be hereafter accounted for in this Discourse And however the Epistles of St. Ignatius stand Irrefragably defended from the charge of being Spurious I cannot see but that allowing the Bishop to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sufficient to comply with the full Sense of those Epistles especially if it be consider'd that the Bishops of which he speaks were made so by the Apostles themselves and no doubt were chosen by infallible Direction and must therefore deserve a most singular Respect But allowing Men to think as they see Evidence concerning this Difference of Order certainly the Practice of the Church may be such as may allow of Different Apprehensions without occasioning either Tyranny or Schism the Method whereof is attempted in this Discourse However it is plain that both our Saviour and his Disciples did wholly reject all Temporal Jurisdiction and applied themselves entirely to their Spiritual Administrations and that there was no Distinction Causes into of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical and Temporal or Civil in the Christian World for above Three Hundred Years after Christ Indeed while the Emperors were Heathens and the Judges too throughout the Empire the Christians according to the Advice of St. Paul forbare to go to Law 1 Cor. 6.5 6. and referred all their Differences usually to the Bishops or Pastors of the Congregations of which they were Members And when Constantine came to the Empire his mistaken Zeal confirm'd the Custom though the Apostle's Reason for it ceased And whereas the Civil Power ought to have been reassum'd by the Christian Magistrate and the Clergy eased of Secular Business his Edict set up the Clergy's Domination and from Arbitrators they became Judges and Christian Magistrates might not Judge unwilling Christians This Corruption grew so fast Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 11. that about the Year 430. in the Popedom of Celestine the Patriarchs of Rome and Alexandria did Degenerate from an Ecclesiastical to a Secular Ruling and Dominion And when I consider how positively that Degeneracy is forbidden by our Saviour Matth. 20.26 Luke 22.25 Mark 10.43 who upon all Occasions reprov'd it in his own Disciples When I consider what Miserie 's the Clergy Domination has caused more than Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years since that Degeneracy how it has turn'd the Church into a meer Worldly Kingdom and the Laws thereof into Humane Politicks I cannot but rejoice that by the Laws of England this Degeneracy is or might be cured were the Laws put in Execution and the Supremacy restor'd to the Civil Power And whether the Pope of Rome by this Degeneracy did commence the Apocalyptick Beast entring into the Seat of Daniel's 4th Beast and so the time of his Reign be expired may be worth the Consideration of those that study the Apocalypse But certain it is that in England the Bishop of Rome before the Norman Conquest had no allow'd Jurisdiction but the Conqueror coming in under the Pope's Banner gave him leave to send Legates into England From William Rufus he attempted to gain Appeals to Rome which occasion'd the Banishment of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury during the Reign of that King Upon Henry the First he Usurp'd the Donation of Bishopricks On King Stephen Appeals to Rome On Henry the Second the Exemption of Clerks from the Secular Power And from King John he got the whole Kingdom I shall not trace the Steps by which the Kingdom recover'd it self out of the Hands of the Clergy but notwithstanding the Pope held our Ancestors Consciences in Slavery till the Reign of Henry the Eighth many Acts of Parliament were made to uphold and maintain the Sovereignty of the King the Liberty of the People the Common Law and the Commonweal as appears by the Statutes of Edward the Third and and Richard the Second Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth being Laws of Premunire and Provision by which the Civil Power was preserv'd and the Body secured against the monstrous pretended Foreign Head And upon the whole the Civil Power of England kept it self out of the Hands of the Priests in all Matters and Causes except Causes Testamentary and of Matrimony Divorce Rights of Tythes Oblations and Obventions for as the Emperors out of a Zeal and desire to Grace and Honour the Bishops allow'd them Jurisdiction in Causes of Tythes because they were paid to Priests in Causes of Matrimony because Marriages were Solemniz'd in the Church in Causes Testamentary because Testaments were many times made in Extremis when Priests were present So the Kings of England before the Reformation did all along derive Jurisdiction in these Causes to the Bishops though the Right remain'd in them as the Fountain But herein England hath been more unhappy than the Empire for whereas the Bishops when Christian Emperors granted them this Jurisdiction proceeded in these Causes according to the Imperial Law as the Civil Magistrate did proceed in other Causes our Bishops introduced the Imperial Law and since it came into the World the Canon Law also into England and endeavoured all they could to destroy Caesar's Image and Superscription They call'd their Courts Courts Christian as if the Civil Courts were but Courts of Ethnicks and their Causes Spiritual as if Civil Causes were Carnal And yet if an Honest Man Examine the Matter he will probably find as much Christianity in Westminster-Hall as in Doctors Commons and Adultery a Crime no more Spiritual than Murder Since the Reformation began the Civil and Pretended Spiritual Authority have been wresting and they are not yet fully agreed It was Enacted by the Statute 24 Hen. VIII Cap. 12. That all these Spiritual Causes should be Judged within the King's Authority and not elsewhere By the 26 Hen. VIII Cap. 14. The Parliament took upon them even in those Popish Times to Create new Bishops Suffragans and to appoint their Sees And this multiplying of Bishopricks is no new thing for if you will believe Giraldus Cambrenses he tells us in a Writing which he presented to Pope Innocent the Third That in Britain there were in the time of the Romans Five Provinces and accordingly Five Arch-Bishopricks under each of which was Twelve Bishopricks so there were Threescore Bishopricks at a time when the Island was not wholly Christianized Nor is the Translation of Sees any Novelty for in the Year 604 Pope Gregory did for the sake of Austin the Monk procure the Translation of the Archiepiscopal Seat from London to Canterbury where it remains to this Day notwithstanding the endeavour of Gilbert Folioth Bishop of London in the time of Henry the Second and the endeavours of other Bishops of London since to recover the Archiepiscopal Dignity But to proceed by Statute 1. Edw. VI. Cap. 2. The Writ of Conge delire was ousted and it was Enacted That none but the King by his Letters Patents should collate to an Archbishoprick or Bishoprick That all Process Ecclesiastical should be in the King's Name and the Test in the Name of the Person having
just as reasonable as to make an Engine to draw Mens Bodies into the same Dimensions We have no wild Liberty for Adamites to run about the Streets or Enthusiasts to disturb us in the time of Divine Service but the Church of England is secur'd in its Legal Establishments and a Liberty to Dissenters has received the Sanction of a Law Now that Maxim Salus populi suprema lex est appears in its Beauty being writ upon all the Actions of our King and not us'd by the People in Opposition to Monarchy Now the other Maxim Bono principi inservire est optima libertas is rightly applied being writ upon the Actions of the People both in and out of Parliament and not us'd by the King to enslave his People The Courage and Conduct of our King and the Wealth and Valour of the People have once more made Great Britain a happy Nation and the Arbiter of the Fate of Europe The Glory of His Majesty in procuring the late stupendious Peace and restoring to our Neighbours their Ravish'd Liberties is as much greater than that of Alexander Pompey Caesar or of any other of the Fam'd Conquerors as 't is more Glorious to hinder the World from being Conquer'd than to Conquer the World to save Mens Lives than to destroy them And what was said of the Romans who Restor'd Liberty to the Conquer'd Cities of Greece in the Days of Flaminius is more Emphatically true concerning His Majesty and his Loyal Subjects That at last there are a Prince and a People in the World born for the Safety of all others that crost Seas and made Wars at their own Costs and Peril to relieve the Oppressed to establish Laws and cause them to be observed and to maintain the Publick Security throughout the whole Earth But this is a Subject fit to fill a Volumn and not to be cram'd into a Parenthesis in a Preface and therefore I must hasten to what I principally intended And notwithstanding Matters in the State are so happily adjusted and Persecution ceases to be the Reproach of the Church yet we are still on very ill Terms among our selves in Matters of Religion and to make the following Discourse more intelligible as well as the Design of the Author I must a little consider the Grounds and Causes of our Divisions When by the Divine Mercy we had escapt out of the Tyranny of Rome and the Protestant Religion became the National Religion of England Ignorance was lamentably visible not only in the Laity but Clergy and whoever looks over the Lists of the Indocti Mediocriter Docti Docti into which Classes the Clergy were divided will plainly see the Necessity of the Forms of Prayer and Homilies so much complain'd of And as the Clergy's Ignorance made these things necessary so the First Reformers thought it their Wisdom to make the Transition from Popery to Protestant Religion as Vndiscernable as might be for this reason while they took away other Parts of the Clergy's Habits they left the Surplice that People might not miss the other Trinkets while they took away Transubstantiation they left the Posture of Kneeling which was much more sensible than the Doctrine while they took away the Adoration of the Cross they nevertheless continued it at Baptism though they threw off the Latin Service they kept a Liturgy in English while they Renounc'd the Authority of the Bishop of Rome they nevertheless continued the same Arch-Bishops and Bishops in the same Provinces and Sees This Conduct they hop'd wou'd have brought the Papists to Church and it had that effect for some time but after that the English Refugees who went hence in the Reign of Queen Mary returned from among the Learned and Pious Reformers abroad who had gone quite through the Work of Reformation perhaps a Step too far the Clergy of England fell into two Parties one Party were for finding out Means of Reconciliation with Rome and bringing the Pope to Terms The other Party were for Accommodating Matters and Forming an Union between the English Church and Foreign Protestant Churches but there having been much fewer Non-Conformists found among the Clergy upon the Change of Religion made by Queen Elizabeth in Substantials than that made by King Charles the Second in Circumstantials the Party which inclined to Rome were much the stronger and most prevalent at Court. And although the State of Rome was generally opposed yet the Church of Rome was much hanker'd after though most were against the Pope's Supremacy yet many were for allowing him to be Principium Unitatis On the other side the most Learned and Pious of the Clergy were for the other Union Accordingly those that enclin'd towards Rome were extreamly fond of the Ceremonies that their Coalition with the Holy See might be the more easie From using the Cross at Baptism they might easily proceed to its farther use from Kneeling at the Sacrament they might take an occasion of Believing Transubstantiation or letting it alone that they might easily slip on something more upon the Surplice they had hopes to prevail with Rome to allow the Liturgy in English and while they kept up the Difference of Order between Bishops and Presbyters they were capable not only of arriving at the Lordship of a Bishop and at the Grace of an Arch-bishop but upon the Coalition had a Prospect of the Eminency of a Cardinal and the Holiness of a Pope They were for allowing Sports on the Lord's Day and for Holidays and a Religion that Men might wear Genteely for Singing Prayers which makes little difference between Latin and English in Point of Edification especially in that Time when very few cou'd read They were fond of God-fathers and God-mothers Bowing at the Name of Jesus and to the Altar and setting the Communion-Table Altar-wise On the other side the Pious Puritan Bishops were for Union with the Protestants abroad who scrupled most of these things and were for that Reason for taking these things away or at least for leaving them indifferent They were indeed for the pure Primitive Episcopacy and I conceive had they seen the following Discourse would generally have Subscribed thereto And this is in Truth the Reason that so many are to this Day so extreamly fond of things which they themselves account to be indifferent in their own Nature and which others take to be sinful The Grotian and Cassandrian Design was the good work in hand so much applauded by Arch-bishop Laud and his Adherents and Followers and Oppos'd by the Arch-bishops Abbot and Usher the Bishops Hall Davenant and others And this is the true Difference between the High Church and Low Church as they are called to this Day And here I cann't without great and pungent sorrow lament the Misery of the Church of England for almost a whole Century By this Means Protestant Religion which lies in those things wherein both sides agree and even Morality it self hath been little regarded and Mens Zeal for the most part
things are now set in the clearest Light a better Friend to the Church can never fill the English Throne the terms of Catholick Unity are well understood both by the Clergy and many of the Laity while the Church has stood upon Stilts * Ceremonies it has been sometimes bending towards Rome and at other times towards Enthusiasm but by this means it may be unmoveably fixt upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone And this in short is what I would offer on this Subject that her Majesty may receive the like Authority by Act of Parliament as that so often given to King H. 8. and after to Edw. 6. By this means instead of our being cursed once a Year on Ash-Wednesday the Church may obtain the Benefit of that Godly Discipline which the Rubrick wishes to be Restored The Liturgy of the Church of England may be made a Form to some and at least a Directory agreeable to all the Protestant Churches the Rights Powers and Priviledges of an English Convocation would be better understood and all the Attempts of the Factors of Rome and France would be defeated for ever And therefore to use the Word of the Author of the Reasons for passing the late Bill with a very little Variation they being as I conceive much more for my purpose than his Since the Security of Particulars that is the Innocent the Honest and Peaceable for no body I suppose means to incourage the wicked Seditions or to protect them in their Crimes Such as that High Church-man who has lately Publish'd a Latin Treatise to prove the present Church of England Schismatical At least this is not a Design that will bear the Light since the Peace and Prosperity of the Nation in General by the Encouragement of Industry and Increase of Trade by the Benefit and Comforts of Society by Dutiful and Chearful Submission to those whom God God has set over us in Church and State by a most Cordial and Loyal Obedience to Her Majesty and Grateful Sence of the Blessings we enjoy under Her Just and Prudent Government since the Wisdom and Piety of our Legislators the Sagacity of their Judgments the Weight and Authority of their Deliberations their Unanimity and Firmness in the Pursuit of fit and necessary Measures and the Nobleness of their Resolution in overcoming all Difficulties since the Honour and Felicity of Her Majesties most Auspicious Reign Her Reputation abroad and Interest at home the Praise and Veneration that will be paid Her now and that Renown that will attend Her to all Succeeding Ages for securing to all Posterity that unvaluable Blessing which was Established by Her famous Predecessor Queen Elizabeth of truly Glorious Memory And as Her Majesty was pleased to tell us very lately even Her present Satisfaction and what she has most at Heart And above all since the Interests of Religion and the Glory of God are so nearly concerned in this Business and that Temporal and narrow Aims may be cashiered Brotherly Love revived and the little things that divide us giving place to the more Weighty that ought to unite us We may henceforth only contend for the Faith which was once delivered and that Purity of Manners which is the necessary Effect of it Let us unanimously agree in enabling Her Majesty to give all that Security and Perfection to our most excellent Constitution which it may justly require at our Hands Nor is it the Church only that requires this 't is the State likewise which must stand or fall with Her For the sake then of our most Wise and Constituted Government which all Strangers envy and which we seem to pride our selves so much upon for the sake of our Most Gracious Sovereign than whom never any merited more at our Hands and who so pathetically presses us to perfect Peace and Union among our selves and who declares She hath nothing so much at Heart as the Welfare and Happiness of Her Subjects who manages that Treasure so carefully which we have seen formerly squandered away so profusely on French Intrigues and Whores loads her People with no Deficiencies but even Taxes her self to ease her Subjects and if the most shining Virtue and Goodness placed upon a Throne can affect us if she be as worthy to be trusted as Hen. 8. for the sake of our Countrey for whose Welfare we profess such a mighty Concern and of which we would be thought such Zealous Patriots for our own dear sakes that most powerful Motive with all Mankind and lastly even for God's sake for the Honour and Glory of his Holy Name which ought to weigh with us above all other Considerations Let us not after rejecting a Bill against Immorality be so fond of a Bill which tends only to Establish Ceremonies let us search the Scriptures and not French Presidents for the Means of Vnion least we be judged by our Blessed Saviour for rejecting the Commandments of God that we may keep our own Tradition Let us at last discern the things that belong to our Peace and God forbid that they should at any time this especially be hid from our Eyes And now Sir having offered to your Consideration such Principles as I my self act by and which I conceive are agreeable to the Opinion of most of the English Occasional Conformists and Occasional Dissenters and proposed an Expedient for the Establishment of the Church of England which I conceive far more likely to unite us than the late Bill if it had past and applied the Pathetick Arguments of one of your Party to this Expedient I shall next consider what ever seems to me remain unanswered in your Discourse And first I cannot but admire that you who have pronounc'd that Her Majesty is none of the three Estates of the Realm but the Sovereign Head of that Great Body should in the very same Page allow Her no more than a Councurrence with what Her Parliament should conceive to be reasonable for methinks conceiving what is reasonable should be at least as proper for the Head as the Members I must confess that I concur with you in believing that Her Majesties Allies would not have been offended at the Wisdom of that Bill had it past into a Law because perhaps they could not have discerned it and it would probably have been the more invisible to them because it was so conspicuous to all the Papists and Jacobites in England But as to the Prophetick Part of that Dedication how much the Dissenter would have been pleased to know the extent of his Priviledges or how contented he would be or what Advantage would accreue from such Gentle Methods or in the words of Maimburg to the French King Moyens deux voyes de Grace Maimbourg Epistle Dedicatory to the Life of Gregory the 1st or whether the first words of your Dedication do insinuate that there are some good Men who have no Sense of Religion no concern for