realm the contrary whereof I shall endeavour to make good in this following Essay and that not only from the Testimony of approved Writers but from unquestioned Records Book-Cases Acts of Parliament and such further Arguments as may be able to evince the point which we have in hand But first perhaps it may be said that there is no such difference in truth and verity betwixt a Lord of Parliament and a Peer of the Realm but that we may conclude the the Bishops to be Peers of the Realm if they be once admitted to
be Lords of Parliament concerning which take this from Chief Justice Coke where he affirms that only a Lord of Parliament shall be tryed by his Peers being Lords of Parliament and neither Noblemen of any other Countrey nor others that are called Lords and are no Lords of Parliament are accounted Peers that is to say Peers within this Statute he meaneth the Magna Charta or Great Charter of England the ground of all our Laws and Liberties to this very day by which it seems that he conceived a Peer and a Lord of Parliament to be terms equivalent every Peer of the Realm being a Lord of Parliament and every Lord of Parliament a Peer of the Realm which clearly takes away the pretended difference that is made between them But secondly admit the distinction to be sound and solid yet it will easily be proved that Bishops are not only Lords of Parliament but Peers of the Realm In order whereunto we must take notice of some passages in our former Treatise touching the Bishops place and Vote in Parliament that is to say that from the first planting of the Gospel in the Realms of England parcelled at that time amongst several Kings the Bishops always had the principal place in their Common Councils which the Saxons call by the name of Wittenegemote or the Assembly of wise men and afterwards in the time of the Normans took the name of Parliaments In all which Interval from Ethelbert the first Christian King of Kent in the year of our Lord 605. till the death of Edward the Confessor which happened in the year 1066 no Common Council of the Saxons had been held without them and all this while they held their Courts by no other Tenures than purâ perpetuâ Eleemosynâ franke Almoigne as our Lawyers call it discharged from all Attendances upon secular Services And therefore they could sit there in no other Capacity than ratione officii spiritualis Dignitatis in regard of their Episcopal function which as it raised them to an height of eminence in the eye of the people so it was probably presumed that they were better qualified than the rest of the Subjects as the times then were for Governing the great Affairs of the Common-wealth But when the Norman Conqueror had attained the Crown he thought it an improvident Course to suffer so much of the Lands of the Nation as then belonged unto the Prelates whether Bishops or Abbots in the Right of their Churches to be discharged from doing service to the State And therefore he ordained them to hold their Lands sub militari servitute either in Capite or by Baronage or some such military hold whereby they were compellable to aid the Kings in all times of War with Men Arms and Horses as the Lay-subjects of the same Tenure were required to do Concerning which our Learned Antiquary out of Matthew Paris informs us thus viz. Cambden Brit. fol. 123. Rex enim Gulielmus Episcopatus Abbatias quae Baronias tenebant in purâ perpetuâ Eleemosynâ catenus ab omni servitute militari libertatem habuerunt sub servitute statuit militari Irrotulans singulos Episcopos Abbatias pro voluntate sua quot milites sibi successoribus hostilitatis tempore à singulis voluit exhiberi Which though at first it was conceived to be a great Disfranchisement and an heavy burden to the Prelacy yet Cambden very well observes that it conduced at last to their greater honour in giving them a further Title to their place in Parliament a claim to all the Rights of Peerage and less obnoxious to Disputes if considered rightly than that which formerly they could pretend to so that from this time forwards we must look upon them in all English Parliaments not only as Bishops in the Church but as Peers and Barons of the Realm of the same Tenure and therefore of the same preheminence with the Temporal Lords Which certainly must be the Reason that the Bishops of the Isle of Man are not called to Parliament because they hold not of the King by Barony as the rest of the English Bishops do but hold the whole Estate in Lands from the Earl of Darby Thus also saith a Learned Lawyer Coke Institut part 2. f. 3. Every Arch-bishoprick and Bishoprick in England are of the Kings foundation and holden of the King per Baroniam and many Abbots and Priors of Monasteries were also of the Kings foundation and did hold of him per Baroniam and in this Right the Arch-bishops and Bishops and such of the Abbots and Priors as held per Baroniam and were called by Writ to Parliament were Lords of Parliament And yet not Lords of Parliament only but Peers and Barons of the Realm as he shall call them very shortly on another occasion In the mean time we may observe that by this changing of their Tenure the Bishops frequently were comprehended in the name of Barons and more particularly in that passage of Magna Charta Coke Institut part 2. fol. 23. where it is said Comites Barones non amercientur nisi per pares suos that Earls and Barons are not to be amerced but by their Peers concerning which the said Great Lawyer tells us thus viz. That though this Statute as he calls it be in the negative yet long use hath prevailed against it for now the Amerciament of the Nobility is reduced to a certainty viz. a Duke 10 l. an Earl 5 l. a Bishop that hath a Barony 5 l. where plainly Bishops must be comprehended in the name of Barons and be amerced by their Peers as the Barons were though afterwards their Amerciaments be reduced to a certainty as well as those of Earls and Barons in the times succeeding And then if Bishops be included in the name of Barons and could not be legally amerced but by their Peers as neither could the Earls or Barons by the words of this Charter it must needs follow that the Bishops were accounted Peers as well as any either of the Earls or Barons by whom they were to be Amerced And for the next place we may behold the Constitutions made at Clarendon the tenth year of King Henry the 2d Matth. Paris in Hen. 2d Anno 1164. in which it was declared as followeth viz. Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae personae Regni qui Rege tenent in Capite habeant possessiones suos de Rege sicut Baroniam inde respondeant Justiciariis Ministris Regis sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse Curiae Regis cum Baronibus quousque perventum sit ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Where first I think that those words universae personae are to be understood of none but Ecclesiastical persons according to the notion of the word persona in the Common Law and so to comprehend the Regular Clergy as well as the Arch-bishops and Bishops But secondly if we must understand it of the Laity also it
and that the way being thus laid open it was no hard matter to make the Bishop of Carlisle obnoxious to that kind of Trial which being forsaken on all sides as the times then were he was not able to avoid Which might be also the condition of Arch-bishop Cranmer and as for Fisher Bishop of Rochester he was to deal with an impetuous and violent Prince who was resolved to put the greater disgrace upon him because he had received some greater Honours from the Pope than the condition of Affairs might be thought to bear But against all these violations of their Rights of Peerage it may be said in their behalves for the times to come that by the Statute of the 25th of King Edward the 3d which serves to this day for the standing Rule in Cases of Treason it is required that the Malefactor or the suspected person must be attainted by such men as are of his own Condition and therefore Bishops to be tryed by none but the Peers of the Land unless it be in open opposit on to this Rule of King Edward and in defiance to the fundamental Law in the Magna Charta where it is said that no man is to be Disseised of his Freehold exiled or any ways destroyed nisi per Judicium parium suorum Or per Legem Terrae but by the Judgment of his Peers and by the Law of the Land and I can find no Law of the Land which tells me that a Bishop shall be tryed by a Common Jury Finally if it be a sufficient Argument that Bishops ought not to be reckoned as Peers of the Realm because they may be tryed by a Common Jury then also at some times and in certain Cases the Temporal Lords Dukes Marquesses Earls c. must not pass for Peers because in all Appeals of Murder they are to be tryed by Common Jurors like the rest of the Subjects But secondly it is objected That since a Bishop cannot sit in Judgment on the death of a Peer nor be so much as present at the time of his Trial they are but half-Peers as it were not Peers to all intents and purposes as the others are But this incapacity is not laid upon them by the Laws of the Land or any Limitation of their powers in their Writ of Summons or any thing inhering to the Episcopal Function but only by some ancient Canons and more particularly by the fourth Canon of Toledo which whether they be now of force or not may be somewhat questioned Secondly whensoever they withdrew themselves they did it with a salvo Jure paritatis as before is shewn To which intent they did not only cause their Protestations to be filed on Record Coke Institut part 4. fol. 23. but for the most part made a Proxy to some Temporal Lords to Act in their behalf and preserve their right which though they did not in the Case we had before us yet afterwards in the 21st of King Richard the 2d and from that time forwards when they found Parliamentary Impeachments to become more frequent they observed it constantly as it continues to this day Nor were they hindred by those Canons whatsoever they were from being present at the depositions of Witnesses or taking such preparatory examinations as concern the Trial in which they might be able to direct the Court by the Rules of Conscience though they withdrew themselves at the time of the sentence That was a Trick imposed upon the Bishops by the late long Parliament when they excluded them from being members of the Committee which was appointed for taking the examinations in the business of the Earl of Strafford And this they did not in relation to those ancient Canons but upon design for fear they might discover some of those secret practices which were to be hatched and contrived against him Against which Preparations for a final Trial or taking the Examinations or hearing of depositions of Witnesses or giving counsel in such cases as they saw occasion the Council of Toledo saith not any thing which can be honestly interpreted to their disadvantage So that the Bishops Claim stands good to their right of Peerage any thing in those ancient Canons or the unjust practices of the late Long Parliament to the contrary notwithstanding To draw the business to an end what one thing is required unto the constituting of a Peer of England which is not to be found in an English Bishop if Tenure and Estate they hold their Lands per integram Baroniam as the old Lords did if Voice in Parliament they have their several Writs of Summons as the Lay-Lords have if we desire Antiquity to make good their Interesse most of them have sat longer there in their Predecessors than any of our Temporal Lords in their noblest Ancestors if point of Priviledg they have the same in all respects as the others have except it be in one particular neither clearly stated nor universally enjoyed by those who pretend most to it if Letters Patents from the King to confirm these Honours they have his Majesties Writ of Conge d'eslire his Royal Assent to the Election his Mandate under the Great Seal for their Consecration If therefore we allow the Bishops to be Lords of Parliament we must allow them also to be Peers of the Realm There being nothing which distinguisheth a Peer from from a common Person but his Voice in Parliament which was the matter to be proved A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS The Way of the Reformation of the Church of England declared and justified SECT I. I. THE Introduction shewing the Occasion Method and Design of the whole Discourse Page 1 I. Of Calling or Assembling the Convocation of the Clergy and the Authority thereof when convened together Page 2 II. Of the Ejection of the Pope and vesting the Supremacy in the Regal Crown Page 5 III. Of the Translation of the Scriptures and permitting them to be read in the English Tongue Page 7 IV. Of the Reformation of Religion in the points of Doctrine Page 10 V. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship and the times appointed thereunto Page 14 VI. Of the power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the directing of the people in the publick duties of Religion Page 18 VII An Answer to the main Objections of either Party Page 20 SECT II. I. That the Church of England did not innovate in the Ejection of the Pope and setling the Supremacy in the Regal Crown Page 23 II. That the Church of England might proceed to a Reformation without the approbation of the Pope or the Church of Rome Page 26 III. That the Church of England might lawfully proceed to a Reformation without the help of a General Council or calling in the aid of the Protestant Churches Page 30 IV. That the Church did not innovate in Translating the Scriptures and the publick Liturgy into vulgar Tongues and of the Consequents thereof to the
luck in making choice of three such instances which if true would not serve his turn Page 681 8. The danger which lyeth hidden under the disguise of such popular Magistrates as are here instanced in by Calvin Page 682 9. What moved Calvin to lay these dangerous stumbling-blocks in the Subjects way Page 683 10. The dangerous positions and practices which have hence ensued in most parts of Europe Page 684 11. The sect of Calvin professed Enemies to Monarchy and the power of Princes Page 685 CHAP. V. What are the three Estates in each several Kingdom of which Calvin speaks and what particularly in the Realm of England 1. Of the division of a People into three Estates and that the Priests or Clergy have been always one Page 687 2. The Priests employed in Civil matters and affairs of State by the Egyptians and the Persians the Greeks Gauls and Romans Page 688 3. The Priests and Levites exercised in affairs of Civil Government by Gods own appointment Page 680 4. The Prelates versed in Civil matters and affairs of State in the best and happiest times of Christianity Page 690 5. The Clergy make the third Estate in Germany France Spain and the Northern Kingdoms Page 692 6. That anciently in the Saxon times the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm were called to all publick Councils Page 694 7. The Prelates an essential fundamental part of the English Parliament ibid. 8. Objections answered and that the word Clerus in the Legal notion doth not extend unto the Prelates Page 698 9. That the inferior Clergie of the Realm of England had anciently their Votes in Parliament to all intents and purposes as the Commons had Page 700 10. Objections answered and that the calling of the Clergie to Parliaments and Convocations were after different manners and by several Writs Page 703 11. The great Disfranchisement and Slavery obtruded on the English Clergy by the depriving of the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament Page 705 12. A brief discussion of the question whether any two of the three Estates conspiring or agreeing together can conclude any thing unto the prejudice of the third Page 706 CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or controll the Actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the King make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet Page 708 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch Page 710 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the Persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah Page 711 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King Page 712 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or regulated by the three Estates Page 713 6. Of what Authority they have been antiently in the Parliaments of Scotland Page 714 7. The King of England always accounted heretofore for an absolute Monarch Page 715 8. No part of Sovereignty invested Legally in the English Parliaments Page 716 9. The three Estates assembled in the Parliament of England subordinate unto the King not co-ordinate with him Page 719 10. The Legislative power of Parliaments is properly and legally in the King alone Page 720 11. In what particulars the power of the English Parliament doth consist especially Page 723 12. The Kings of England ordinarily over-rule their Parliaments by themselves their Council and their Judges Page 724 13. Objections answered touching the power and practice of some former Parliaments and the testimonies given unto them Page 726 14. No such Authority given by God in Holy Scripture to any such Popular Magistrates as Calvin dreams of and pretends Page 727 15. The Application and Conclusion of the whole Discourse Page 728 De jure Paritatis Episcoporum The Right of Peerage vindicated to the Bishops of England Page 739. FINIS