by Consequence Six of the Tribe of Levi and so the High Priest might be always one and a chief in that great Court which had Cognizance of all things in that Government And their Functions as they are Ministers of the Gospel is no more inconsistent with these things than the Levitical Preisthood was For beside their Sacrificing they were to read and expound the Law as well as we the Gospel For so it is expresly set down Deut. 33. 10. They that is the Tribe of Levi shall teach Jacob thy Judgments and Israel thy Laws So that medling with Temporal Affairs was as great a Distraction to them from their Calling as from ours and as inconsistent with it and so as hurtful to their Consciences and their Credits And would God put all this upon them which this Lord thinks so unlawful for us if it were so indeed But this Lord goes yet farther and tells us that these things are such as have ever been and will ever be hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others in the times and places where they are continued Good God! what fools we poor Bishops are as were also our Predecessours for many hundred years together that neither they nor we could see and discern what was and is hurtful to our selves nor what then did or yet doth make us hurtful to others in times and places where they are continued to us And surely if my Lord means by this our medling in Civil Affairs when our Prince calls us to it as I believe he doth I doubt his Lordship is much deceived For certainly if herein the Bishops do their Duties as very many of them in several Kingdoms have plentifully done they cannot hurt themselves by it and to others and the very Publick it self it hath occasioned much good both in Church and State But now my Lord will not only tell us what these things are but he will prove it also that they are hurtful to us And these things alone says my Lord this Bill takes away that is their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs I shall insist upon this to shew First how these things hurt themselves and Secondly how they have made and ever will make them hurtful to others These things then you see which are so hurtful and dangerous to Bishops themselves and make them as hurtful to others are their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs Where First for Offices I know no Bishop since the Reformation that hath been troubled with any but only Dr. Juxon when Bishop of London was Lord High Treasurer of England for about Five Years And he was made when the King's Affairs were in a great strait and to my knowledge he carried so that if he might have been left to himself the King might have been preserved from most of those Difficulties into which he after fell for want of Money As all Kings shall be hazarded more or less in some time or other of their Reign and much the more if their Purses be empty and they forced to seek Aid from their Subjects And this as 't is every where true yet 't is most true in England As for Places in Courts of Judicature the Bishops of England have ever sat all of them in Parliament the highest Court ever since Parliaments were in England And whatsoever is now thought of them they have in their several Generations done great Services there And as I conceive it is not only fit but necessary they should have Votes in that great Court howsoever the late Act hath shut them out and that Act must in time be repealed or it shall undoubtedly be worse for this Kingdom than yet it is The Bishops sat in no other Courts but the Star Chamber and the High Commission And of these the High Commission was most proper for them to sit and see Sin punish'd For no Causes were handled there but Ecclesiastical and those such as were very heinous either for the Crime it self or the Persons which committed it being too great or too wilful to be ruled by the inferiour Jurisdictions As for the Star Chamber there were ordinarily but two Bishops present and it was fit some should be there For that Court was a mix'd Court of Law Equity Honour and Conscience and was compos'd of Persons accordingly from the very Original of that Court. For there were to be there two Judges to take care of the Laws and two Bishops to look to the Conscience and the rest Men of great Offices or Birth or both to preserve the Honour and all of them together to maintain the Equity of the Court. So here were but two Bishops employ'd and those only twice a Week in Term time As for the Council Table that was never accounted a Court yet as Matters Civil were heard and often ended there so were some Ecclesiastical too But the Bishops were little honoured with this Trouble since the Reformation For many times no Bishop was of the Council-Table and usually not above two Once in King James's time I knew Three and once Four and that was was the highest and but for a short time And certainly the fewer the better if this Lord can prove that which he says he will insist upon that those things are hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others And to do this he proceeds They themselves art hurt thereby in their Conscience and in their Credits In their Conscience by seeking and admitting things which are inconsistent with that Function and Office which God hath set them apart unto His Lordship begins with this That the Bishops are hereby hurt both in their Consciences and their Credits Two great hurts indeed if by these things they be wounded in their Consciences towards God and in their Credits before Men. But I am willing to hope these are not real but imaginary hurts and that this Lord shall not be able to prove it otherwise Yet I see he is resolved to labour it as much as he can And first he would prove that these things and not the ambitious seeking of them only but the very admitting of them though offer'd or in a manner laid upon some of them by the Supream Power are hurtful to their Consciences because they are inconsistent with the Function to which God hath set them apart But I have proved already that they are not inconsistent with that Function and so there 's an end of this Argument For Bishops without neglect of their Calling may spend those few Hours required of them in giving their assistance in and to the forenamed Civil Affairs And 't is well known that S. Augustin did both in great Perfection so high up in the Primitive Church and in that Great and Learned Age For he complains that he had nor Fore-noon nor After-noon free he was so held to it Occupationibus
St. Mary's in that Form which they ought to do Which Disorder of theirs cannot possibly be remedied by the Care of the Vice-Chancellour only be it never so great But it must be done by the Heads in their several Colleges who must either punish such as they find faulty or put up their Names to the Vice-Chancellour that he may I thought fit therefore now before my entrance upon this my long and tedious Journey to desire you for the publick and every Head of College and Hall in their several Houses respectively to see that the Youth conform themselves to the publick Discipline of the University that his Majesty who is graciously sensible of all the defects of that Place may at his return hear a good and true Report of things amended there which as it will much advantage the place it self so will it also much advance the Reputation of the several Governours in his Majesty's good Opinion And particularly I pray see that none Youth or other be suffered to go in Boots and Spurrs or to wear their Hair undecently long or with a Lock in the present fashion or with flasht Dublets or in any light or garish Colours And if Noblemen will have their Sons court it too soon and be more in that is out of fashion than the rest the fault shall be their own not mine But under that Degree I will have no Dispensation for any thing in this kind And it were very well if they to whose Trust they are committed would fairly and seasonably take some occasion especially hereafter at their first coming to acquaint the Lords their Fathers with the course of Discipline in the University that their Sons may conform in every thing as others do during the time of their aboad there which will teach them to know differences of places and orders betimes and when they grow up to be Men it will make them look back upon that place with Honour to it and Reputation to you And of this and all other Particulars of like nature I shall look for an Account from you if God bless me with a safe Return In the mean time I commend my Love heartily both to your self and to all the Heads and desire mutual Return of your Prayers as you have mine daily May 10. 1633. GVIL London In this first year of Dr. Duppa's Vice-Chancellourship the Delegates were often called upon both my self and him to hasten the Statutes But that Business went on very slowly Hereupon I writ very often down to quicken them and laid before them the necessity of that work But little would be done till I entreated two or three of the Delegates of whom Mr. Peter Turner of Merton-Coll was one to set themselves more closely to the work In this year the Wall about the Phisick Garden which was divers years in doing was compleatly finish't In this year the upper end of the Queens-College Chappel was floored with Marble AFter my hearty Commendations c. I have put my Vice-Chancellour to a great deal of Care and pains in this year of his Government which is now drawing to a happy end And the more I consider how discreetly and worthily he hath carried himself both towards me and towards the whole Body of the University the more I am made doubtful whether I or you be most beholden to him For my part as I give him thanks for his pains past and his vigilance in that laborious Office So at this time being my self absent in remoter parts to do his Majesty such service as I am commanded I must needs think it very fit to leave the Government in his hands for the year ensuing who hath managed it so exceeding well in the year that is past And I doubt not but herein I give both the Heads of Houses and that whole Body very great satisfaction Because I assure my self the experience which he hath had will make him the better able for the year to come And upon this Ground I do make choice of him to be my Vice-Chancellour for this year following These are therefore to pray and require you to allow of this my Choice of Dr. Duppa and to give him your best Counsel and assistance in all Business which may any way concern the Government and the Honour of that famous University And so I bid you very heartily Farewel and rest To my very loving Friends the Vice-Chancellour the Doctors the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the University of OXFORD July 2. 1633. Your very loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London AFter our hearty Commendations to your Lordship There being a great quantity of Timber to be carried out of his Majesty's Forrests of Shotover and Stowood for the use of his Majesty's Navy It pleased the Lords of his Majesty's Privy Counsel to appoint the Counties of Berks Buckingham and Oxon. to join in performance of those Carriages for the better ease of that service being more than hitherto hath been known And understanding that it will be a great Delay and prejudice to this so important a service if any persons shall be exempted and yet being unwilling to press any thing that may be misinterpreted or trench on the Privileges of the University of Oxon. which divers otherwise liable to this work resort unto to avoid this his Majesty's service We pray your Lordship to take some course by such way as you shall think fairest and without prejudice to the Privileges of that University that a Business of so much consequence tending only to the publick and general good and strengthning of the whole Kingdom may for the encouraging of other places neighbouring be cheerfully performed by those who live within the parts claiming to be exempt from any such Carriages And we shall have a care that they shall not henceforth be troubled on any particular or less important occasion as tendering the good and advancement of the Vniversity and the Privileges thereof above any particular or private Respects And so we bid your Lordship heartily farewel From White-Hall this 15 day of August 1633. To the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of London Your Lordship's very loving Friends Portland Lindsey Fran. Cottington Fran. Windebank At the Vespers upon the 6 of July Dr. Heylin 〈◊〉 of the Proceders had these Questions following out of the 20th Article of the Church of England Ecclesia authoritatem habet in fidei controversiis deter minandis Ecclesia authoritatem habet interpretandi Sacras Scripturas Ecclesia potestatem habet decernendi Ritus Ceremonias Upon these Questions Dr. Prideaux then Professour had these passages following and were then offered to be avowed against him upon Oath if need were and it happened that the Queens-Almoner was present The passages were these Ecclesia est mera Chimaera Ecclesia nihil docet nec determinat Controversiae omnes meliùs ad Academiam referri possunt quam ad Ecclesiam Docti homines in
me And Jehoiada the High Priest was the preserver of Joash the right Heir of the Crown against the Usurpations of Athaliah and when he had settled him in his Kingdom though not without Force of Arms and they also ordered by Jehoiada 2 Chron. 23. 8. he was inward in his Counsels and was ruled by him in his Marriage 2 Chron. 24. 2. and he died with this Testimony that this young King did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days wherein Jehoiada instructed him 2 King 12. But after his Death you may read what befel Joash 2 Chron. 24. In all the Conduct of this People out of Egypt in which many Temporal Businesses did occur Aaron was joyned with Moses in and through all Thou leadest thy People like sheep saith the Prophet Psal. 77. by or in the Hand of Moses and Aaron The Prophet David was a great Shepherd himself and knew very well what belonged to leading the People and you see he is so far from separating Aaron from Moses in the great work of leading the People that though they be two Persons and have two distinct Powers yet in regard the one is subordinate and subservient to the other they are reputed to have but one Hand in this great Work And therefore in the Original and in all the Translations which render it 't is said in Manu not in Manibus in the Hand not in the Hands of Moses and Aaron So necessary did God in his Wisdom think it that Aaron should be near about Moses in the Government of his People And as the Priests and Levites were great Men in the great Sanhedrim at Jerusalem so were two of them ever in all the lesser Sanhedrims in the several Cities of every Tribe for so Josephus witnesses expresly that two of them were ever allotted to each Magistracy Jeroboam's Sin it was and a great one to make the lowest of the People Priests 1 King 12. 13. and I pray God it be not the Sin of this Age to make the Priests the lowest of the People So by this I think it appears that nothing of like Antiquity can well be more clear than that four thousand years before and under the Law the Priests especially the chief Priests did meddle in and help manage the greatest Temporal Affairs And this as this Honourable Person cannot but know so I presume he was willing warily to avoid For he tells you he shall not need to begin so high Not need And why so Why it is because saith he the Question is only what concerns Bishops as they are Ministers of the Gospel and that which was before being of another Nature can give no Rule to this No Man doubts but this Question in Parliament belongs only to Bishops as they are Ministers of the Gospel nay more particularly than so as they are Ministers of the Gospel in the Church of England only For either this must be said or else granted it must be by this Honourable Lord that the Parliament of England takes upon them to limit Episcopacy through all the Christian World and to teach all States therein what they are to do with their Bishops And this were as bold a part for the English Parliament to do as it is for a private English-man to censure the Parliament And truly for my own part I cannot tell how to excuse the Parliament in this For though in the Act now past there be nothing enacted but that which concerns Bishops and such as are in Holy Orders here because their Power stretches no farther than this Kingdom yet their Aim and their Judgment is general And this appears by the Preface of that Act which runs thus Whereas Bishops and other Persons in Holy Orders ought not to be intangled with Secular Jurisdiction c. Ought not Therefore in their Judgment 't is Malum per se a thing in it felf unlawful for any Man in Holy Orders to meddle in or help manage Temporal Affairs For though their words be Ought not to be intangled which as that word intangled bears sense in English and stands for an absolute hindring of them from the works of their own Calling I grant as well as they yet the Act proceeds generally to divest them of all Power and Jurisdiction in Civil Affairs whether they be intangled with them or not But be it so that this Question belongs to Bishops only as they are Ministers of the Gospel yet why may not the Ancient Usage before the Law and the Law of God Himself give a Rule to this For sure if they can give no Rule in this then can they give no Rule to any thing else under the Gospel that is not simply Moral in it self as well as none to Prelates and their assisting in Temporal Affairs Which Opinion how many things it will disjoynt both in Church and State is not hard to see First then I shall endeavour to make it appear that the practice of pious Men before the Law and the Precept of the Law can give a Rule to many things under the Gospel and then I will examine how and how far those things may be said to be of another Nature which is the Reason given why they can give no Rule in this For the First that they can give a Rule I hope it will appear very plainly For in things that are Typical the Type must praefigure the Antitype and give a kind of Rule to make the Antitype known Therefore in Typical things no Question is or can be made but that the things which were under the Law can give a Rule to us Christians Though this bold Proposition runs universally without excepting things Typical or any other Besides the Priests had a hand in all Temporal Affairs and in matters which were no way Typical but meerly belonging to Order and Government as appears by the Proofs before made And therefore the Jews may be Precedents for Christians which could not possibly be if they could give us no Rule Nor is this any new Doctrine For that ancient Commentary under the Name of St Ambrose tells us expresly that that which is mentioned by St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. 30. is a Custom of the Synagogue which he would have us to follow And as this Doctrine is not new so neither is it refused by later Writers and some of them as Learned almost as this Lord. For that which was ordered 1 Chron. 23. 30. that they should stand every Morning and Evening to thank and praise the Lord is precedent enough to presume that the like is not against the Law of God And Calvin speaks it out expresly In regard saith he that God himself instituted that they should offer Sacrifice Morning and Evening inde colligitur it is thence collected plainly that the Church cannot want a certain Discipline So here the Jews Discipline gives an express Rule to us And it is very learnedly and truly observed by a late Writer
never move His Majesty directly or indirectly for that Honour and was surprized with it as altogether unlooked for when His Majesty's Resolution therein was made known unto him Nor ever did that Bishop take so much upon him as a Justiceship of the Peace or meddle with any Lay-Employment save what the Laws and Customs of this Realm laid upon him in the High Commission and the Star-Chamber while those Courts were in being and continued Preaching till he was Threescore and four and then was taken off by Writing of his Book against Fisher the Jesuit being then not able at those Years to continue both And soon after the World knows what trouble befel him and in time they will know why too I hope Besides the Care of Government which is another part of a Bishop's Office and a necessary one too lay heavy upon him in these Factious and broken Times especially And whatsoever this Lord thinks of it certainly though Preaching may be more necessary for the first planting of a Church yet Government is more noble and necessary too where a Church is planted as being that which must keep Preaching and all things else in order And Preaching as 't is now used hath as much need to be kept in order as any even the greatest Extravagance that I know Nor is this out of Christ's Commission Pasce Oves John 21. 15. for the feeding of his Sheep For a Shepherd must guide govern and defend his Sheep in the Pasture as well as drive them to it And he must see that their Pasture be not tainted too or else they will not thrive upon it And then he may be answerable for the Rot that falls among them The Rhetorick goes farther yet To contend for sitting at Council Tables to govern States No but yet to assist them being called by them To have States-Men instead of Church-Men No but doing the Duty of Church-Men to mingle pious Counsels with States-Mens Wisdom To sit in the highest Courts of Judicature And why not in a Kingdom where the Laws and Customs require it Not to be employed in making Laws for Civil Polities and Government And I conceive there is great Reason for this in the Kingdom of England and greater since the Reformation than before Great Reason because the Bishops of England have been accounted and truly been grave and experienced Men and far fitter to have Votes in Parliaments for the making of Laws than many young Youths which are in either House And because it is most fit in the making of Laws for a Kingdom that some Divines should have Vote and Interest to see as much as in them lies that no Law pass which may perhaps though unseen to others intrench upon Religion it self or the Church And I make no doubt but that these and the like Considerations settled it so in England where Bishops have had their Votes in Parliaments and in making Laws ever since there were Parliaments yea or any thing that resembled them in this Kingdom And for my part were I able to give no Reason at all why Bishops should have Votes in Parliament yet I should in all Humility think that there was and is still some great Reason for it since the Wisdom of the State hath successively in so many Ages thought it fit And as there is great Reason they should have Votes in making Laws so is there greater Reason for it since the Reformation than before For before that time Clergy-Men were governed by the Church Canons and Constitutions and the Common Laws of England had but little Power over them Then in the Year 1532. the Clergy submitted and an Act of Parliament was made upon it So that ever since the Clergy of England from the Highest to the Lowest are as much subject to the Temporal Laws as any other Men and therefore ought to have as free a Vote and Consent to the Laws which bind them as other Subjects have Yet so it is that all Clergy-Men are and have long since been excluded from being Members of the House of Commons and now the Bishops and their Votes by this last Act are cast out of the Lord's House By which it is at this Day come to pass that by the Justice of England as now it stands no Clergy-Man hath a Consent by himself or his Proxy to those Laws to which all of them are bound In the mean time before I pass from this Point this Lord must give me leave to put him in mind of that which was openly spoken in both Houses that the Reason why there was such a Clamour against the Bishops Votes was because all or most of them Voted for the King so that the potent Faction could not carry what they pleased especially in the Vpper House And when some saw they could not have their Will to cast out their Votes fairly the Rabble must come down again and Clamour against their Votes not without danger to some of their Persons And come they did in Multitudes But who procured their coming I know not unless it were this Lord and his Followers And notwithstanding this is as clear as the Sun and was openly spoken in the House that this was the true Cause only why they were so angry with the Bishops Votes yet this most Godly and Religious Lord pretends here a far better Cause than this namely that they may as they ought carefully attend to the Preaching of the Word and not be distracted from that great Work by being troubled with these Worldly Affairs And I make no doubt but that the same Zeal will carry the same Men to the devout taking away the Bishops and the Church Lands and perhaps the Parsons Tythes too and put them to such Stipends as they shall think fit that so they may Preach the Gospel freely and not be drawn away with these Worldly Affairs from the principal Work of that Function Well! my Lord must give me leave here to Prophesie a little and 't is but this in short Either the Bishops shall in few Years recover of this Hoarseness and have their Honour and their Votes in Parliament again or before many Years be past all Baseness Barbarity and Confusion will go near to possess both this Church and Kingdom But this Lord hath yet somewhat more to say namely that If they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments they must not be there as ignorant Men but must be knowing in Business of State and understand the Rules and Laws of Government and thereby both their Time and Studies must be necessarily diverted from that which God hath called them unto And this surely is much more Vnlawful for them to admit of than that which the Apostles rejected as a distraction unreasonable for them to be interrupted by Why but yet if they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments what then Why then they must not sit there as ignorant Men
than other Men of what Rank or Condition soever and therefore excepts from its own general Canon the Cases of Orphans and Widows and the Estates of such Persons as most need Ecclesiastical help or where any Cause in the fear of God requires it In which Cases the Widows and the Fatherless have had much cause to bless God when they have been referred to the Conscience Trust and Care of Bishops But this were in a manner to make them Masters of the Wards or Guardians to them which I know this Lord will not like by any means It would come too near his Office and then he would cry out indeed that this was a greater Distraction of them from their Function to which God had called them than that of the attending poor Widows Tables was to the Apostles And yet he sees what some Canons of Antient Councils have decreed in this Case Besides we cannot have a better or a clearer Evidence of the true meaning of the Antient Canons than from the Practice of the Antient Fathers of the Church who were strict and consciencious Observers of the Canons and yet as is before proved meddled in many and some the greatest Givil Affairs being employed as Ambassadors from great Emperors and Kings And Balsamon observes that whensoever it shall please the Prince to call any Bishops to such Employments they neither are to be restrained by the aforesaid Canons nor censured by them I conclude this Point then that Bishops are not prohibited to meddle with Civil publick Affairs either by Christ's command or by the Apostle's either Doctrine or Practice though all their Practice doth not give an absolute Rule for all future Obedience as their Doctrine doth and I may add not by Canons of Antient Councils rightly understood nor are all of them such Distractions as will bring a Woe upon Bishops or other Clergy-Men though they meddle with them I rather believe some things will be in a woful Case if they meddle not And in some Cases there 's all the Reason in the World they should be not only permitted but some of them commanded to meddle to the end that in all Consultations especially the greatest in Parliament and at Council Table it might be their care to see that Religion were kept upright in all and that nothing by Practice or otherwise pass cum detrimento Religionis Ecclesiae with detriment to Religion or the Church always provided that they do not so entangle themselves in any of these Affairs as shall much prejudice their Function and this done I know no Guilt that this meddling can bring upon their Souls or hurt their Consciences But this Lord having as he thinks concluded the contrary proceeds now to the next Point and says that In the next place this meddling in Temporal Affairs doth 〈◊〉 them and strike them in their Credits so far from Truth is that Position which they desire to possess the World withal that unless they may have those outward Trappings or worldly Pomp added to the Ministery that Calling will grow into Contempt and be despised Good God! How Pious this Lord is and what a careful Friend over the Church First he takes care the Bishops Consciences may not be hurt and now he is as jealous over their Credits But I doubt he is jealous over them amiss For he is of Opinion that meddling in Civil Affairs strikes them in their Credit and he thinks farther that the Position with which they would possess the World in this case is far from Truth Let 's examine this Position then what it is and what it works The Position is as this Lord reports it That unless they may have these outward Trappings or worldly Pomp added to the Ministery their Calling will grow into Contempt First there was never any Age in any Kingdom Christian in which the Bishops were ridden with so much Scorn and Contempt as they are at this day in England and this makes this Lord though he be a very ordinary Horseman for any good Service please himself with Trappings Secondly for the worldly Pomp which he means and expresses the Train of that hath been long since cut short enough in England and he that will not look upon the Bishops with an evil Eye must needs acknowledge it Well but what then doth this Position work Why they may not have these Trappings there will follow Contempt upon their Calling so he makes the Bishops say Is this Lord of that Opinion too No sure for he says The Truth is these things cast Contempt upon them in the Eyes of Men. They gain them Cap and Courtesie but they have cast them out of the Consciences of Men and the Reason is this every thing is esteemed as it is eminent in its own proper Excellency the Eye in seeing not in hearing the Ear in hearing not in speaking The one would be rather monstrous than comely the other is ever acceptable being proper So is it with them their proper Excellency is Spiritual the denial of the World with the Pomps and Preferments and Employments thereof This they should teach and practice Well then the question is Whether the Honour of Bishops and their Employments in Temporal Affairs as they are at this day moderated in the Church and State of England bring Contempt upon them and their Calling as this Lord says or help to keep off Contempt as he says the Bishops would possess the World First I am clear of Opinion that Solomon was almost as wife as this Lord thinks himself and yet he says plainly Eccles. 9. 16. That though Wisdom in its self be far better than Folly yet the poor Man's Wisdom is despised and his Words not heard And we see in daily Experience that a poor Minister's Words are as much slighted in the Pulpit as a poor Man 's in the Gate And therefore these things which this Lord calls Trappings are many times very necessary to keep off that Contempt and Despight which the boisterous Multitude when their Sins are reproved are apt to cast upon them And whatsoever this Lord thinks t is a great Credit and Support to the rest of the Clergy and being well used a great advantage to their Calling that the Bishops and other Eminent Men of the Clergy should have moderate Plenty for Means and enjoy Honour and external Reputation and though it be well known that the Church consider'd in Abstract in and by its self only is not promoted nor advanced by such Employments yet as she is considered in her Peregrination and Warfare she gains by them great both Strength and Encouragement Secondly That which this Lord adds that those things gain the Bishops Cap and Courtesie but have cast them out of the Consciences of Men. 'T is well that these things gain them that For the Age is grown so churlish to that Calling that I believe they would have very little of either were it not for these things as will too soon appear now
this last Act of Parliament hath taken away their Trappings As for that which follows next that these things have cast them out of the Consciences of Men that 's not so For in other Kingdoms that are Christian and some Reformed as well as other they have more Employment in Civil Affairs than with us and yet are in high esteem in the Consciences of Men. But the Truth is Schisin and Separation have so torn Men from Clergy and Church from God and Christ and all that they have not only cast Bishops but Religion too out of their Consciences and their Consciences are thrown after God knows whither Now for the Reason which this Lord gives he is quite wide in that also For every thing is not esteemed as it is eminent in its own proper Excellency as he says it is Indeed it ought to be so but so it is not For in the place before cited Eccles. 9. 16. Wisdom is better than Folly and is most eminent in its own proper Excellency but is it always esteemed so No sure for the poor Man's Wisdom is despised There however it ought to be esteemed for its proper Excellency yet if it be found in a poor Subject 't is despised and accounted as mean and vile as he is that hath it And as for the Illustration which his Lordship makes of this his Proposition 't is meerly fallacious For Arguments drawn from Natural Things which ever work constantly the same way to Moral Things which depend upon voluntary and mutable Agents will seldom or never universally follow And therefore though it be true that the Eye is esteemed for seeing not hearing and the Ear for hearing not speaking and should it be otherwise it would be rather monstrous than comely That 's true because they are Agents determined ad unum to that one Operation and cannot possibly do the other but then by his Lordship's leave so it is not with Bishops for though their proper Excellency be indeed Spiritual yet they may meddle with other things so long as they can observe the Apostle's Rule 1 Cor. 7. 31. and use this World as if they used it not that is use it so long and so far as may help their Service of God and cast it off when it shall hinder them But this Lord thinks all use of these things and Employments in them to be unlawful for our Calling And therefore he adds That when they contrary hereunto seek after a worldly Excellency like the great Men of the World and to Rule and Domineer as they do contrary to our Saviour's Precept Vos autem non sic But it shall not be so amongst you Instead of Honour and Esteem they have brought upon themselves in the Hearts of the People that Contempt and 〈◊〉 which they now lie under and that justly and necessarily because the World sees that they prefer a worldly Excellency and run after it and contend for it before their own which being Spiritual is far more excellent and which being proper to the Ministery is that alone which will put a Value and Esteem upon them that are of that Calling All this which follows is but matter of Ampliation to help aggravate the business and to make Bishops so hateful to other Men as they are to himself For I hope no Bishops of this Church do seek after worldly Excellency contrary to their Function at least I know none that do And they are far from being like the Great Men of the World As to Ruling 't is proper enough to them so far as Authority is given but Domineer they do not This comes from this Lord's Spleen not from their Practice And by that time his Lordship hath sat a while longer in the State Men will find other manner of Domineering from him than they found from the Bishops Nor do they in their meddling with Civil Affairs in such sort as is now practised in England go contrary to our Saviour's Precept Vos autem non sic It shall not be so amongst you as I have proved before Most true indeed it is that the poor Bishops of this Church do now instead of Honour and Esteem lie under Contempt and Odium in the Hearts of the People Of some not of all no nor either of the greater or the better part for all the noise that hath been raised against them and this Lord is much deceived to say they have brought it upon themselves For it is but part of the Dirt which this Lord and his fellow Sectaries have most unchristian-like cast upon them And this only to wrest their Votes out of Parliament that now they are gone they may the better compass their ends against Church and State which God preserve against their Malice and Hypocrisie But this Lord says farther That the Bishops have brought this Contempt upon themselves justly and necessarily Now God forbid that it should be either and his Lordship proves it but by saying the same thing over again namely because the World sees that they prefer a worldly Excellency and run after it and contend for it before their own And surely if they do this they are much to blame but I believe the World sees it not unless it be such of the World as look upon them with this Lord's Eyes and that when they are at the worst too And I verily persuade my self and I think upon very good grounds that the present Bishops of this Kingdom all or the most of them are as far from any just tax in this or any other kind as they have been in any former Times since the Reformation 'T is true that their own Calling being Spiritual is far more excellent and I shall the better believe it when I see this Lord and the rest value it so For I have told his Lordship already that every thing which is more excellent in its self is not always so esteemed by others And though this Excellency be never so proper yet by his good leave it is not that alone which will put a value and esteem upon them and their Calling There must be some outward helps to encourage and countenance and reward them too or else Flesh and Blood are so dull that little will be done And suppose this Religious Lord and some few like himself would value and esteem them for their Spiritual Calling only yet what are these to so many as would 〈◊〉 them And yet to speak the Truth freely I do not see this Lord nor any of that Feather put a value upon that Calling for the Spiritual Excellency only for then all Ministers that do their Duty should be valued and esteemed by them the Calling being alike Spiritual and alike Excellent in all whereas the World sees they neither care for nor countenance any Ministers but such as separate with them from the Church of England or are so near to it as that they are ready to step into an Independent Congregation so soon as by the Artifice of this
very much of this and Ambition sticks so close to Humane Nature as that it follows it into all Professions and Estates of Men And I would to God Clergy-Men had been freer from this Fault than Histories testifie they have But this hath been but the fault of some many Reverend Bishops in all Ages have been clear of it and 't is a personal Corruption in whomsoever it is and cannot justly be charged upon the Calling as this Lord lays it Neither have the worst of them some Popes of Rome excepted been the common Incendiaries of the Christian World But Incendiaries is grown a great word of late with this Lord and some of the poor Bishops of England have been made Incendiaries too by him and his Party But might it please God to shew some token upon us for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed Psalm 86. 17. there would be a full discovery who have been the Incendiaries indeed in these Troubles of England and then I make no question but it will appear that this Lord flames as high and as dangerously as any Man living But behold saith God all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with Sparks walk in the light of your own Fire and in the Sparks which your selves have kindled This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Isai. 50. 11. Next I pray be pleased to consider how unworthily and fallaciously withal this Lord manages this Proof For all this Discourse tends to prove it unlawful for Bishops to intermeddle in Secular Affairs that so to do is hurtful to themselves in Conscience and in Credit and to others also by this their irregular Motion And this he proves by their never ceasing from Contention one with another either about the Precedency of their Sees or Churches They have indeed some and sometimes contended too eagerly for their Sees and Churches but neither all nor any that I know with a never-ceasing but the Bishop of Rome for his Supremacy And say this were so yet these Contentions were about their own proper Places not about Civil Affairs which now should lie before his Lordship in Proof and therefore was no irregular Motion of theirs in regard of the Object but only in regard of the manner Nor were they out of their Orb for this though faulty enough The like is to be said for that which follows their Excommunicating one another upon these Quarrels As for their drawing of Princes to be Parties with them thereby casting them into bloody Wars this hath seldom happened and whenever it hath happened some Church business or other hath unhappily set it on not their meddling in Temporal Affairs But whatever caused it the Crime of such misleading of Princes is very odious and as hateful to me as it can be to his Lordship But the Persons must bear their own Faults and not the Calling and sure I am this Lord would think me very wild if I should charge the antient Barons Wars in England upon his Lordship and the Honourable Barons now living But howsoever by this 't is plain that this Lord would not only have the Bishops turned out of all Civil Employments but out of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions also They must have no Power nor Superiority there neither their Sees must be laid as level as Parity can make them For all these Mischiefs came on saith he as soon as they were once advanced above their Brethren And one thing more I shall take occasion to say Here 's great Clamour made against the Bishops and their meddling in Civil Affairs but what if the Presbytery do as much or more Do they Sin too by breaking out of their Orb and neglecting the Work of the Ministery No by no means Only the Bishops are faulty For do you think that Calvin would have taken on him the Umpirage and composing of so many Civil Causes as he did order between Neighbours if so great Sin had accompanied it For he dealt in Civil Causes and had Power to inflict Civil Punishments in his Consistory For he committed divers to Prison for Dancing and those not mean ones neither and he arbitrated divers Causes and in a great Controversie between the Senate of Geneva and a Gentleman he tells one Frumentius who laboured for a Reconciliation that the Church of Geneva was not so destitute but that Fratres mei saith he huic Provinciae subeundae pares futuri essent some of his Brethren might have been fit for that Work Belike he took it ill that in such a Business though meerly Civil he and his Fellow-Ministers should be left out And for matters in the Common-wealth he had so great Power in the Senate and with the People that all things were carried as he pleased And himself brags of it that the Senate was his and the People his And to encrease his Strength and make it more formidable he brought in Fifty or more of the French his Country-men and Friends and by his solicitation made them Free Denizons of the City of which and the Troubles thence arising he gave an account to Bullinger Anno 1555. Or can you think that Beza would have taken upon him so much Secular Employment had he thought it unlawful so to do For whereas in the Form of the Civil Government of that City out of the Two hundred prime Men there was a perpetual Senate chosen of Sixty as Bodin tells us my worthy Predecessour Arch-Bishop Bancroft assures me Beza was one of these Threescore And yet what a crying Sin is it grown in a Bishop to be honoured with a Seat at the Council-Table Besides this when Geneva sent a solemn Embassie to Henry IV. of France about the razing of a Fort which was built near their City by the Duke of Savoy Beza would needs go along to commend that Spiritual Cause unto the King and how far he dealt and laid Grounds for others to deal in all such Civil Causes as were but in Ordine ad Spiritualia is manifest by himself And I am sure Laesus proximus may reach into the Cognizance of almost all Civil Causes Or can any Man imagine that so Religious a Man as Mr. Damport the late Parson of St. Stephen's in Coleman-street would have done the like to no small hindrance to Westminster-Hall had he thought that by this meddling he had hurt both his Conscience and his Credit whereas good Man he fled into New-England to preserve both Or if Mr. Alexander Henderson would have come along with the Scottish Army into England and been a Commissioner as he was in that whole Treaty wherein many of their Acts of Parliament concerning the Civil Government of that Kingdom were deliberated upon and confirm'd if he had thought his so doing inconsistent with his Calling Or that the Scots being so Religious as they then were even to the taking up of Arms against their King for Religion
have done especially that Bishop who stands named in the Margin and against whom in particular the Speech was in part directed should as I conceive to vindicate himself as well as the Cause have taken this task upon him But since I see all Men silent and the Speech go away in triumph as if it were unanswerable truth though the Bill be now past and the Bishops with their Votes cast out of the House and from all Civil Employment yet I thought it fit if not necessary to call this Speech to an account in every passage and with all due respect approve what is just and give the rest such an Answer as it deserves And though you may think this Answer comes too late as indeed it doth to remedy the present Evil yet I have thought fit to go on with these my Endeavours that if these miserable distracted times have an end which I have no hope to live to see the Errours of this Speech may appear and the Bishops perhaps recover their ancient Rights If not as I confess 't is very hard in England that yet the World may see how unjustly they suffer'd and with what misguided Zeal this Lord hath fallen upon the Church as indeed he hath done in all kinds And I pray God something fall not therefore upon Him and His. The Speech then begins thus My Lords I shall not need to begin as high as Adam in answer to what hath been drawn down from thence by a Bishop concerning this Question for that which is pertinent to it will only be what concerns Bishops as they are Ministers of the Gospel What was before being of another Nature can give no Rule to this Whether this Reverend Bishop now Lord Arch-Bishop of York did begin his Speech as high as Adam I cannot tell nor what proof he made after such beginning for I was committed long before this Speech was made but if he did bring it down from Adam I think there may be good Reason for it For it will appear for the two thousand years before the Law and for two thousand years more under the Law of Moses that the Priests especially the High and Chief Priests did meddle in all the great Temporal Affairs which fell out in their times And first for the time before the Law 't is manifest and receiv'd by all Men that the Primogenitus the First-born was Priest and the First-born in the Prime and Leading Families were as the Chief-Priests in their several Generations and 't is more than absurd to think that all these Prime Men in their several Families first and Tribes after being Priests should be estranged from all their Civil and Temporal Affairs and leave them in the hands of Younger and Weaker Men. And as before the Law there is no express Text for this their forbearance to help to manage Civil Affairs so neither can there any sufficient Reason be given why they should abstain Neither did they For instance Abraham was a Priest and a great one for he was a Patriarch Heb. 7. 4. And his Priesthood appears in that he was the first Minister of the Sacrament of Circumcision Gen. 17. 23. and yet he managed his Family and trained up his Servants in that which is most opposite to the Priestly Function even for War Nay took them and went in Person against five Kings and redeemed his Kinsman Lot by the Sword Gen. 14. 14 16. And Melchisedeck who is expresly called the Priest of the high God was King of Salem also a King and a Priest too so both capable by one Person And as he received Tythes as a Priest so no doubt can be made but he ordered and governed Civil Affairs as a King Before these Noah was a Priest and offered Sacrifice Gen. 8. 20. and yet all the great care and trouble of building the Ark and managing the preservation of the whole World was committed to him by God himself and undertook by him Gen. 6. Under the Law the Case comes under fuller and clearer Proof And in the first entrance Moses himself was Saccrdos Sacerdotum the Man that consecrated Aaron Exod. 40. 13. and after reckon'd with 〈◊〉 among the Priests of God Psal. 99.6 and yet the whole Princely Jurisdiction resided in him all his days But God commanded him to settle the Priesthood upon Aaron to teach the World that few Men's Abilities were fit for the Heighth of both those Places since Moses himself was order'd to ordain Aaron and divide the Burthen After this division the High Priest did meddle in Civil Affairs even the greatest as well as Moses continued his Care of the Synagogue In the numbering of the People for War a thing of sole Imperial Cognisance if any Aaron was joined in Commission with Moses by God himself to number them by their Armies and they did it Numb 1. 3. 17. 44. In the ordering of the Standards and Ensigns of the Children of Israel in their removes from place to place God's own Command came alike to Moses and Aaron Numb 2. 1 2. the Silver Trumpets to call the Assemblies of the People together did belong to Moses the People had nothing to do with them nor might they tumultuously assemble but orderly as the Sound of the Trumpets directed them but the Priests the Sons of Aaron were to sound them Num. 10. 8 9,11 And this Duty lay upon them as well when they went to War as when they sacrificed In the Survey of the Land of Promise Aaron was interessed as well as Moses And this appears plainly First in that when the Spies all save Joshua and Caleb had brought up an evil Report upon the Land the People fall into a Murmuring and were as mad against Aaron as against Moses Numb 14. 2 5. Secondly because when the Land of Promise came to be divided among the Tribes no Spiritual business was it and yet in the Commission which Moses gave for the solemn Division of the Land both to Reuben Gad and the half Tribe of Manasses on the one side of Jordan and on the other side to the other Tribes and to all the Princes of the several Tribes of Israel Eleazar the Priest was first and principal Numb 32. 2 28. 34.17 even before Joshua himself and that not only here during Moses his life but even after at the actual Division of the Land to every Tribe though Joshua was then the Leader of the People Josh. 19. 51. In the great Murmuring of the People at Kadesh for want of Water which was like enough to break out into an Insurrection the Commission which God himself gave out to gather the Assembly together and to satisfie the People with Water out of the Rock a harder thing for Moses to do when he looks upon the People than for God when he looks upon the Rock went jointly to Moses and Aaron Numb 20. and they performed it accordingly Thus far it went and in all these great Particulars in Aaron's
Tables and attend them too Therefore the Work was not unlawful in its self for them for then it had been Sin in them to do it at all at any time For that which is simply evil in and of it self is ever so therefore the most that can be made of this Example is that it was lawful very lawful and and charitable too for the Apostles to take care of those Tables themselves and they did it For all the Provision for the Poor was brought and laid at the Apostles feet Acts 4. 35. which doubtless would never have been done had it been unlawful for the Apostles to order and to distribute it But when they found the encreasing Burthen too heavy for both the one Work and the other then though both were lawful yet it was more expedient to leave the Tables than the Word of God with which the World was then as little acquainted as now 't is full of and I pray God it be not full to a dangerous Surfeit Now this as I conceive in Humility states the Bishops Business For to me it seems out of Question that it is most lawful for Bishops to be conversant in all the Courts Councils and Places of Judicature to which they have been called since the Reformation in the Church and State of England till they find themselves or be found unable to discharge the one Duty and the other And then indeed I grant no serving of Tables no nor Council Tables is to be preferred But then you must not measure Preaching only by a formal going up into the Pulpit For a Bishop and such Occasions are often offer'd may Preach the Gospel more publickly and to far greater Edisication in a Court of Judicature or at a Council Table where great Men are met together to draw things to an Issue than many Preachers in their several Charges can and therefore to far more Advancement of the Gospel than any one of his Lordship's Sect at a Tables end in his Lordship's Parlour or in a Pulpit in his Independent Congregation wheresoever it be And when he hath said all that he can or any Man else this shall be found true that there is not the like Necessity of Preaching the Gospel lying upon every Man in Holy Orders now Christianity is spread and hath taken Root as lay upon the Apostles and Apostolical Men when Christ and his Religion were Strangers to the whole World And yet I speak not this to cast a Damp or Chilness upon any Man's Zeal or Diligence in that Work No God forbid For though I conceive there is not the same Necessity yet a great Necessity there is still and ever will be to hold 〈◊〉 both the Verity and Devotion which attend Religion and Non 〈◊〉 est Virtus quam quaerere parta tueri So there may be as great Vertue in the Action though perhaps not equal Necessity of it Besides Deacons were not Lay Men but Men in Holy Orders though inferiour to the Apostles as appears by Stephen's undertaking the Libertines and Cyrenians in the Cause of Christ and Philip's Preaching of Christ in Samaria and Baptizing And if they were of the Seventy as Epiphanius thinks they were Haer. then they were Presbyters before they had this Temporary Office if such it were put upon them Therefore if to meddle with these things were simply unlawful in themselves or for Men in Holy Orders Or if all meddling with them were such a Distraction as must needs make them leave the Preaching of the Gospel then these Seventy might not discharge the Office to which they were chosen and if this be so then this Lord must needs infer that the Apostles and all which chose them did sin in Instituting such Men to take care of the Tables and to distract them from Preaching of the Word which they thought unfit for themselves to do And yet I hope my Lord will not say this in his privatest Conventicle Nay yet more though this Care was delivered over to the Deacons in ordinary yet Calvin tells us plainly that in things of moment they could do nothing Nec quicquam without the Authority of the Presbyters So they meddled still Next this Lord shews since the Apostles did not think fit to distract themselves with Business about these Tables how they ought to apply themselves And this he sets down in the Apostle's Words Acts 6. 4. But we will give our selves continually to Prayer and the Ministery of the Word And yet I hope this Lord doth not think the Apostles by this word continually meant to do nothing else but Pray and Preach For if they did one of these two continually without any intermission then they could do nothing else which is most apparently false And indeed which it seems this learned Lord considered not this word continually is not in the Text. For in the Greek the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will be constant and instant in Prayer and Ministration of the Word which may and ought to be done though neither of them continually and which many of God's Servants have done and yet meddled some way or other with temporal or worldly Affairs The Argument is over The rest of this Passage is this Lord's Rhetorick which I shall answer as I repeat it Did the Apostles saith his Lordship Men of extraordinary Gifts think it unreasonable for them to be hindred from giving themselves continually to Preaching the Word and Prayer by taking care of the Tables of the poor Widows No sure they they did not think it unreasonable that is this Lord's word to make the present business of the Bishops more Odious as if it were against common Reason But there 's no such word in the Text. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not meet Now many things may not be meet or comely which yet are not altogether unreasonable Nay which at some times and upon some occasions may be meet and comely enough nay perhaps necessary for the very Gospel it self and therefore no way unreasonable howsoever at this time unfit for the Apostles and worthily refused by them Well the Rhetorick goes on Did the Apostles thus and can the Bishops now think it reasonable or lawful for them Yes the Times and Circumstances being varied and many things become fit which in some former Times were not they can think it both reasonable and lawful nay necessary for some of them What To contend for sitting at Council Tables No God forbid perhaps not to sue for sitting there but certainly not to contend for it but to sit there being called unto it and to give their best Advice there never unlawful and oft-times necessary And here let me tell this Lord by the way that the Bishop which he hath sufficiently hated was so far from contending for this that though he had that Honour given him by His Majesty to sit there many Years yet I do here take it upon my Christianity and Truth that he did
Inconvenience by Bishops sitting in the House of Parliament is no less prejudicial to the Kingdom Where first I observe that this Lord accounts the Pope's ruling in this Kingdom but a matter of inconvenience for so his words imply For that must be one Inconvenience if the Bishops voting be the other and I am sure the Laws both of this Church and State make it far worse than an Incovenience Had I said thus much I had been a Papist out of Question Secondly I 'll appeal to any prudent and moderate Protestant in the Christian World whether he can possibly think that the Bishops having Votes in the Parliaments of England can possibly be as great or no less an Inconvenience than the Pope's Supremacy here And I believe this Lord when he thinks better of it will wish these words unsaid Well! but what then is this inconvenience that is so great Why my Lord tells us 't is because they have such an absolute dependency upon the King that they sit not there as free-Men Where first 't is strange to me and my Reason that any dependency on the King be it never so absolute can be possibly so great an Inconvenience to the King as that upon an Independent foreign Power is the King being sworn to the Laws but the Pope being free and as he challenges not only independent from but superiour to both King and Laws Secondly I conceive the Bishops dependency is no more absolute upon the King than is the dependence of other Honourable Members of that House and that the Bishops sit there as absolute free-men as any others not excepting his Lordship And of this Belief I must be till the contrary shall be proved which his Lordship goes thus about to do That which is requisite to Freedom is to be void of Hopes and Fears he that can lay down these is a Free-man and will be so in this House But for the Bishops as the case stands with them it is not likely they will lay aside their Hopes greater Bishopricks being still in expectancy and for their Fears they cannot lay them down since their Places and Seats in Parliament are not invested in them by Blood and so hereditary but by annexation of a Barony to their Office and depending upon that Office so that they may be 〈◊〉 of their Office and thereby of their Places at the King's pleasure My Lord's Philosophy is good enough for to be void of Hopes and Fears is very requisite to Freedom and he that can lay these down is a Free-man or may be if he will But whether he will be so in that great House I cannot so well tell For though no Man can be free that is full charg'd with Hopes or Fears yet there are some other things which collaterally work upon Men and consequently take off their Freedom almost as much as Hopes and Fears can do Such are Consanguinity Affinity especially if the Wife bears any sway private Friendship and above all Faction And therefore though I cannot think that every Man will be a Free-man in that House that is void of Hopes and Fears yet I believe he may if he will Now I conceive that in all these collateral Stiflings of a Man's Freedom the Lay Lords are by far less free than the Bishops are Again for the main bars of Freedom Hopes and Fears into which all the rest do some way or other fall I do not yet see but that Bishops even as the case stands with them may be as free and I hope are in their Voting as Temporal Lords For their Hopes this Lord tells us 't is not likely they will lay them aside greater Bishopricks being still in expectancy Truly I do not know why a deserving Bishop may not in due time hope for a better Bishoprick and yet retain that Freedom which becomes him in Parliament as well as any Noble-man may be Noble and Free in that great Court and yet have moderated Hopes of being called to some great Office or to the Council-table or some honourable and profitable Embassage or some Knighthood of the Garter of all or some of which there is still expectancy Lay your Hand on your Heart my Lord and examine your self As for Fears his Lordship tells us roundly the Bishops cannot lay them down Cannot Are all the Bishops such poor Spirits But why can they not Why because their Places in Parliament are not hereditary but by annexation of a Barony to their Office and depending upon it so that they may be deprived of their Office and thereby of their Place at the King's pleasure First I believe the Bishops gave their Votes in Parliament as freely to their Conscience and Judgment as this Lord or any other Secondly If any of them for Fear or any other motive have given their Votes unworthily I doubt not but many Honourable Lords have at some time or other forgot themselves and born the Bishops company though in this I commend neither Thirdly I know some Bishops who had rather lose not their Baronies only but their Bishopricks also than Vote so unworthily as this Lord would make the World believe they have done Lastly it is true their Seat in Parliament depends on their Barony their Barony on their Office and if they be deprived of their Office both Barony and Seat in Parliament are gone But I hope my Lord will not say we live under a Tyrant and then I will say Bishops are not deprivable of their Office and consequently not of the rest at the Kings Pleasure But this Lord proceeds into a farther Amplification And to whet his inveterate Malice against the King says as follows Nay They do not so much as sit here dum bene se gesserint as the Judges now by your Lordships Petition to the King have their Places granted them but at Will and Pleasure and therefore as they were all excluded by Edward the First as long as he pleased and Laws made excluso Clero so may they be by any King at his Pleasure in like manner They must needs therefore be in an absolute dependency upon the Crown and thereby at Devotion for their Votes which how prejudicial it hath been and will be to this House I need not say If I could wonder at any thing which this Lord doth or says in such Arguments as these when his Heart is up against the Clergy I should wonder at this For if he will not suppose the King's Government to be Tyrannical the Bishops have their Places during Life and cannot justly be put out of them unless their Miscarriage be such as shall merit a Deprivation And therefore by this Lord 's good leave they have as good a Tenure as the Judges is of a Quamdiu bene se gesserint And this they have without their Lordships Petition to the King as his Lordship tells us was fain to be made for the Judges thereby galling the King for giving some Patents to the Judges during Pleasure which as
rest For out of all doubt their Votes do hurt sometimes and it may be more often and more dangerously than the Bishops Votes And when this Lord shall be pleased to tell us what those other Irregularities are which are as antient and yet redressed I will consider of them and then either grant or deny In the mean time I think it hath been proved that it is no Irregularity for a Bishop that is called to it by Supreme Authority to give Counsel or otherwise to meddle in Civil Affairs so as it take him not quite off from his Calling And for his Lordship 's Close That this is not so antient but that it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio his Lordship is much deceived For that Speech of our Saviour's St. Matthew 19. 8. is spoken of Marriage which was instituted in Paradise and therefore ab initio from the beginning must there be taken from the Creation or from the Institution of Marriage soon after it But I hope his Lordship means it not so here to put it off that Bishops had not Votes in the Parliaments of England from the Creation For then no question but it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio But if his Lordship or any other will apply this Speech to any thing else which hath not its beginning so high he must then refer his Words and meaning to that time in which that thing he speaks of took its beginning as is this particular to the beginning of Parliaments in this Kingdom And then under Favour of this Lord the voting of Bishops in Parliament is so antient that it cannot be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio For so far as this Kingdom hath any Records to shew Clergy-Men both Bishops and Abbots had free and full Votes in Parliament so full as that in the first Parliament of which we have any certain Records which was in the Forty and ninth Year of Henry the Third there was Summoned by the King to Vote in Parliament One hundred and twenty Bishops Abbots and Priors and but Twenty three Lay-Lords Now there were but Twenty six Bishops in all and the Lords being multiplied to the unspeakable Prejudice of the Crown into above One hundred besides many of their young Sons called by Writ in their Father's Life-time have either found or made a troubled time to cast the Bishops and their Votes out of the House 2. To the Objection for being Established by Law his Lordship says The Law-makers have the same Power and the same Charge to alter old Laws inconvenient as to make new that are necessary The Law-makers have indeed the same Power in them and the same Charge upon them that their Predecessors in former Times had and there 's no question but old Laws may be Abrogated and new ones made But this Lord who seems to be well versed in the Rules and Laws of Government which the poor Bishops understand not cannot but know that it 's a dangerous thing to be often changing of the Laws especially such as have been antient and where the old is not inconvenient nor the new necessary which is the true State of this Business whatever this Lord thinks 3. And for the Third Objection the Privileges of the House this Lord says it can be no Breach of them For either Estate may propose to the other by way of Bill what they conceive to be for publick Good and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing This is an easie Answer indeed and very true For either Estate in Parliament may propose to the other by way of Bill and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing and there is no Breach of Privilege in all this But this easie Answer comes not home For how my Lord understands this Objection I know not it seems as if it did reach only to the external Breach of some Privilege but I conceive they which made the Objection meant much more As namely that by this Bill there was an aim in the Commons to weaken the Lords House and by making their Votes fewer to be the better able to work them to their own Ends in future Businesses So the Argument is of equal if not greater strength against the Lord's yielding to the Bill to the Iufringement of their own strength than to the Commons proposing it and there is no doubt but that the Commons might propose their Bill without Breach of Privilege but whether the Lords might grant it without impairing their own strength I leave the future Times which shall see the Success of this Act of Parliament to judge of the Wisdom of it which I shall not presume to do I thought his Lordship had now done but he tells us 4. There are two other Objections which may seem to have more force but they will receive satisfactory Answers The one is that if they may remove Bishops they may as well next time remove Barons and Earls This Lord confesses the two Arguments following are of more force but he says they will receive satisfactory Answers And it may be so But what Answers soever they may receive yet I doubt whether those which that Lord gives be such For to this of taking away of Barons and Earls next his Lordship Answers two things First he says The Reason is not the same the one sitting by an Honour invested in their Blood and Hereditary which though it be in the King alone to grant yet being once granted he cannot take away The other sitting by a Barony depending upon an Office which may be taken away for if they be deprived of their Office they sit not To this there have been enough said before yet that it may fully appear this Reason is not Satisfactory this Lord should do well to know or rather to remember for I think he knows it already that though these great Lords have and hold their Places in Parliament by Blood and Inheritance and the Bishops by Baronies depending upon their Office yet the King which gives alone can no more justly or lawfully alone away their Office without their Demerit and that in a legal way than he can take away Noblemens Honours And therefore for ought is yet said their Cases are not so much alike as his Lordship would have them seem In this indeed they differ somewhat that Bishops may be deprived upon more Crimes than those are for which Earls and Barons may lose their Honours but neither of them can be justly done by the King's Will and Pleasure only But Secondly for farther Answer this Lord tells us The Bishops sitting there is not so essential For Laws have been and may be made they being all excluded but it can never be shewed that ever there were Laws made by the King and them the Lords and Earls excluded This Reason is as little satisfactory to me as the former For certainly according to Law and Prescription of Hundreds of Years the Bishops sitting
is made by these Men as if it were Contra Regem against the King in Right or in Power But that 's a meer ignorant shift for our being Bishops Jure Divino by Divine Right takes nothing from the King 's Right or Power over us For though our Office be from God and Christ immediately yet may we not exercise that Power either of Order or Jurisdiction but as God hath appointed us that is not in His Majesty's or any Christian King's Kingdoms but by and under the Power of the King given us so to do And were this a good Argument against us as Bishops it must needs be good against Priests and Ministers too for themselves grant that their Calling is Jure Divino by Divine Right and yet I hope they will not say that to be Priests and Ministers is against the King or any his Royal Prerogatives Next Suppose our Callings as Bishops could not be made good Jure Divino by Divine Right yet Jure Ecclesiastico by Ecclesiastical Right it cannot be denied And here in England the Bishops are confirmed both in their Power and Means by Act of Parliament So that here we stand in as good Case as the present Laws of the Realm can make us And so we must stand till the Laws shall be repealed by the same Power that made them Now then suppose we had no other string to hold by I say suppose this but I grant it not yet no Man can Libel against our Calling as these Men do be it in Pulpit Print or otherwise but he Libels against the King and the State by whose Laws we are established Therefore all these Libels so far forth as they are against our Calling are against the King and the Law and can have no other purpose than to stir up Sedition among the People If these Men had any other Intention or if they had any Christian or charitable desire to reform any thing amiss why did they not modestly Petition his Majesty about it that in his Princely Wisdom he might set all things right in a Just and Orderly manner But this was neither their Intention nor Way For one clamours out of his Pulpit and all of them from the Press and in a most virulent and unchristian manner set themselves to make a Heat among the People and so by Mutiny to effect that which by Law they cannot and by most false and unjust Calumnies to defame both our Callings and Persons But for my Part as I pity their Rage so I heartily pray God to forgive their Malice No Nation hath ever appeared more jealous of Religion than the People of England have ever been And their Zeal to God's Glory hath been and at this day is a great honour to them But this Zeal of theirs hath not been at all times and in all Persons alike guided by knowledge Now Zeal as it is of excellent use where it sees its way so it is very dangerous company where it goes on in the dark And these Men knowing the Disposition of the People have laboured nothing more than to misinform their knowledge and misguide their Zeal and so to fire that into a Sedition in hope that they whom they causlesly hate might miscarry in it For the main scope of these Libels is to kindle a Jealousie in Mens Minds that there are some great Plots in Hand dangerous Plots so says Mr. Burton expresly to change the Orthodox Religion established in England and to bring in I know not what Romish Superstition in the room of it As if the external decent worship of God could not be upheld in this Kingdom without bringing in of Popery Now by this Art of theirs give me leave to tell you that the King is most desperately abused and wounded in the Minds of his People and the Prelates shamefully The King most desparately For there is not a more cunning trick in the World to withdraw the Peoples Hearts from their Sovereign than to persuade them that he is changing true Religion and about to bring in gross Superstition upon them Aud the Prelates shamefully For they are charged to seduce and lay the Plot and be the Instruments For his Majesty first This I know and upon this occasion take it my Duty to speak There is no Prince in Christendom more sincere in his Religion nor more constant to it than the King And he gave such a Testimony of this at his being in Spain as I much doubt whether the best of that Faction durst have done half so much as his Majesty did in the Face of that Kingdom And this you my Lord the Earl of Holland and other Persons of Honour were Eye and Ear Witnesses of having the happiness to attend Him there And at this day as his Majesty by God's great Blessing both on him and us knows more so is he more settled and more confirmed both in the Truth of the Religion here established and in Resolution to maintain it And for the Prelates I assure my self they cannot be so base as to live Prelates in the Church of England and labour to bring in the Superstitions of the Church of Rome upon themselves and it And if any should be so foul I do not only leave him to God's Judgment but if these Libellers or any other can disdover that his base and irreligious falshood to shame also and severe Punishment from the State And in any just way no Man's Hand shall be more or sooner against him than mine shall be And for my self to pass by all the scandalous reproacbes which they have most injuriously cast upon me I shall say this only First I know of no Plot nor purpose of altering the Religion established Secondly I have ever been far from attempting any thing that may truly be said to tend that way in the least degree And to these two I here offer my Oath Thirdly If the King had a mind to change Religion which I know he hath not and God forbid he should ever have he must seek for other Instruments For as basely as these Men conceive of me yet I thank God I know my Duty well both to God and the King And I know that all the Duty I owe to the King is under God And my great happiness it is though not mine alone but your Lordships and all his Subjects with me that we live under a Gracious and a Religious King that will ever give us leave to serve God first and Him next But were the days otherwise I thank Christ for it I yet know not how to serve any Man against the Truth of God and I hope I shall never learn it But to return to the business what is their Art to make the World believe a change of Religion is endeavoured What Why forsooth they say there are great Innovations brought in by the Prelates and such as tend to the advancing of Popery Now that the Vanity and Falshood of this may appear I shall humbly
defire your Lordships to give me leave to recite briefly all the Innovations charged upon us be they of less or greater Moment and as briestly to answer them And then you shall clearly see whether any cause hath been given of these unsavory Libels and withall whether there be any shew of cause to fear a change of Religion And I will take these great pretended Innovations in order as I meet with them First I begin with the News from Ipswich Where the First Innovation is that the last Years Fast was enjoyned to be without Sermons in London the Suburbs and other infected Places contrary to the Orders for other Fasts in former times Whereas Sermons are the only means to humble Men c. To this I say First That an after-Age may without Offence learn to avoid any visible Inconvenience observed in the former And there was visible Inconvenience observed in Mens former flocking to Sermons in Infected Places Secondly This was no particular Act of Prelates but the business was debated at the Council-Table being a matter of State as well as of Religion And it was concluded for no Sermons in those Infected Places upon this Reason that Infected Persons or Families known in their own Parishes might not take occasion upon those by-days to run to other Churches where they were not known as many use to do to hear some humorons Men Preach For on the Sundays when they better kept their own Churches The Danger is not so great altogether Nor Thirdly is that true that Sermons are the Only means to humble Men. For though the Preaching of God's Word where it is performed according to his Ordinance be a great means of many good Effects in the Souls of Men Yet no Sermons are the only means to humble Men. And some of their Sermons are fitter a great deal for other Operations Namely to stir up Sedition as you may see by Mr. 〈◊〉 for this his printed Libel was a Sermon first and a Libel too And 't is the best part of a Fast to abstain from such Sermons 2. The Second Innovation is That Wednesday was appointed for the Fast-day and that this was done with this Intention by the Example of this Fast without Preaching to suppress all the Wednesday Lectures in London To this I answer First That the appointing of Wednesday for the Fast-day was no Innovation For it was the day in the last Fast before this And I my self remember it so above forty years since more than once Secondly If there be any Innovation in it the Prelates named not the day my Lord Keeper I must appeal to your Lordship The day was first named by your Lordship as the usual and fittest day And yet I dare say and swear too that your Lordship had no aim to bring in Popery nor to suppress all or any the Wednesday Lectures in London Besides these Men live to see the Fast ended and no one Wednesday Lecture suppressed 3. The Third Innovation is that the Prayer for seasonable weather was purged out of this last Fast-Book which was say they one cause of Ship-wrecks and tempestuous weather To this I say First in the General this Fast-Book and all that have formerly been made have been both made and published by the command of the King in whose sole Power it is to call a Fast. And the Arch-Bishop and Bishops to whom the ordering of the Book is committed have power under the King to put in or leave out whatsoever they think fit for the present Occasion as their Predecessors have ever done before them Provided that nothing be In contrary to the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England And this may serve in the General for all Alterations in that or any other Fast-Book or Books of Devotion upon any particular Occasions which may and ought to vary with several times and we may and do and will justifie under his Majestys Power all such Alterations made therein Secondly For the particular When this last-Book was set out the weather was very seasonable And it is not the custom of the Church nor fit in it self to pray for seasonable weather when we have it but when we want it When the former Book was set out the weather was extreme ill and the Harvest in Danger Now the Harvest was in and the weather good Thirdly 〈◊〉 most inconsequent to say that the leaving that Prayer out of the Book of Devotions caused the Shipwrecks and the Tempests which followed And as bold they are with God Almighty in saying it was the cause For sure I am God never told them that was the cause And if God never revealed it they cannot come to know it yet had the Bishops been Prophets and foreseen these Accidents they would certainly have prayed against them Fourthly Had any Minister found it necessary to use this Prayer at any one time during the Fast he might with ease and without Danger have supplied that want by using that Prayer to the same purpose which is in the Ordinary Liturgy Fifthly I humbly desire your Lordships to weigh well the Consequence of this great and dangerous Innovation The Prayer for fair weather was left out of the Book for the Fast Therefore the Prelates intend to bring in Popery An excellent Consequence were there any shew of Reason in it 4 The Fourth Innovation is That there is one very useful Collect left out and a Clause omitted in another To this I answer First As before It was lawful for us to alter what we thought fit And Secondly Since that Collect made mention of Preaching and the Act of State forbad Sermons on the Fast-days in infected Places we thought it fit in pursuance of that Order to leave out that Collect. And Thirdly For the branch in the other which is the first Collect though God did deliver our 〈◊〉 out of Romish Superstition yet God be blessed for it we were never in And therefore that clause being 〈◊〉 expressed we thought fit to pass it over 5. The Fifth Innovation is That in the sixth Order for the Fast there is a passage left out concerning the abuse of Fasting in relation to Merit To this I answer That he to whom the ordering of that Book to the Press was committed did therefore leave it out because in this Age and Kingdom there is little Opinion of Meriting by Fasting Nay on the contray the Contempt and Scorn of all Fasting save what humorous Men call for of themselves is so rank that it would grieve any Christian Man to see the necessary Orders of the Church concerning Fasting both in Lent and at other set times so vilified as they are 6. The Sixth Innovation is That the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Children are dashed that 's their phrase out of the new Collect whereas they were in 〈◊〉 Collect of the former Book For this First The Author of the News knows full well that they are left out of the