Physick't And surely they were moderate Divines indeed neither hot nor cold 〈◊〉 Grindall the best of them afterwards Arch Bishop of Canterbury lost favour in the Court and I think was discharg'd the goverment of his See for favouring the Ministers though Camden seeme willing to finde another Cause therefore about her second Yeare in a Parliament of Men and Minds some scarce well grounded others belching the soure Crudities of yesterdayes Poperie those Constitutions of EDW. 6. which as you heard before no way satisfi'd the men that made them are now establish't for best and not to be mended From that time follow'd nothing but Imprisonments troubles disgraces on all those that found fault with the Decrees of the Convâ—…cation and strait were they branded with the Name of Puritans As for the Queene her selfe shee was made beleeve that by putting downe Bishops her Prerogative would be infring'd of which shall be spoken anon as the course of Method brings it in And why the Prelats labour'd it should be so thought ask not them but ask their Bellies They had found a good Tabernacle they sate under a spreading Vine their Lot was fallen in a faire Inheritance And these perhaps were the cheife impeachments of a more sound rectifying the Church in the Queens Time From this Period I count to begin our Times which because they concerne us more neerely and our owne eyes and eares can give us the ampler scope to judge will require a more exact search and to effect this the speedier I shall distinguish such as I esteeme to be the hinderers of Reformation into 3. sorts Antiquitarians for so I had rather call them then Antiquaries whose labours are usefull and laudable 2. Libertines 3. Polititians To the votarists of Antiquity I shall think to have fully answer'd if I shall be able to prove out of Antiquity First that if they will conform our Bishops to the purer times they must mew their feathers and their pounces and make but curttail'd Bishops of them and we know they hate to be dockt and clipt as much as to be put down outright Secondly that those purer times were corrupt and their Books corrupted soon after Thirdly that the best of those that then wrote disclaim that any man should repose on them and send all to the Scriptures First therfore if those that over-affect Antiquity will follow the square therof their Bishops must be elected by the hands of the whole Church The ancientest of the extant Fathers Ignatius writing to the Philadelphians saith that it belongs to them as to the Church of God to choose a Bishop Let no man cavill but take the Church of God as meaning the whole consistence of Orders and Members as S. Pauls Epistles expresse and this likewise being read over Besides this it is there to be mark'd that those Philadelphians are exhorted to choose a Bishop of Antioch Whence it seems by the way that there was not that wary limitation of Dioces in those times which is confirm'd even by a fast friend of Episcopacie Camden who cannot but love Bishops as well as old coins and his much lamented Monasteries for antiquities sake He writes in his description of Scotland that over all the world Bishops had no certaine Dioces till Pope Dionysius about the yeare 268. did cut them out and that the Bishops of Scotland executed their function in what place soever they came indifferently and without distinction till King Malcolm the third about the yeare 1070. whence may be guest what their function was was it to goe about circl'd with a band of rooking Officials with cloke bagges full of Citations and Processes to be serv'd by a corporalty of griffonlike Promooters and Apparitors Did he goe about to pitch down his Court as an Empirick does his banck to inveigle in all the mony of the ConÌ„trey no certainly it would not have bin permitted him to exercise any such function indifferently wherever he came And verily some such matter it was as want of a fat Dioces that kept our Britain Bishops so poore in the Primitive times that being call'd to the Councell of Ariminum in the yeare 359. they had not wherewithall to defray the charges of their journey but were fed and lodg'd upon the Emperors cost which must needs be no accidentall but usuall poverty in them for the author Sulp. Severus in his 2 Booke of Church History praises them and avouches it praise-worthy in a Bishop to be so poore as to have nothing of his own But to return to the ancient election of Bishops that it could not lawfully be without the consent of the people is so expresse in Cyprian and so often to be met with that to cite each place at large were to translate a good part of the volume therfore touching the chief passages I referre the rest to whom so list peruse the Author himselfe in the 24. Epist. If a Bishop saith he be once made and allow'd by the testimony and judgement of his collegues and the people no other can be made In the 55. When a Bishop is made by the suffrage of all the people in peace In the 68. marke but what he saies The people chiefly hath power either of choosing worthy ones or refusing unworthy this he there proves by authorities out of the old and new Testament and with solid reasons these were his antiquities This voyce of the people to be had ever in Episcopal elections was so well known before Cyprians time even to those that were without the Church that the Emperor Alexander Severus desir'd to have his governours of Provinces chosen in the same manner as 〈◊〉 can tell So little thought it he offensive to Monarchy and if single authorities perswade not hearken what the whole generall Councel of Nicaea the first and famousest of all the rest determines writing a Synodal Epist. to the African Churches to warn them of Arrianisme it exhorts them to choose orthodox Bishops in the place of the dead so they be worthy and the people choose them whereby they seem to make the peoples assent so necessary that merit without their free choyce were not sufficient to make a Bishop What would ye say now grave Fathers if you should wake and see unworthy Bishops or rather no Bishops but Egyptian task-masters of Ceremonies thrust purposely upon the groaning Church to the affliction and vexation of Gods people It was not of old that a Conspiracie of Bishops could frustrate and fob off the right of the people for we may read how S. Martin soon after Constantine was made Bishop of Turon in France by the peoples consent from all places thereabout mâ—…ugre all the opposition that the Bishops could make Thus went matters of the Church almost 400. yeare after Christ and very probably farre lower for Nicephorus Phocas the Greek Emperour whose reign fell neare the 1000. year of our Lord having done many things tyrannically is said by Cedrenus to have done nothing more grievous and
it for the honour of the Body that such dignities and rich indowments should be decreed him as did adorne and set out the noblest Members To this was answer'd that it should bee consulted Then was a wise and learned Philosopher sent for that knew all the Charters Lawes and Tenures of the Body On him it is impos'd by all as chiefe Committee to examine and discusse the claime and Petition of right put in by the Wen who soone perceiving the matter and wondring at the boldnesse of such a swolne Tumor Wilt thou quoth he that art but a bottle of vitious and harden'd excrements contend with the lawfull and free-borne members whose certaine number is set by ancient and unrepealable Statute head thou art none though thou receive this huge substance from it what office bearst thou What good canst thou shew by thee done to the Common-weale the Wen not easily dash't replies that his Office was his glory for so oft as the soule would retire out of the head from over the steaming vapours of the lower parts to Divine Contemplation with him shee found the purest and quietest retreat as being most remote from soile and disturbance Lourdan quoth the Philosopher thy folly is as great as thy filth know that all the faculties of the Soule are confin'd of old to their severall vessels and ventricles from which they cannot part without dissolution of the whole Body and that thou containst no good thing in thee but a heape of hard and loathsome uncleannes and art to the head a foul disfigurment and burden when I have cut thee off and open'd thee as by the help of these implements I will doe all men shall see But to return whence was digress't seeing that the throne of a King as the wise K. Salomon often remembers us is establisht in Justice which is the universall Justice that Aristotle so much praises containing in it all other vertues it may assure us that the fall of Prelacy whose actions are so farre distant from Justice cannot shake the least fringe that borders the royal canopy but that their standing doth continually oppose and lay battery to regal safety shall by that which follows easily appear Amongst many secondary and accessory causes that support Monarchy these are not of least reckning though common to all other States the love of the Subjects the multitude and valor of the people and store of treasure In all these things hath the Kingdome bin of late sore weak'nd and chiefly by the Prelates First let any man consider that if any Prince shall suffer under him a commission of autority to be exerciz'd till all the Land grone and cry out as against a whippe of Scorpions whether this be not likely to lessen and keel the affections of the Subject Next what numbers of faithfull and freeborn Englishmen and good Christians have bin constrain'd to forsake their dearest home their friends and kindred whom nothing but the wide Ocean and the savage deâ—…erts of America could hide and shelter from the fury of the Bishops O Sir if we could but see the shape of our deare Mother England as Poets are wont to give a personal form to what they please how would she appeare think ye but in a mourning weed with ashes upon her head and teares abundantly flowing from her eyes to behold so many of her children expos'd at once and thrust from things of dearest necessity because their conscience could not assent to things which the Bishops thought indifferent What more binding then Conscience what more free then indifferency cruel then must that indifferency needs be that shall violate the strict necessity of Conscience mercâ—…les and inhumane that free choyse and liberty that shall break asunder the bonds of Religion Let the Astrologer be dismay'd at the portentous blaze of comets and impressions in the aire as foretelling troubles and changes to states I shall beleeve there cannot be a more ill-boding â—…gne to a Nation God turne the Omen from us then when the Inhabitants to avoid insufferable grievances at home are inforc'd by heaps to forsake their native Country Now wheras the only remedy and amends against the depopulation and thinnesse of a Land within is the borrow'd strength of firme alliance from without these Priestly policies of theirs having thus exhausted our domestick forces have gone the way also to leave us as naked of our firmest faithfullest neighbours abroad by disparaging and alienating from us all Protestant Princes and Common-wealths who are not ignorant that our Prelats and as many as they can infect account them no better then a sort of sacrilegious and puritanical Rebels preferring the Spaniard our deadly enemy before them and set all orthodox writers at nought in comparison of the Jesuits who are indeed the onely corrupters of youth and good learning and I have heard many wise and learned men in Italy say as much It cannot be that the strongest knot of confederacy should not dayly slak'n when Religion which is the chiefe ingagement of our league shall be turn'd to their reproach Hence it is that the prosperous and prudent states of the united Provinces whom we ought to love if not for themselves yet for our own good work in them they having bin in a manner planted and erected by us and having bin since to us the faithfull watchmen and discoverers of many a Popish and Austrian complotted Treason and with us the partners of many a bloody and victorious battell whom the similitude of manners and language the commodity of traffick which founded the old Burgundian league betwixt us but chiefly Religion should bind to us immortally even such friends as these out of some principles instill'd into us by the Prelates have bin often dismist with distastfull answers and somtimes unfriendly actions nor is it to be consider'd to the breach of confederate Nations whose mutual interest is of such high consequence though their Merchants bicker in the East Indies neither is it safe or warie or indeed Christianly that the French King of a different Faith should afford our neerest Allyes as good protection as we Sir I perswade my selfe if our zeale to true Religion and the brotherly usage of our truest friends were as notorious to the world as our Prelatical Schism and captivity to Rotchet Apothegmes we had ere this seene our old Conquerours and afterward Liege-men the Normans together with the Brittains our proper Colony and all the Gascoins that are the rightfull Dowry of our ancient Kings come with cap and knee desiring the shadow of the English Scepter to defend them from the hot perâ—…ecutions and taxes of the French But when they come hither and see a Tympany of Spanioliz'd Bishops swaggering in the fore-top of the State and meddling to turne and dandle the Royall Ball with unskilfull and Pedantick palmes no marvell though they think it as 〈◊〉 to commit Religion and liberty to their arbitrating as to a Synagogue of Iesuites But what doe I stand
where ever they meet kisse each other Lastly they are fearfull that the discipline which will succeed cannot stand with the Ks. safety Wherefore it is but Episcopacy reduc't to what it should be were it not that the Tyranny of Prelates under the name of Bishops hath made our eares tender and startling we might call every good Minister a Bishop as every Bishop yea the Apostles themselves are call'd Ministers and the Angels ministrîng Spirits and the Ministers againe Angels But wherein is this propounded government so shrewd Because the government of assemblies will succeed Did not the Apostles govern the Church by assemblies how should it else be Catholik how should it have Communion Wee count it Sacrilege to take from the rich Prelates their Lands and revenu's which is Sacrilege in them to keep using them as they doe and can we think it safe to defraude the living Church of GOD of that right which GOD has given her in assemblies O but the consequence Assemblies draw to them the Supremacy of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction No surely they draw no Supremacy but that authority which CHRIST and Saint Paul in his name conferrs upon them The K. may still retain the same Supremacy in the Assemblies as in the Parliament here he 〈◊〉 do nothing alone against the common Law and there neither alone nor with consent against the Scriptures But is this all No this Ecclesiasticall Supremacy draws to it the power to excommunicate Kings and then followes the worst that can be imagin'd Doe they hope to avoyd this by keeping Prelates that have so often don it Not to exemplifie the malapert insolence of our owne Bishops in this kind towards our Kings I shall turn back to the Primitive and pure times which the objecters would have the rule of reformation to us Not an assembly but one Bishop alone Saint AMBROSE of Millan held Theodosius the most Christian Emperor under excommunication above eight moneths together drove him from the Church in the presence of his Nobles which the good Emperor bore with heroick humility and never ceas't by prayers and teares till he was absolv'd for which coming to the Bishop with Supplication into the Salutatory some out Porch of the Church he was charg'd by him of tyrannicall madnes against GOD for comming into holy ground At last upon conditions absolv'd and after great humiliation approaching to the Altar to offer as those thrise pure times then thought meet he had scarse with-drawne his hand and stood a while when a bold Arch-deacon comes in the Bishops name and chaces him from within the railes telling him peremptorily that the place wherein he stood was for none but the Priests to enter or to touch and this is another peece of pure Primitive Divinity Thinke yee then our Bishops will forgoe the power of excommunication on whomsoever No certainly unlesse to compasse sinister ends and then revoke when they see their time And yet this most mild though withall dredfull and inviolable Prerogative of Christs diadem excommunication servs for nothing with them but to prog and pandar for fees or to display their pride and sharpen their revenge debarring men the protection of the Law and I remember not whether in some cases it bereave not men all right to their worldly goods and Inheritanees besides the deniall of Christian buriall But in the Evangelical and reformed use of this sacred censure no such prostitution no such Jscariotical drifts are to be doubted as that Spirituall doom and sentence should invade worldly possession which is the rightfull lot and portion even of the wicke dest men as frankly bestow'd upon them by the al-dispensing bounty as rain and Sun-shine No no it seekes not to bereave or destroy the body it seekes to saue the Soule by humbling the body not by Imprisonment or pecuniary mulct much lesse by stripes or bonds or disinheritance but by Fatherly admonishment and Christian rebuke to cast it into godly sorrow whose end is joy and ingenuous bashfulnesse to sin if that can not be wrought then as a tender Mother takes her Child and holds it over the pit with scarring words that it may learne to feare where danger is so doth excommunication as deerly and as freely without money use her wholsome and saving terrors she is instant she beseeches by all the deere and sweet promises of SALVATION she entices and woos by all the threatnings and thunders of the Law and rejected Gosspel she charges and adjures this is all her Armory her munition her Artillery then she awaites with long-sufferance and yet ardent zeale In briefe there is no act in all the errand of Gods Ministers to man-kind wherein passes more loverlike contestation betweene CHRIST and the Soule of a regenerate man lapsing then before and in and after the sentence of Excommunication As for the fogging proctorage of money with such an eye as strooke Gehezi with Leprosy and Simon Magus with a curse so does she looke and so threaten her firy whip against that banking den of theeves that dare thus baffle and buy and sell the awfull and majestick wrincles of her brow He that is rightly and apostolically sped with her invisible arrow if he caÌ„ be at peace in his Soule and not smel within him the brimstone of Hell may have faire leave to tell all his baggs over undiminish't of the least farding may eat his dainties drinke his wine use his delights enjoy his Lands and liberties not the least skin rais'd not the least haire misplac't for all that excommunication has done much more may a King injoy his rights and Prerogatives unflowr'd untouch'd and be as absolute and compleat a King as all his royalties and revenu's can make him And therefore little did Theodosius fear a plot upon his Empire when he stood excommunicat by Saint Ambrose though it were done either with much hauâ—…y pride or ignorant zeale But let us rather look upon the reformed Churches beyond the seas the Grizons the Suisses the Hollanders the French that have a Supremacy to live under as well as we where do the Churches in all these places strive for Supremacy where do they clash and justle Supremacies with the Civil Magistrate In France a more severe Monarchy then ours the Protestants under this Church government carry the name of the best Subjects the King has and yet Presbytery if it must be so call'd does there all that it desires to doe how easie were it if there be such great suspicion to give no more scope to it in England But let us not for feare of a scarre-crow or else through hatred to be reform'd stand hankering and politizing when GOD with spread hands testifies to us and points us out the way to our peace Let us not be so overcredulous unlesse GOD hath blinded us as to trust our deer Soules into the hands of men that beg so devoutly for the pride and gluttony of their owne backs and bellies that sue and sollicite so eagerly not for the