Elizabeth and certainly those Princes had more to feare for the Rights of their Crowne which they rescued from the Romish Subjection then the People at this day can possibly have for their liberties and Priviledges Their Religion then bound them to what in all probability was very prejudiciall to the Rights of their Kings nothing doth now obligâ— them to the least disadvantage of the People Then they swore obedience to the Bishop of Rome now they do it to none but to God himselfe Then the discipline of the Church had well-nigh suffered a totall subversion and England after the example of Poland might have conceived that the Nobility alone without Bishops were intrusted with the Reformation of the Church and that there was no more need of Prelates for Counsellors of State that is to sit in Parliament Notwithstanding neither did that Example nor these considerations prove prejudiciall to the Bishops The Fundamentall law of the Realme by which they are established together with the necessity of maintaininâ— them and besides that sundry the most eminent amongst them had couragiously sacrificed their lives in behalfe of Christianity oâ—â—poysed all other considerations whatsoever And the law which first seated them in Parliament expects them there still now especially when God 〈◊〉 leased to make use of Publicke votes for the government of the Church they are of more importance then eveâ— They are in England as in our Assemblies of State or as the Clergy in our highest Courts of Justice Which of our Kings who are absolute Monarchs without sharing their Power either with People or Parliaments as they do in other places which of them I say did ever entertaine a thought of debarring the Bishops this Priviledge We finde indeed in a certaine old Constitution that one of our Kings out of a zealous and pious intent making it seemes a conscience of diverting them from the service of God discharged theâ— all except the Abbat of Saint Denys from assisting at Parliamenâ—â— and hearing criminall cases but we finde not that this Ordinanâ—â— was ever put in execution but on the contrary that the weighâ—ieâ— employments of those times were wholly devolved upon Church-men whose abilities and honesty won them such a generall repuâ—â— that the custome then was for Princes to select among others two Bishops for the cheife of their retinue to be the 〈◊〉 of the Court and withall to see that justice were exactly and due 〈◊〉 administred They had likewise two Masters of Requests continually attending on them one of which was alwayes â— Clergy-mâ—â— who gave present Justice And we finde in a certaine Constitutioâ— of one of our Philips that of five appointed to give answer 〈◊〉 such Petitions as were presented in Parliaments two were to be Lay-men and three Clerkes But what neede we go farther then England to warrant the equity of this custome debarre the Bishops their right of sitting in Parliament and what respect will a proud licentious People afford the Clergy you may assure your selfe none at all Let them use what meanes they can to make them their Synods or Councells of any esteeme with them they will conforme no further to them then they please themselves Indeed to disvote Bishops in such Assemblies is to bereave them of all Authority and to open a gap for any wilde Chrochers in point of Religion to enter in that Kingdome 'T is in a word to suppresse the Bishops themselves to throw downe the Pillars of the Church and so to render the conservation of Christian Purity impossible Perhaps Sir you may thinke I speake in this more then comes to my share being one who professe to have no portion in the corruptions of Rome and so much to abhorre the Superstition of embracing such things as some upon divers pretences either out of ignorance or malice have introduced into the world to the great prejudice and disquiet thereof and in derogation to the just liberty of Conscience But if you please to reflect a little upon that prodigious clashing of opinions which at this day divides England into so many severall sects you will certainely conclude with me that in case this Order be once abolished neither innocence of manners nor integrity of doctrine can any longer enjoy a place in that Church The reason 〈◊〉 obvious if it be but considered how since the discontinuing of Episcopall Power in that Kingdome those that owe obedience and should be accountable for their doctrines to the Bishops do now live in such a horrible fashion as I have allready inform'd you that we may safely beleeve the most of them are the spawne of such as were once disgorged out of the mouth of Hell and dispersed in the Church to stifle Christianity in her Cradle rather then the successors of those that have beene the constant assertors of truth and opposers of falshood Witnesse the severall impieties and heresies both ancient and moderne where with they empoyson the soules of that People who in the common confusion listen to them blindely swallowing downe under pretence of Reformation all sorts of fancies and doctrines indifferently The most absurd dreames of the old Chiliasts the most pernicious ertours of Origen the most infamous libertinisme of the Anabaptists and the most execrable impieties of the Sociâ—ians doe usually take up the greatest part of their Sermons the rest being designed either for inflaming the Auditours with the coales of sedition and setting both parties at an irreconcileable distance or else to embase all manners to the lowest degree of corruption Yet in this generall depravation God hath reserv'd for himselfe some well disposed persons and indued them with courage to enquire into their actions and to brand the crimes of the Age. They have stoutly express'd their dislike of what hath beene constantly delivered by many hundred Preachers in that Kingdome I will not present you with an exact list of all they have published Judge with your selfe if there be any impiety those men will make scruple of many of whom out of an extreame unheard of impudence have had the boldnesse to defame in the open pulpit some of the other sex whom they could not tempt to lewdnesse in their private Houses I am very credibly informed that their names were presented to the Parliament but could never heare oâ— any punishment so much as intended them this in my opinion was the 〈◊〉 crying sinne then that of the Ghostly Father who seduced a 〈◊〉 in time of confession There is in this an unparallel'd kind of scandall and such as you will find farre to surpasse the greatest crimâ—â— which have ever beene charged upon any Hereticke in the World Such disorders were not to be heard of till 〈◊〉 Bishops were outed of their Jurisdiction and ill Church discipline robbed of it's force and vertue notwithstanding the naturall irregularity of that People Three yeares Anarchy and Independance in the Church have plunged that State into more confusion then all the Civill Waâ—â— thâ— case prosperity and long
same man to differ from himselfe We see that Families are ever at unity when they beare an orderly subjection to the Master of the House be there never so many private jarrings of opinions among the severall members Examine we the matter yet a little further Is there any thing more agreeable to reason then that the lesse depend upon the greater the weake and feeble upon the strong in a word to behold that subordination in the world that where any prejudiciall counselâ—â— or resolutions shall happen to â—e proposed they may be timously check'd by some intervening authority and kept within the bounds prescribed them How many may we every day see attempting to passe the bounds of their abilities and professions and of what a banefull consequence the impunity of such irregularities may prove I leave it for any man to determine This I 'me sure made the Divine Providence speake by the mouth of Saint Paul that * 1 Cor. 14. 29. when the Prophets speake there should be some to judge That which followes is very observable * v 33. The spirits of the Prophets are subject unto the Prophets whereof presently he renders the reason For * v. 34. God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all Churches of the Saints Behold Sir at a nearer distance the reasons for which this Order was first established which in my judgement are of equall force for the continuance of it to all ages seeing you have as great cause now as ever to feare those inconveniences which attend on equality You have Councels to be assembled Schismes to be composed Heretiques to be convinced and many ill appointed Churches to be visited But there is yet a more speciall and pressing motive in the case of England to wit the Genius of the People who being accustomed to gaze upon a gorgeous outside will not without much reluctancy be drawne to yeild any manner of reverence and submission to such as stand not upon the vantage-ground of honour Witnesse their Divines and all the gowned tribe Let their vertues be never so legible the Great ones looke upon them but as so many silly fellowes in blacke extracted out of the scumme of the People who for their part thinke they doe them a great honour if they shall vouchsafe to use them as their companions The case being thus what may we thinke would attend the extirpation of Episcopacy out of that Kingdome but the utter contempt of Christianity From vilifying the persons 't is ordinary to proceed next to a slighting of the Profession though never so sacred And if they put such a cheape esteeme upon the Persons of those that are to direct the Conscience and watch over the soule with what oscitancy and indevotion will all their counsels and instructions be entertained amongst them 'T is indeed the dignity of the Prelates which hath hitherto supported the dignity of Religion and if any manner of respect hath beene paid them it was first excited by the Majesty and lustre of that superiority wherewith God hath invested them as the most naturall meanes to keepe in an Evangelicall awe a People whose very Genius seconded with excesse of riches and security hath merited them the name of the most insolent People in the world But they tell us that the Bishops of meere Overseers were become absolute Lords and of Rulers had transformed themselves into Tyrants which indeed may be true of some but not of all How many have there beene in England since the Reformation so farre from the least smacke of their Predecessours or any of their fellow brethrens vanity that on the contrary in examples of modesty and and humility they have left most of the truly Reformed Pastours in Europe behind them who knowes not that the now Bishop of Durâ—aâ— notwithstanding the large revenues he formerly enjoyed and the severall titles of honour particularly annexed to that Bishopricke hath manifested to the world that he is cast in the same mould with those untainted soules of the Primitive Church All men may reade his temper and what spirit swayed him in his greatest prosperity inasmuch as now sharing in the common calamity depriv'd of all his livelyhood and brought to indigence thrown downe from so high a pitch of greatnesse to so low an ebbe from so much honour to so much infamy shut up as it were in a prison without ease without liberty and almost without a freind too aged about fourescore and five or six yeares he beares it all out with such composednesse of spirit such an absolute resignation of himselfe to the Divine Providence in the midst of these his trialls that he seemes to have no part in the corruption of the Times and those impurities wherewith they charge his Brethren such a large portion he hath in the innocence and vertues of the Primitive Martyrs Did ever any man behold a more Apostolique man then the present * Bishop vsher Primate of Ireland I applaud not now the learning either of the one or other I speake onely of their piety that characteristicall vertue of the Saints Could any the most active and noted adversaries of Episcopacy ever blemish the conversation of Doctor Bromhall Bishop of Derry of Jewell Bilson Hall Downham Davenant Sands Abbot Andrewes Vsher Prideaux and a large Catalogue besides of such whose vertues are not yet come to my knowledge no more then their names For all those prerogatives they enjoy above other men by reason of the Character they beare for all that superiority and those titles full of pompe and magnificence the Lawes of the Land have allowed them did ever any know them give the least scandall to the most scrupulous conscience or the least occasion for the meanest Subject to complaine of them On the contrary the whole course of their lives is a copy worthy the imitation not onely of such as had need to reforme themselves but even of the most unblameable persons I should but wrong their modesties in proceeding any further And I would be loath to distast them having no other intent then simply to describe them However I shall confidently a vouch thus much that they live in Episcopacy with much more integrity then any of their Persecutours do in their professions as being conformable to their intention who first gave life unto it The Divine Authours of so sacred â—n Ordinance knew well enough what high conceits are apt to surprize the soules of men when once they are lifted up above others and hence was it that of so many names wherewith the Apostles invested the Rulers of the Church they pitch't upon the name of Bishop for such as were to fit at the Sterne There were others that carried more state and lustre with them as that of â—astour wherewith homer honours his King of Elder of Doctour of President of Cheife But this is a name of toile and diligence by which the first imposers of it intended to containe such as
to the Magistrate I instance not in this Custome as if I thought it worthy the imitation no it hath it's blemishes as well as those in other places and is perhaps as repugnant to the ancient practice of the Church That which I most dislike in it as a matter of dangerous consequence is that instead of the usuall Discipline among the Faithfull in winning the Soule from vice by sweet alluring meanes after the example of God who drawes us with the cords of love they exercise a temporall Jurisdiction and practice the severity of Judges meerly secular which begets two evils at once the first an intrenching upon the Churches function in depriving her of the liberty of censuring crimes The second is that by the rigour of that Custome Offenders are many times driven to such desperate resolutions that they chuse rather to flee the City then to abide the hazâ—rd of a triall whence commonly ariseth a third namely that by the intercession of Parents or Freinds they are permitted to compound with their purses and so that repose and security which should be found onely in the goodnesse of men such especially as would be accounted Saints iâ— often to be had in the corruption and venality of the Judges the ready way to impenitency and hardnesse of heart Can they now after all this object against the Bishops of England that either avarice or corruption hath prevailed with them to connive at the vicious or that they used too much rigour and precipitation in the execution of their authority If so be they have any designe to make Geneva their patterne For my part I finde nothing commendable in their Discipline but this that our first Reformers have hereby given the world sufficient proofe of their absolute aversion from infringing the force of Lawes or undermining the Authority of the Magistrates And that they never dreamt of being endowed with a power so directly opposite to all secular authority which might any way disoblige them from obedience due to Princes The custome they have in their monethly Assemblies is yet more for our purpose For besides that they never conveene without the consent of their Senatours either express'd or implyed no more then our assemblyes doe in France the severall results and acts of those meetings are altogether invalid till the same Powers have approved and ratified them which is yet more remarkeable in as much as there they confine themselves to the cognition of such causes alone as reflect either upon manners or Religion The Palatinate went beyond Geneva in this particular where in the Ecclesiasticall Assembly at Heidelberg the Prince had alwaies his Officers or Overseers as I may truly call them Nor was there ever any Synod held within the verge of his Dominions where there was not a President deputed by Him and besides what ever was agreed upon nothing could be put in execution till it had passed the examination of his Counsell and received his owne approbation A custome very conformable to the practice of allâ—ges since the infancy of the Church whensoever any Councells at all were held or where there was any Prince or such as either might or would challenge any interest in them Would our Reformers here walke in the same Track they would abate of that insolence whereby they maintaine that the power they exercise is no other then the power of Heaven nor would they any longer call their Conventicles the Tribunall and their Censures the Decrees of Christ They would talke no more of a right of convâ—â—ning in despight of their Magistrates or Princes and when they were conveened by their authority they would attend their approbation as necessary to the execution of what they had determined And in case they were at first denyed it they would noâ— straight picke a quarrell and excommunicate them much lesse would they dare to depose them for any opposition whatsoever They would confine themselves simply to a power over the conscience without encroaching upon the civill Magistrate and under a pretence of advanceing piety towards God and charity towards their neighbour would no longer abuse such weake silly people as suffer themselves to be inveigled by the persons they susteine as Ministers of the Gospell But we may lawfully conclude they thinke of nothing lesse they have a quarrell with the temporall lawes and downe they must sooner or later if this torrent be not maturely opposed They will destroy all Legall Parliaments and overturne all secular authority This is the mischeife which all the sound Members of the present Parliament should eagerly struggle with and not consent so slavish â—y as their manner hath beene to such things as threaten the whole with inevitable ruine All the care they take and the paines they bestow here to reestablish as they pretend the freedome of their Votes the Liberty of the Subject and the purity of Religion are indeed but so many attempts to involve themselves with all the ancient rights of Church and State in the same common destruction the Capitall Enemies thereof insensibly gathering ground and notwithstanding all their faire pretences making their party so strong that when the Parliament shall have fancyed themselves at the very â—op of their designe thinking now they have pluck'd up all Tyranny and superstition by the rootes they will finde in the issue that they have intangled the State in so much confusion as all the wit of man will never be able to compose There is no Law here but Arbitrary What house is secure What person free What wise man regarded What honest man imitated What vice punished What virtue rewarded What stranger priviledg'd What Minister of State unviolated contrary to the Law of Nations All professions degrees and qualities are hudled up together in the common confusion The People which used to receive Lawes in this generall hurliburly prescribes them ignorant malicious and giddy headed rabble that it is it must be shaping a monster which the whole world cryes out of nay 't is allready formed The London â—out being now the sole Moderatours to all the Rebellious part of the Kingdome They have ruin'd the Nobility despoiling them partly of their meanes and partly of their power Such of the Peeres as continue still amongst them are neither of any account noâ— Authority You shall have three or foure seditious rascalls of the City who are of no extraction no merit no name but what they have purchased in traduceing honest men in murthering the innocent and turning each place that lies within the reach of their fury into a disconsolate Wildernesse more listened to and draw more abettours after them then all the House of Lords can do So that me thinkes I heare some interpose and say certainely this convention you tell us of hath nothing but a counterfeit name and is no more then the shadow and empty picture of a true Parliament things are carryed there with so much precipitation and violence that for any man but to talke of
of the Church or State have no portion amongst the faithfull nor the Saints of God and for this very reason I cannot be perswaded they have any favourers or Abettours amongst us or that any to whom God hath given the least graine of understanding or honesty will not condemne their designe and all their proceedings and having once advised them to quit such courses will not utterly detest them if they persevere You will say now that though they have put downe Episcopacy and undermined the power of the Nobility yet they are not any way disaffected to Royalty Can any man beleive this after so many thousand seditious Propositions which they daily publish both in Presse and Pulpit peruse them I beseech you for my sake though I know you cannot doe it without horrour and ever and anon turning your eyes from them so full of venime are they against all the Princes in the world so contrary to the doctrine and practice of Christians and so injuriuos to the name and profession of all true and sincere Protestants such are these Though the King be greater then any one of his Subjects in particular yet he is farre lesse then the body collective of all his Subjects The King is for the people and not the people for the King and by consequent the people are of more worth and value then he in as much as the meanes are alwaies subordinate to that end to which they are directed and from whence they derive their worth The power and authority of any usuâ—â—ing Tyrant is as much from God as that of lawfull Kings The Power of Princes those especially which by inheritance are such flowes from the people and consequently is more deeply rooted and eminently seated in them then it is in the Person of the Prince because Quod efficit tale est magis tale I am forced to make use of their owne barbarous tearmes that I may the better expresse the barbarousnesse of their conceptions As Kings receive their power from the people so they may be divested of it by them either in the body collective of all or in the body representative in Parliament or by the major part of either In case the King shall falsifie the Oath he takes at his Coronation the people are thereupon discharged aâ—d freed from their alleagiance to him Positions so much the more absurd because the Lawes of that Land have provided to the contrary and that all the world have acknowledged it as a maxime that the King of England never dyes that without all distinction of time as well before as after his Coronation he receives all such homages and services as are due to the Crowne that he is not King upon condition as if by violation thereof he should fall from his Right to the Kingdome but upon bare promises the non performance of which is enough to denominate him unjust but not to depose him They proceed No sonne may with more equity binde the hand of his distracted father no marriner more justly remove a Pilot from the Sterne who would wracke the ship either out of ignorance or malice then Subjects may by force of armes dethrone their Prince if he shall once apparently hearken to any counsels pernicious to the State and that the Commonâ—wealth either by his weakenesse or negligence be in danger of ruine Saint Paul doth not command but barely exhort aâ—ery soule to be subject to the higher powers This was but a prudentiall counsell of one that was to rule a People at such a time as they had neither strength nor meanes to doe otherwise and that to thinke the contrary were to put such a yoake upon the conscience as he never dreamed of By the higher powers Saint Paul speakes of we are not to understand the Person of a King but his charge and office as it is represented in his Courts and in the Parliament insomuch that the Subjects of England according to this doctrine may beare armes against CHARLES STEVVART residing at Oxford and yet still observe that alleagiance which is due to the King in his Parliament at Lond. Which is as much of a true body to make an idle phantasme of a King a Chimera as some have done of Christ himselfe transubstantiating him from a true man to an imaginary senselesse and absurd I know not what The Authors of these pernicious opinions might learne a little more wisedome were they but capable of weighing as they ought the rules of that State which informe us that every treason respects either mediately or immediately the person of the King There can none of them be ignorant how that before these fatall distractions all the Judges were of opinion and have so determined the case that the Subjects of England are clearely and absolutely bound to obey their Prince even in his naturall capacity that is the person of CHARLES STEVVART and not onely in his politique capacity as he is I know not what imaginary and Platonicke King Besides they need not be informed how this very doctrine which the Parliamenteers at this day publish to the world and upon which they ground all their severall acts of violence is both in the Magna Charta and those acts concerning the banisHment of Hugh Spencer condemned in full Parliament and rejected as a principle of Treason fraud and Rebellion They proceed yet further and tell us That the Parliament may in case of necessity ordaine lawes for peace and warre in spight of the Prince which shall equally oblige every member of the State And in case the King refuse to confirme them the same Parliament is to be the sole arbitratour and judge of that necessity and of the time how long it ought or can continue That the King is bound to ratifie all presented to him by the Parliament notwithstanding all the objections which either his Counsell or his owne reason and Conscience shall suggest unto Him That the Civill Government ought alwaies to give place to the Ecclesiasticall Were it so that the government of the Church here were partly Democraticall as the Brownists would have it or partly Aristocraticall and partly Democraticall as it is amongst the Presbyterians it is easy to inferre what would become of the Civill Magistrate These are the holy maximes and pious Doctrines of those that pretend to purity of life and talke of restoring the Lawes and Ordinances framed by our first Reformers to that vigour and Authority which the Tyrants of the Conscience and enemies of all secular power have wrested from them I am sure neither Christ nor Moses nor Paul nor Peter taught them any such lesson but Mariaâ—â— Bellarmine Bourchier Brutus Buchanan and the rest of those Hellish finebrands employed by the Devill to disturbe that Order which the Eternall providence of Heaven had set up in the World Let me hereunto adde that notable demonstration of their Affection towards their Queene They have expressely prohibited all prayers both publique and private for Her Conversion A