the rightfull K. of France and gives the Kingdome to Pepin for no other cause but that hee seem'd to him the more active man If he were a freind herein to Monarchy I know not but to the Monarch I need not aske what he was Having thus made Pepin his fast freind he cals him into Italy against Aistulphus the Lombard that warâ—…'d upon him for his late Usurpation of Rome as belonging to Ravenna which he had newly won Pepin not unobedient to the Popes call passing into Italy frees him out of danger and wins for him the whole exarchat of Ravenna which though it had beene almost immediately before the hereditary possession of that Monarchy which was his cheife Patron and Benefactor yet he takes and keepes it to himselfe as lawfull prize and given to St. Peter What a dangerous fallacie is this when a spirituall man may snatch to himselfe any temporall Dignity or Dominion under pretence of receiving it for the Churches use thus he claimes Naples Sicily England and what not To bee short under shew of his zeale against the errors of the Greeke Church hee never ceast baiting and goring the Successors of his best Lord Constantine what by his barking curses and Excommunications what by his hindering the Westerne Princes from ayding them against the Sarazens and Turkes unlesse when they humour'd him so that it may be truly affirm'd he was the subversion and fall of that Monarchy which was the hoisting of him this besides Petrarch whom I have cited our Chaucer also hath observ'd and gives from hence a caution to England to beware of her Bishops in time for that their ends and aymes are no more freindly to Monarchy then the Popes Thus hee brings in the Plow-man speaking 2. Part. Stanz. 28. The Emperour Yafe the Pope sometime So high Lordship him abovt That at last the silly Kime The proud Pope put him out So of this Realme is no doubt But Lords beware and them dâ—…fend For now these folks be wonders â—…out The King and Lords now this amend And in the next Stanza which begins the third part of the tale he argues that they ought not to bee Lords Moses Law forbode it tho That Preists should no Lordships welde Christs Gospell biddeth also That they should no Lordships held Ne Christs Apostles were never so bold No such Lordships to hem embrace But smeren her Sheep and keep her Fold And so forward Whether the Bishops of England have deserv'd thus to bee fear'd by men so wise as our Chaucer is esteem'd and how agreeable to our Monarchy and Monarchs their demeanour ha's been he that is but meanly read in our Chronicles needs not be instructed Have they not been as the Canaanites and Philistims to this Kingdom what Treasons what revolts to the Pope what Rebellions and those the basest and most preten selesse have they not been chiefe in What could Monarchy think when Becket durst challenge the custody of Rotchester-Castle and the Tower of London as appertaining to his Signory To omit his other insolencies and affronts to Regall Majestie till the Lashes inflicted on the aâ—…ointed body of the King washt off the holy Vnction with his blood drawn by the polluted hands of Bishops Abbots and Monks What good upholders of Royalty were the Bishops when by their rebellious opposition against King John Normandy was lost he himselfe depos'd and this Kingdom made over to the Pope When the Bishop of Winchester durst tell the Nobles the Pillars of the Realme that there were no Peeres in England as in France but that the King might doe what hee pleas'd What could Tyranny say more it would bee petty now if I should insist upon the rendring up of Tournay by Woolseyes Treason the Excommunications Cursings and Interdicts upon the whole Land For haply I shall be cut off short by a reply that these were the faults of the men and their Popish errors not of Episcopacie that hath now renounc't the Pope and is a Protestant Yes sure as wise and famous men have suspected and fear'd the Protestant Episcopacie in England as those that have fear'd the Papall You know Sir what was the judgement of Padre Paolo the great Venetian Antagonist of the Pope for it is extant in the hands of many men whereby he declares his feare that when the Hierarchy of England shall light into the hands of busie and audacious men or shall meet with Princes tractable to the Prelacy then much mischiefe is like to ensue And can it bee neerer hand then when Bishops shall openly affirme that No Bishop no King a trimme Paradox and that yee may know where they have beene a begging for it I will fetch you the Twin-brother to it out of the Jesuites Cell they feeling the Axe of Gods reformation hewing at the old and hollow trunk of Papacie and finding the Spaniard their surest friend and safest refuge to sooth him up in his dreame of a fift Monarchy and withall to uphold the decrepit Papalty have invented this super-politick Aphorisme as one termes it One Pope and one King Surely there is not any Prince in Christendome who hearing this rare Sophistry can choose but smile and if we be not blind at home we may as well perceive that this worthy Motto No Bishop no King is of the same batch and infanted out of the same feares a meere ague-cake coagulated of a certaine Fever they have presaging their time to be but short and now like those that are sinking they catch round at that which is likeliest to hold them up And would perswade Regall Power that if they dive he must after But what greater debasement can there be to Royall Dignity whose towring and stedfast heighth rests upon the unmovable foundations of Justice and Heroick vertue then to chaine it in a dependance of subsisting or ruining to the painted Battlements and gaudy rottennesse of Prelatrie which want but one puffe of the Kings to blow them down like a past bord House built of Court-Cards Sir the little adoe which me thinks I find in untacking these pleasant Sophismes puts mee into the mood to tell you a tale ere I proceed further and Menenius Agrippa speed us Upon a time the Body summon'd all the Members to meet in the Guild for the common good as Aesops Chronicles averre many stranger Accidents the head by right takes the first seat and next to it a huge and monstrous Wen little lesse then the Head it selfe growing to it by a narrower excrescency The members amaz'd began to aske one another what hee was that took place next their chief none could resolve Whereat the Wen though unweildy with much adoe gets up and bespeaks the Assembly to this purpose That as in place he was second to the head so by due of merit that he was to it an ornament and strength and of speciall neere relation and that if the head should faile none were fitter then himselfe to step into his place therefore hee thought
OF REFORMATION Touching CHVRCH-DISCIPLINE IN ENGLAND And the CAVSES that hitherto have hindred it TWO BOOKES Written to a FREIND Printed for Thomas Vnderhill 1641. Faults escap't in the printing are heer corrected Page 1. l. 5. at frequent must be a comma p. 2. l. 27. sensual p. 4. l. 31. exorcism p. 5. l. 9. at adoration a comna p. 6. l. 4. in ignorance there wants an a. l. 29. she taught p. 7. l. 9. adde in Discipline which is the execution p. 19. l. 4. collegues l. 13. known p. 70. l. 6. yea other nattonsp 72. l. 5. each other state l. 7. at common is no period but a comma OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND And the CAVVSES that hitherto have hindred it Sir AMidst those deepe and retired thoughts which with every man Christianly instructed ought to be most frequent of God and of his miraculous ways and works amongst men and of our Religion and Worship to be perform'd to him after the story of our Saviour Christ suffering to the lowest bent of weaknesse in the Flesh and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in the Spirit which drew up his body also till we in both be united to him in the Revelation of his Kingdome I do not know of any thing more worthy to take up the whole passion of pitty on the one side and joy on the other then to consider first the foule and sudden corruption and then after many a tedious age the long-deferr'd but much more wonderfull and happy reâ—…ormation of the Church in these latter dayes Sad it is to thinke how that Doctrine of the Gospel planted by teachers Divinely inspir'd and by them winnow'd and sifted from the chaffe of overdated Ceremonies and refin'd to such a Spirituall height and temper of purity and knowledge of the Creator that the body with all the circumstances of time and place were purifi'd by the affections of the regenerat Soule and nothing left impure but sinne Faith needing not the weak and fallible office of the Senses to be either the Vshers or Interpreters of heavenly Mysteries save where our Lord him-selfe in his Sacraments ordain'd that such a Doctrine should through the grossenesse and blindnesse of her Professors and the fraud of deceivable traditions drag so downwards as to backslide one way into the Jewish beggery of old cast rudiments and stumble forward another way into the new-vomited Paganisme of sensuall Idolatry attributing purity or impurity to things indifferent that they might bring the inward acts of the Spirit to the outward and customary ey-Service of the body as if they could make God earthly and fleshly because they could not make themselves heaâ—…enly and Spirituall they began to draw downe all the Divine intercours betwixt God and the Soule yea the very shape of God himselfe into an exterior and bodily forme urgently pretending a necessity and obligement of joyning the body in a formall reverence and Worship circumscrib'd they hallow'd it they fum'd it they sprincl'd it they be deck't it not in robes of pure innocency but of pure Linnen with other deformed and fantastick dresses in Palls and Miters gold and guegaw's fetcht from Arons old wardrope or the Flamins vestry then was the Priest set to con his motions and his Postures his Liturgies and his Lurries till the Soule by this meanes of over bodying her selfe given up justly to fleshly delights bated her wing apace downeward and finding the ease she had from her visible and sensuous collegue the body in performance of Religious duties her pineons now broken and flagging shifted off from her selfe the labour of high soaring any more forgot her heavenly flight and left the dull and droyling carcas to plod on in the old rode and dâ—…udging Trade of outward conformity And here out of question from her pervers conceiting of God and holy things she had faln to beleeve no God at all had not custome and the worme of conscience nipt her incredulity hence to all the duty 's of evangelicall grace instead of the adoptive and cheerefull boldnesse which our new alliance with God requires came Servile and thrallike feare for in very deed the superstitious man by his good will is an Atheist but being â—…carr'd from thence by the pangs and gripes of a boyling conscience all in a pudder shuffles up to himselfe such a God and such a worship as is most agreeable to remedy his feare which feare of his as also is his hope fixt onely upon the Flesh renders likewise the whole faculty of his apprehension carnall and all the inward acts of worship issuing from the native strength of the SOVLE run out lavishly to the upper skin and there harden into a crust of Formallitie Hence men came to scan the Scriptures by the Letter and in the Covenant ofour Redemption magnifi'd the external signs more then the quickning power of the Spirit and yet looking on them through their own guiltinesse with a Servile feare and finding as little comfort or rather terror from them againe they knew not how to hide their Slavish approach to Gods behests by them not understood nor worthily receav'd but by cloaking their Servile crouching to all Religious Presentments somtimes lawfull sometimes Idolatrous under the name of humility and terming the Py-bald frippery and oftentation of Ceremony's decency Then was Baptisme chang'd into a kind of exorcisme and water Sanctifi'd by Christs institute thought little enough to wash off the originall Spot without the Scratch or crosse impression of a Priests fore-finger and that feast of free grace and adoption to which Christ invited his Disciples to sit as Brethren and coheires of the happy Covenant which at that Table was to be Seal'd to them even that Feast of love and heavenly-admitted fellowship the Seale of filiall grace became the Subject of horror and glouting adoration pageanted about like a dreadfull Idol which sometimes deceve's wel-meaning men and beguiles them of their reward by their voluntary humility which indeed is fleshly pride preferring a foolish Sacrifice and the rudiments of the world as Saint Paul to the Colossians explaineth before a savory obedience to Christs example Such was Peters unseasonable Humilitie as then his Knowledge was small when Christ came to wash his feet who at an impertinent time would needs straine courtesy with his Master and falling troublesomly upon the lowly alwise and unexaminable intention of Christ in what he went with resolution to doe so provok't by his interruption the meeke Lord that he threat'nd to exclude him from his heavenly Portion unlesse he could be content to be lesse arrogant and stiff neckt in his humility But to dwell no longer in characterizing the Depravities of the Church and how they sprung and how they tooke increase when I recall to mind at last after so many darke Ages wherein the huge overshadowing traine of Error had almost swept all the Starres out of the Firmament of the Church how the bright and blissfull Reformation by Divine Power
Jeroboams policy he made Religion conform to his politick interests this was the sin that watcht over theIsraelites till their final captivity If this State principle come from the Prelates as they affect to be counted statists let them look back to Elutherius Bishop of Rome and see what he thought of the policy of England being requir'd by Lucius the first Christian King of this Iland to give his counsel for the founding of Religious Laws little thought he of this sage caution but bids him betake himselfe to the old and new Testament and receive direction from them how to administer both Church and Common-wealth that he was Gods Vicar and therfore to rule by Gods Laws that the Edicts of Caesar we may at all times disallow but the Statutes of God for no reason we may reject Now certaine if Church-goverment be taught in the Gofpel as the Bishops dare not deny we may well conclude of what late standing this Position is newly calculated for the altitude of Bishop elevation and lettice for their lips But by what example can they shew that the form of Church Discipline must be minted and modell'd out to secular pretences The ancient Republick of the Jews is evident to have run through all the changes of civil estate if we survey the Story from the giving of the Law to the Herods yet did one manner of Priestly government serve without inconvenience to all these temporal mutations it serv'd the mild Aristocracy of elective Dukes and heads of Tribes joyn'd with them the dictatorship of the Judges the easie or hard-handed Monarchy's the domestick or forrain tyrannies Lastly the Roman Senat from without the Jewish Senat at home with the Galilean Teâ—…rarch yet the Levites had some right to deal in civil affairs but seeing the Euangelical precept forbids Church-men to intermeddle with worldly imployments what interweavings or interworkings can knit the Minister and the Magistrate in their several functions to the regard of any precise correspondency Seeing that the Churchmans office is only to teach men the Christian Faith to exhort all to incourage the good to admonish the bad privately the lesse offender publickly the scandalous and stubborn to censure and separate from the communion of Christs flock the contagious and incorrigible to receive with joy and fatherly compassion the penitent all this must be don and more then this is beyond any Church autority What is all this either here or there to the temporal regiment of Wealpublick whether it be Popular Princely or Monarchical Where doth it intrench upon the temporal governor where does it come in his walk where does it make inrode upon his jurisdiction Indeed if the Ministers part be rightly discharg'd it renders him the people more conscionable quiet and easie to be govâ—…'d if otherwise his life and doctrine will declare him If therfore the Constitution of the Church be already set down by divine prescript as all sides confesse then can she not be a handmaid to wait on civil commodities and respects and if the nature and limits of Church Discipline be such as are either helpfull to all political estates indifferently or have no particular relation to any then is there no necessity nor indeed possibility of linking the one with the other in a speciall conformation Now for their second 〈◊〉 That no form of Church government is agreeable to Monarchy but that of Bishops although it fall to pieces of it selfe by that which hath 〈◊〉 sayd yet to give them play front and 〈◊〉 it shall be my task to prove that Episcopacy with that Autority which it challenges in England is not only not agreeable but tending to the destruction of Monarchy While the Primitive Pastors of the Church of God labour'd faithfully in their Ministery tending only their Sheep and not seeking but avoiding all worldly matters as clogs and indeed derogations and debasements to their high calling little needed the Princes and potentates of the earth which way soever the Gospel was spread to study ways how to make a coherence between the Churches politic and theirs therfore when Pilate heard once our Saviour Christ professing that his Kingdome was not of this world he thought the man could not stand much in Caesars light nor much indammage the Roman Empire for if the life of Christ be hid to this world much more is his Scepter unoperative but in spirituall things And thus liv'd for 2 or 3 ages the Successors of the Apostles But when through Constantines lavish Superstition they forsook their first love and set themselvs up two Gods instead Mammon and their Belly then taking advantage of the spiritual power which they had on mens consciences they began to cast a longing eye to get the body also and bodily things into their command upon which their carnal desires the Spirit dayly quenching and dying in them they knew no way to keep themselves up from falling to nothing but by bolstering and supporting their inward rottenes by a carnal and outward strength For a while they rather privily sought opportunity then hastily disclos'd their project but when Constantine was dead and 3 or 4 Emperors more their drift became notorious and offensive to the whole world for while Theodosius the younger reign'd thus writes Socrates the Historian in his 7th Book 11. chap. now began an ill name to stick upon the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria who beyond their Priestly bounds now long agoe had stept into principality and this was scarse 80. years since their raising from the meanest worldly condition Of courtesie now let any man tell me if they draw to themselves a temporall strength and power out of Caesars Dominion is not Caesars Empire thereby diminisht but this was a stolne bit hitherto hee was but a Caterpiller secretly gnawing at Monarchy the next time you shall see him a Woolfe a Lyon lifting his paw against his raiser as Petrarch exprest it and finally an open enemy and subverter of the Greeke Empire Philippicus and Leo with divers other Emperours after them not without the advice of their Patriarchs and at length of a whole Easterne Counsell of 3. hundred thirty eight Bishops threw the Images out of Churches as being decreed idolatrous Upon this goodly occasion the Bishop of Rome not only seizes the City and all the Territory about into his owne hands and makes himselfe Lord thereof which till then was govern'd by a Greeke Magistrate but absolves all Italy of their Tribute and obedience due to the Emperour because hee obey'd Gods Commandement in abolishing Idolatry Mark Sir here how the Pope came by S. Peters Patrymony as he feigns it not the donation of Constantine but idolatry and rebellion got it him Yee need but read Sigonius one of his owne Sect to know the Story at large And now to shroud himselfe against a storme from the Greek Continent and provide a Champion to beare him out in these practises hee takes upon him by Papall sentence to unthrone Chilpericus
it for the honour of the Body that such dignities and rich indowments should be decreed him as did adorne and set out the noblest Members To this was answer'd that it should bee consulted Then was a wise and learned Philosopher sent for that knew all the Charters Lawes and Tenures of the Body On him it is impos'd by all as chiefe Committee to examine and discusse the claime and Petition of right put in by the Wen who soone perceiving the matter and wondring at the boldnesse of such a swolne Tumor Wilt thou quoth he that art but a bottle of vitious and harden'd excrements contend with the lawfull and free-borne members whose certaine number is set by ancient and unrepealable Statute head thou art none though thou receive this huge substance from it what office bearst thou What good canst thou shew by thee done to the Common-weale the Wen not easily dash't replies that his Office was his glory for so oft as the soule would retire out of the head from over the steaming vapours of the lower parts to Divine Contemplation with him shee found the purest and quietest retreat as being most remote from soile and disturbance Lourdan quoth the Philosopher thy folly is as great as thy filth know that all the faculties of the Soule are confin'd of old to their severall vessels and ventricles from which they cannot part without dissolution of the whole Body and that thou containst no good thing in thee but a heape of hard and loathsome uncleannes and art to the head a foul disfigurment and burden when I have cut thee off and open'd thee as by the help of these implements I will doe all men shall see But to return whence was digress't seeing that the throne of a King as the wise K. Salomon often remembers us is establisht in Justice which is the universall Justice that Aristotle so much praises containing in it all other vertues it may assure us that the fall of Prelacy whose actions are so farre distant from Justice cannot shake the least fringe that borders the royal canopy but that their standing doth continually oppose and lay battery to regal safety shall by that which follows easily appear Amongst many secondary and accessory causes that support Monarchy these are not of least reckning though common to all other States the love of the Subjects the multitude and valor of the people and store of treasure In all these things hath the Kingdome bin of late sore weak'nd and chiefly by the Prelates First let any man consider that if any Prince shall suffer under him a commission of autority to be exerciz'd till all the Land grone and cry out as against a whippe of Scorpions whether this be not likely to lessen and keel the affections of the Subject Next what numbers of faithfull and freeborn Englishmen and good Christians have bin constrain'd to forsake their dearest home their friends and kindred whom nothing but the wide Ocean and the savage deâ—…erts of America could hide and shelter from the fury of the Bishops O Sir if we could but see the shape of our deare Mother England as Poets are wont to give a personal form to what they please how would she appeare think ye but in a mourning weed with ashes upon her head and teares abundantly flowing from her eyes to behold so many of her children expos'd at once and thrust from things of dearest necessity because their conscience could not assent to things which the Bishops thought indifferent What more binding then Conscience what more free then indifferency cruel then must that indifferency needs be that shall violate the strict necessity of Conscience mercâ—…les and inhumane that free choyse and liberty that shall break asunder the bonds of Religion Let the Astrologer be dismay'd at the portentous blaze of comets and impressions in the aire as foretelling troubles and changes to states I shall beleeve there cannot be a more ill-boding â—…gne to a Nation God turne the Omen from us then when the Inhabitants to avoid insufferable grievances at home are inforc'd by heaps to forsake their native Country Now wheras the only remedy and amends against the depopulation and thinnesse of a Land within is the borrow'd strength of firme alliance from without these Priestly policies of theirs having thus exhausted our domestick forces have gone the way also to leave us as naked of our firmest faithfullest neighbours abroad by disparaging and alienating from us all Protestant Princes and Common-wealths who are not ignorant that our Prelats and as many as they can infect account them no better then a sort of sacrilegious and puritanical Rebels preferring the Spaniard our deadly enemy before them and set all orthodox writers at nought in comparison of the Jesuits who are indeed the onely corrupters of youth and good learning and I have heard many wise and learned men in Italy say as much It cannot be that the strongest knot of confederacy should not dayly slak'n when Religion which is the chiefe ingagement of our league shall be turn'd to their reproach Hence it is that the prosperous and prudent states of the united Provinces whom we ought to love if not for themselves yet for our own good work in them they having bin in a manner planted and erected by us and having bin since to us the faithfull watchmen and discoverers of many a Popish and Austrian complotted Treason and with us the partners of many a bloody and victorious battell whom the similitude of manners and language the commodity of traffick which founded the old Burgundian league betwixt us but chiefly Religion should bind to us immortally even such friends as these out of some principles instill'd into us by the Prelates have bin often dismist with distastfull answers and somtimes unfriendly actions nor is it to be consider'd to the breach of confederate Nations whose mutual interest is of such high consequence though their Merchants bicker in the East Indies neither is it safe or warie or indeed Christianly that the French King of a different Faith should afford our neerest Allyes as good protection as we Sir I perswade my selfe if our zeale to true Religion and the brotherly usage of our truest friends were as notorious to the world as our Prelatical Schism and captivity to Rotchet Apothegmes we had ere this seene our old Conquerours and afterward Liege-men the Normans together with the Brittains our proper Colony and all the Gascoins that are the rightfull Dowry of our ancient Kings come with cap and knee desiring the shadow of the English Scepter to defend them from the hot perâ—…ecutions and taxes of the French But when they come hither and see a Tympany of Spanioliz'd Bishops swaggering in the fore-top of the State and meddling to turne and dandle the Royall Ball with unskilfull and Pedantick palmes no marvell though they think it as 〈◊〉 to commit Religion and liberty to their arbitrating as to a Synagogue of Iesuites But what doe I stand