to excommunicate here and there several Christians and their families as single Slips and Off-sets of Christianity which might grow apart by themselves but their aim was with preaching Verity to plant Unity and with true Faith to graft fraternal Charity which conjoyned them to and with Christ and all Christians in the world This being a most visible mark of Christs Disciples also a special means for mutual assistance and comfort amidst the many persecutions which Christians would meet with sufficient utterly to discourage them if when they were scattered from each other they were presently without any joynt harmony greater combination and ampler communion of Saints by which means whereever Christians fled from one place to another if they met with Christians they were sure of hospitable friends bringing as they ever did letters of communication or commendation from their Bishops which presently made their way to such a kind reception and communion in all holy duties as that station permitted as Catechumens or Penitents or Eucharistical Communicants in which they stood whereever they had lived Therefore as the Apostolical wisdom so all their successors diligently gathered single believers and private families of Christians into greater Congregations these they led on to larger combinations which comprehended the Christians of many Villages Towns Cities and Territories according as the Spirit of Christ directed them for the greater conveniency and benefit of both Ministers and people who scattered in small bodies or parcels must needs be both more cold and more feeble but so united in grand Societies they would be both warmer stronger and safer and besides more eminent and conspicuous in the eyes of all the world Such beyond all doubt were those Apostolical and famous Churches distinguished by the Spirit of God according to the chief Cities which were the centre of their Religious addresses for Church-Order Authority and Communion as the Church of Jerusalem Antioch Rome Ephesus Corinth Sardis Smyrna Colosse with many more whose Cities being most-what Metropolitan or Mother-cities as to secular power and distribution of civil justice they were chosen as meetest for the principal residency of Religious Order Polity and Authority wherein as was meet the blessed Apostles did during their lives preside as Bishops either in their persons or by those faithful Apostolick men whom they as St. Paul did Timothy Titus Archippus others appointed as Rulers or Bishops under them for the carrying on of the service of Christ his Church partly by the common duty and office Ministerial which was to preach baptize celebrate other holy Mysteries in an orderly way even in lesser Congregations yea to private Families and single persons as occasion required which was the work of Bishops and Presbyters in common and partly to manage that presidential power and Episcopal Authority over both Presbyters and people united in larger combinations and Churches as might best preserve the Purity Unity and Honor of the Church and Christian Religion in doctrine and discipline also derive by way of right Ordination after the pattern given to Timothy and Titus and others a continued succession of an holy and authoritative Ministry by such an eminent power of Order as was specially delivered to the chief Apostles and by them to their principal successors as Bishops in those great Apostolical and complete Churches where as Christians increased many Presbyters were ordained by the chief Pastor or Bishop to be both Counsellers and Assistants to him in that Evangelical work of teaching and governing the Church committed to him First as appointed immediately by the chief Apostles while they lived and after as chosen by the surviving Presbyters in every precinct or Diocese to succeed so far in that Apostolical eminency and presidential authority as was necessary for the Churches constant Order and good Government according to that precedent Charter and Commission which all Churches had received from the Apostles and they from Christ not as a temporary Ordinance but such as for the main end and method the Lord would have continued till his coming again by a succession of ordinary Bishops who are a lesser or second sort of Apostles in many things short of their gifts yet having the same ordinary power to ordain Presbyters and Deacons to appoint them their offices and places in the Churches Ministry and to see they execute the same as is meet for the edifying of the Church in Truth and Love to rebuke and reject them in case of failing and obstinacy As the Church daily thus increased spreading its boughs even to the utmost seas still its Polity or Government as the bark or rinde of the Tree enlarged with the body or bulk being most necessary for the preserving both of lesser and greater branches to knit and bind all together to convey the sap and juice to every part and to the whole This once peeled or broken or cut wounds the tree weakens and oft kills that part which is so injured Trees may as well thrive without their bark and bodies live without their skins as Churches without setled and united Government Therefore that all true Christians might still keep a Catholick Correspondence Subordination and holy Communion between the whole and every branch or member they had not onely Deacons above the people but Presbyters above Deacons and Bishops above Presbyters yea and as the borders and numbers of the Church so increased that not onely Presbyters but Bishops grew many and so fit to be put into some method and order they had Archbishops or Metropolitanes above ordinary Bishops and Patriarchs above Archbishops or Metropolitanes and a generall Council above all thus still drawing nearer to a center of union and mutuall intelligence So that first three afterward five Patriarchs had the general Episcopacy Superintendency and Inspection over all the Christian world Nor were these Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs any ambitious affectations or forcible intrusions of pride or tyranny upon the Churches of Christ but by a wise and general consent on all sides Christian Bishops did so cast themselves into comely rancks of Subordination after the Apostolical pattern as might most suit to the good order correspondence and unanimity of all Christians as but one Church there being in the first 300. years of sore persecution no other motives to these eminent places and regular orders in the Church of Bishops Archbishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs but onely those of Labours and Cares of Sufferings and Martyrdoms which still pressed most upon the Presidents and chief Governours or Bishops of the Churches as was evident in the glorious marks of the Lord Jesus to be seen on the Faces Hands and other parts of the Bodies of those venerable Bishops 318 which met at the first great gaudy-day of the Church in the Council of Nice which all made but one Episcopacy and were Representers as well as Presidents or Rulers of but one Catholick Church After which time by the favour of
not many good Bishops then when worse and harder measure befell them and their Order than since England was Christian Indeed many yea most of our Bishops were as Noahs Sems and Japhets yet have all these been drowned in the Presbyterian Deluge Even these made up the so odious so unpopular so decryed Bishops in England The pest and contagion of whose fate as it came first from Scotland where no doubt there were many Bishops of equal vertues though inferiour revenues to the worthy and well-known Dr. Spotswood Archbishop of St. Andrews and Lord Chancellour of Scotland so it reached to Ireland where there wanted not Bishops worthy of the fraternity of Bishop Usher Bishop Bedel and Bishop Bramhal all cruelly persecuted first by Papists and after by Antipapists though persons of the highest form for all excellencies yet must all these be destroyed their whole Order with the destruction of Sodom Although more than ten righteous Bishops I am sure were to be found in each of these British Churches yet all must be routed all rooted up as guilty of the unpardonable sin of Prelacy a new sin and unheard of in the Church of Christ but now to be put into the black Catalogue of scandalous sins when Heresie Schism Sacriledge and Sedition must be left out These these and such like Bishops are the men whose fate I passionately pitty men famous in their generation either for solid Preaching or weighty writing or grave counselling or holy living or prudent governing or charitable giving all of them for some and some of them for all these excellencies These are made the most unsound the most infamous and superfluous parts of this body politick and Ecclesiastick these must be one and all represented to vulgar simplicity and scurrility as the Popes the Antichrists the Bite-sheeps the Oppressors the Tyrants the Greedy and dumb dogs the Cretians the Slow-bellies the Devourers the Destroyers of all godliness and true Religion These foule glosses first made by Martin Mar-prelate of old against Episcopacy and the Bishops of England are now set forth in a new and second edition with larger notes and exquisite Commentaries upon them intimating that these are the men who have by their Learned Grave and Godly Misdemeanours as Bishops forfeited not by any Law but by absolute will and pleasure meerly as Bishops all their Houses and Revenues all their Honors and Preferments yea their good Name and Reputation which by Law and desert they had obtained and enjoyed yea all the Ancient Dignity Apostolick Authority and Constant Succession of their Place and Function in the Church which had not more of eminency than of necessity nor more of necessity than of Primitive and Catholick Antiquity For the reall faults of some and the imaginary of other Bishops whose name was their onely crime must all Ages after them be for ever punished with the want of such Grave Learned Godly and Venerable Bishops as have been destroyed for better cannot be had or desired and posterity must be ever exposed in these British Churches to all those Factions Fedities Divisions Disorders and Confusions which follow the want of due Episcopal order and Government in the Church But Bishops qua tales were enemies to the power of Godlinesse the worst of them and the best of them were men too much devoted to empty formes of Religion they urged Ceremonies so far as to neglect substances straining at gnats and swallowing Camels they justled out preaching by Catechizing and over-layed Ministers private prayers by their long Liturgies they did not kindle but quench damp and resist that spirit of Zeal and Reformation which for many years hath burned in the breasts of many godly Christians by whose flamings and refinings at last all Bishops as drosse with all their ornaments and adherents have been justly consumed I confesse I cannot tell how to answer for all the actions and expressions of every Bishop they were of age and able to have answered for themselves if any of them as offendors of our Lawes had been brought to plead for themselves which not one of them was as to Ecclesiasticall matters that I ever heard of for the weight of the Archbishops charge was chiefly upon civil or secular affaires Who knowes not that Bishops were but men that if left to their private spirits and single Counsels they might as easily over or under-do as their Adversaries have done beyond or short of what becomes wise and good men The greatest blame that I perceive among any of them was that they would injoyne or exact or remit any thing as to publick Order Discipline and Government of the Church without a joynt agreement and uniformity among themselves according to what the Law allowed or commanded This fraternall concurrence and mutuall correspondence had been worthy of Grave Wise and Learned men for all private fancies obtruded by any one or two Bishops in so tender a case as Religion is and upon so touchy a people as the English now are do but breed variety this differences these disputes these dissentions these despites these oppositions these breed confusions All the actions and injunctions all the Articles and disquisitions of Bishops as such should have been as exactly consonant and uniforme as possibly could be But as to the crimination That Bishops like Hernshaws abounded in the wing and feather of Ceremony but had little substance or body as to the power of Godlinesse First Scripture and Christs example teach us that decent and apt Ceremonies publick or private are not in their nature enemies but helps to the power of Godlinesse as putting off all Ornaments eating the bread of Sorrow putting on Sackcloth and Ashes Fasting Weeping Smiting the breast Bowing Kneeling Prostrating to the ground being all night in Solitude and Darkness lying in the Dust c. all these were and are helps to an humble broken contrite penitent and devout temper of Soul Contrary Company Wine and Oyle Singing and Musick Dancing Discourse and Laughter were and are helps to holy joy and thankful jubilations so are lifting up the eyes and hands to Heaven Sighing and Groning to fervency of Prayer and Praises It is but a rude affected and fanatick imagination of clownish Christians that decent Ceremonies of Religion wisely appointed in any Church or fitly applied by any private Christian in his private devotions these cannot stand but the substance and sincerity of Godliness must fall that there can be no forms of Godlinesse but the power of it must vanish or be banished They may as well imagine that they cannot put on their clothes or dresse themselves handsomly but they must presently cease to be wise men or honest men and good women but must turn either spectres or dishonest Do we not find that many such Christians who have of later years cast off all the former decent and wholesome formes of Godliness either by Profaneness or Preciseness or Peevishness or Faction or Atheism or Superstition are most apparently now
1247 6 Thomas Vipont A. D. 1255 7 Robert Chanse A. D. 1258 8 Ralph de Ireton A. D. 1280 9 John de Halton A. D. 1288 10 John de Rosse A. D. 1318 11 John de Kirkby A. D. 1332 12 Gilbert de Welton A. D. 1353 13 Tho de Appleby A. D. 1363 14 Robert Reade A. D. 1396 15 Thom Merkes A. D. 1397 16 William Strickland A. D. 1400 17 Rog Whelpdale A. D. 1419 18 Will Barrow A. D. 1423 19 Marmaduke Lumley A. D. 1430 20 Nicholas Close A. D. 1450 21 William Percy A. D. 1452 22 John â—ingscot A. D. 1462 23 Richard Scroop A. D. 1464 24 Edward Storey A. D. 1468 25 Richard Dunelmensis or of Durham A. D. 1478 26 William Sever. A. D. 1496 27 Roger Leibourn A. D. 1503 28 John Penny A. D. 1504 29 John Kite A. D. 1520 30 Rob Aldrich A. D. 1537 31 Owen Oglethorp A. D. 1556 32 John Best A. D. 1561 33 Richard Barnes A. D. 1570 34 John Mey A. D. 1577 35 Hen Robinson A. D. 1598 36 Rob Snowdon A. D. 1616 37 Rich Milborn A. D. 1620 38 Rich Senhouse A. D. 1624 39 Francis White A. D. 1628 40 Barnaby Potter A. D. 1629 CHESTER This is one of the 6. Bishopricks erected by K. Hen. 8. upon the Dissolution of Religious Houses 1 John Bird. A. D. 1541 2 John Cotes A. D. 1556 3 Cuthbert Scot. A. D. 1556 4 Will Downham A. D. 1561 5 Wil Chadderton A. D. 1579 6 Hugh Billett A. D. 1595 7 Rich Vaughan A. D. 1597 8 George LLoyd A. D. 1604 9 Thomas Morton A. D. 1616 10 John Bridgman A. D. 1618 DURHAM This Bishoprick of Durham was erected there by Aldwin Bishop of Lindisfarn or Holy Island A. D. 990. That ancient Bishoprick being destroyed by the Danes about An. Christi 800. and till that year 990. wandring up and down unsetled which Bishop of Lindisfarn was first erected by Oswald King of Northumberland A. Christi 637 Bishops of Lindisfarn or Holy Island 1 St. Aidanus A. D. 637 2 St. Finanus A. D. 651 3 Colmannus A. D. 661 4 Tuda A. D. 664 5 St. Eata A. D. 665 6 St. Cuthbertus A. D. 684 7 St. Eadbertus A. D. 687 8 Egbertus I. A. D. 698 9 Ethelwold A. D. 721 10 Kenulph A. D. 738 11 Higbald A. D. 781 12 Egbert II. A. D. 802 13 Egfrid A. D. 819 14 Eanbert A. D. 845 15 Eardulf A. D. 854 16 Cuthard 17 Tilred A. D. 915 18 Witherd A. D. 927 19 Uhtred A. D. 944 20 Sexhelm 21 Aldred dyed A. D. 968 22 Alfius A. D. 968 23 Aldwin A. D. 990 This Aldwin first setled the See at Durham where it hath ever since continued Bishops of Durham after Aldwin last Bishop of Lindisfarn 1 Eadmund A. D. 1020 2 Eadred A. D. 1048 3 Egelricus A. D. 1049 4 Egelwinus 5 Walcher Earl of Northumberland A. D. 1071 6 William de Carilefe alias Cairliph A. D. 1080 The See void 4. yeares 7 Randall Flambard A. D. 1099 8 Geffrey Rufus A. D. 1128 9 William de S. Barbara A. D. 1143 10 Hugh Pudsey Earl of Northumberland A. D. 1154 11 Philip de Pictavia A. D. 1197 12 Rich de Marisco A. D. 1217 13 Rich the Poor A. D. 1228 14 Nic de Fernham A. D. 1241 15 Walter de Kirkham A. D. 1250 16 Rob Stichell A. D. 1260 17 Rob de Insula A. D. 1274 18 Anthony Beck Patriarch of Jerusalem A. D. 1283 19 Richard Kellow A. D. 1311 20 Ludovicus Beaumont A. D. 1317 21 Rich de Bury A. D. 1333 22 Tho Hatfeild A. D. 1345 23 John Fordham A. D. 1381 24 Walter Skirlaw A. D. 1388 25 Tho Langley Card. A. D. 1406 26 Robert Nevill A. D. 1438 27 Laurence Booth A. D. 1457 28 Willi Dudley A. D. 1476 29 John Sherwood A. D. 1483 30 Richard Fox A. D. 1494 31 VVill Sevier A. D. 1502 32 Christopher Bambridg A. D. 1507 33 Tho Ruthall A. D. 1508 34 Tho Wolsey A. D. 1523 35 Cutbert Tunstall A. D. 1530 36 Ja Pilkington A. D. 1560 37 Rich Barnes A. D. 1577 The See void 2. yeares 38 Matth Hutton A. D. 1587 39 Toby Matthew A. D. 1594 40 Will James A. D. 1606 41 Richard Neile A. D. 1617 42 George Mountain A. D. 1628 43 John Howson A. D. 1628 44 Tho Moorton A. D. 1632 Of the Bishops of the ISLE of MAN This Bishoprick of the Isle of Man was first erected by Pope Gregory 4. The Bishops See is in Russin or Castle-Town and the Bishops are termed in Latine Episcopi Sodorenses The VVestern Islands now belonging to Scotland who have now a Bishop of their own did anciently belong to this Bishoprick The new Bishop upon a vacancy is nominated by the Lords of the Isle who have been the Stanleys Earles of Darby and presented to the King and then consecrated by the Archbishop of York And this seemeth to be the cause why the Bishop of Man is no Lord of the Parlament because it is not at the Kings disposing none having Suffrage in Parlament but those who hold immediately from the King The Names of the Bishops of this See are not exactly known having as yet no meanes to procure a Catalogue thereof such as are extant are these 1 Machilla A. D. 518 2 Michael 3 Nicholas A. D. 1203 4 Reginald A. D. 1217 5 Richard A. D. 1257 6 Robert Walby A. D. 1396 7 Henry A. D. 1556 8 John Merick 9 George LLoyd A. D. 1604 10 Forster 11 Richard Parry A. D. 1641 In the Catalogue of the Bishops of Bristol p. 695. adde 12 Tho Westfield 1642. 13 Tho Howel 1644. ADDENDA In the Marginall Notes PAge 321. Propter Ecclesiae bona ubique bellatur Romanenses ut retineant Reformati ut obtineant Grotius Pacific Pag. 326. Sir H. Spelman values the L. Cromwel's estate in K. Hen. 8s dayes worth 20000 l. sterling MS. of Sacriledge Pag. 329. Piaculum olim nunc lusus Principum profanorum sacra profanare adhuc quaerimus cur bellis tam atrocibus vastamur Christiani Grot. Pacif. Pag. 337. Procopius in vita Justiniani tells of the vessels of the Jews Temple which at last were sent by that Emperour to the Church at Jerusalem ERRATA PAg. 16. l. 4. read growing up p. 92. l. 13. r. flagrancy p. 132. l. 39. r. Proteustant p. 244. in the title for descending r. deserving p. 282. l. 29. for sand r. saw p. 326. l. 20. r. 20000. p. 418. l. 39. r. abated p. 419. l. 4. dele next p. 449. l 17. r. evident by l. 27. r. unsubordinate p. 643. l 25. for them read those p. 682. l. 16. for part r. park p 684. l. 14. for as him r. in him In the Catalogue of Books written by the Author p. 692. adde A Treatise of Christian Marriages to be solemnly blessed by Ministers in Quarto THE END The Preface or Addresse Isa 58.12 Tunc severissimè punit Deus quum poenalis nutritur impunitas Aug. Hos 4.17 Isa 1.5 Mat.
Idolatry Heresie Schism and Apostasie in all the world if God had not in the place of primitive miracles supplied the Church with such Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters whose admirable learning undaunted courage indisputable authority uniform order and constant succession was beyond any miracle which did at once both wonderfully attest and mightily preserve the sanctity mystery and majesty of Christian Religion from the subtilty of persecutors the sophistry of Philosophers the contumacy of Schismaticks and contumelies of Hereticks being too hard by Gods assistance for the malice of men and the wiles of Satan All which are then under severall new notions and disguises probable to prevaile over this or any Christian Church when such liberty shall be used by vulgar spirits and inordinate minds as shall not onely diminish and abate but quite in time destroy and vacate the divine reverence and inviolable sanctity of religious mysteries and holy ministrations which will inevitably follow where the Catholick order and divine authority of Ministers derived through all ages is not onely questioned and disputed but denied despised variated prostituted usurped by whosoever list to make himself a Minister in any new way which cannot be true if new nor authentick if it be exotick unwonted in the Church of Christ either broken off or different from that primitive commission and constant exemplification or Catholick succession which was owned and observed in Bishops and Presbyters throughout all the Christian world For my part I abhor all intrusion and obtrusion of dangerous Novelties both from Papists and Separatists either in Doctrine Discipline or Government of the Church and those I account dangerous yea detestable Novelties which not upon any plea of ignorance or necessity but meerly out of wantonness and wilfulness seek to alter the sacred streams and currents of Ecclesiasticall power authority and order from those fountains where Christ first broached it and those conduits by which the Apostles derived it which unquestionably was by Bishops and Presbyters I know that the sacred office and Angelick function of the Evangelicall Ministry as it is from my Lord Jesus Christ and is in his name and stead so it ought to be managed reverenced esteemed transmitted and undertaken among all true Christians as a visible supply of Christs absence in body as an authoritative embassie or delegation from Him as a sacred dispensation of that Ministry to his Church by chosen and duly ordained men setting forth his History his Precepts Promises Sacraments and other holy Institutions together with the Ministrations and Gifts of his holy Spirit by which he promised to his Apostles to be with them to the end of the world in that holy work wherein he employed them and their lawfull successors to be his witnesses among all nations whither he should send them So that every true Minister as with the ancients Mr. Calvin observes in his proper place and order as Bishop or Presbyter is first a Prophet to teach and instruct in the truths of God that part of Christs Church over which he is constituted next he is as a Ruler Shepherd and Governour over them in the Lord to feed and guide them in that holy order and discipline which becomes the lesser and the greater the single and sociall parts of Christs flock according as they are under their several care and inspection lastly every true Minister is in his proper station to perform in Christs stead those offices of his Evangelicall Priesthood which he hath assigned to be dispensed for his Churches good as the solemn consecration and celebration of that Eucharisticall memoriall of the great oblation of Christ to his Father upon the Cross for the redemption of the world by which all mankind is put into a conditionall capacity of salvation and upon their true faith and repentance Christs body and blood with all his meritorious benefits are evidently set forth signally confirmed and personally exhibited in that great Sacrament and most venerable mystery to every worthy Receiver He is further to offer up upon the altar of Christs merits the spiritual sacrifices of the Church in prayers praises thanksgivings alms and charities Besides this there is in the true Pastor or Minister of the Church of Christ according to their proportion and degree their line and measure as Bishops and Presbyters a power of mission and propagation in order to maintain that holy succession of an Evangelicall Priesthood which Christ Jesus hath appointed and which the Apostles with their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in all the world have to this day continued without any interruption or any variation as to the maine of the power and practise of Ordination So then as these three offices are eminently in Christ as the great Prophet Prince and Priest of his Church to all which he was consecrated by the mission of his Father by his own Blood-shed and Passion also by the anointing of his eternall Spirit which filled him with all divine Graces ministeriall Gifts and miraculous Power necessary for so great a work so the Lord Christ being absent in body but present in his power and Spirit had derived and committed the outward ministeriall execution of these his offices to chosen and ordained men as over-seers and workers together with Christ of themselves but earthen vessels yet the fittest instruments for the present dispensations of his Gospel and grace which yet are to be carried on according to the first appearance of Christ in the flesh in such darkness weaknesse and meannesse as may most set forth the present excellency of Gods gracious power and set off the future manifestations of his glory to his Church which even in this inferiority and obscurity of the Gospel hath yet as three that bear witnesse to its truth in heaven the wisdome of the Father contriving the love of the Son effecting and the power of the holy Ghost applying Evangelical mercies to poor sinners so it hath three that bear witnesse on earth to that glorious truth and mystery of the Gospel the water of Baptism which sprinkles to Regeneration the blood of the Lords Supper which feeds and refreshes believers also the Spirit of ministeriall Power and Authority which hath been and still is from Christ continued in all true Christian Churches As the first three are one in an essentiall unity of divine nature so these later three as S. John tells us agree in one that is in one Soveraign author Jesus Christ and in one sacred order and office of Church-Ministry or Evangelical dispensations successively derived from the Apostles Elders and Deacons by a power and commission peculiar to those who are duly ordained to be Christs Deputies Lieutenants and Vicegerents in his Church for those holy offices and divine ministrations whereto they are severally appointed in an higher or lower degree as Apostles or Elders as Bishops or Presbyters as Pastors or Teachers either over-seeing as
sacred office charge and ministration how infinitely ought you to be ashamed and regretted to see them usurped many times by the dogs of your flocks by your hinds and foot-men your grooms and serving-men by threshers weavers and coblers by taylors tinkers and tapsters any mean and mechanick people whose parts and spirits are onely fit for those trades to which their breeding and necessities have confined them Not that I despise or reproch these honest though mean employments but I highly blame their insolence and other mens patience to see these usurp upon the dignity of the Ministry Certainly such proud poor wretches may to some men possibly seem fittest Ministers in a disordered State and decaying Church as factors for Satan and Antichrist setters for Ignorance and Superstition turning Faith into Faction but they will never prove after that fashion of preparing and admitting either able or faithfull or fruitfull Ministers of Christ or his Church seeming themselves and making others despisers of Christ with the blasphemous Jews while they so look upon him and treat him as under the notion of the Carpenters son as their equall or inferiour in some handicraft forgetting his divine glory and majesty as the onely-begotten son of God to whom all power is given in heaven and earth who hath executed this power most visibly in sending forth his Ministers to teach and baptize all nations out of which to gather and govern his Church in his name They rudely slight Christs ministerial authority in such as are truly excellent and duly ordained Ministers that they may proudly challenge it to themselves without any reason or Scripture law or order command or example either from Christ or his Church These men who say they are Apostles Prophets and Preachers and are not will be in the end and already are found liars against God and their own souls deceitfull workers false Apostles Mock-ministers Pseudo-pastors disorderly walkers authors of infinite scandall and confusion of scorn and contempt to Christian and Reformed Religion both here and elsewhere many of them serving their bellies and gratifying their carnall lusts and momentary wants much more than designing to advance the glory of God the Kingdome of Christ or the eternall good of mens souls which are not to be carried on save in Gods way that is by fit abilities and with due authority both are required as necessary for a true Minister the first though reall is not sufficient without the second For as the meer outward materiall action cannot be a divine sacramentall or ministerial transaction more than every killing of an Ox was a sacrificing so nor are meer naturall or personall abilities sufficient to acquire any office or authority much less this of the Ministry which is divine or none any more than every able Butcher was presently enabled to be a Priest Any mans ability fully to understand or handsomely to relate the mind of his Prince makes him not presently an Embassador or Minister of State unless there be a commission or letters of credence to authorize the person The blessed Apostle S. Paul who was extraordinarily converted called and sent of God as a Christian a Minister or Apostle yet we see did not take upon him the exercise or office till first Ananias had by Gods speciall command laid his hands on him and he became endowed with the ministerial gift or power of the holy Ghost which were afterward in like sort solemnly confirmed and increased by the express command of God when Paul and Barnabas were separated and sent upon special service with fasting prayer and laying on of the hands of some Prophets and Teachers in Antioch where the Apostle had formerly preached in the Church a whole year among much people This same Apostle oft blames and bids Christians beware of false Apostles not onely false in their doctrine but in their ordination and mission as the Prophets of the Lord did of old the false Prophets whom God had not sent yet they ran The Spirit of Christ commends the Angel of the Church of Ephesus where as Irenaeus and others tell us S. John lived long and left the most pregnant examples of Ecclesiasticall order Episcopall power and Ministeriall succession for trying those that said they were Apostles and were not for finding esteeming and declaring them as liars no way listning and adhering to or communicating with them as being Falsaries and Impostors enemies at once to the truth order and peace of Christs Church For 't is seldome that a bastardly generation of Preachers doth not bring forth some false and base doctrines for it is observable in this as in civil Histories that Bastards in nature and so in office are commonly most daring and adventurous spirits Certainly the late illegitimate Ministers or spurious Preachers of new and strange originals in England have in less than fifteen years brought more monsters of opinions and factions in Religion than have arose in so many hundred years before in any one Church I know some Christians are prone to gratifie their curiosity as those do who sometime go to see monsters in making some triall and essay of these pretended Preachers that once knowing their ignorance and insolence they may upon juster grounds ever after abhor them If this be tolerable for some persons of able and sober judgements yet it is no better than a snare and dangerous temptation for others that are weak and unstable nor may the venture be oft made by the more steddy Christians lest they seem thereby to countenance and encourage so great a confusion innovation usurpation and scandal in the Church of Christ besides the abetting of that high profanation of holy duties and mysteries which ought not to be transacted but in the name power and authority of our God and Saviour Certainly good Christians ought not at any hand to communicate with such usurping intruders in any sacramentall action nor ought they to own any thing more of a Minister of Jesus Christ in them than they would of a King or Magistrate in a Stage-player Doubtless as no good Christian so least of all those that profess to be Ministers of Christ ought to live as sons of Belial disorderly refractory unruly after the arbitrary rude and presumptuous dictates of their own wills The spirit of true Ministers and Prophets will be subject as it ought to that rule order and custome which in all ages hath been the canon measure and commission of all Evangelical Ministers and Pastors of Christs Church As naturall and morall endowments are no plea to invest any man into any office military or civil much less into any power and authority Ecclesiastical The pretenses of new and extraordinary calls of missions immediate from God are not in any reason expectable nor in Christian Religion credible where the ordinary power and commission was continued and might duly be had as it was and yet is in the Church of England
late Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland whom I reckon as ours because not onely his ashes and mortal remaines are deposited with us but he lived his last yeares of exile and ended his mortality amongst us in Engl. where besides his constant paines in Preaching even to his last he hath left us many of his Learned works which are enjoyed by and highly esteemed of all worthy men who were blest with the example of his great and unspotted worth which no envy no malice can I think be so impudent as to blemish With this rare and Reverend Prelate this great and gracious Bishop I was rather happy than worthy to be acquainted many yeares so far as to be able more neerly to discover his genius and temper both before and after the storme of blood and Massacre in Ireland had driven this holy man to fly from that Terra irae Dei land of Gods wrath and to take such Sanctuary or shelter as then he hoped might be had in England for Protestant Bishops where he little thought good man he should have found some Protestants in England as fierce to undoe and destroy their Bishops though of the same Reformed Faith and of unblameable Profession as the most Jesuited Papists were in Ireland who were and are sworne enemies against them not as Christian Bishops but as of the Reformed Religion which had nothing in it more Primitive Illustrious and Honorable than this that in England it shined with the glory of those Apostolick Stars Godly and Venerable Bishops which did not depend on the Pope of Rome The reall excellencies of this Bishop every way were such that they exceeded all ordinary measures of humane commendation and capacity extending to something of admiration or ecstasie None but those whose minds are enlarged to some proportions of his accomplishments can be able to comprehend his worth and amplitude so vast so transcendent so astonishing was his Learning and Understanding in all kinds of knowledge Divine and Humane that he was as the Cynosure by which all great Divines steered and as the Sun-Diall by which all great Scholars set their watches Much of this Treasure was discovered in his writings printed and not yet printed of all sorts both of greener and riper studies in all which he was exact and complete He wrote as he studied not in the beaten paths of Plagiary Compilators or Systematicall Collectors as Scriba doctus ad regnum Caelorum but he brought forth out of his large heart and vast reading new as well as old things of rare hidden and untroden observation even out of Manuscripts which scarce any but his Eagle-eye had seen and but few could read All which he judiciously collected methodically disposed clearly explained and aptly applyed yet it was with him as with copious and living springs the least part of his innate acquired and unexhausted fulnesse was to be discerned by any of his outward emanations So accurate was he in all usefull and Learned Languages Occidentall and Orientall so cleare a prospect he had of all History and Chronology of all Controversies ancient and modern that nothing escaped him nor was he onely as a Reader and Spectator but as a Judge and Censor as an Arbitrator and Dictator in Disputes as one that sate in a Tribunall of Soveraigne Learning above all Nothing was new or hidden to him in Philology Philosophy Geography Astronomy Mathematicks and least of all in Theology or Divinity he had conquered all others but in this he Triumphed which was the Trophee Crown and Center of all his other studies There was scarce any Book printed or Manuscript worth reading in private or publick Libraries throughout all Christendome which he had not read either in the Copy or Originall and digested into the method or designe of his studies yea and to a miracle remembred as to the maine contents of it To the Immensity of his Learning there was added excellent principles of Politick prudence as a Governour of the Church and as a Counsellour of State wherein he was conspicuous not for the crafty projects and practises of policy or for those sinister waies of Artifice and Subtilty which are the usuall unreasonable Reasons of State the so admired depths of devillish Hypocrisie but indeed the flats and shallowes of all Truth and Honesty no the Measures and Rules of his Politicks and Prudentialls were taken from that great experience he had gotten and many excellent observations he had made out of all Histories as well Humane as Divine though he alwaies laid the greatest weight upon the grounds and instances of holy Scripture which gives the truest judgement of wisdom or folly These great abilities managed with so much Piety Prudence and Integrity could not but make this Bishop as fit to be a Counsellor of State for so he was in Ireland or a Privy Counsellor to his Prince which other Bishops were who lived in England as any of those Misepiscopists were who most envied and denyed that honour to this or any other Bishops with whose sufficiencies few of their enemies the chiefest of whom I well knew were to be compared either for Wisdom Gravity Goodnesse Learning Experience and Eloquence or for that Sanctity Severity and Integrity which make a complete Counsellour All which are hardly learned by the juvenile Gallantry of a little travelling or by seeing many Men or by courting many Mistresses or by passing through many Cities and Countries in a negligent way or by wearing ample plumes on mens heads or by shewing fair clothes on their backs or by fanciful and affected conformities to all the modes and fashions which may be observable in forreign places all which Leven do usually so puff up many young Gallants who glory most in their Nobility and Gentry with Amorousnesse Futility Vapouring Vanity and Folly that it is a long time before they can throughly decoct them or settle themselves to that clear and serious study of Piety and Policy of Wisdom Divine and Humane which onely can furnish out fit and able Counsellours of State who are to be not onely as the Eyes Guides and overseers of the Publick but even of the Prince whose hand of power if he be wise will steer according to the Card and Compass set before him by his Council which cannot be good if it be not godly nor prudent if it be not pious So that it is not onely my wonder but it will be so to all Posterity what should move any sober and religious wise men to exclude all Bishops and Clergymen from all capacity of being either Members of the great and Parlamentary Council or of the Privy Council of any Prince or State When 1. Religion ought alwayes to be as much under the care counsel and inspection of Christian Princes Parlaments and Councils of State as any secular or civil affairs which never prosper where Religion is put in the rear and Crupper of business or where the Clergy beyond all men must be
in any posture of Stability Unity Beauty and Honor untill Episcopacy be beheld and embraced in its native lustre and Primitive posture First as designed by the Orderly Power and Wisdome of God Secondly as instituted and actuated by the Spirit of Christ and his Apostles Thirdly as received and used without any scruple in all Primitive Churches when once they were fully planted and established in Ecclesiasticall Polities or Spirituall Corporations not one Church in all Ages either denying or doubting or disputing the Catholick Authority of Bishops Fourthly which they saw every way most agreeable as to the nature of mankind so to the different stations of Christians and to that necessary order which ought to be among Ministers as well as other people Fifthly and to none more than to the English Nation where the blessings by Episcopacy are now the more remembred and remarkable by the Miseries Disorders Divisions Insolencies Horrors and Confusions which have befaln us since we took away the chief buttresses and pillars of the Church as if they were burthensome and superfluous when indeed they were not lesse ornamentall than usefull and necessary to the well-being of it at least if not to the very being of it in us integrality and completeness I am sure the ejection of Episcopacy like the banishment of St. Chrysostom out of Constantinople hath hitherto been attended and followed in England with great Earthquakes and terrible shakings of other mens Palaces and Houses as well as those of Bishops whose turning out of the House of Lords by the Vote of about twenty Lords made so wide a doore and breach to that House that none of those Peeres who were more impatient to sit with such Learned and grave men under the same roof than St. John was to be in the same bath with Cerinthus could long stay within those walls the justice of Heaven as some conjecture so far retaliating mens passions with speed upon their own heads the Divine wisdome I doubt not seeing and approving as much of Beauty Order Prudence Unity and Stability in true Episcopacy as he sees and abhors much of Novelty Weaknesse Fatuity Partiality Deformity and Confusion in any other waies of Church-Government which cannot but be as defective and dubious as they are novel and partiall no way conform to the Catholick Custome of the Churches of Christ nor any way either invented approved or authorized by the sociall wisdome and joynt consent of all those in this Church and State who were concerned as highly in all changings of Government as any of those men are who have been most forward to make strange alterations and to remove the ancient Land-marks CHAP. XXV BUt it is high time to take my last Farewel of this long and oft-debated Cause of Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy which truely I think in my Conscience to be the Cause First of God as he is the God of Order and Wisdom and not of Folly or Confusion Secondly the Cause of Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour whose Spirit constituted guided the Apostles with all their holy Successors in this Method of Ecclesiastical Communion and Subordination Thirdly the Cause of Christs Catholick Church which we ought not in modesty or charity so highly to reproch as to impute ignorance or perversness to it that either it knew not the way of Christ at first or it wilfully and presently forsook it by an universal Apostasie to gratifie some few mens ambition Fourthly I esteem it the special Cause of this Church and Nation first because it was never blessed with any Church-government but that by Bishops secondly it hath been and is miserably shattered and abased by the casting off and want of Episcopacy and thirdly for the native temper of the people who are not apt to be governed by any men not duely invested with the Majesty of some eminent Worth adorned with special Power Honor and Estates which together give Authority Fifthly I think it the Cause of all good Ministers that desire to keep themselves in a true Church-Order and Catholick Communion who will find themselves and leave their Posterity at a great losse as to the Honor Setledness and Safety of the Christian and Reformed Religion unless they be restored to some such uniform way of publick Subordination and Unity as hath most safety consistency and authority in it self also most satisfaction to all learned wise and honest men All which things are no where that I see to be found but in a regular and primitive Episcopacy which ows its late total ruine and shipwreck in England not to its own age and leakinesse as if it sunk of it self nor to the general dislike and weariness of it as if the wisdom and power of the Nation Prince and People of all estates had upon serious free and impartial advice concluded to sink it having provided a better Vessel but its ruine is the effect of a terrible and fatal storm which came first out of the North upon us this ran Episcopacy so aground that many despairing of her ever coming off with any intireness betook themselves to the Cock-bote of Presbytery and the Skiff of Independency when yet I conceive it were no hard matter to recover Episcopacy as to the primitive structure of it although much of its Ornaments and Gallantry be lost Certainly the Restitution of primitive Episcopacy for the Unity Honor and Happiness of the Nation as well as of all the Clergy seemeth a Work as of far more prudence justice and piety so of much less charge and trouble than the Ruine of it hath cost us all nor can it be strange to see some men change their minds in religious concernments who we see have soon done it in our civil settlements This and other Blessings of Church-order and Unity will easily flow in upon us by a kind of Tide or Reciprocation of providence beyond expectation when once the God and Saviour the King and Bishop the great Protector and President of his Church shall please to breath a spirit truely Evangelical and Christian upon this Nation when all of us accepting of our punishment and repenting of our sinful follies and presumptions the Lord will also repent of the evil which he hath brought upon us all and think thoughts of Mercy toward this languishing afflicted divided and deformed Church whose Order Peace Honor Unity and Happiness some of us weakly others wantonly and not a few of us wickedly have sinned away to a state in point of Ecclesiastical Government deplorable enough and almost irreparable For it is not new Associations or Confessions of Faith or pretty Paraphrases on the Heads of Religion which do salve our sore blessed be God the Church of England needed not these Crambes It is onely the God of Love and Father of Mercies who can allay the spirits of Men and bring them out of those contentious and câ—uel dispositions which are divisive and so destructive to each other True we have been three dayes
or a vindication from any such aspersion of being either a practical or dogmatical Papist wherewith many have more pleased themselves than proved it against that Bishop But no Net playes with wider wings or larger bosom than that popular Drag which sweeps as it listeth into its bosom all men for Papists Pelagians or Arminians who are not just of some mens private opinions in all things taking what freedomes and latitudes they please themselves in their opinions and actions but allowing none to other men no not in points that admit of dispute without scratching the Conscience violating the true Faith or breaking Christian Charity It is a wonder of wise and just men how this Bishop if he were so evil a doer as was voiced hath not been long agoe publickly heard and sentenced according to his deeds but is punished beforehand by a long imprisonment when as he was committed to prison not as his sentence I think but as his security to be forth-coming at his lawful tryal to which in eighteen years he hath not been brought If then neither of these two Prelates whose eminency and activity drew so many eyes of envy upon them were really popish which was not very probable when they knew the Prince whose favour they injoyed to be so stedfast and able in his judgement against Popery as I have oft heard the Earl of Holland and others affirm I presume the other late Bishops of Engl. upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell may find so much justice and charity as to be freed from that suspicion and not to be thought greater sinners as to that particular than many Presbyterians who joyed most in their destruction Never any of them that ever I heard gave any occasion to be thought a Papist except onely the last Bishop of Glocester Dr. Goodman Vir sui nominis as some report a man of good learning and good life who having suffered in his old age almost to a distraction by the storme and distresses of times which wet many other men to the skin but it stripped off the clothes flayed off the very skins of many Clergymen and all Bishops especially was driven it seems beyond his pace something beyond his patience for thus provoked beyond all measure and merit as he thought by those who much professed Reformation and yet so much in his sense and experience did deform and destroy the Church of England it is no wonder if dying and dejected he chose rather to depart in communion with the Church of Rome than to adhere to the Church of England which as Eliah he thought now decayed and dissolved at least as to its visible Order and Polity if not quite destroyed Not that he owned I hope a communion or Conciliation with the Romane Church as Popish but as far as it was Christian not as erroneous in some things but as Orthodox in many others from which as Bishop Bedel saith no good Christian doth or ought to separate And since we hold Baptism among the Papists to be valid which is the sign of a Christians new birth and first admittance to the Churches Catholick Communion he might hope that dying in that Communion so far as it was Catholick would be no hindrance to his admission to the Church in Heaven At worst it seems his discontent and despair drove him rather to think of returning to the Confines of Egypt where he believed there might be found some Bread of life in an orderly way of House-keeping than to dye in the Wildernesse of a Church which was now howling and starving and self-desolating in his apprehension that as Lots Daughters were so far excusable for their incests with their Father as they believed all men were destroyed besides so may this poor Bishop now made poor when he had been very rich have this to plead for his resting at last in the bosom of the Church of Rome that he knew not any other so visible and conspicuous a Church either fit or worthy or willing to receive one that had so long lived a Protestant and a Bishop in the Church of Engl. and was now no longer permitted either to live or dye either a Protestant or a Bishop according to the constitution of the Church of England from which at its best many of those have more separated themselves living and dying who are the sharpest Censurers of this Bishop for dying a Papist which is but a greater kind of Separatist from the Church of England and the Church Catholick in some Opinions and Practises But I have done with this Bishop who was dying most declared and with the other two who living were most dubious and ambiguous in the censures of the world as to their Religion What their Morals Prudentials or Devotionals were who had so long and so great an influence of power and favour I must leave to the Supreme Judicature of God above them and that subordinate or lower Bench of their Consciences within them If we should take their dimensions by the successes and events truly they have been very unhappy after-Counsels are prone to think it had been easie to have prevented such calamities but the race is not to the swift nor the battail to the strong Though true Piety is alwayes the best Policy yet it is not alwayes attended with Prosperity No doubt the sins of all sorts were ripe for wrath and in common calamities the best may suffer as well as the worst the afflictions of the first being their tryals of the second their punishment My concern is onely to examine the ground of that Charge cast upon them and for their sakes upon all our Reformed Bishops as if ranckly popish as if Prelacy and Popery were no more separable then Gehezies Bribery and his Leprosie which I justifie to be as false a calumny as it is foul and no way becoming the mouths or thoughts of those who aim to judge righteous judgement or consider the account they must give to God of what they say and do in truth or falsity in justice or iniquity This I am sure if our Bishops and many other grave Divines had no inclination to Popery in their Prosperity their Adversity might have been a great temptation to them less to approve that Reformed Religion not for which but from which they have suffered so hard measure as untried and unconvicted to be condemned punished destroyed beyond any men that lived orderly and peaceably CHAP. XXIV THat I may for ever silence the harsh braying and tedious barkings of all Antiepiscopal Pens and Tongues against our Godly Bishops and Venerable Episcopacy which is as much or more an enemie to Popery than either Presbytery or Independency I crave leave to insist a little more largely upon the name worth and memory of one of our Bishops very well known not onely to the British Churches but to all the Christian world that hath any correspondency or commerce with Learned men It is Dr. James Usher