upon themselves a power of making and propagating others like themselves where they meet with officious Clients such as were willing to be made currant by their stamp it hath pleased our Legitimate Governours after a Jubilee of an happy restauration to prevent schism and confusion among Ministers that they may not claim from several Originals and so maintain divers interests and like Jacob and Esau struggle in the womb of the Church and endanger the rending of her bowels as those lay-Corinthians did whereas some cry'd up Paul some Apollos It hath pleased the wisdom of the foresaid Authority to command that all professing to take upon them the work of the ministry should pass under the hands of the Reverend Bishops according to the custom of this and the primitive Catholick Church that all might pronounce the same Shibboleth Who would think that any should be so refractory as to not comply with this peaceable and laudable design Epist ad Evagrium Saint Jerom did much advance the office of Presbyters yet when he comes to the business of Ordination he leaves that solely to the Bishop 1 Tim. 4.14 And so I understand Saint Paul though he mentions the laying on of the hands of the Presbyters as concurring with him in that work yet to shew that he was the principal and they but assitants he expounds his meaning afterwards 2 Tim. 1.8 by the laying on of his own hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place noting the chief causation as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the other signifies only a concurranceâ— Thus he appropriates this work also to Titus Bishop of Crete to Ordain Elders in every City Titus 1.5 I will not dispute what may be done in case of necessity when Bishops cannot be had I am not an absolute stranger to the judgment of Learned men when things are brought to this exigent nor am I ignorant that Edesius and Frumentius Preaching to the Indians are commended though they had no Ordination at all But I adore the goodness of God that did not suffer us to be plunged into that gulf in the worst of times he left us a seed of that apostolical Race some whereof Ordained many hundreds maugre all the thunderbolts of their malicious adversaries And I look upon them as shielded by a supernatural power in doing of this their duty when men wereso wrathfully displeased at them Therefore to such as say they could be ordained by none but Presbiters in those times and so plead necessity I must answer it was not absolute but contracted And whether such voluntary and forward revolting from the establish'd rule and method of Ordination climing up into the Lords sheep-fold some other way I say whether this irregular sending forth of Ministers hath not been a great occasion that so many sheep have been peel'd and scratch'd with the briars and brambles of wasting erros I leave to the sad thoughts of others Sure I am this hath been the subject of my pensive meditations when I saw so much hemlock and such daring luxuriant tares growing in the furrows of the Church God usually leaves those men to themselves blasts their enterprises and lets Satan loose upon them that leaves his good old paths to walk in wayes of their own invention Cheminitius judged Origen to have fallen into so many errors because he Preach't without ordination Cyprian notes the same of Donatus qui à seipso ordinatus Uport Gol. 23. And Bishop Durant sayes 'T is no wonder that those men preach what is false who never had any legitimate power at all Jer. 23.32 But I am most confirm'd by that of the Prophet Behold I am against them that Prophesie false dreams and cause my people to erre by their lies yet I sent them not nor commanded them therefore they shall not profit this people at all saith the Lord. It troubled Bilueh to the day of his death that he madea Collation in a place where there was no Minister before he himself was in Orders So tender was that good man of violating that Order which was in the Church Now whâ—â—â—â—â— you put on yâ—â—r Trâ—â—â—â—al Buskins and cry out if you should be reordain'd this were all one with renouncing your former ordination and proclaiming all your ministerial Acts perform'd by vertue thereof void I profess I neither see any coherence nor any sound inference at all in this logick neither is there any such declaration in the Act of Parliament but rather a great deal of tenderness and compassion for men in your condition a meeting only to set us all in a right posture that we might all be as an Army with Banners marching all one way that is with our faces towards Zinn under the conduct of the same Commanders Had those in Authority reduc't you into the state of lay-men concluded your ordination void and then applied this salvo to what you acted heretofore Fieri non debuit factum valet you might perhaps have complained the more yet they would not have wanted presidents and examples of councels to that purpose But they touch you with a soft hand only injoyning you to take Episcopal ordination as it were ad corroberandum titulum to make your former ordination Canonical Legal and Authentick This is evident from that proviso in the act it self That it shall not extend to those Ministers of the forraign reformed Churches allowed or to be allowed by the Kings Majesty his Heirs and Successors Therefore it follows in my logick that the compilers of this act did not account ordination by Presbyters to be absolutely void In his unBishoping Tâ—nothâ— and Titus However Master Prin is pleased to condemn Bishop Hall for reordaining Master Bury ordain'd before beyond the Seas which is matter of fact either without the compass of my remembrance or short of my observation Yet to shew our charity to the reformed Churches the letter of the Law is now express to the contrary Doth not this proceed from a spirit of condescention and moderation Yet in your anger you will say-all things are screw'd up to the utmost extremity without the least abatements whatever But though the Law thus bares with forreigners and is civil to strangers must you that are of the same Family claim the same priviledge and plead exemption from the discipline of your Mother For shame unlace your selves come in and renew your commission Those Officers that fought under the Earl of Essex received a new commission under the Lord Fairfax Were not many Kings in the old Testament anointed I Chron. 29.22 and inaugurated again and again As Solomon and David 1 Sam. 16.2 Were not the Apostles sent forth by Christ Yet they were separated and had hands imposed on them 2 Sam 2.4 by men and that not only once but Paul had hands laid on him first by Ananias Act. 9. and then by the Prophets Bishop Bilson P. 93. Acts 13. and Barhabas had hands imposed on him
words in the confession There is no health in us with the Letany as if it were a role of curses with kneeling at that short prayer at the end of the commandements Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep thy Law Alass Conscientis minus scrupulosa noscitur ex vitis these are poor vulgar cavils your scruples run higher concerning assent and consent And here you are very critical learned and curious in finding out gins to intangle and perplex your own consciences as if you had found out a spititual Microscope to discern what is invisible to our duller eyes Not only your wills say you must Consent to the use of it as good but your understanding is ingaged in the truth of the Liturgy And indeed I had thought these two acts had been so twisted together in rational men that ordinarily one doth suppose and infer the other When I consent with my will to use the prayers of the Church this ariseth from the conviction of my reason that I may and ought to do so And the act of my will would be brutish and irregular like that of Medea who was hurried only with the Ocstrum of her wilful passions if it were not steer'd by the dictate of my understanding this is to do it in judgment therefore you-do but put a fallacy upon your selves a bene conjunctis c. And whereas you say some of you that you could read our prayers if you might be abated your Assent n = * The Church in her best ages hath secur'd her vitals with an hedge of subscription In Austins time such as were admitted to the ministry were to renounce the errors of the Manichees Arrians Novatians and Pelagians to declare whether they allowed of first and second marriages the eating of flesh repentance after lapses Whether original concupiscence were a sin or whether such as were out of the Church might inherit eternal life in the Synode of Nice not only the Bishops but Constantine himself subscribed to the decrees of that Synode with his own hands So in Luthers time when the Church was pestered with Anabaptists Servetus Canipanus Stuckfoldius and other Furies it defended it self by prescribing bounds to those that were in the ministry which they should not pass See Melancton Tomo tertio Declarationum selectavum Cap de calumnijs Osiandri p. 699 700. And why should not the Church of England after these and other laudable examples fortifie and preserve the Capitol of her peace against turbulent invaders and pernicious incendiaries by limiting mens exorbitant excursions in joyning their consent to her wholsome discipline saying hitherto shall ye go and no further and Consent 't is all one to me as if if you should say you would use them in hypocrisie But if after all this strife what if these words Assent and Consent are but exegitical where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same thing is expressed in several terms as it is very usual in Scripture and import no more than that you shall constantly and unseignedly use this form in publick excluding all others Not as if our Assent to these definitions were in the same manner internal as that is which we give unto decrees as infallible but such as we give to those which are not contrary to the fundamentals of faith out of submission for peace sake Stilling fl desenee of the Arch-Bishop 82. l 509. as one well expresses it whose reading and judgment out-strips his years Whereas some of you have told me you would conform were you not injoyned to do do what is absolutely sinful These are but swelling words of vanity For I must tell you again prove what you say and you shall have more companions If any thing in the Common-prayer were contrary to any part of Gods word we have authority from our subscription to disclaim it It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to the word of God or besides the same They are the very words of our twentieth Article of Religion so far is she from imposing any thing that is sinful so unlike is our Church to the Church of Rome if Cardinal Peroon hit her meaning right when he told King James pressing him that the cup in the Sacrament was according to Christs institution That t is lawful for the Church to dispense with Christs institutions or if this single Cardinal be no competent Interpreter of that Churches sense yet the counsel of Constance cannot be denied affirming that although Christ hath appointed the Sacrament to be received under both kinds yet Hoc non obstante we decree that the lay-people shall only receive under the species of bread I only add this that by the illustration of contraries ingrateful men might be brought to see their own happiness who breath in the air of the English Church I bless God for his mercy and conclude with those words of remarkable D. Downham Though envy cannot say but our Church holds all substantial points of Divinity and uses the ordinary means of salvation as other Churches testifie yet so wanton in Religion are men through spiritual pride that they care not for the sound food of their souls unless they may have their own sauce 10. Besides your giving Assent and Consent you stumble again very unluckily at the very threshold of the Liturgy The very Calendar you say is intollerable For therein is injoyned the observation of festival dayes by the institution of man I will not dispute with you about the change of the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week I had rather grant that to be by Apostolical and divine Authority than raise any dust about it Yet this hinders not but that it is in the power of the Church to set apart other dayes especially I am confirmed herein because I find dayes of thanksgiving and fasting set apart in the Scriptures by comission from men and I have seen the like practised by your selves I find the feast of Pu rim so lemnly observed in the Old Joh. 10.22 and the feast of the dedication owned by Christ himself in the New Testament Those Agapae or Love feasts the Apostle speaks of were taxed by him not simply as feasts but as abused by the Corinthians 'T is easie to mention the Homilies and Orations which the Ancients made upon the Nativity of Christ and other festivals That is a false plea against Saints dayes as if they were equalliz'd to the Lords own day For look what difference there is between the Lady and her Maid Christ and his servants the same we acknowledge twixt the Sabbath and other festivals We Honour the Saints and if we should not I find by experience we should give the Papists just offence yet we do not adore them We desire to imitate those vertues and graces that were in the Saints We rejoyce at their conquest over the World their triumph in Heaven because they keep an
on their backs or must they be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lustration or expiation for those curses which are due unto us all Can they make and impose Laws Were the Liturgy Canons and other decrees established by their Authority alone Do not we own the King Supream upon earth Have not the Laws the superscription and stamp of his Royal Assent Are they not the product not as your Covenant of a part but the whole Parliament King Lords and Commons And yet by a wilful kind of Sophistry you are still casting all the Odium as you intend it upon the Bishops who are but the Trustees Heb 3.2 to see the execution of those Laws Therefore as Moses was faithfull to him that appointed him in all things concerning the Lord's House so these Aarons must be men of fidelity in discharging that trust which is reposed in them by the supream Authority of this Kingdome concerning the affairs of the Church according to the pattern which they have received in the Mount I mean from the Legislative power of the Land Indeed should they coyn Articles of Faith like that Romish Dictator and impose them upon the Church then there were just cause of complaint But whilst like Ahasuerus they only inquire what they may do according to law to those that break the Commands of the King take heed lest whilst you level your darts at them you hit the Throne But why do you impute the Plague unto the Bishops Esth 1.55 Doth this savour of a Christian spirit I had thought that in general calamities every man should have laid his hands upon his own heart and suspect himself to be that Achan that troubles the Camp that Jonah which occaons the storm and say with the Apostles though innocent Master is it I And not like Solomons Harlot wipe our mouths or with guilty Ahab lay the fault of troubling Israel on good Elijah Will you still be the worser sort of Conformists resembling the murmuring Israelites if any thing went amiss with them If they wanted water or meat for their lusts then Moses was in all the fault in bringing them from the flesh-pots of Egypt Will you needs conformyour selves to those idolaters that Jer 44.18 looked upon them that reclaim'd them from offering incense to the Queen of Heaven to be the cause of the Sword and Famine or those Heathens that sent the Christians to the Lyons if Nilus did not swell high enough to make their fields fruitful or if their Legions miscarried in the Field So unhappy are our Fathers if their teeth must be set on edge as oft as the people eat sour Grapes This will make their backs crack though made of steel if every mans burthen must be laid on their shoulders they are objects of pity rather then envy if our faults must be whipt on them and they must be piacular oblations for us Good Sirs learn more candour morality justice and charity hereafter and see that ye speak every man the truth to his neighbour Some of you have so blackened these reverend Fathers and put them into such a strange and monstruous dress by calling them the Members of the great Whore of the Beast of Babylon Idolaters Haters of God and Godliness the verymystery of iniquity and those principalities and powers which Christ came to cast down or as this Scribe does more then insinuate page 53. Esteeming Ceremonies above Souls That I dare boldly aver that some of the seduced Herd who are ignorant of their Integrity eare of the Churches bounty publick spirits Piety and Loyalty do scarce believe them to be men or if so yet that they are some terrible Cannibals that came out of some strange Land I was not long since desir'd to Preach to a Congregation that had been instructed by one of your selves A Gentleman told a Country-man there after Sermon that his Son was an hopeful youth and might in time be a Bishop The man startled presently with fear or indignation I know not whether saying God-forbid that ever my Child should be a Bishop Sure this man thought his Child should be transformed into some strange shape have been converted into an Egyptian Mammaluke or paid as a tribute-Child to the Grand Signiâ—r and so have been brought up in the Mahumetan Religion and made a Janizary to that Emperour Thus the spies to the intent they might disgrace the Land of Canaan said The Land did eat up the Inhabitants thereof Numb 13.33 And in our remembrance even at the beginning of these late times some malicious Poers told the World that the Royalists eat up Children and train'd their Horses under ground c. Can such weapons prosper as are sharpned at the Forges of the Philistines Can such Champions hope for success that go dewn into Egypt for help Cutting and lancing with lyes as with sharp Razors Is there no way to undermine the sacred order of Bishops but by digging as low as Hell in slandering the footsteps and traducing the Persons and Government of those servants of the Lord of whom this treacherous World is not worthy Gal. 5.20 If this be your zeal it never came down from Heaven Calvin Episâ— 3. but it is a meer work of the flesh it is such a zeal quo nunquam arsit Elias which never inflamed the hearts of Gods faithful servants There were just such zealots indeed in Jerusalem a little before its Conquest by the Romans And I wish you may not shew your selves to be their off-spring and so become as ominous to us in ringing the knell of our Native Country CHAP. IV. Subordination of Presbyters to Bishops and the Honorary Title of Lords given to the Bishops are no just impediments to Conformity YOu are not a little troubled that you must truckle under Bishops Nor will you own any such distinction betwixt you and them Whence this ariseth as to the sublimity of your spirits I have touched upon before I desire still to be serviceable unto you by removing and dispelling such clouds which interpose their gross bodies betwixt you and us It is not my business to dispute this Polemical Article at large which my betters have done so fully that there is nothing to be gleaned after them What can he do that comes after the King Their Arguments stand like a firm Mountain against the popping squibs of all Arrius's Disciples Only let me reason with you in a word or too according to my own observation and reading Was not Aaron above the Priests Levites Nethenims Were there not Archiflamines amongst the Romans by the very light of nature Were not the Disciples think ye inferiour to the Apostles Were not the Ministers in Ephesus and Creet subordinate to Timothy and Titus What think you of the superintendants in the Lutheran Churches of the leading Presbyters in Geneva and here at home Did they go so equally hand in hand with their Brethren without advanceing one step before them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
an Asses head as that we espouse any Popish Tenents my Answer to those that examine me in this point is this Am I not a Minister of the Church of England And is not this enough to evade or blow away such a calumny Is it less than a contradiction to call those Bishops and Ministers of the Church Popish who have subscribed unto and do allow of the Articles Liturgy and Canons of this Church Wise men will as soon believe you if you should affirm that those who approve all things in the Alcoran are Christians or that England reaches as far as Italy What considerable point almost betwixt them and us is not in some of these declar'd against So that this web which you weave with so much earnestness will only catch dotterels and fools such as have either shak'd hands with their reason or else are enthrall'd and captivated under the tyranny of their partiality and lock'd down to the Gallies of their own passions If this be not enough to disabuse your credulity and to vindicate my self from any compliance with the Court of Rome I profess moreover that with the Beraeans I have search'd the Scriptures Neither am I an utter stranger to the Fathers and Historians of the primitive times yet I can neither find either their opinions or your singularities wherein they or you differ from the Church of England in any of those Canonical and Authentick Records Why should you grudge at the Papists peace protection so long as they are peaceable and either actively obey the Laws of the Land or else are ready passively to submit to the penalties charged upon them for their neglect if you find them thus dispos'd As great an aversion and antipathy as ye have against them 't is worth your labour herein to make them your own exemplars Sure you are not so bloody in your Tenents as to maintain that all who differ from us in Religion meerly upon the account of Religion must presently incur capital punishments Saint Bernard upon those words of Solomon Take the Foxes observes Ser. inf 〈◊〉 Gant 2 1◠that he commands them not to be rooted up and killed but only to be taken that is by convicing them of their errours Cu◠convincitur falsitas capta est vulpes quae demolitur vineam You cannot be so ignorant of the usages in other States and Kingdoms except where the inquisition prevailes how those that dissent from the Religion which is publickly authoris'd are not only permitted but secur'd so long as they do not affront the Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws of those dominions And it would be but an unseasonable president and excitement of cruelty towards our Brethren abroad if we should begin in the same cup at home I wish with Saint Paul that all men were as my self yet since there must be Heresies and our judgments are as different as our faces since breeding and education do so much sway and influence mens Religion I have a latitude of charity for those that dissent from me if they be not seducing impostors or turbulent incendiaries CHAP. VI. Reordination is no sufficient ground for Non conformity ANother Sconce or Bulwark of yours wherein ye have intrench't your selves and stand out against us inviting you out of the sence of the greatness of the Harvest to bear a part with us in the heat and burthen of the day in the work of the Ministry saying unto you as the men of Gibeon said to Joshua slack not your hands Josh 10.6 but come up to us quickly and help us Some of you have answered no for we must be ordained by Bishops otherwise by the Law we have no commission and as for our parts we are resolved not to undervalue that ordination which we have receiv'd already from our Brother Presbyters The Bishops hands are not more Authentick than theirs Besides should we admit of another ordination what is this but to confess our former void and then what shall become of those children which we have Baptised and other minsterial acts which we have performed by vertue of that ordination this is objected but by some of you and those juniors who came up in the time of the second Temple and did not behold the glory of the first And herein your condition is the more to be pittied as being deceived and betrayed into such a labyrinth as this by those that had seen more years and so should have been more fatherly I wish the complaint of Cyprian may not hold in this case Parentes Parricidae Fathers are murderers poyson their children and give them sour Grapes to set their teeth on edge I cannot but apply to them the case of the young Prophet that man of God who was led out of his way by an old Prophet so that he brake the commandement of the Lord and at last was slain by a Lyon 1 King 13.24 Sirs look about you Will you stand in the Market place all the day idle out of a complement to some ring leaders of a party who thought to have retrench'd the footsteps of ancient discipline and pull'd up the Land-marks of Catholick order in the Church that all persons acting in the ministry might derive from them and commence from the Epoche of their jurisdiction Just as Jeroboam made new Priests after he had made an innovation in the political Government The old Wells must be stopt up and new found Cisterns must be set abroach If one should ask these recusants whether they had not at first an inward call from God I 'le warrant you they would make it as evident to Master Nye if he were again in his chair both as to the time and manner of such a call as ever it is apparent that young Samuel the Prophets and Apostles were called by a signal voice from Heaven Yet this call from God must be suspended or utterly neglected if it be not warranted and confirm'd by such men as they phansie and approve as if they were the servants of men and came on their errand rather than the Embassidours of Christ and Nuncio'◠of Heaven What is Ordination but an impouring such men to the work of the Ministry as by their quallifications make it appear they are set apart and appointed by God to the same office As Kings when Inaugurated and persons when Married are declar'd unto the World that they are to be looked upon in such a royal capacity and Matrimonial relation Therefore 't is no contradiction in Saint Paul that he was not an Apostle of men nor by men Gal. 1.1 but by Jesus Christ Acts. 13. Yet we read that he was ordered instituted and set apart by men to the work of the ministry because his inward call was derived immediately from God but the manifestation and declaration of this was from men Now since the loosing the golden reins of Government in head strong times some that were but meer Presbyters themselves by a too precipitate boldness took