refuse the obedience due to Civil Magistracy or who oppose the liberty and authority of this particular Church to regulate and govern its own politie agreeable to Gods Word and the practice of all other Churches Our care shall be as not to spend much precious time in things that do not edifie nor to adde the weight of substance to feathers which are but ornaments so nor to expose Religion rude and bare naked and ridiculous to the world much less to sacrifice the publick peace honour and wisdom to private petulancy and pertinacy Yet still we shall make a great difference between the weak and the willful the superstitious and supercilious the scrupulous and scornful doubters and dissenters between the humble Professors and constant Practisers of true Religion in the main of Morals and Fiducials and the turbulent Praters or pragmatick agitators who love to swim against the stream of Authority against right Reason and true Religion established Laws and good Order setled Government and due Subjection We shall first endeavour with meekness of wisdom to satisfie all sober and good men next we shall do as the Law commands against the malipert and obstinate wranglers who make no conscience to deny common Principles to swallow absurdities and reconcile contradictions between their own liberties challenged to themselves and their rigid severities imposed by them upon others There is no reason for them to complain if the same measure be measured to them which they have meted to others every way their equals and in many their betters Nor shall they ever have so much cause to cry out of what they suffer as of what they have done We are not averse from any discrect indulgence which his Majesty and the Law shall see sit to grant to some persons for some time till better instructed and brought off from their prejudices we shall not envy or grudge or deny any honest man those dispensations and forbearances so far as our Charity to private Christians may not be prejudicial to the Churches peace and publick good to which we and all men owe the greatest charity and which may not under any flourishes of zealous praying and preaching or under any pretensions of private conscience be either undermined or overthrown what ever colours of Non-conformity or thorough Reformation men carry before them We know there are many envious eyes upon us and bitter tongues sharpned against us some quarrel that we are no better though themselves be not very good others are grieved that we are not worse This impotent malice of unreasonable or uncharitable men is best silenced and confuted by our just and gentle demeanour toward all And although we are not to be encouraged or over-awed with the weak words of men yet our care shall be that nothing be spoken of us bad but it shall be false The rough tongues of our enemies shall be but as siles and whetstones to our Virtues as their rude hands have been the touchstone of our patience This is the worst and only revenge we intend to take of all our causeless Adversaries either to perswade and win them to sobriety or to overcome and disarm them by our being or doing better then they deserve or desire The injuries and indignities cast upon some of us heretofore and all of us now by the pride improbity or petulancy of any shall but give greater fervour to our industry prayers and charity The former rigors used by some Tyrants Tryers and Inquisitors against Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy shall not carry us beyond the sober bounds of Gods and mans Law nor beyond that Law of Christian charity which is the bond of perfection and which commands us to let our Christian moderation be known to all men and our love even to our enemies We will not less encourage true piety sanctity and sincerity because of the scandal and cruelty of some mens hypocrisie We have not so learned Christ in whose holy footsteps we shall endeavour to tread as the surest evidence that we succeed in his Ministry and exercise his Authority Those Ministers or people whose hearts most misgive them as fearing the return of hard measure from Bishops because of the great evil they have as pseudo-Pseudo-Presbyters and Apostates done or designed against all Bishops and the whole Church of England We cannot better Answer for their security than as Joseph did to his Brethren when he was now advanced and it was in the power of his hand to hurt them as their own jealous souls justly told them when he replied to their astonishment I am Joseph whom ye sold into Aegypt Be not afraid I fear God c. Thereby implying That he could not meditate or act any revenge but that of Love against his brethren who professed to own and serve the same God and whose mercy had now turned their intended mischief into good Let our greatest enemies heretofore now repent of the evil they have done and designed against this Church and Kingdom no less than against Bishops let them shew their repentance by living so as becomes good Christians and good Subjects As the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of their head fall to the ground by our means We meditate the good of all men and most of those that have been our deluded yea their own enemies and who will now be our friends and their own on any reasonable terms As good Physitians we shall have special care of those who most need our help and cure As Fathers we shall readily embrace those penitent prodigal Sons which return to us We know that nothing will sooner end all unkind unjust and uncomfortable quarrels than the holy and unblamable lives of Us Bishops which as the presence of Christ and the shadows of the Apostles will either cast out the evil spirits that yet remain in some men after all the miracles of Gods providences or else more torment them Our Virtues and Graces shall be the only Revengers as they will be the sharpest Satyrs and severest reproaches yea and the most assured Victors of mens evil speeches and insolent carriages In this holy integrity while we justifie his Majesties Wisdom with Your Honors Counsels and comprobation we shall have none to fear or flatter whose evil designs under any popular and threed-bare quarrels against all Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies are to overthrow both Law and Gospel Church and State bringing all into Anarchy and confusion We shall indeed highly urge conformity especially in our selves and all true Ministers Conformity I say first to the Word of God to the Examples of Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles with all true Saints Next to those Canons and Laws of the Church and State which bind Us and them most to loyalty and duty Lastly We shall so far urge an external conformity in circumstantials and Ceremonies as shall be required of them and Us by Law in order to preserve decency reverence uniformity and solemnity in holy Duties also peace and unity
Bishops have been to the detriment and dishonor both of this Church and Kingdom the recent memory of your and our late Troubles and Miseries will sufficiently tell your Lordships and those other Gentlemen As a just History of their Tragical Counsels and Tyrannical effects will for ever warn your amazed and almost incredulous Posterity when they shall see the different yea destructive Fortunes of our Laws and Religion of our Kings Lords and Commons of the sober Clergy all degrees of honest men in these three Kingdoms under an affected Novelty and Parity of Usurping Presbyters with some presumptuous People whose dominion in Church or State neither your Lordships nor your Forefathers ever knew in ENGLAND nor can ever bear compared with that Paternal Government of learned godly and venerable Bishops counselled and assisted by their reverend Brethren of the Clergy in a way and form of Ecclesiastical Government now happily restored by his Majesty as most conform to the Catholick Church ever approved by our Parliaments established by all our ancient Laws and duly subordinate to our Kings as Sovereign Lords who are owned by us Bishops and all the Orthodox Clergy of ENGLAND to be under God the onely supreme Dispensers of all Juridical or Executive Power in Church and State No way subject either to the Papal Triple Crown or to the hundred Eyes of any Presbyterian Class nor yet to the hundred Hands of any Independent Junto By the Christian Care and Courage Piety and Charity of which Bishops next after and ever since the Apostles and Apostolique men Christianity it self was first planted in Britany as in all other Countries when the Crown of King Lucius above 1500. years ago first of any King in all the World did wear the Cross as the noblest Gem and highest Ornament of his Royal Diadem Accordingly we read of our British Bishops present at ancient Councils as that of Arles in France where Restitutus Bishop of London and Eboracus Bishop of Yorksate So in the Council of Arminium about the year 350. as Sulpicius Severus and others tell us By a like Succession of holy Bishops and their subordinate Clergy was Christian Religion and its orderly Ministry preserved in Wales after many barbarous Invasions and Persecutions had almost desolated those first planted Churches of our Britany as venerable Bede and Guildas the wise tell us By godly Bishops were the Saxons and Angles themselves at length converted both Kings and Subjects to that Christian Faith which as Saul they formerly persecuted and made such havock of By grave Bishops as good Physitians was Christian Religion in its Fundamentals of Faith and good Manners kept alive to some degree of saving health and holy Order amidst the many distempers corruptions and deformities of those dark times which went before and followed after the Norman Conquest by reason of the Roman Superstructures Usurpations and Apostacies By excellent Bishops were the Decays of this Church and Deformity of Religion now above one hundred years past duly repaired and orderly reformed from those Romish Dregs of Superstition which had spread upon the face of these Western Churches and sowred the Sanctity as well as sullied the Serenity of Christian purity and simplicity both in Faith and Manners By worthy Bishops was our English Liturgy fitly composed our Bibles well translated our Reformation soberly compleated our Religion by Law and due Authority peaceably established yea and at last all was sealed and confirmed by many of those godly Bishops bonds and banishments by their Bloods and Martyrdoms By our English Bishops how many rare Books have been written in all kinds of good Learning and especially in Divinity Dogmatical Polemical and Practical How hath the Orthodox Faith of the Reformed Church of ENGLAND yea of the true Catholick Church been by our admirable Bishops and other Episcopal Divines valiantly maintained against all kinds of Heretical Novelties and Schismatical Machinations both forreign and domestick They have neither feared Rome nor flattered Geneva nor courted Amsterdam securing this Church at once against all Papal Policies Disciplinarian Devices and Popular Impostures How many great and good Works of pious Munificence of durable Hospitality and useful Charity to Colledges Cathedrals and other Churches to Free-Schools to Hospitals and Alms-Houses have by our English Bishops been founded at their own Charges and many more by their grave Counsels and good Examples as our English Histories fully inform us By some of our learned Bishops as Anselm Bradwardine and others the Glory of Gods Grace was notably maintained against the Pelagian pride and presumption So was the Liberty of this Church and Kingdom by the great head and greater heart of Robert Bishop of Lincoln and others against the Papal Arrogancy By the loyal and resolute Bishop of Carlile was the Sovereignty and Life of Richard the second King of ENGLAND in open Parliament vindicated by Scripture Law and Reason against the potent Usurpation of Henry the fourth By a wise Bishop of Ely was that Counsel first given which united the two Roses and composed our long Civil Wars Lastly by a worthy Bishop was that foundation of Union laid in a Marriage with a Daughter of Henry the seventh which in time brought both Kingdoms of ENGLAND and SCOTLAND under one Scepter and Monarch as they are at this day I do not mention these few of many instances of worthy and most deserving Bishops of the Church of ENGLAND for I omit Cranmer Hooper Ridley Latimer Matthews Whitguift Bancroft Jewel Bilson Andrews King both the Abbots Davenant White Morton Babington Carlton Hall and others nor yet do I reckon up the many late great Sufferers with much Christian patience courage and constancy some of whom remain to this day I say I do not so mention those former as I might with a particular emphasis to each nor yet these later Bishops as if I here meant to plead the merits of Bishops or Episcopacy either before God or Man I know the best Bishops were sensible that they did but their Duty to God their Kings this Church and their Country of whom as of Parents none can merit few requite them Nor is it for me to blazon their wel-known worth by any pomp of words when their greatest worth consisted in their modesty and humility as their greatest merit in their thinking they had none though their Works do at once praise them in the gates and follow them to Glory Onely thus far I have with equal truth and modesty yea and without any offence I hope touched upon the wel-known Deserts of some of our English Bishops In the first place to justifie this Honor and Favor which his gracious Majesty by the Advice of the House of Peers and the generous Piety of the House of Commons hath now done to us Bishops and in US to all the Clergy and in them to this whole Church and in this to all Christendom and in that to all the World After the famous Examples of the first Christian
Clergy-men who a long time stood in the breach till there was no remedy but Sin and Judgement brake in upon them and all Estates as a mighty Torrent In which many of them lost more then all they had for the contagion of their calamities reached even to their Children Friends and Acquaintance the envy and fury of their Enemies seeking to exhaust all their Relations lest there should be any to relieve them with any thing but empty-handed pity I knew some Bishops and those of the first three whom I cannot mention without Honor nor remember their Enemies Cruelty without Horror who were in their old age reduced to live in great part as the Clergy did in Primitive Persecutions ex Donis Oblationibus by Alms and charitable Contributions So did the incomparable Lord Primate of Armagh Bishop Ussher and the most accomplished Bishop Brownrig Nor was the excellently learned and very aged Bishop of Durham Doctor Morton far from being an Object of meer Charity I am sure equal shame and grief mixed with just indignation affects me when I read expressed in his own words the churlish Cainish and contemptuous Carriage of some men to the late venerable Bishop of Norâ—â—ch Doctor Hall whose admired eloquence and meekness was capable like Orpheus his Harp to have charmed all wilde Beasts except bipedes Lupos two-legged Wolves I need not add to this Catalogue the acurate Doctor Prideaux late Bishop of Worcester verus librorum helluo who having first by indefatigable studies digested his excellent Library into his Minde was after forced again to devour all his Books with his Teeth turning them by a miraculous Faith and Patience into Bread for himself and his Children to whom he left no Legacy but pious Poverty Gods Blessing and a Fathers Prayers as appears in his last Will and Testament Blessed God! Who will not learn yea covet to want as well as to abound from these great Examples which are capable to render Indigence it self venerable Poverty desirable and Affliction lovely Since God never takes the good things of this World from so good men but as an indulgent Father he intends to give them better Physick for a time in stead of Food as he did to Job at last he repairs them with Pearls for Pebbles and with eternal Treasures for temporary trash How justly these Afflictions befel very worthy Bishops and other excellent Ministers then flourishing to a great number in the Church of ENGLAND as from the Hand of God their own Humility and Charity their Patience and Silence commands me neither to doubt nor dispute It befits us all to give glory to God to take shame to our selves to say it is of the Lords mercy that we are not utterly consumed that there is yet a Remnant that hath escaped But how unjustly as to the Hand of Man all these burdens of disgrace and indigence were cast upon such venerable Persons in their old age and infirmity I leave to the sober and equanimous World to judge when much evil was for many years inflicted upon them all and no malicious evil of fact was ever proved against one of ten of them They were all condemned but never tried deprived of their Ecclesiastical Rights in Law but not according to any known Law of God or Man Their great offence was that they did not think themselves wiser than the Laws of the Land and Canons of the Church That they would not divide what God had joined together Religion and Loyalty to fear God and honor the King That they chose suffering rather than sinning That they were not willing to have themselves with all the Clergy and the Gentry the Nobility and the Majesty of the Kings of ENGLAND forced to truckle under the Iron Bedstead of Presbytery or to tremble under the Wooden Ferula of Ruling Lay-Elders either Dependents or Independents whose insolency was more intolerable than that of an handmaid which was become heir to her Mistriss The unpardonable sin of those Reverend Fathers was that they chose rather to obey God and the King according to known Laws than to flatter or humor any Popular Faction how potent or prevalent soever still esteeming true piety and virtue in the midst of adversity to be more amiable than the most prosperous Impiety or triumphant Hypocrisie As the three innocent persons were less hurt by the Fire than those who cast them into the Furnace these were consumed the other not singed As no doubt those great Sufferers the Bishops of this Church willingly forgave their Persecutors and committed their Cause to Gods Pleading having no other care but this not to suffer as evil doers or as busie bodies or as perturbers of Church or State So they now greatly rejoyce in their past afflictions not onely for the good which they and others may have gained by them and for the gracious end which the LORD hath as we hope now put to them but also for those great and glorious Advantages which their former many long and sore calamities do now give to the present conspicuity of his Majesties goodness to the splendor of your Lordships noble favors and to the generosity of the House of Commons Thus by a most magnificent and illustrious Opportunity to express His Munificence and Your Kindness to the dejected Bishops to the oppressed Clergy and to the almost desolated Church of ENGLAND suitable to and in some respect far exceeding the pristine Examples of his Majesties Royal your Lordships and other Gentlemens loyal and religious Ancestors who were so far from casting the Bishops or chief Pilots of the Church over-board that they never thought themselves safer from shipwrack than when they were embarqued in the same Ship with Saint Paul and his pious Companions Your Lordships and the other worthy Gentlemen well know as I touched that Bishops in England have ever been contemporary with Parliaments time out of minde as they have been in all Christian Empires and Kingdoms Germany France Spain Sweden Denmark Hungary and others present and assistant in all their Diets and National Conventions So that our former Kings according to their Coronation Oaths and Parliaments according to Law did constantly indeed preserve Bishops in those ancient places and priviledges Immunities and Honors where they found them But You the present Lords and Commons concurrent with his Majesties Goodness have the singular Glory and Happiness to restore them to those ancient Dignities which they never forfeited and so were never before deprived of till their legal and deserved Honor was become their Sin and Crime till their good Manors made them guilty and their Revenues were counted their Delinquency lastly till their having of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was ground enough to devest them of all Authority and the Church of all Order and Government It is the singular Honor of this compleat Parliament which sits as it began with all that fulness of Authority and Liberty which is the life and soul the crown and glory of such august
and for ever to damne as much as in them lay you and your posterity Other Kings and Princes of this Renowned Kingdome as also many pious Lords and Gentlemen have consecrated many things to God and his Church but his present Majesty hath at once restored all thereby shewing himself to be both Charles le bon le grand A great and good Christian King If I or We for I still presume to set forth the grateful and similary sense of my Reverend Fathers and Brethren the Archbishops Bishops and other Worthy Clergy-men if I say We may with your patience speak any more or indeed were able to say any thing suitable to this so rare so religious and so transcendent a subject his Majesties free and speedy restoring to the Bishops and other Church-men their ancient Honours Dignities and Revenues by your Lordships advice and assent with the Honourable House of Commons It must be in the words of the Psalmist Quid retribuemus Domino Yea Dominis What shall We the Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND return to the LORD our God and to our Lord the King and to your Lordships and to the Gentry of England or the House of the Commons now assembled in Parliament Give me leave to tell your Lordships and those other Gentlemen not what we would say but what we would do I am sure we should do yea and we resolve to do if we may be assisted with Gods graces and favoured with your Christian Prayers 1. First As to God We do wholly devote our selves and all the advantages we have by his renewed mercies to advance his Glory and the Honour of our Blessed Saviour in the faithful discharge of our duties to the Service of this Church by preaching praying writing living and governing our selves we mean no less than others so as becomes Primitive and Apostolick Bishops so as is on all hands highly deserved of us and justly expected from us according to our places and abilities As it will be easier for us at the great day of account to have wanted these honourable Priviledges than to have abused them so we had much rather not enjoy them at all than not have hearts to use them aright as prime Professors and Patterns of Christianity that is Followers of Jesus Christ and his blessed Apostles in all Piety Prudence Sanctity Charity Sincerity It argued some greatness of mind in some of our Bishops for these many years to have lived contentedly without these temporal and secular advantages not to have sunk and desponded under so long and importune adversities but it will be more of Christian Magnanimity to enjoy them wisely and worthily to overcome the temptation of prosperity to use them not to pride and luxury but to humble and holy industry to discreet hospitality to cheerful charity to the good of the Church and to Gods glory who hath promised to honour those that honour him and to adde all these things to those that first seek his Kingdome and the righteousness thereof Doubtless nothing will be wanting to us if we be not wanting to God his Church our selves and our Brethren of the Clergy who are sober men void of depraved opinions and debauched practices Secondly In reference to his gracious Majesty our resolutions are That none of his Subjects shall more imitate and if your Lordships give us leave cheerfully emulate your and their Loyalty Love and Fidelity to his Majesties safety peace and happiness temporal and eternal than we his Bishops who of all men may least be traytors to his Honour Conscience or Soul who having dealt so bountifully with us cannot but expect from us those honest and faithful things which are most worthy of his Munificence and our Integrity So as may most conduce to his Majesties welfare and the publick peace The first we should basely betray together with our own Souls if we should cease daily to pray for his Majesties happiness if we should fail to set forth the whole truth of God to him and his Subjects Lastly if we should serve sooth or silently flatter any known sin in our selves or any others whatsoever and least of all in those whose sins must needs be as most conspicuous and exemplary so most contagious and dangerous The second of publick peace we shall best serve and secure by well and wisely ordering as Spiritual Captains and Colonels of the Ecclesiastical Militia that Army of Ministers or great company of Preachers in England and Wales which cannot be less then ten thousand men effectivè whose number is great and their influence with their activity much greater being mustred and in spiritual armes at least once every week where getting upon the higher ground and being as in Christs stead they cannot but have a very great stroke on mens and more on womens ears hearts and purses These had need be well disciplined and governed under Christ and his Majesty according to Gods Word the Laws of this Kingdom and the Constitutions of this Church which must be their and all our rules by which they and we must serve God and the King as with truth and holiness so with decency order and uniformity Neither excentrick nor erratick from our proper Spheres nor yet defective or deformed in them The managing of which great Concern being by his Majesty and the Laws chiefly committed to us Bishops it will be most our sin and shame to be wanting in our duty If any man blame us for doing what is lawful and just yea necessary for the publick peace they must withal blame the Laws and by a most egregious folly think themselves wiser than the publick wisdom the Laws and Laws-makers in which their own consent is included and from which no man may lightly be a Renegado Thirdly As to your Nobleness no men shall more study your Lordships true honour and eternal happiness the only sufficient requital of your meritorious love and favour to us who have accepted yea restored us Bishops to be Partakers of your honour Auditors of your wisdom and Spectators of your noblest Conversation in that place where every one studies to put on the best appearance We and our Successors must for ever be faithful Counsellors Friends and Servants to your Lordships and your Noble Posterity who possibly will bear from our age place and quality with greater patience civility and acceptance than from other Ministers those discreet monitions seasonable intimations and wholsome counsels which may be sometimes most necessary for you and them It will always best become us rather to offend you by telling you the truth in a decent manner than to betray you to those sinful infirmities or passions which are your greatest enemies next to your flatterers No men shall be more ashamed than we to see our selves sit in Parliament that is in the Congregation of Princes or mortal Gods if we should not behave our selves in all respects answerable to your Illustrious Society and to your great merits towards us As we are
Government which St Jerome requires and ownes as exors necessaria potestas Episcoporum as a principal and eminent power necessary for the Church of Christ and specially residing in Bishops Indeed in the beginning or infancy of Churches as many learned men have observed the powers or offices of Deacon Presbyter Bishop and Apostle might possibly be resident in and exercised by one man where there was but an handful or little flock of two or three gathered together in Christs name But when Beleivers and Congregations and so their Pastors multiplied then there was a necessity of politie order and wisdom to distinguish and rank these offices and Officers into several politick distributions or helps of Government some to be the flocks others to be the Pastors some to be only as Presbyters praying preaching baptizing consecrating and blessing the people others as Presidents or Bishops ruling over the many Presbyters and people too within their inspection others as Deacons servient to Bishops Presbyters and people And all this to keep such an orderly unity as may best avoid Schismatical Confusions in the Church of Christ which ought to be as an Army with Banners where are the Ensigns of Office and Authority the directives of orderly motion the centers of union and the securers of the common safety by wise commands and ready obedience Nor may the sameness of the Names or of Naturals Morals or Religion as to faith gifts and graces nor the community of some Christian Priviledges duties or offices of charity these may not be pleaded against the primitive distinction of Eminent Honour and Authority among the Clergy any more than all priority and superiority may be denyed among men in respect of Civil Magistracy who are of the same Nature Parentage City Trade and Country or among Souldiers of the same Army or Scholars of the same Colledge and University To be sure that over-seeing presidential and gubernative power which shall authoritatively look to the Eutaxie good order and unity of the Church such as was in the prime and secondary Apostles the first as Oeconomical the second as Metropolitical or Diocesan Bishops such as was committed to Timothy and Titus and exercised by them not only as Evangelists or Preachers but as Presidents and Prelates this power cannot be either regularly or prudently or safely in England committed to any hands but to those venerable Clergy-men whom his Majesty and the Laws shall think fit to constitute as Governours over others and from whom they may have an account of all Nor can it be in better or safer hands than those of learned wise grave and godly Bishops assisted by such sober Presbyters or Ministers as his Majesty and the Laws shall either appoint or permit them to call to their counsel and assistance in their Ordinations or in their exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures and Jurisdiction Not by way of a Consistorian negative which is to alter and unhinge the whole Government turning wine into water and making way for all factions to breed even in the Nest of Church-Government but by such publick presence and venerable conspicuity of many learned and wise Counsellors as may best avoid any mistakes or errors and most contribute by their being witnesses of all transactions to that authority which is necessary to convince men of sin and to convert them from the error of their ways when they see themselves condemned by the censure not of one only but of many worthy and impartial men An Help Ornament and Honour in Church-Government which really for our own part we earnestly desire and ambitiously embrace as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Ignatius Cyprian and others so magnifie that Fraternal Consess and Ecclesiastical Council which may not only be witnesses of our publick actions but assistants in all such publick dispatches as are not safely committed to any one man nor can discreetly be managed by him without contracting too much envy anger and odium upon him which sense we believe is common with all our Worthy Brethren Indeed no wise Bishop can affect an arbitrary power or an absolute and sole Dominion Nor are we willing to be thus either exposed to others calumnies or betrayed to our selves because we know our selves to be but men and subject to the same infirmities with other sinful Mortals Nor can we be so happy as when we are both compassed encouraged and supported with our aged learned and reverend Brethren of the Clergy who may be every way as able and deserving as our selves Thus sortified and assisted we may by Gods help be capable without too great burthen to discharge the proper duties and offices of Bishops both in and out of Parliaments which is to see Nè quid detrimenti patiatur Religio Ecclesia vera Reformatio c. That our Religion as Christian as well Reformed and as by Law duly established suffer no detriment diminution or debauchery no Apostacy Schism or Division in Doctrine Discipline or Devotion in Sanctity Solemnity or Uniformity either by profaneness petulancy or faction What his Majesty your Lordships and other Gentlemen of other civil Employments cannot so well observe to be amiss in Church or Church-men we the Bishops as publick Watch-men and Over-seers may best inform you of what we cannot amâ—nd by reason of the luxuriancy or obstinacy of some refractory spirits your eminent authority may command and curb according to Law in which the publick wisdom and power safety and honour do concenter In the last place as to the great merits of the Honourable House of Commons and in them of all the ingenuous Gentry with all the Religious and Loyal People of England towards us the Bishops of this Church We shall chuse rather to dye or to be again degraded by the folly and fury of Schismatical envy and malice than not to make good by our actions their good esteem of us or to forfeit by any fault of ours their ready suffrages for us We shall never think any thing added to us by this great favour and honour shewed us if we do not find in them mighty spurs and goads to provoke us more to our duties of sound preaching sober praying discreet governing and holy living which are the solid honours of all good Bishops and true Ministers As they are the debts also which we indispensibly owe to God to this Church and to the least Member of it What may possibly be wanting in the frequency number and tale of our Sermons by reason of our age and infirmity shall be made up in their weight and when we shall not be able to preach at all we will study to live over the best of our Sermons and to preach by our examples when we cannot by our words God forbid we should suddenly forget those late horrid and long conflagrations out of which the good hand of God by the Kings favour and this Parliaments assistance hath snatched us and this whole Church yea God forbid that we the Bishops and all
and sequel of their actions or passions rather evidently declared themselves to be enemies even to all order and politie as well as to Liturgy and Episcopacy and to be friends to nothing but their own private fortunes novel fancies and partial factions guided by no known Law of God or man and offended with nothing so much as not to see themselves in that place and power which may force all men to conform to their own posts lusts and designs which themselves followed not by the true footsteps and sent of Law and Justice Reason and Religion but by the sensible view and successes of providences as they variously sprang up and appeared either for good or evil Which sort of deformed and deforming Non-conformists we leave to be punished not only by their own evil manners but also by the just abhorrencies of God and all good men to whom their folly and fury is now sufficiently manifest So we are neither ignorant nor insensible of other mens continued dis-satisfactions in these things who under the old title of Non-conformity formerly much modester indeed than of later times being not only civil to setled Episcopacy and devout in the use of the Liturgy but abhorring all Separation from the Church of England have heretofore and still do earnestly plead their own and other mens weak minds and scrupulous or tender consciences as very jealous forsooth of sinning there in the use of some Rites and Ceremonies where the publick wisdom and piety of this Church and State grounded on many learned Judgments and the majority of united suffrages according to their consciences sees no sin ownes no sin yea and openly declares against any sin both in the Churches Injunctions and Intentions Mean time while these milder Non-conformists tell us they dare not obey lawful authority in things thus dubious to their private dimness yet both they and others dare even doubtingly disobey an undoubted lawful authority meerly upon such private doubts and scruples in so small and clear matters rather suspecting a whole Reformed Church and all the spirits of the Prophets in their majority and representation of errour and mistakes even to sin and superstition than their own private and possibly prejudiced yea and sactiously interessed opinions All which specious coverings and pleadings of Conscience as weak and tender in point of conformity to things so oft and fully declared to be indifferent in their nature and only limited in their honest and decent use however they may deserve Christian charity compassion and tenderness from us as to some mens good meanings and harmless conversations yet they are now at last found too narrow to palliate or hide those dreadful disorders and cruel designs which some mens counsels and actions have of late years been guilty of if either Gods or Mans Laws may be judges which do command only passive obedience and in that such a conformity to Christs example as where they cannot actively obey there patiently and silently to suffer Indeed Non-conformity in some calmer times and in some mens softer tempers seemed to have something in it that was an object of Christian pity and discreet charity while it modestly and we hope sincerely pleaded tenderness of Conscience that is a fear of sinning because of doubting and this many times more in respect of lothness to offend others then out of any great scrupulosity in themselves as to the nature and use of those things or their own liberty or the publique authority while Non-conformity dissented without Separation Schism and Sedition yea without tumult and rebellion with some shew also of Learning and Loyalty Meekness and Moderation while it professed patience with humility to bear that cross which its own weakness or tenderness more than any unjust rigour of the law had laid upon it using no other Arms offensive or defensive than those of Primitive Christians Prayers and tears To these sober Non-conformists both our Princes since the Reformation and our best Bishops have shewed as much moderation and tenderness as was consistent with the publick peace and safety Nor have we thoughts of less candor and Christian Gentleness to them But since rude nay rebellious Non-conformity hath in this last Twenty years appeared as compleatly armed capapè as Goliah of Gath in buffe coats clad back and brest with iron and steel openly defying the whole Church of ENGLAND for its excellent Liturgy and antient Episcopacy as well as for its few innocent Rites and Ceremonies which were stated enjoyned and used by so many holy and learned men in this Church without any sin superstition or scruple since it hath now at last factiously breathed out fire and brimstone in the face of this whole Reformed Church against all Godly Bishops and gracious Princes yea against all Monarchy at last as well as Episcopacy established by Law since it hath like Jehu furiously and openly marched with an high hand into ENGLAND under the banner of a novel Exotick and Illegal Covenant yea and still menaceth the English and all the Christian world if it could get power and keep it answerable to its vast and insatiable ambition since it hath been laden with the Sacrilegious spoils and ruines of so many goodly Churches worthy Churchmen since it is besmeared with the blood and gore of its Brethren and Fathers that I say not of its Kings In earnest this pittiless and pittiful Non-conformity which pretends to be so tender conscienced as to the gnats of a few circumstances regulated only for order and decency by the publick wisdom and lawfull autority and as to one or two ancient ceremonies used in the pure primitive and persecuted times without any notion or thought of superstition meerly as apt emblems memorative figures or historical tokens of what is most true and necessary to be believed or as particularly acts and humble expressions of some general duty and devotional reverence to God which is in its nature and in the worship of God most lawfull as uncovering the head bowing the knee and body undoubtedly are and yet on the other side since this so soft-souled tender-sensed and narrow-guled Non-conformity was so wide throated as to swallow down great Camels without chewing sins of prodigious magnitudes since it hath shewed it self so heavy and harsh handed so violent and fierce spirited so severe and impatient not to be precisely obeyed by others when it had once usurped a power Truly it is justly become a very effroiable phantosme as dreadfull and dangerous a Spectre to all wise Kings to all Loyal Subjects and to all sober Christians as that which appeared to Brutus before the Pharsalian field If Non-conformity ever had heretofore any tolerably good Cause as to it s well meaning and might have gone to Heaven meekly riding on an Asse as Christ did to Jerusalem yet 't is now quite marred and deformed by the ill managing of it in those violent and intolerable methods of tumultuary and armed proceedings contrary to the Laws of God and Man
Liberty of this so renowned Church and Kingdom both in their grand Epitomes of Parliament and Convocation also in their greater latitudes or diffusions to all Estates and degrees of Men as to their just Concerns and Interests to which in Law or Religion in Prudence or Conscience they can pretend Which are all bound up in the Kings gracious free and royal Consent ratifying the joynt counsels and humble desires of the Nobility of the Clergy and of the Commonalty unanimously represented to him as by the Lords Temporal and Commons so by the Lords Spiritual or Bishops now restored to their ancient Place and Honor in the Parliament of England May this signal Mercy of God never be forgotten by us may this happy Union never be dissolved among us may this great Blessing never be forfeited by us An high honor indeed yet withal a very heavy burden put upon us Bishops not onely as to the great Service and publique Duty which is on all hands expected from us And for that great account which will be required of us according to the Talents Advantages and Opportunities given us to serve God the King and the Church to which nothing can sufficiently enable us but the same Grace and Favor both divine and humane which hath thus prevented us But also as to that envy which must necessarily by this eminency be contracted from all those evil men who have evil eyes and evil wills and evil hearts not onely against Bishops and Episcopacy but also against the Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom no less than against the pristine Renown and Flourishing of this Reformed Church of England which was famous heretofore in all the Christian World abroad and no less reverenced at home by People Peers and sovereign Princes while its Diocesan Bishops were dignified with this publique and Parliamentary honor Which is not like that sad OTHER HOUSE a mushroom or gourd of Yesterday springing out of O. P. and withering with R. C. but it began with the first Originals of Parliaments and for many hundred of years continued without any violent interruption until these late Antimonarchical and Antiepiscopal Chasms and Concussions which shook Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self to destroy both Kings and Bishops the Kingdom and Church of ENGLAND In which horrid conflicts of Innovation Schism Rebellion and Confusion with our well reformed Church our ancient Laws our setled Religion and our excellent Government the tail of the Dragon strove to cast down to the earth many Stars of the highest Spheres the greatest magnitude and divinest influence in this Church and Kingdom And among them the most reverend and learned Bishops of this Church even one and all at one sweeping Stroke who with their famous Predecessors for many Centuries of years had both sat in Parliaments as Peers and presided in the Church as Prelates that is chief Fathers Stewards and Overseers in Christs Family or the Houshold of Faith Principal Governors or Presidents in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Prime Members in all Synods and Convocations The main Cisterns and Conduits of holy Orders The grand Conservators of Ministerial Power and Ecclesiastical Authority very ample and able Defenders under God and the King of Religion as Christian and Reformed in Truth and Faith in Peace and Holiness in good Government decent Order and legal Uniformity By which publique influences of their judicious Preaching solid writing sober living grave counselling and prudent governing set off with such eminent Honors fair Revenues and due Authority as they were by the munificence of Princes legally vested in the Bishops of ENGLAND have by Gods blessing been in all Ages according to the analogy and capacity of Times as the fairest so the strongest Pillars in this Churches Fabrick Like the goodly Cedar beams and costly stones which were laid in Solomons Temple like the fruitfullest Figtrees Vines and Olives planted in the Garden of God flourishing and bearing fruits that were pleasing to God and good men until that wilde-fire came forth out of the thistles and brambles of the Wilderness which sought to devour them root and branch and with them all things civil and sacred Your valiant and noble Ancestors not more honorable for their being Peers or Members in Parliament than for their being generous Sons of the Church of ENGLAND Patrons of Learning and true Religion These were ever so impatient to carry on or conclude any publique Counsels or Determinations that were not sanguinary Deo inconsulto without first taking Counsel of God by his Priests Prophets and Seers as David and the best Kings of Judah were wont to do in all great concerns Civil and Ecclesiastical for War and Peace that They thought nothing could be prudent which was not pious nor likely to be prosperous in the State which did not correspond with the Church They esteemed the Temple of Jerusalem and the Priests of the Lord to be as the Ark was and the Bearers of it in the midst of the Camp not onely the center but the sanctuary and glory of both Court City and Country That as the Body is without the Soul so are publique Counsels and Transactions in Christian States and Kingdoms without due regard to God his Ministers his Church and true Religion With whose holy will minde and counsels no men can in any reason be supposed to be better acquainted or more sincerely conform to them or more readily communicative of them than grave and learned Divines and among them those venerable Bishops and Fathers to whom the Oracles of God and Power Evangelical are specially committed as to Gods chief Embassadors Christs eminent Deputies the Clergies principal Trustees and in some sort the whole Churches general Representatives whose learned Gifts and Endowments are presumed to be most matured by Age subdued by Experience sanctified by Grace and intirely devoted to the Service of God the Church the King and their Country upon whose respective Favors they wholly depend To the Glory of the one and the Welfare of the other they cannot in prudence and conscience be less faithfully and constantly engaged than any other men And in whose Interests doubtless they are much more to be believed than any of those Democratick spirits or Pragmatick Sticklers among the Clergy or Laity who being of less years abilities and experience yea and possibly less contented are apter to be either covetously or ambitiously or enviously discomposed and so more subject to toss to and fro to move from one side to the other as those weary men do who lie on hard beds Easily as we have seen revolting from Kings and Bishops to Presbyterian and Independent Projects to popular and Plebeian Adherencies yea to Papal Arts and Ends That by such Complacencies they may advance their own Estate or Reputation though with the ruine of Monarchy and Episcopacy which are the great Defensatives and Bulwarks against Sedition and Faction against Anarchy and Confusion How much the Tumultuary Mutinies of some impetuous malecontents against Kings and
the Clergy of ENGLAND should not come out of this fiery furnace more purged and prepared for our Masters Service yea God forbid that after such a deluge and deliverance as this we should so forget God or our selves as to be drunk with that wine of Consolation and cup of Salvation which our Merciful God our Gracious King your Noble Lordships and our Loving Country-men the Commons of ENGLAND have now put into our hands We are very sensible how great stimulations are put upon us as Christians Ministers and Bishops to all Piety Industry Prudence Virtue and true honour which we know do not consist in being either so eager for small circumstances and outward Ceremonies of Religion as to be remiss in its necessary Morals and Substantials as if one should put on fine clothes while he starves his body Nor yet in being so zealous for the Essentials only of faith and duties as rudely to neglect those reverential solemnities and decent circumstantials which preserve as the bark or rinde doth the Tree the Churches good order peace and unity We profess to all the world that we owne God alone in his holy Word which we call the Scriptures to be the sole Institutor of his own necessary Worship and indispensable Service who alone knows what will best please him and profit us We think as we are taught by the Church of England that nothing is necessary and essential moral or mysterious as any means to obtain conferre or increase grace or to please God which himself hath not in his Word prescribed either by special mandate or general direction and necessary consequence Yet we believe also as all Learned men at home and abroad do agree That the indulgence of God hath left free to the prudence and authority of every National Church Christian Politie and Community the particular appointing ordering and regulating of all those general and common circumstances which are in nature or civility necessary as time place method manner measure vesture and gesture all which are as unseparable from all publick actions under the Sun as our skins are from our bodies according as shall seem to the supreme wisdom and authority of that Church most for its publick decency and solemnity for good order and edification Of all which in their particular instances and usages every private Christian is Judge and Arbitrator in his closet-worship Also every chief Governour in his family where when how for matter method and manner also for measure of reading praying praising c. when sitting standing or kneeling whether in sordid or decent habits becoming his presence and the sanctity of the duty And no less without all peradventure are they left to every chief Magistrate or Ruler in Church and State within his respective Dominions for the publick peace order decency uniformity and solemnity of Religion of which those are the proper Chusers Determiners and Judges to whom the power is given by God either private or publick That Religion may not enterfeere with the Civil Government but conform to it in these things as it is protected by it in the main Provided always that no such particular rite limited circumstance or Ecclesiastical ceremony thus chosen be otherwise imposed upon mens judgments and consciences either in opinion or use then as indeed it is in its nature and Gods indulgence that is mutable when good occasion or the chief end of things requires a change of them by lawful authority so as to be still free as to the judgment of such as use them and as to the practice of all other Churches who have not assumed the use of them Not that any such external rite or ceremony of humane appointment can in it self be any necessary solid substantial and integral part of divine Worship or as any means instituted for grace to which a precept and promise divine is necessary This efficacy no humane or Ecclesiastical Authority can create or give Nor doth the Church of England pretend to any such power or use in them although it may lawfully regulate all circumstances and discreetly use decent ceremonies as such yea and enjoyn them both as exercises of Sovereign Authority and as experiments of Subjects due obedience not upon any false and superstitious grounds but such as are true and religious consonant to the nature of things and the indulgence of God in them Nor hath the Church of England ever otherwise esteemed or imposed those things of particular circumstances rites and ceremonies which have been so long as chips and shavings the casie fewel of so much flame and contention but hath oft declared its judgment of them to be according to Gods truth its choice and injunction of them to be according to that liberty and authority which God hath given to it as to every National Church within its politie and precinct so to use and impose them on its own members without prejudging other Churches their like liberty Not at all as things pleasing of themselves or displeasing to God He must needs be an infant in understanding who fancies God is scared with white or pleased with black garments in his publick worship that the historick sign of the Cross addes to or diminisheth ought from Baptism or that the Divine Majesty is offended at our kneeling or better pleased with our sitting or standing before him in an act of so holy a celebration and humble veneration as that is of the Lords Supper But all these and the like are allowed as lawful experiments either of Christian prudence and discretion in the choice or of obedience and subjection in the use of them agreeably to the lawful commands of our superiors in Church and State wisely directing and limiting us in them to avoid those factions which easily arise from the least open variety or difference in Religion when once it comes to be affected and is made a badge of parties or sides among the people The duty of Magistrates or Christian Princes as well as Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governours on all hands is in publick solemnities of Religion to take care that all things be so done in uniformity order and decency as is necessary for publick peace and as they think best becomes the sanctity of true Religion the Majesty also of that God whom we ought to worship and serve with all reverence and with the beauty of holiness both outward and inward without any imposing upon the judgment beyond the nature and indifferency of such things or upon the practice farther than the God of order decency and peace hath permitted As we and all this Church have seen and felt upon the account of these things the outragious zeal and precipitancy of some men who first pretending much to boggle at and to be grievously scandalized with a few such things of outward rite individuared circumstance and prescribed ceremony to which conformity was by Law that is by the publick wisdom and authority required in the Church of England have in the pursuit