Houses most of them poor mean Persons seven or eight in all here a Pistol and there a Sword rusty and elsewhere a Birding-Piece so we are safe enough from them God keep us from the Scots In that View I found two Convicted One here below East-Gate a sorry labouring Mason The other one Mr. Hunt by the Castle a Stranger staying here only a while in a House of his own till he can find some Brewer to take it being fit for that purpose and standing void November ult 1640. Ch. Potter I Thank you for your Pains in your Search for Arms among Recusants and am glad you find all so safe and them so unfurnish'd As for Mr. Hunt if he be a Stranger the sooner the Town is rid of him the better For the Confirmation of your Endowments upon your Professors and Orators you shall do well when the great Businesses are more over for till then it will not be intended to move for Confirmation in Parliament And in the mean time it may be very for you fit to prepare a Bill by some good Council which may contain them all in one if it may be It is true you write that most Colleges have upon Christmas-day a Sermon and a Communion in their private Chapels and by that means cannot come to the publick Sermon of the University at Christ-Church And whereas you write farther that some have wished that in regard of this the Morning Sermon for the University might be put off to the Afternoon as it is upon Easter-day for the like occasion I for my part think the motion very good it being a day of Solemn Observation Yet I would have it proposed to the Heads and then that which you shall do by publick Consent shall very well satisfie me Lambeth Dec. 4. 1640. W. Cant. MR. Wilkinson complained in Parliament against the Vice-Chancellor for Censuring of his Sermon The Vice-Chancellor according to the Command of the Committee for Religion in the House of Commons sent up the Copy of Wilkinson's Sermon and his Exceptions against it upon Tuesday December 8th the time appointed for the Committee But the Carrier's late coming in hindred the delivery for that time but it was deliver'd the next Morning by Dr. Baylie W. Cant. WHereas upon Enquiry made by Dr. Frewen late Vice-Chancellor of Oxford in two several Assemblies of the Heads of Houses there none of them could inform him of any University-Man whom he knew or probably suspected to be a Papist or Popishly affected Notwithstanding which Care of the Governors and clearness of the Vniversity it could not be avoided but some Persons suggestions should be put up to the High Court of Parliament as if Mass were ordinarily said in the University and frequented by Vniversity-Men without any Controll of the Governors there We therefore the present Vice-Chancellor and the Heads of Houses for the better clearing of our University from such foul Imputations have thought fit under our Hands to testifie That we are so far from conniving at the Celebration of Mass here or knowing of any such Matter that we neither know nor can probably suspect any Member of our University to be a Papist or Popishly addicted In witness whereof we have Subscribed Decem. 4. 1640. Christo. Potter Vice-Chancel Oxon. Nat. Brent Praefect Coll. Mert. Ro. Kettle President of Trin. Coll. Jo. Prideaux Rector Coll. Oxon S. T. P. Regius Jo. Wilkinson Aul. Magd. Princ. Samuel Radclif Coll. AEr Nas. Princ. Jo. Tolson Coll. Oriel Praepos Paul Hood Rector Coll. Lincoln A. Frewen Pres. Coll. Magd. Rich. Baylie Praesid S. John Tho. Clayton Coll. Pembr Magr. Med. Prof. Reg. Tho. Lawrence Magist. Coll. Bal. Fran. Mansel Coll. Jesu Princ. Tho Walker Universit Mr. Gilbert Sheldon Ward of All-Souls Coll. Daniel Escott Ward of Wadh. Coll. Guil. Strode Eccl. Christ. Subdec Adam Airay Princip of Edmond-Hall Ro. Newlin Praes Coll. Corp. Christ. Rich. Zouch Aul. All. Princip Philip. Parsons Aul. Cervin Princip John Saunders Aul. Mur. Princ. Degory Wheare Princ. Glouc. Hall P. Allibond Proct. Sen. N. Greaves Proct. Jun. The other Headsof Houses were not in Town when this was Subscribed MY Present Condition is not unknown to the whole World yet by few pitied or deplored The righteous God best knows the Justice of my sufferings on whom both in life and death I will ever depend the last of which shall be unto me most welcome in that my life is now burdensome unto me my mind attended with variety of sad and grievous thoughts my soul continually vexed with anxieties and troubles groaning under the burden of a displeased Parliament my name aspersed and grosly abused by the multiplicity of Libellous Pamphlets and my self debarred from wonted access to the best of Princes and it is Vox Populi that I am Popishly affected How earnest I have been in my Disputations Exhortations and otherwise to quench such sparks lest they should become Coals I hope after my death you will all acknowledge yet in the midst of all my afflictions there is nothing more hath so nearly touched me as the remembrance of your free and joyful acceptance of me to be your Chancellor and that I am now shut up from being able to doe you that Service which you might justly expect from me When I first received this honour I intended to have carried it with me to my Grave neither were my hopes any less since the Parliament called by his Majesties Royal Command committed me to this Royal Prison But sith by reason of matters of greater consequence yet in hand the Parliament is pleased to procrastinate my Tryal I doe hereby as thankfully resign my Office of being Chancellor as ever I received that Dignity entreating you to Elect some Honourable Person who upon all occasions may be ready to serve you and I beseech God send you such an one as may do all things for his glory and the furtherance of your most famous Vniversity This is the continual Prayer of Tower June 28. 1641. Your dejected Friend and Chancellor Being the last time I shall write so W. Cant. FINIS AN ANSWER TO THE SPEECH OF The Right HONOURABLE WILLIAM Lord Viscount Say and Seal c. SPOKEN IN PARLIAMENT Upon the BILL about BISHOPS POWER in CIVIL AFFAIRS AND COURTS of JUDICATURE Anno 1641. By the Most Reverend WILLIAM LAUD Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Then Prisoner in the TOWER Non apposui ultimam manum W. CANT Arch-Bishop LAVD's ANSWER TO THE Lord SAY's SPEECH Against the BISHOPS THIS Speech is said to have done the Bishops their Calling and their present Cause a great deal of harm among the Gentry and divers sober-minded Men and therefore I did much wonder that so many learned Bishops present in the House to hear it should not some of them being free and among their Books so soon as it was printed give it Answer and stop the venom which it spits from poysoning so many at least as it 's said to
rest For out of all doubt their Votes do hurt sometimes and it may be more often and more dangerously than the Bishops Votes And when this Lord shall be pleased to tell us what those other Irregularities are which are as antient and yet redressed I will consider of them and then either grant or deny In the mean time I think it hath been proved that it is no Irregularity for a Bishop that is called to it by Supreme Authority to give Counsel or otherwise to meddle in Civil Affairs so as it take him not quite off from his Calling And for his Lordship 's Close That this is not so antient but that it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio his Lordship is much deceived For that Speech of our Saviour's St. Matthew 19. 8. is spoken of Marriage which was instituted in Paradise and therefore ab initio from the beginning must there be taken from the Creation or from the Institution of Marriage soon after it But I hope his Lordship means it not so here to put it off that Bishops had not Votes in the Parliaments of England from the Creation For then no question but it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio But if his Lordship or any other will apply this Speech to any thing else which hath not its beginning so high he must then refer his Words and meaning to that time in which that thing he speaks of took its beginning as is this particular to the beginning of Parliaments in this Kingdom And then under Favour of this Lord the voting of Bishops in Parliament is so antient that it cannot be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio For so far as this Kingdom hath any Records to shew Clergy-Men both Bishops and Abbots had free and full Votes in Parliament so full as that in the first Parliament of which we have any certain Records which was in the Forty and ninth Year of Henry the Third there was Summoned by the King to Vote in Parliament One hundred and twenty Bishops Abbots and Priors and but Twenty three lay-Lay-Lords Now there were but Twenty six Bishops in all and the Lords being multiplied to the unspeakable Prejudice of the Crown into above One hundred besides many of their young Sons called by Writ in their Father's Life-time have either found or made a troubled time to cast the Bishops and their Votes out of the House 2. To the Objection for being Established by Law his Lordship says The Law-makers have the same Power and the same Charge to alter old Laws inconvenient as to make new that are necessary The Law-makers have indeed the same Power in them and the same Charge upon them that their Predecessors in former Times had and there 's no question but old Laws may be Abrogated and new ones made But this Lord who seems to be well versed in the Rules and Laws of Government which the poor Bishops understand not cannot but know that it 's a dangerous thing to be often changing of the Laws especially such as have been antient and where the old is not inconvenient nor the new necessary which is the true State of this Business whatever this Lord thinks 3. And for the Third Objection the Privileges of the House this Lord says it can be no Breach of them For either Estate may propose to the other by way of Bill what they conceive to be for publick Good and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing This is an easie Answer indeed and very true For either Estate in Parliament may propose to the other by way of Bill and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing and there is no Breach of Privilege in all this But this easie Answer comes not home For how my Lord understands this Objection I know not it seems as if it did reach only to the external Breach of some Privilege but I conceive they which made the Objection meant much more As namely that by this Bill there was an aim in the Commons to weaken the Lords House and by making their Votes fewer to be the better able to work them to their own Ends in future Businesses So the Argument is of equal if not greater strength against the Lord's yielding to the Bill to the Iufringement of their own strength than to the Commons proposing it and there is no doubt but that the Commons might propose their Bill without Breach of Privilege but whether the Lords might grant it without impairing their own strength I leave the future Times which shall see the Success of this Act of Parliament to judge of the Wisdom of it which I shall not presume to do I thought his Lordship had now done but he tells us 4. There are two other Objections which may seem to have more force but they will receive satisfactory Answers The one is that if they may remove Bishops they may as well next time remove Barons and Earls This Lord confesses the two Arguments following are of more force but he says they will receive satisfactory Answers And it may be so But what Answers soever they may receive yet I doubt whether those which that Lord gives be such For to this of taking away of Barons and Earls next his Lordship Answers two things First he says The Reason is not the same the one sitting by an Honour invested in their Blood and Hereditary which though it be in the King alone to grant yet being once granted he cannot take away The other sitting by a Barony depending upon an Office which may be taken away for if they be deprived of their Office they sit not To this there have been enough said before yet that it may fully appear this Reason is not Satisfactory this Lord should do well to know or rather to remember for I think he knows it already that though these great Lords have and hold their Places in Parliament by Blood and Inheritance and the Bishops by Baronies depending upon their Office yet the King which gives alone can no more justly or lawfully alone away their Office without their Demerit and that in a legal way than he can take away Noblemens Honours And therefore for ought is yet said their Cases are not so much alike as his Lordship would have them seem In this indeed they differ somewhat that Bishops may be deprived upon more Crimes than those are for which Earls and Barons may lose their Honours but neither of them can be justly done by the King's Will and Pleasure only But Secondly for farther Answer this Lord tells us The Bishops sitting there is not so essential For Laws have been and may be made they being all excluded but it can never be shewed that ever there were Laws made by the King and them the Lords and Earls excluded This Reason is as little satisfactory to me as the former For certainly according to Law and Prescription of Hundreds of Years the Bishops sitting
Present times had been often attempted and particulary by Cardinal Woolsey and other Great Men in their several times but was never brought to any perfection nor indeed to any thing at all But the business left where it was first undertaken I did ever foresee that it was not possible to make a Reformation or settle That Body unless the Statutes were first perfected And yet it was evident also what great difficulties attended That work For it had been twice undertaken during my own time in the University and both times it came to nothing At the Last time it was attempted I was Named in Convocation one of the Delegates my self By which means I had opportunity to see where the difficulties and impediments lay but was not then able to remove them Afterwards coming to be Bishop of London and finding my Lord the Earl of Pembrock much troubled at some unworthy proceedings There I told him he would never have remedy until the Statutes of the University were reduced into a Body and setled And withal acquainted his Lordship wherein the Difficulties lay Hereupon at his entreaty I set down what way was to be taken and followed for effecting That work And began at the naming of the Delegacy below in Convocation Which Delegacy was no sooner nam'd and my Directions sent unto them but my Lord of Pembroke died and I was chosen Chancellour after him and took up this work where it was then left and resolved to go on against all Difficulties which were like to oppose me in the Body of that University Which being very sick was desirous enough to be well but not pleased with the sourness of the Cure Besides such Bodies never want Factions and many There that were willing enough to have a Cure were not so well pleas'd it should be wrought by my hand But This and many other Difficulties I overcame with Care and Patience and went on with the work S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. I am given to understand that on Sunday last I was wellcomed into my Chancellourship of Oxford with two very ill Accidents in either Sermon one The first I hear was committed by one of Exeter College who preach'd directly against all Reverence in Churches and all Obeysance or any devout gesture in or at the receiving of the Communion And if this be true belike we shall not kneel neither The other as I am informed was by one Mr. Tucker of your own College who was not content only to justifie the Five Articles commonly called Arminianism but he would needs lay an Aspersion upon the Synod of Dort In both which he hath directly gone against his Majesties both Proclamation and Instructions prohibiting all men of all sorts for a time to preach either way concerning them that so those unhappy Differences likely to rend this Church as well as others might sleep first and dye after I know not whether Mr. Vicechancellour did convent these men or no. If he did your labour is past If he did not then I pray do you and take two or three Doctors to you I would not be too sour at my first coming-in And yet I would not have Sermons of such ill example lead the way into my Government There I hope a strict Monition that they run no more into these Errours will serve the turn for this first time But if you find that it will not then I pray go so much farther as the carriage of the men and the merits of their cause shall require I know these Sermons were provided before I was Chancellour but yet I know too that the blame will fall on me more than upon another man if such things as these pass without Censure I pray as you shew'd your Love to choose me so be careful to maintain my honour in upholding the Peace and the Government of the Place For God knows what blustring may follow upon That unhappy accident of Mr. Tucker's Thus not doubting of your Care herein I leave you to the Grace of God And shall ever rest LONDON House May 7. 1630. Your very Loving Friend GVIL London S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. your Deputy Dr. Tolsen hath done very well in some Business in your absence which I hope you will perfect Now I have a little more Business for you in which I must desire you to have a special Care I am given to understand that Formalities which are in a sort the outward and visible Face of the University are in a manner utterly decayed not only abroad in the Streets but also in the very Schools Convocation and Congregation-houses and at Latin Sermons In somuch that strangers which come thither have scarce any external Mark by which they may know they are in a University If this go on the University will lose ground every day both at home and abroad and especially with his Majesty who is a great Lover of Order and Decency in all Seminaries of good Learning And he hath already given 〈◊〉 strict charge to look both to this and other particulars in their several times I pray therefore call the Heads of Colleges and Halls together with the Proctors and read these Letters to them and with my Love remembr'd to them all let them know I am welcom'd into my Chancellourship with many complaints from very great men I hope all are not true And I hope such as are you and they will All in your several Houses joyn pains and hearty endeavous to see them rectifi'd as I shall in due time severally propose them At this time I think it necessary the Heads should fairly bespeak their several Companies to fit themselves with Formalities fitting their Degrees that when the Act comes God bless you with Health that it may hold with honour and safety the University may have Credit by looking like it self And then I doubt not but it will be it self too For it will not endure but to be as it seems And I desire you would bespeak your Companies fairly Both because I presume most men There in their generous and liberal Education will be such lovers of Order that they will run to the practice And because I heartily desire that as I am chosen Chancellour with a great deal of unexpected Love so I may be enabled ever to Govern with a like measure of it My heart ever was and I hope ever shall be set to do That Place all the good I can And I shall take it for one of God's greatest Temporal blessings upon me if I may have your joint Concurrence to perfect the good I wish And I will not doubt but that you do so love and honour That our Venerable Mother that you will cheerfully afford me This assistance When you have made this Entrance for Formalities at the Act for which I now give time and warning then the better to settle them and all other Points of Government I pray take care to go on with
easdem in meliorem competentiorem formam redigendo de eisdem addendo ab eisdem detrahendo de intimando easdem omnibus singulis quorum interest seu interesse poterit quovismado juxta Jurisperitorum consilium pro loco tempore congruis opportunis prout moris est juris atque styli Super quibas omnibus singulis peto à te Notario publico Instrumentum publicum sive Instrumenta publica unum sive plura mihi confici Testesque hic praesentes testimonium inde perhibere Lecta interposita fuit haec Appellatio octavo die Augusti Anno Domini 1631. Annoque regni Domini nostri Caroli Dei gratiâ Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regis Fidei Defendoris c. Septimo in Hospitio Guardiani Collegii Wadhami in Vniversitate Oxon. intra Collegium praedictum notoriè situato per venerabilem Virum Guillelmum Smith Sacrae Theologiae Professorem Collegii Wadhami praedicti Guardianum atque 〈◊〉 Oxon. Vicecancellarium qui tunc ibidem appellavit Apostolos petiit protestatus querelatus est 〈◊〉 caetera fecit exercuit in omnibus per omnia prout in hujusmodi Protocollo continetur In praesentiâ mei Notarii Publici subscripti praesentibus etiam tunc ibidem testibus subscriptis ad praemissa testificanda specialiter rogatis scil Venerabilibus Viris Guilielmo 〈◊〉 Legum Doctore Decano Ecclesiae Cathedralis Wigorn. Richardo Zouch Legum Doctore nec non Richardo Mathew Literato Ita testor Guil. Juxon Rich. Zouch Ric. Mathew Humfridus Jones Notarius Publicus Upon this Petition and Appeal his Majesty coming that year in progress to Woodstock he resolved to hear the Cause Himself and put an end to those Factious and Disorderly courses which were grown too heady for any other Hand And upon 〈◊〉 Aug. 23. his Majesty in the presence of all the Lords of his Counsel which were with him divers Heads of Colleges being also present heard at large all Complaints and Grievances on either side And concluded That both the Proctours should in the next Convocation resign their Offices and Two other of the same Colleges be put in their Places And that Thomas Ford of Magdalen-hall Giles Thorne of Baliol College and John Hodges of Exeter College should be banish'd the University And that Doctor Prideaux Rector of Exeter College and Dr. Wilkinson Principal of Magdalen should then and there receive in the presence of the King and the Lords a publick and sharp Reprehension for their misgovernment and countenancing the Factious Parties The Lord Viscount Dorchester then Principal Secretary of State was commanded to deliver this Sentence from the King which he did accordingly and gave the Reprehension as was enjoyned The King himself then publickly Declaring that Dr. Prideanx deserved to lose his Place more than any of the rest but was content to spare him partly because he had been His ancient Servant and hoped he would look better to himself for the future and partly because I intreated Favour for him As for Francis Hide who had been Proctor the former year and was as mutinous as any of the rest he was out of the University when the Summons came for their Appearance before the King and so kept himself till the Hearing was past Yet nevertheless so much appeared against him as that afterwards he was glad to come in and make his submission that he might escape so Then his Majesty commanded Secretary Dorchester to write a Letter for Him to Sign and to be sent to the University and in Convocation to require the performance of this Sentence in every particular This Letter was written and sent accordingly and the Tenor of it follows in haec verba At WOODSTOCK Aug. 23. 1631. CHARLES R. TRusty and wellbeloved We greet you well Having at full length and with good Deliberation heard the Cause concerning the late great Disorders and Disobedience to Government in That Our University of Oxford and being moved by the greatness of the offences to Punish some persons according to their several Demerits and to Order some things for the more settled and constant Government of That our University hereafter Our Will and Pleasure is That you forthwith upon the receipt hereof call a Convocation for performing and registring these Our Sentences and Decrees as followeth And first We pronounce your Appeal to be just And return Tho. Forde of Magdelane Hall Giles Thorne of Baliol College and William Hodges of Exeter College whose Causes were likewise submitted unto Us unto your power And command you that forthwith they be all three Banish'd the University according as your Statutes in that behalf require Secondly Because the Proctours which should have been Assistants to the Vicechancellour and Helps for upholding of Authority and Government have most unworthily behaved themselves in countenancing all manner of Disobedience in receiving Appeals in case of manifest perturbation and breach of Peace and by their cunning practicing after these Appeals received especially Thorne's whose Contumacy was notorious and his Sermon base Therefore for them Our Pleasure and Command is as was yesterday delivered unto themselves that they shall presently resign their Office in Convocation according to Course as if their year had been fully expired and the two Colleges of which they are may name two others to succeed in their Office the rest of the year to be chosen and settled according to your late Statutes made in that behalf And for the Execution of this you are as we have before order'd presently to call a Convocation and publish this Our Sentence and proceed accordingly Thirdly For Francis Hyde of Christchureh and Richard Hill of Brazen Nose we require that so soon as they return to Our University you warn them to be in a readiness and give notice to your Chancellour when they are there that they may be sent for to Answer such things as are laid against them And when they are heard they shall receive such Sentence as the merits of their Cause deserve Now for the things which we think fit to settle presently in That Government they are these First VVe Command that if the Vicechancellour for the time being think fit to call for any Man's Sermon which upon his own hearing or complaint made by any other seems offensive in any kind the Party of what Degree soever he be shall deliver a true and perfect Copy to the Vicechancellour upon Oath which when he hath perused he shall Convent him if he find cause either by the Statute of Le cester as it is call'd or by the later Statute of the 〈◊〉 Doctors at the Vicechancellours choice until at this New settling of your Statutes one entire and absolute Statute be made of Both. Secondly That if the Vicechancellour find cause to Command any man to Prison the Party so Commanded and sent by a Beadle shall for so the Statutes require presently submit and go
equal Portions That is to say 100 l. at our Lady Day and an 100 l. at Michaelmas beginning their first Payment at our Lady Day next Fourthly the Wardens above-named do undertake to obtain this Covenant likewise from their Company under Seal That in Case the University of Cambridge and the said Company shall agree in like manner that the power of Printing such Books be there suspended and that the said Company shall give a greater Sum Yearly unto the University of Cambridge in lieu thereof That then the said Company shall add such Sum or Sums unto the Sum formerly express'd of 200 l. as shall make the Portion or Portions of Money equal with that which is paid to Cambridge And the said Sum well and truly paid unto the University of Oxon at such times by equal Portions as are before specified Lastly It is intended and the full meaning of both Parties is that this course of suspending their Power by the University and the Yearly payment of such a Sum by the Company of Stationers shall be renewed at the several ends of such Terms of three Years in manner and from above specified untill it shall be reasonably agreed on by both Parties to relinquish the same In Witness whereof the Parties above-mentioned have interchangeably set to their Hands Rich. Baylie Vice-can Oxon. Jo. Prideaux Exon. Rector Ro. Pincke Cust. Coll. Novi Phil. Parsons Aulae Cerv. Princip Tho. Walker Coll. Univers Magist. Tho. Brown Procur Senior Salutem in Christo. SIR I Have received your Letters by the Stationers and with them a Copy of the Articles agreed upon between you These Articles I can find no fault with For certainly it will be more benesicial to the University for the advance of a Learned Press to receive 200 l. a Year than to print Grammars and Almanacks c. And more Honour too when it shall appear to what extraordinary good use you turn this Money I have therefore directed them to my Council to draw the Agreement upon these Articles in Form and so to settle the business and they give good Reason why the fourth Article should be secured apart But I like the Conclusion best of all Namely That this Agreement may determine at the end of Three Years if the University find it so sitting for them For Cambridge as I know not what they will do in this business so neither will I be forward to meddle with them but leave them to use their Privilege in such sort as themselves shall think best True it is that when Bishop Harsenet one of their own was so far from assisting that he oppressed their Privilege and disswaded me yet I stuck close to them and carryed their Business alone Nevertheless they shall never be able to go tell my Lord their Chancellor that I offer to force their Privilege in the least Yet if any difference between Them and the Stationers come in publick I shall moderate things according to reason as far as I can Now in the mean time I shall require this of you and your Successors that this Money which you yearly receive may be kept safe as a stock apart and put to no other use than the settling of a Learned Press and I think it were not amiss that some handsome Register-Book were bought in which might be kept alone your Acts concerning the Settlement of the Press aforesaid and in another part of the Book all your Receipts and all your Disbursements And if you and the Heads like this Proposal of mine I would then have you order it so by an Act of Convocation And I will presently acquaint the King what great good use we are like to make of the gracious Privilege he hath granted least any other Man should tell him we have basely sold it Now to your other Letters And first I pray use any fit means by Letters or otherwise to send to the Doctors that took their Degree at his Majesty's late being in Oxford that each of them repair to the University and perform their Exercise before the Act next ensuing or pay their 20 l. a Man according as was ordered at the time of their Presentation I would likewise you would let them know that this 20 l. a Man shall be turn'd to no other use than to the setting up of the Learned Press that as many of them as mean well may be the forwarder to pay it And further I think it were not amiss to Publish this in Convocation both that it may be known to what use I mean to put the Money and withal that their Friends may take notice and send them word if they will that I am resolved so soon as the Act is over to sue every Man in the Vice-chancellor's Court that pays not his Money if he have not done his Exercise which I will most certainly do without respect of Persons And therefore it is fit it should be made known as soon as may be I pray the next Monday commend me to the Heads and let them know that I expect from them all that their several Companies frequent the Schools diligently and behave themselves there orderly and peaceably and I expect from your self and the Proctors that the Schools be carefully look'd unto and that the Disputations be quick and Scholar-like but not tumultuous Your Predecessor kept them in very good order both his Years and I hope you will not fall short And I pray tell Proctor Brown that whatever his brother Proctor do I expect service from him But my main Business of all is to put you in mind that I have not receved any account from you all this Year how the new Statutes are put in Execution and that not only for matter of Disputations but for all things else And the reason of this my Care to have an Account is two-fold First If the Statutes fall into a neglect and an half Performance now at their beginning and in my own life-time there will be no hope that ever they will recover it after and so all that great and most useful Labour for the University will be lost And I have all the reason in the world to prevent this inconvenience if I can And these two Years of your Vice-chancellorship the observation or the not observation of them therein will be a great help or hindrance to the Statutes for ever Therefore I pray as ever I shall intreat any thing of you take all the care you can in this great business and give me an Account from time to time how it proceeds And you shall do well to send for Doctor Turner and desire him in my name to give you all the assistance he can and you may shew if you will how zealously I have written to you about this Business Secondly Because I remember I have heard that the former Proctors distasted something about the alteration of the Statute for Readers and that since that time there hath been a transmission of that
have done especially that Bishop who stands named in the Margin and against whom in particular the Speech was in part directed should as I conceive to vindicate himself as well as the Cause have taken this task upon him But since I see all Men silent and the Speech go away in triumph as if it were unanswerable truth though the Bill be now past and the Bishops with their Votes cast out of the House and from all Civil Employment yet I thought it fit if not necessary to call this Speech to an account in every passage and with all due respect approve what is just and give the rest such an Answer as it deserves And though you may think this Answer comes too late as indeed it doth to remedy the present Evil yet I have thought fit to go on with these my Endeavours that if these miserable distracted times have an end which I have no hope to live to see the Errours of this Speech may appear and the Bishops perhaps recover their ancient Rights If not as I confess 't is very hard in England that yet the World may see how unjustly they suffer'd and with what misguided Zeal this Lord hath fallen upon the Church as indeed he hath done in all kinds And I pray God something fall not therefore upon Him and His. The Speech then begins thus My Lords I shall not need to begin as high as Adam in answer to what hath been drawn down from thence by a Bishop concerning this Question for that which is pertinent to it will only be what concerns Bishops as they are Ministers of the Gospel What was before being of another Nature can give no Rule to this Whether this Reverend Bishop now Lord Arch-Bishop of York did begin his Speech as high as Adam I cannot tell nor what proof he made after such beginning for I was committed long before this Speech was made but if he did bring it down from Adam I think there may be good Reason for it For it will appear for the two thousand years before the Law and for two thousand years more under the Law of Moses that the Priests especially the High and Chief Priests did meddle in all the great Temporal Affairs which fell out in their times And first for the time before the Law 't is manifest and receiv'd by all Men that the Primogenitus the First-born was Priest and the First-born in the Prime and Leading Families were as the Chief-Priests in their several Generations and 't is more than absurd to think that all these Prime Men in their several Families first and Tribes after being Priests should be estranged from all their Civil and Temporal Affairs and leave them in the hands of Younger and Weaker Men. And as before the Law there is no express Text for this their forbearance to help to manage Civil Affairs so neither can there any sufficient Reason be given why they should abstain Neither did they For instance Abraham was a Priest and a great one for he was a Patriarch Heb. 7. 4. And his Priesthood appears in that he was the first Minister of the Sacrament of Circumcision Gen. 17. 23. and yet he managed his Family and trained up his Servants in that which is most opposite to the Priestly Function even for War Nay took them and went in Person against five Kings and redeemed his Kinsman Lot by the Sword Gen. 14. 14 16. And Melchisedeck who is expresly called the Priest of the high God was King of Salem also a King and a Priest too so both capable by one Person And as he received Tythes as a Priest so no doubt can be made but he ordered and governed Civil Affairs as a King Before these Noah was a Priest and offered Sacrifice Gen. 8. 20. and yet all the great care and trouble of building the Ark and managing the preservation of the whole World was committed to him by God himself and undertook by him Gen. 6. Under the Law the Case comes under fuller and clearer Proof And in the first entrance Moses himself was Saccrdos Sacerdotum the Man that consecrated Aaron Exod. 40. 13. and after reckon'd with 〈◊〉 among the Priests of God Psal. 99.6 and yet the whole Princely Jurisdiction resided in him all his days But God commanded him to settle the Priesthood upon Aaron to teach the World that few Men's Abilities were fit for the Heighth of both those Places since Moses himself was order'd to ordain Aaron and divide the Burthen After this division the High Priest did meddle in Civil Affairs even the greatest as well as Moses continued his Care of the Synagogue In the numbering of the People for War a thing of sole Imperial Cognisance if any Aaron was joined in Commission with Moses by God himself to number them by their Armies and they did it Numb 1. 3. 17. 44. In the ordering of the Standards and Ensigns of the Children of Israel in their removes from place to place God's own Command came alike to Moses and Aaron Numb 2. 1 2. the Silver Trumpets to call the Assemblies of the People together did belong to Moses the People had nothing to do with them nor might they tumultuously assemble but orderly as the Sound of the Trumpets directed them but the Priests the Sons of Aaron were to sound them Num. 10. 8 9,11 And this Duty lay upon them as well when they went to War as when they sacrificed In the Survey of the Land of Promise Aaron was interessed as well as Moses And this appears plainly First in that when the Spies all save Joshua and Caleb had brought up an evil Report upon the Land the People fall into a Murmuring and were as mad against Aaron as against Moses Numb 14. 2 5. Secondly because when the Land of Promise came to be divided among the Tribes no Spiritual business was it and yet in the Commission which Moses gave for the solemn Division of the Land both to Reuben Gad and the half Tribe of Manasses on the one side of Jordan and on the other side to the other Tribes and to all the Princes of the several Tribes of Israel Eleazar the Priest was first and principal Numb 32. 2 28. 34.17 even before Joshua himself and that not only here during Moses his life but even after at the actual Division of the Land to every Tribe though Joshua was then the Leader of the People Josh. 19. 51. In the great Murmuring of the People at Kadesh for want of Water which was like enough to break out into an Insurrection the Commission which God himself gave out to gather the Assembly together and to satisfie the People with Water out of the Rock a harder thing for Moses to do when he looks upon the People than for God when he looks upon the Rock went jointly to Moses and Aaron Numb 20. and they performed it accordingly Thus far it went and in all these great Particulars in Aaron's
me And Jehoiada the High Priest was the preserver of Joash the right Heir of the Crown against the Usurpations of Athaliah and when he had settled him in his Kingdom though not without Force of Arms and they also ordered by Jehoiada 2 Chron. 23. 8. he was inward in his Counsels and was ruled by him in his Marriage 2 Chron. 24. 2. and he died with this Testimony that this young King did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days wherein Jehoiada instructed him 2 King 12. But after his Death you may read what befel Joash 2 Chron. 24. In all the Conduct of this People out of Egypt in which many Temporal Businesses did occur Aaron was joyned with Moses in and through all Thou leadest thy People like sheep saith the Prophet Psal. 77. by or in the Hand of Moses and Aaron The Prophet David was a great Shepherd himself and knew very well what belonged to leading the People and you see he is so far from separating Aaron from Moses in the great work of leading the People that though they be two Persons and have two distinct Powers yet in regard the one is subordinate and subservient to the other they are reputed to have but one Hand in this great Work And therefore in the Original and in all the Translations which render it 't is said in Manu not in Manibus in the Hand not in the Hands of Moses and Aaron So necessary did God in his Wisdom think it that Aaron should be near about Moses in the Government of his People And as the Priests and Levites were great Men in the great Sanhedrim at Jerusalem so were two of them ever in all the lesser Sanhedrims in the several Cities of every Tribe for so Josephus witnesses expresly that two of them were ever allotted to each Magistracy Jeroboam's Sin it was and a great one to make the lowest of the People Priests 1 King 12. 13. and I pray God it be not the Sin of this Age to make the Priests the lowest of the People So by this I think it appears that nothing of like Antiquity can well be more clear than that four thousand years before and under the Law the Priests especially the chief Priests did meddle in and help manage the greatest Temporal Affairs And this as this Honourable Person cannot but know so I presume he was willing warily to avoid For he tells you he shall not need to begin so high Not need And why so Why it is because saith he the Question is only what concerns Bishops as they are Ministers of the Gospel and that which was before being of another Nature can give no Rule to this No Man doubts but this Question in Parliament belongs only to Bishops as they are Ministers of the Gospel nay more particularly than so as they are Ministers of the Gospel in the Church of England only For either this must be said or else granted it must be by this Honourable Lord that the Parliament of England takes upon them to limit Episcopacy through all the Christian World and to teach all States therein what they are to do with their Bishops And this were as bold a part for the English Parliament to do as it is for a private English-man to censure the Parliament And truly for my own part I cannot tell how to excuse the Parliament in this For though in the Act now past there be nothing enacted but that which concerns Bishops and such as are in Holy Orders here because their Power stretches no farther than this Kingdom yet their Aim and their Judgment is general And this appears by the Preface of that Act which runs thus Whereas Bishops and other Persons in Holy Orders ought not to be intangled with Secular Jurisdiction c. Ought not Therefore in their Judgment 't is Malum per se a thing in it felf unlawful for any Man in Holy Orders to meddle in or help manage Temporal Affairs For though their words be Ought not to be intangled which as that word intangled bears sense in English and stands for an absolute hindring of them from the works of their own Calling I grant as well as they yet the Act proceeds generally to divest them of all Power and Jurisdiction in Civil Affairs whether they be intangled with them or not But be it so that this Question belongs to Bishops only as they are Ministers of the Gospel yet why may not the Ancient Usage before the Law and the Law of God Himself give a Rule to this For sure if they can give no Rule in this then can they give no Rule to any thing else under the Gospel that is not simply Moral in it self as well as none to Prelates and their assisting in Temporal Affairs Which Opinion how many things it will disjoynt both in Church and State is not hard to see First then I shall endeavour to make it appear that the practice of pious Men before the Law and the Precept of the Law can give a Rule to many things under the Gospel and then I will examine how and how far those things may be said to be of another Nature which is the Reason given why they can give no Rule in this For the First that they can give a Rule I hope it will appear very plainly For in things that are Typical the Type must praefigure the Antitype and give a kind of Rule to make the Antitype known Therefore in Typical things no Question is or can be made but that the things which were under the Law can give a Rule to us Christians Though this bold Proposition runs universally without excepting things Typical or any other Besides the Priests had a hand in all Temporal Affairs and in matters which were no way Typical but meerly belonging to Order and Government as appears by the Proofs before made And therefore the Jews may be Precedents for Christians which could not possibly be if they could give us no Rule Nor is this any new Doctrine For that ancient Commentary under the Name of St Ambrose tells us expresly that that which is mentioned by St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. 30. is a Custom of the Synagogue which he would have us to follow And as this Doctrine is not new so neither is it refused by later Writers and some of them as Learned almost as this Lord. For that which was ordered 1 Chron. 23. 30. that they should stand every Morning and Evening to thank and praise the Lord is precedent enough to presume that the like is not against the Law of God And Calvin speaks it out expresly In regard saith he that God himself instituted that they should offer Sacrifice Morning and Evening inde colligitur it is thence collected plainly that the Church cannot want a certain Discipline So here the Jews Discipline gives an express Rule to us And it is very learnedly and truly observed by a late Writer
of another Nature and so he is at a loss in that And if it be of another Nature yet it appears by the Apostle's practice that for all that it can give a Rule in this For that which can give the Apostle a Rule can give a Rule to us And so he is at a loss in the whole Proposition For whether that which was before be or be not of another Nature yet it can give a Rule I have been long upon this Passage because I conceive the main Controversie hangs and turns upon this hinge And if any Reader think it long or tedious or be of this Lord's Mind that he need not go so high for Proof yet let him pardon me who in this am quite of another Judgment And for the pardon I shall gratifie him by being as brief as possibly I can in all that follows Thus then this Lord proceeds The Question which will lye before your Honours in passing this Bill is not Whether Episcopacy I mean this Hierarchical Episcopacy which the World now holds forth to us shall be taken away Root and Branch but Whether those exuberant and superfluous Branches which draw away the Sapp from the Tree and divert it from the right and proper use whereby it becomes unfruitful shall be cut off as they use to pluck up Suckers from the Root After this Lord had told us we need not go so high for the business he comes now to state the present Question Where he tells us what himself means by Episcopacy Namely Hierarchical Episcopacy such as is properly and now commonly so called in the World And this his Lordship adds because of that distinction made by Beza in his Tract de Triplici Episcopatu Divino scilicet Humano Satanico In which what part Beza plays I will forbear to speak but leave him and his Gall of bitterness to the Censure of the Learned Sir Edw. Deering in his printed Speeches tells us that others in milder Language keep the same sense and say there is Episcopus Pastor Praeses and Princeps So in his account Episcopus Princeps Satanicus is all one in milder terms But the Truth is that in the most learned and flourishing Ages of the Church the Bishops were and were called Principes Chief and Prime and Prince if you will in Church Affairs For so Optatus calls them the Chief and Princes And so likewise did divers others of the Fathers even the best learned and most devout And this Title is given to Diocesan or Hierarchical Bishops which doubtless these Fathers would neither have given nor taken had Episcopus Princeps and Satanicus been all one Nor would Calvin have taught us that the Primitive Church had in every Province among their Bishops one Arch-Bishop and that in the Council of Nice Patriarchs were appointed which should be in order and dignity above Bishops had he thought either such Bishops or arch-Arch-Bishops to have been Satanical And had Beza lived in those times he would have been taught another Lesson And the Truth is Beza when he wrote that Tract had in that Argument either little Learning or no Honesty But for this Lord whether he means by Hierarchical Episcopacy the same which Beza I will not determine He uses a Proper word and a Civil and I will not purpose to force him into a worse meaning than he hath or make him a worse Enemy to the Church if worse he may be than he is already Though I cannot but doubt he is bathed in the same Tub. Having told us what he means by Episcopacy he states the business thus That the Question is not whether this Hierarchical Episcopacy shall be taken away Root and Branch So then I hope this Lord will leave a Hierarchy such as it shall be in the Church We shall not have it all laid level We shall not have that Curse of Root and Branch for less it is not laid upon us Or at least not yet But what shall follow in time when this Bill hath us'd its edge I know not Well if not Root and Branch taken away what then What why 't is but whether those exuberant and superfluous Branches which draw away the Sapp from the Tree and divert it from the right and proper use whereby it becomes unfruitful shall be cut off as they use to pluck up Suckers from the Root This Lord seems to be a good Husbandman but what he will prove in the Orchard or Garden of the Lord I know not For most true it is that Suckers are to be plucked from the Root and as true that in the prime and great Vine there are some Branches which bear no fruit and our Saviour himself tells us that they which are such are to be taken away St. Joh. 15. 2. And therefore I can easily believe it that in Episcopacy which is a far lower Vine under and in the Service of Christ and especially in the husbanding of it there may be some such Branches as this Lord speaks of which draw away Sapp and divert it and make the Vine less fruitful and no doubt but such Branches are to be cut off So far I agree and God forbid but I should But then there are divers other Questions to be made and answered before this sharp Lord fall to cutting As first What Branches they be which are Exuberant and Superfluous as this Lord is pleased to call them What time is fittest to cut them off Whether they be not such as with Pruning may be made fruitful If not then how near to the Body they are to be cut off Whether this Lord may not be mistaken in the Branches which he thinks divert the Sapp Whether a Company of Lay-Men without any Order or Ordinance from Christ without any Example from the days of Christ may without the Church take upon them to prune and order this Vine For whatever this Lord thinks in the over abundance of his own Sense the Lord hath appointed Husbandmen to order and prune this Vine and all the Branches of it in his Church without his Usurpation of their Office And while he uses a Bill which is too boisterous a Weapon for a Vine instead of a Pruning-hook the Church it self which is the Vine which bears Episcopacy may bleed to death in this Kingdom before Men be aware of it And I am in great fear if things go on as they are projected that Religion is upon taking its leave of this Kingdom But this Lord hath not quite done stating the Question for he tells us next That The Question will be no more but this Whether Bishops shall be reduced to what they were in their first advancement over the Presbyters which although it were but a Humane device for the Remedy of Schism yet were they in those times least offensive or continue still with the addition of such things as their own Ambition and the Ignorance and Superstition of succeeding times did add thereunto and which are now
continued for several Political Ends things Heterogeneal and Inconsistent with their Calling and Function as they are Ministers of the Gospel and thereupon such as ever have been and ever will be hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others in the times and places where they are continued Here my Lord states the Question again He did it before under the Metaphor of a Tree and the Branches Here that Men of narrow Comprehensions may not mistake him he lays it down in plain Terms and tells us the Question is no more but this Whether Bishops shall be reduced to what they were in their first advancement over the Presbyters And you may be sure they shall be reduc'd if they once fall into the Hands of this Zealous Lord. Reduc'd out of doubt every way if he may have his will saving to that which they were in the Original which his Lordship calls their first advancement over the Presbyters For my own part if it be thought fit to reduce the Christian Church to her first Beginnings give us the same power and use us with the same Reverence for our Works sake as then our Predecessours were used and reduce us in God's name when you will But this Lord's Zeal burns quite another way He tells us indeed that the Question is no more but whether Bishops shall be reduced to what they were in their first Advancement over the Presbyters but he means nothing less than their reducement thither and this is manifest out of his own next Words For there he says their first advancement was but a Humane Device for avoiding of Schism But a Humane Device Why first our Saviour himself chose twelve Apostles out of the whole number of his Disciples and made them Bishops and advanced over the Presbyters and all other believing Christians and gave them the Name of Bishops as well as of Apostles as appears since that Name was given even to Judas also as well as to the other Apostles and to the other Apostles as well as to Judas since Matthias was chosen by God himself both into the Bishoprick and Apostleship of Judas Acts 1. 20 24 25. Now that Christ himself did ordain the Apostles over the ordinary Disciples Presbyters or others is evident also in the very Text for he chose them out of his Disciples S. Luk. 6. And to what end was this chusing out if after this choise they remained no more than they were before Nay he chose them out with a special Ordination to a higher Function as appears S. Mar. 3. where 't is said He ordained twelve that they should be with him that is in a higher and nearer Relation than the rest were Nay more than so the Word there used by S. Mark is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he made them he made them somewhat which before that making they were not that is Apostles and Bishops Had they been such before it could not have been said that he made them then And our last Translation renders it very well He Ordained them so belike this Making was a new Ordination of them And this appears farther by the choice of Matthias into the Apostleship of Judas For Matthias was one of the Seventy when he was chosen and then this choice needed not if the LXX had been before of equal Place and Calling with the Apostles For as S. Jerome speaks he that is preferred is preferr'd de Minori ad Majus from a less and a lower to a greater and a higher Degree Now it is Traditio Vniversalis the constant and universal Tradition of the whole Church of Christ which is of greatest Authority next to Scripture it self that Bishops are Successors of the Apostles and Presbyters made in resemblance of the LXX Disciples And so the Institution of Christ himself for so by this Lord's leave I shall ever take Episcopacy to be is made but a Humane Device to avoid Schism But there hath been so much written of late to prove Episcopacy no Humane Device that I will not trouble the Reader with any more of it here only we are thus far beholding to this Lord that he thinks Bishops were in those times least offensive so belike in the Apostles times they were offensive though less And this makes me doubt he thinks as much of the Apostles themselves since they were so ambitious as to take on them Superiority over their Brethren which this great Lord of the Separation for so he is cannot endure as being Antichristian and therefore certainly if he may have his Will will reduce the Bishops farther yet till they be of his Marring and not of Christ's Making The other part of the Question stated by this Lord is Or whether the Bishops shall continue still with the additon of such things as their own Ambition and the Ignorance and Superstition of succeeding times did add unto them I would my Lord had been pleased to tell us what those things are which he says are thus added unto them I should much the better have seen what his Lordship aims at and been able to come up the closer to him Now I must be forced to answer him in general That there are many things of Honour and Profit which Emperours and great Kings have conferred upon Bishops to the better Settlement of their Calling and the great advancement of Christianity and for which Bishops in all times and places in which they have lived have been both thankful and very serviceable And I could give many instances in this Kingdom of such Services done by them as this Lord and all his Posterity will never equal But what things their own Ambition or the Ignorance and Superstition of succeeding times have added to them I may know when this busie Lord is at leisure to tell me In the mean time I doubt the Piety and Devotion of these times is here miscalled Ignorance and Superstition while the Knowledge of these times in too many is a running headlong into Sacrilege as the best way to cure Superstition But these things what ever they be his Lordship tells us are now continued for several politick Ends. Yea and with his Lordship's favour for several and great Religious Ends too But if they were continued for Politick Ends only so the Policyes be good and befitting Christians I know no Reason why they may not be continued For as for that which is here given by this Lord 't is either weak or false He says these things are Heterogeneal to their Function that 's weak For 't is not possible for any Priest that is not Cloistered to live so in the World as to meddle with nothing that is Heterogeneal to their Function And he says farther that these things are inconsistent with their Function and that 's false For if these things were simply inconsistent with Priesthood God himself would never have made Ely both Priest and Judge in Israel Nor should Six of each Tribe have been of the Sanhedrim and so
by Consequence Six of the Tribe of Levi and so the High Priest might be always one and a chief in that great Court which had Cognizance of all things in that Government And their Functions as they are Ministers of the Gospel is no more inconsistent with these things than the Levitical Preisthood was For beside their Sacrificing they were to read and expound the Law as well as we the Gospel For so it is expresly set down Deut. 33. 10. They that is the Tribe of Levi shall teach Jacob thy Judgments and Israel thy Laws So that medling with Temporal Affairs was as great a Distraction to them from their Calling as from ours and as inconsistent with it and so as hurtful to their Consciences and their Credits And would God put all this upon them which this Lord thinks so unlawful for us if it were so indeed But this Lord goes yet farther and tells us that these things are such as have ever been and will ever be hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others in the times and places where they are continued Good God! what fools we poor Bishops are as were also our Predecessours for many hundred years together that neither they nor we could see and discern what was and is hurtful to our selves nor what then did or yet doth make us hurtful to others in times and places where they are continued to us And surely if my Lord means by this our medling in Civil Affairs when our Prince calls us to it as I believe he doth I doubt his Lordship is much deceived For certainly if herein the Bishops do their Duties as very many of them in several Kingdoms have plentifully done they cannot hurt themselves by it and to others and the very Publick it self it hath occasioned much good both in Church and State But now my Lord will not only tell us what these things are but he will prove it also that they are hurtful to us And these things alone says my Lord this Bill takes away that is their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs I shall insist upon this to shew First how these things hurt themselves and Secondly how they have made and ever will make them hurtful to others These things then you see which are so hurtful and dangerous to Bishops themselves and make them as hurtful to others are their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs Where First for Offices I know no Bishop since the Reformation that hath been troubled with any but only Dr. Juxon when Bishop of London was Lord High Treasurer of England for about Five Years And he was made when the King's Affairs were in a great strait and to my knowledge he carried so that if he might have been left to himself the King might have been preserved from most of those Difficulties into which he after fell for want of Money As all Kings shall be hazarded more or less in some time or other of their Reign and much the more if their Purses be empty and they forced to seek Aid from their Subjects And this as 't is every where true yet 't is most true in England As for Places in Courts of Judicature the Bishops of England have ever sat all of them in Parliament the highest Court ever since Parliaments were in England And whatsoever is now thought of them they have in their several Generations done great Services there And as I conceive it is not only fit but necessary they should have Votes in that great Court howsoever the late Act hath shut them out and that Act must in time be repealed or it shall undoubtedly be worse for this Kingdom than yet it is The Bishops sat in no other Courts but the Star Chamber and the High Commission And of these the High Commission was most proper for them to sit and see Sin punish'd For no Causes were handled there but Ecclesiastical and those such as were very heinous either for the Crime it self or the Persons which committed it being too great or too wilful to be ruled by the inferiour Jurisdictions As for the Star Chamber there were ordinarily but two Bishops present and it was fit some should be there For that Court was a mix'd Court of Law Equity Honour and Conscience and was compos'd of Persons accordingly from the very Original of that Court. For there were to be there two Judges to take care of the Laws and two Bishops to look to the Conscience and the rest Men of great Offices or Birth or both to preserve the Honour and all of them together to maintain the Equity of the Court. So here were but two Bishops employ'd and those only twice a Week in Term time As for the Council Table that was never accounted a Court yet as Matters Civil were heard and often ended there so were some Ecclesiastical too But the Bishops were little honoured with this Trouble since the Reformation For many times no Bishop was of the Council-Table and usually not above two Once in King James's time I knew Three and once Four and that was was the highest and but for a short time And certainly the fewer the better if this Lord can prove that which he says he will insist upon that those things are hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others And to do this he proceeds They themselves art hurt thereby in their Conscience and in their Credits In their Conscience by seeking and admitting things which are inconsistent with that Function and Office which God hath set them apart unto His Lordship begins with this That the Bishops are hereby hurt both in their Consciences and their Credits Two great hurts indeed if by these things they be wounded in their Consciences towards God and in their Credits before Men. But I am willing to hope these are not real but imaginary hurts and that this Lord shall not be able to prove it otherwise Yet I see he is resolved to labour it as much as he can And first he would prove that these things and not the ambitious seeking of them only but the very admitting of them though offer'd or in a manner laid upon some of them by the Supream Power are hurtful to their Consciences because they are inconsistent with the Function to which God hath set them apart But I have proved already that they are not inconsistent with that Function and so there 's an end of this Argument For Bishops without neglect of their Calling may spend those few Hours required of them in giving their assistance in and to the forenamed Civil Affairs And 't is well known that S. Augustin did both in great Perfection so high up in the Primitive Church and in that Great and Learned Age For he complains that he had nor Fore-noon nor After-noon free he was so held to it Occupationibus
to be understood of another Kingdom and that this Text meddles with no Temporal either Offices or Employments but that by occasion of this our Saviour preaches Humility to them yet so as still to keep up Authority and Government in the Church to which he applies it And for that other parallel Place be ye not called Rabbi S. Matth. 23. 8. that cannot prejudice all Juridiction in Men in Holy Orders as if to meddle with it were forbidden by Christ or as if it were Antichristian as now 't is made since it is plain that Christ there forbids neither the Title nor the Preheminence nor the Authority but the Vain-glorious Affectation of it ver 5 6. and that 's a Sin indeed no Man doubts And it may be observed too if this Lord pleases that this Precept was given to the People too as well as to the Disciples ver 1. and then for ought I know this Truth will come in as strongly to pull down Temporal Lords as Bishops and what will his Lordship say to that As for that which is added by this Lord If ye strive for Greatness he shall be greatest who is the greatest Servant to the rest Though the words differ somewhat from the Text yet my Lord must be content to hear that there is a twofold Greatness the one in God's account and that 's Greatness indeed And so our Saviour means it here that he is Greatest who is the greatest Servant to the rest if this Lord will needs read it so The other is in Man's account when one Man hath Power and Superiority over another and which was that which the Apostles affected In which case though our Saviour's Precept be Whosoever will be great among you let him be your Servant that is the more serviceable to you and the Church the greater he is yet these words it shall not be so with you do not deny this Authority or Greatness which one may have over another in the Church of Christ for the necessary Government thereof though they neither do nor may Domineer over their Brethren And therefore where St. Matthew reads it he that will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first among you there St. Luke hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chief or Leader Nor doth he say so as St. Matthew does he that would be so but he that is which argues clearly that even in our Saviour's own account and Institution too there was then and should be after his Ascension greater and less such as were to lead and such as were to be led No Parity and yet no barbarous Lording but orderly and Christian Governing in the Church And this must needs be so or else Christ lest his Church in a worse Condition than this Lord acknowledges the Civil Governments were among the Heathen which he says might lawfully govern so For I hope he will not say that even the Heathen might tyrannize If this be not sufficient this Lord puts us in mind that our Saviour says in another place That he which lays his hand to the Plough and looks back to the things of this World is not sit for the Kingdom of God that is the Preaching of the Gospel as 't is usually called St. Luke 9. ult Where first it may be doubted whether this laying of the hand to the Plough belong to the Ministers of the Gospel only or to others also For if it belongs to others as well as to them though perhaps not so much then no Christian though he be not a Minister may have to do with Worldly Affairs and then we shall have a devout wise World quickly Secondly it may be doubted too whether this looking back be any kind of meddling at all with worldly Affairs or such a meddling as shall so entangle the Husbandman that his Plough stands still or so bewitches him that he forsakes his Plough that is his Calling altogether If it be no meddling at all no Man can live if it be no meddling but that which entangles then any Minister may meddle with Worldly Affairs so far and so long as he entangles not himself with them And so far as to entangle himself no Christian may meddle that will live Godly in Christ Jesus If this be not sufficient this Lord will prove it e'er he hath done for he goes on To be thus withdrawn by entangling themselves with the Affairs of this Life by the Necessity and Duty of an Office receiv'd from Men from the Discharge of that Office which God hath called them to brings a Woe upon them Woe unto me saith the Apostle if I Preach not the Gospel What doth he mean If I Preach not once a Quarter or once a Year in the King's Chapel No. He himself interprets it preach the Word be instant in season and out of season rebuke exhort or instruct with all long-Suffering and Doctrine He that hath an Office must attend on his Office especially this of the Ministery I see my Lord will not mend his Terms though they marr the Sense and mislay the Question For no Man says that which this Lord so often repeats namely that a Bishop or any other Clergy-Man may entangle himself with the Affairs of this Life which yet may be with Covetousness and Voluptuous Living as much or more than with being called to Council in Civil Affairs by any Office received from Man from the discharge of that Office which God hath called them unto No! God forbid this would bring a Woe upon them indeed But since no Man says it this Lord fights here with his own Shadow For all that is said is this that a Bishop being grown old and full of Experience if the King or the State in which he lives thinks him for his Wisdom Experience and Fidelity fit to be employed in Civil Councils or Affairs be it with an Office or without the Bishop may lawfully undertake this so he be able to discharge it without deserting the Office which God and his Church have laid upon him But if he takes it and be not able to discharge both or being able doth loiter and not discharge them either of these is Vitium Hominis the fault of the Person but the thing is lawful As for the place of Scripture which his Lordship adds I doubt his Lordship understands it not as the Apostle means it for 't is a Text very much abused by ignorant Zeal For when he saith Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 16. what doth he mean if he Preach not once a Quarter No sure that 's too seldom What then if he Preach not once a Year in the King's Chapel No sure much less For in those days there was no King in Corinth nor any where else that was Christian to have a Chapel to Preach in So this Lord might have let this Scorn alone had it so pleased him No nor is it
if a Man Prate not three or four times a Week in one of his Lordship's Independent Congregations and then call it Preaching The Apostle knew no such Schismatical Conventicles No sure None of this Why but what is this Preaching then the neglect whereof draws this Woe after it This he tells you St. Paul interprets himself 2 Tim. 4. 2. 't is to Preach the Word 'T is indeed and neither Schism nor Sedition which are the common Themes of these Times 'T is to be instant in Preaching the Word as God gives Ability and Opportunity 't is to be instant in season and out of season that is to take God's Opportunity rather than our own and not Preach out of season only as some of this Lord 's great Favourites use to do 't is to rebuke exhort and instruct with Knowledge and Gravity and not spend Hours in idle and empty Discourses And all this is to be done with all long-Suffering and Doctrine and let the Clergy but study hard and provide that their Doctrine be sound and good and I will pass my word this Lord and his Friends shall take order they shall do it with all the long Suffering that may be and if they do not suffer enough or not long enough it shall not be his Fault so dearly doth he love that they should Preach the Word Nay I must go farther yet To preach the Word in this manner is not only to go up into the Pulpit and thence deliver wholsom and pious Instructions and necessary and Christian Reproof though this be as the commendable so the ordinary way of publick Preaching that most at once may hear For he may be said to Preach the Gospel that any ways declares Christ 〈◊〉 and informs the Understandings and Consciences of Men for right Belief and true Obedience be it privately or publickly be it by word of Mouth or by Writing and a Man may be seasonably instant this way sometimes when in the publick way of Preaching he cannot And if this be not so how is it said of the Apostles Acts 5. 42. that in the Temple and in every House they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ Acts. 20. 20. I have taught you publickly and from House to House And I believe some Bishops whom this Lord in this passage is pleased to jeer at have preached more and to more purpose than any of his Lordship's Divinity-darlings That which follows is true that he which hath an Office must wait upon his Office Rom. 12. 7. and especially this of the Ministery of which Office there the Apostle principally treats But this again no Man denies And yet by his Lordship's good leave no Man is bound to starve by waiting upon his Office He must wait upon it that 's true but he must provide necessarys too that he may be able to wait Next this Lord tells us The Practice of the Apostles is answerable to the Direction and Doctrine of our Saviour There never was nor will be Men of so great Abilities and Gifts as they were endued withal yet they thought it so inconsistent with their Calling to take Places of Judicature in Civil Matters and Secular Affairs and Employments upon them that they would not admit of the Care and Distraction that a business far more agreable to their Callings than these would cast upon them and they give the Reason of it in the Sixth of the Acts v. 2. It is not Reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve Tables There is no doubt but that the Practice of the Apostles was answerable to the Direction and Doctrine of our Saviour And as certainly true it is that there never were nor ever will be Men of so great Abilities and Gifts in Supernatural and Heavenly things especially as they were endued withal But how will this Lord prove that they thought it a thing absolutely inconsistent with their Callings to meddle with Temporal or Civil Affairs No one of them hath in any place of Scripture expressed so much Against entangling themselves with the World and the Affairs of it I confess they have but no more Yet this Lord proves it thus They would not admit of the Care and Distraction that a business far more agreeable to their Calling than these would cast upon them His Lordship means the Deacon's Office And therefore surely they would not take these But this Argument by his Lordship's leave is inconsequent For if any Offices or Employments how agreeable soever to their Calling bring with them such Care and Distraction as shall in a manner quite take them off from Preaching the Gospel the Apostles did not and their Successours may not trouble themselves with them When as yet the Apostles might and their Successours may take on them other Employments though in their Nature less agreeable to their Calling if they be less distractive from it Now the Deacon's Office as it was then brought more trouble upon them for the Poor and the Widows than any Places of Judicature or Council do upon Clergy-men now Which may appear by the very Reason they have given and here remembred that it was no Reason they should leave the Word of God and serve Tables For there it is not said that they might not at all meddle with the ordering of those Tables but that it was not fit they should so meddle with them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving the word of God to attend them And this to do no Man says is lawful now But his Lordship presses this Argument yet farther And again when they had appointed them to choose Men fit for that business they institute an Office rather for taking Care of the Poor than they by it would be distracted from the principal Work of their Calling and then shew how they ought to apply themselves But we say they will give ourselves continually unto Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word Did the Apostles Men of extraordinary Gifis think it unreasonable for them to be hinder'd from giving themselves continually to preaching the Word and Prayer by taking care for the Tables of Poor Widows and can Bishops now think it reasonable or lawful for them to contend for sitting at Council Tables to govern States to turn States-men instead of Churchmen to sit in the highest Courts of Judicature and to be employed in making Laws for Civil Polities and Government It is true indeed that the Apostles appointed the Disciples to choose Men fit for that business and that they did institute the Office of Deacons to take care of the Poor rather than they would be distracted from the principal Work of their Calling But when was this done When Why not till the Disciples were multiplied not till there arose Contentions between the Greeks and the Hebrews that that their Widows were neglected in the daily Ministration Acts 6. 1. Therefore till the Work grew so heavy and the Contentions so warm the Apostles themselves did order those
never move His Majesty directly or indirectly for that Honour and was surprized with it as altogether unlooked for when His Majesty's Resolution therein was made known unto him Nor ever did that Bishop take so much upon him as a Justiceship of the Peace or meddle with any Lay-Employment save what the Laws and Customs of this Realm laid upon him in the High Commission and the Star-Chamber while those Courts were in being and continued Preaching till he was Threescore and four and then was taken off by Writing of his Book against Fisher the Jesuit being then not able at those Years to continue both And soon after the World knows what trouble befel him and in time they will know why too I hope Besides the Care of Government which is another part of a Bishop's Office and a necessary one too lay heavy upon him in these Factious and broken Times especially And whatsoever this Lord thinks of it certainly though Preaching may be more necessary for the first planting of a Church yet Government is more noble and necessary too where a Church is planted as being that which must keep Preaching and all things else in order And Preaching as 't is now used hath as much need to be kept in order as any even the greatest Extravagance that I know Nor is this out of Christ's Commission Pasce Oves John 21. 15. for the feeding of his Sheep For a Shepherd must guide govern and defend his Sheep in the Pasture as well as drive them to it And he must see that their Pasture be not tainted too or else they will not thrive upon it And then he may be answerable for the Rot that falls among them The Rhetorick goes farther yet To contend for sitting at Council Tables to govern States No but yet to assist them being called by them To have States-Men instead of Church-Men No but doing the Duty of Church-Men to mingle pious Counsels with States-Mens Wisdom To sit in the highest Courts of Judicature And why not in a Kingdom where the Laws and Customs require it Not to be employed in making Laws for Civil Polities and Government And I conceive there is great Reason for this in the Kingdom of England and greater since the Reformation than before Great Reason because the Bishops of England have been accounted and truly been grave and experienced Men and far fitter to have Votes in Parliaments for the making of Laws than many young Youths which are in either House And because it is most fit in the making of Laws for a Kingdom that some Divines should have Vote and Interest to see as much as in them lies that no Law pass which may perhaps though unseen to others intrench upon Religion it self or the Church And I make no doubt but that these and the like Considerations settled it so in England where Bishops have had their Votes in Parliaments and in making Laws ever since there were Parliaments yea or any thing that resembled them in this Kingdom And for my part were I able to give no Reason at all why Bishops should have Votes in Parliament yet I should in all Humility think that there was and is still some great Reason for it since the Wisdom of the State hath successively in so many Ages thought it fit And as there is great Reason they should have Votes in making Laws so is there greater Reason for it since the Reformation than before For before that time Clergy-Men were governed by the Church Canons and Constitutions and the Common Laws of England had but little Power over them Then in the Year 1532. the Clergy submitted and an Act of Parliament was made upon it So that ever since the Clergy of England from the Highest to the Lowest are as much subject to the Temporal Laws as any other Men and therefore ought to have as free a Vote and Consent to the Laws which bind them as other Subjects have Yet so it is that all Clergy-Men are and have long since been excluded from being Members of the House of Commons and now the Bishops and their Votes by this last Act are cast out of the Lord's House By which it is at this Day come to pass that by the Justice of England as now it stands no Clergy-Man hath a Consent by himself or his Proxy to those Laws to which all of them are bound In the mean time before I pass from this Point this Lord must give me leave to put him in mind of that which was openly spoken in both Houses that the Reason why there was such a Clamour against the Bishops Votes was because all or most of them Voted for the King so that the potent Faction could not carry what they pleased especially in the Vpper House And when some saw they could not have their Will to cast out their Votes fairly the Rabble must come down again and Clamour against their Votes not without danger to some of their Persons And come they did in Multitudes But who procured their coming I know not unless it were this Lord and his Followers And notwithstanding this is as clear as the Sun and was openly spoken in the House that this was the true Cause only why they were so angry with the Bishops Votes yet this most Godly and Religious Lord pretends here a far better Cause than this namely that they may as they ought carefully attend to the Preaching of the Word and not be distracted from that great Work by being troubled with these Worldly Affairs And I make no doubt but that the same Zeal will carry the same Men to the devout taking away the Bishops and the Church Lands and perhaps the Parsons Tythes too and put them to such Stipends as they shall think fit that so they may Preach the Gospel freely and not be drawn away with these Worldly Affairs from the principal Work of that Function Well! my Lord must give me leave here to Prophesie a little and 't is but this in short Either the Bishops shall in few Years recover of this Hoarseness and have their Honour and their Votes in Parliament again or before many Years be past all Baseness Barbarity and Confusion will go near to possess both this Church and Kingdom But this Lord hath yet somewhat more to say namely that If they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments they must not be there as ignorant Men but must be knowing in Business of State and understand the Rules and Laws of Government and thereby both their Time and Studies must be necessarily diverted from that which God hath called them unto And this surely is much more Vnlawful for them to admit of than that which the Apostles rejected as a distraction unreasonable for them to be interrupted by Why but yet if they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments what then Why then they must not sit there as ignorant Men
but they must be knowing Men and understand the Rules and Laws of Government This is most true and if any Man sit in those places as an Ignorant 't is an ill Choice that is made of him and he doth not well that accepts them But sure if Bishops sit there as Ignorants they are much to be blamed For if they spend their younger Studies before they meddle with Divinity as they may and ought sure there is some great Defect in them if they be not as knowing Men in the Rules of Government as most Noblemen or others are who spend all their younger time in Hawking and Hunting and somewhat else And this younger time of theirs if Bishops have spent as they ought they may with a little Care and Observation and without any great Diversion of their Time and Studies from that which God hath called them unto perform those Places with great Knowledge and much Happiness to the States in which they serve as hath formerly in this and doth at present in other Neighbouring States appear And for ought this Lord knows if some Counsels had been followed which some Bishops gave neither the King nor the State nor the Church had been in that ill Condition in which they now are Nor are these Places more Unlawful for Bishops to admit of in these Times and Conditions of the Church than that which the Apostles rejected as a Distraction but not as an unreasonable one in those Times and Beginnings of Christianity as is proved before But the Zeal of this Lord burns still and as it hath fired him already out of the Church and made him a Separatist so it would now sire the Bishops out of the State and make them Members of Antichrist His Lordship goes on therefore and as before he told us the Practice of the Apostles was answerable to the Doctrine of Christ so here he tells us again The Doctrine of the Apostles is agreeable to their Practice herein For St. Paul when he instructs Timothy for the Work of the Ministery presseth this Argument from the Example of a good Soldier No Man that warreth entangleth himself with the Affairs of the World The Doctrine of the Apostles is agreeable indeed to their Practice herein and in all things else and I would to God with all my Heart this Lord's Opinions were agreeable to either their Practice or their Doctrine and then I am sure he would be a better Soldier for Christ than this poor Church hath cause to believe he is But his Lordship says that Paul when he instructs Timothy for the Work of the Ministery presseth this Argument from the Example of a good Soldier That no Man that warreth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 entangles himself with the Affairs of the World The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies involvere permiscere se to involve and as it were throughly to mingle himself with that which he undertakes to be so busied ut extricare se non possit that he cannot untwist himself out of the Employment And I easily grant that no good Christian much less any good Bishop may so entangle himself with the World as either to Desert his Calling or to be so distracted from it as not to do his Duty in it But this bars not all meddling with it For the Geneva Note upon that place says plainly he may not extangle himself no not so much as with his Houshold and other ordinary Affairs But then if he shall not meddle with or take care of these at all he may beg or starve unless he have better Means than the Competency which this Devout Age thinks sufficient for the Ministery Nay which is more he may by so doing fall under that heavy Sentence of the Apostle 1 Tim. 5. 8. That if he provide not for his own he hath denied the Faith and is worse than are Insidels Nay which is yet more if all meddling with Temporal Affairs all Care of the World be an Entanglement the Clergy must needs be in a Perplexity whatsoever they do For if they meddle with any Worldly Business and entangle themselves they do that they ought not 2 Tim. 2. 4. And if they do not meddle with Worldly Affairs and so do not provide for their own and provide they cannot without some meddling Then for sear of this Lord 's sowr Divinity that all meddling with is entangling in them they are worse than Infidels Now a Perplexity which shall wrap a Man up in Sin which way soever he sets himself to Action is so contrary to Divine Justice as that no Law or Scripture of God can command it nor any right Reason of Man approve it But examining this Text farther I find two things more observable The one that the Soldier here whose Example is the ground of this Argument is not bound under Pain of any Sin not to busie himself with the Affairs of this Life but he doth it not saith the Text to the end he may please him whose Soldier he is So then if any Man the better to please God forbears this Employment and his Conscience and Love to his Calling be his Motives so to do he does well But if another Man who hath no scruple in himself and finds he can do both without an Entanglement by the one to the prejudice of the other and thereupon be so employ'd for ought I know he doth not sin The other is perhaps this Lord may find that St. Paul here in this place instructs Timothy not so much for the Work of the Ministery as here he affirms as for the general Work of Christianity For Ver. 1. he exhorts to Constancy and Perseverance that he be strong in the Grace which is in Jesus Christ. And then this Argument falls upon other Christians as well as upon Ministers though not so much And then I hope this Lord who is so careful for our Spiritual Warfare will take some care of his own also if the great care which he takes at this present for the Militia of the Kingdom entangles him not But his Lordship is now come to conclude this Point I conclude That which by the Commandment of our Saviour by the Practice and Doctrine of the Apostles and I may add by the Canons of ancient Councils grounded thereupon is prohibited to Ministers of the Gospel and shewed to be such a distraction unto them from their Calling and Function as will bring a Woe upon them and is not reasonable for them to admit of if they shall notwithstanding entangle themselves withal and enter into it will bring a Guilt upon their Souls and hurt them in respect of their Consciences His Lordship is now come so he tells us to conclude this Point and in this Conclusion he artificially sums up and briefly all his Arguments I shall as briefly touch at my Answers before given and stay upon nothing unless I find somewhat new This done I shall wait upon him for that 's his desire Clergy-Men
should to the next Point And truly I find nothing new in the folding up this Conclusion but that he says he may add that Ministers are prohibited from meddling with Wordly Affairs by the Canons of Antient Councils grounded upon the Apostles Doctrine The Church is much beholding to this Lord that he will vouchsafe to name her Antient Councils He doth not use to commit this Fault often and yet lest he should sin too much in this kind he doth but tell you that he may add these but he adds them not It may be he doubts that if he should name those Canons some sufficient Answer might be given them and yet the Truth remain firm that it is not only lawful but fit and expedient in some times and cases for Bishops to intermeddle with and give Counsel in Temporal Affairs and though this Lord names none yet I will produce and examine such Canons and Antient Councils as I find and see what they say in this business The first I meet withal is But here I find my self met with and prevented too by a Book entituled Episcopacy asserted made by a Chaplain of mine Mr. Jer. Taylor who hath learnedly looked into and answered such Canons of Councils as are most quick upon Bishops or other Clergy-Men for meddling much in Temporal Affairs And therefore thither I refer the Reader being not willing to trouble him with saying over another Man's Lesson only I shall examine such Councils if any I find which my Chaplain hath not met with or omitted And the last that I meet with is the Council of Sardis which though the last is as high up in the Church as about the Year 347. And there was a Canon to restrain Prelats from their frequent resorts to the Court Yet there are many Cases left at large in which they are permitted to use their own Judgment and Freedom So that Canon seems to bring along with it rather Counsel than Command And howsoever they are well left to their Liberty as I conceive it because to frequent the Court as over-loving the place is one thing and to go thither though often when good Cause calls for them be that Cause Spiritual or Temporal is far from an Offence For if it be Spiritual they must go that 's their Office and Duty directly And I see no Reason why the Physitians should be forbid to visit the places of greatest Sickness This I am sure of Constantine the Great commanded the personal attendance of Bishops and other Clergy-Men in his Court. And if it be Temporal they may go that 's their Duty by Consequence especially if they be called For as their exemplary Piety may move much so do I not yet know any designs of State which are made the worse by Religion or any Counsels of Princes hurt by being communicated with Bishops in whom doth or should reside the Care of Religion and Religious Conversation But perchance I have known some Counsels miscarry for want of this The next is the first Council at Carthage and there the Prohibition runs thus They which are of the Clergy non accedant ad Actus seu Administrationem vel Procurationem domorum which forbids as I conceive it this only that they should not be Stewards of the Houses or Bailiffs of the Lands of great Persons And this may be both in regard of the great trouble belonging to such Places and the hazard of Scandal which might arise in case there should happen any failure in such great Accounts And in the Code of the African Councils it is thus read non sint Conductores Procuratores nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhonesto negotio victum quaerant which I think is the truer Reading And then this Council doth not fordid all meddling in in Secular Affairs but such as by their dishonest gain draw Scandal upon the Church And there is great Reason such should be forbidden them A third I meet withal and that is the Council of Eliberis about the Year of our Lord 306. where the Canon seems to be very strict against Clergy-Men's going to Markets and Fairs negotiandi causa to make profit by negotiation but require them to send their Son their Friend or their Servant to do such business for them And yet this Prohibition as strict as it seems is not absolute nor binding farther than that they shall not pursue those matters of Gain out of their own Provinces but if they will and think fit they might for all this Canon negotiate either for their necessary maintenance or improvement of their Fortunes so that they wandred not abroad out of their own Province where they serve In the mean time when all these or any other Councils are duly weighed and their meaning right taken this will be the result of all that neither Bishop nor other Clergy-Man might or may by the Canons of Holy Church ambitiously seek or voluntarily of himself assume any Secular Engagement And as they might not ambitiously seek great Temporal Employments so might they not undertake any low or base ones for sordid and covetous ends Nor might they relinquish their own Charge to spend their Strength in the assistance of a foreign one But though they might not seek or voluntarily assume Secular Employment yet they might do any lawful thing impos'd on them by their Superiours And so might the Bishop who had no Superiour in his Province if the Prince required his Service or that he thought it necessary for the present State of the Church in which he liv'd For if he might transmit his Power to those of the inferiour Clergy no doubt but he might deal himself in such Civil Affairs as are agreeable to the dignity of his Place and Calling and generally the Bishop or any other Clergy-Man may and might by the ancient Canons of the Church be employed in any Action of Piety though that Action be attended with Secular care and trouble And this is without any strain at all collected out of that great and famous Council of Chalcedon one of the four first General Councils approved of highly throughout all Christendom and with great reverence acknowledged in the Laws of this Kingdom And therefore after the Canon of that Council had laid it down in general terms that neither Bishop Clerk nor Monk should farm Grounds or immescere se mix himself as it were with such Temporal Affairs it adds some exceptions of like Nature to those by me expressed especially the last of them And some of these will expound the Canon of any Council which I have yet seen that speaks most against Clergy-Mens embarking themselves in Secular Business And therefore though this Lord would not yet I have laid before you whatsoever is come to my Knowledge out of the Antient Councils where by this last cited and great Council his Lordship may see that Bishops should meddle with and order some Temporal Affairs as Persons in that kind fitter to be trusted
than other Men of what Rank or Condition soever and therefore excepts from its own general Canon the Cases of Orphans and Widows and the Estates of such Persons as most need Ecclesiastical help or where any Cause in the fear of God requires it In which Cases the Widows and the Fatherless have had much cause to bless God when they have been referred to the Conscience Trust and Care of Bishops But this were in a manner to make them Masters of the Wards or Guardians to them which I know this Lord will not like by any means It would come too near his Office and then he would cry out indeed that this was a greater Distraction of them from their Function to which God had called them than that of the attending poor Widows Tables was to the Apostles And yet he sees what some Canons of Antient Councils have decreed in this Case Besides we cannot have a better or a clearer Evidence of the true meaning of the Antient Canons than from the Practice of the Antient Fathers of the Church who were strict and consciencious Observers of the Canons and yet as is before proved meddled in many and some the greatest Givil Affairs being employed as Ambassadors from great Emperors and Kings And Balsamon observes that whensoever it shall please the Prince to call any Bishops to such Employments they neither are to be restrained by the aforesaid Canons nor censured by them I conclude this Point then that Bishops are not prohibited to meddle with Civil publick Affairs either by Christ's command or by the Apostle's either Doctrine or Practice though all their Practice doth not give an absolute Rule for all future Obedience as their Doctrine doth and I may add not by Canons of Antient Councils rightly understood nor are all of them such Distractions as will bring a Woe upon Bishops or other Clergy-Men though they meddle with them I rather believe some things will be in a woful Case if they meddle not And in some Cases there 's all the Reason in the World they should be not only permitted but some of them commanded to meddle to the end that in all Consultations especially the greatest in Parliament and at Council Table it might be their care to see that Religion were kept upright in all and that nothing by Practice or otherwise pass cum detrimento Religionis Ecclesiae with detriment to Religion or the Church always provided that they do not so entangle themselves in any of these Affairs as shall much prejudice their Function and this done I know no Guilt that this meddling can bring upon their Souls or hurt their Consciences But this Lord having as he thinks concluded the contrary proceeds now to the next Point and says that In the next place this meddling in Temporal Affairs doth 〈◊〉 them and strike them in their Credits so far from Truth is that Position which they desire to possess the World withal that unless they may have those outward Trappings or worldly Pomp added to the Ministery that Calling will grow into Contempt and be despised Good God! How Pious this Lord is and what a careful Friend over the Church First he takes care the Bishops Consciences may not be hurt and now he is as jealous over their Credits But I doubt he is jealous over them amiss For he is of Opinion that meddling in Civil Affairs strikes them in their Credit and he thinks farther that the Position with which they would possess the World in this case is far from Truth Let 's examine this Position then what it is and what it works The Position is as this Lord reports it That unless they may have these outward Trappings or worldly Pomp added to the Ministery their Calling will grow into Contempt First there was never any Age in any Kingdom Christian in which the Bishops were ridden with so much Scorn and Contempt as they are at this day in England and this makes this Lord though he be a very ordinary Horseman for any good Service please himself with Trappings Secondly for the worldly Pomp which he means and expresses the Train of that hath been long since cut short enough in England and he that will not look upon the Bishops with an evil Eye must needs acknowledge it Well but what then doth this Position work Why they may not have these Trappings there will follow Contempt upon their Calling so he makes the Bishops say Is this Lord of that Opinion too No sure for he says The Truth is these things cast Contempt upon them in the Eyes of Men. They gain them Cap and Courtesie but they have cast them out of the Consciences of Men and the Reason is this every thing is esteemed as it is eminent in its own proper Excellency the Eye in seeing not in hearing the Ear in hearing not in speaking The one would be rather monstrous than comely the other is ever acceptable being proper So is it with them their proper Excellency is Spiritual the denial of the World with the Pomps and Preferments and Employments thereof This they should teach and practice Well then the question is Whether the Honour of Bishops and their Employments in Temporal Affairs as they are at this day moderated in the Church and State of England bring Contempt upon them and their Calling as this Lord says or help to keep off Contempt as he says the Bishops would possess the World First I am clear of Opinion that Solomon was almost as wife as this Lord thinks himself and yet he says plainly Eccles. 9. 16. That though Wisdom in its self be far better than Folly yet the poor Man's Wisdom is despised and his Words not heard And we see in daily Experience that a poor Minister's Words are as much slighted in the Pulpit as a poor Man 's in the Gate And therefore these things which this Lord calls Trappings are many times very necessary to keep off that Contempt and Despight which the boisterous Multitude when their Sins are reproved are apt to cast upon them And whatsoever this Lord thinks t is a great Credit and Support to the rest of the Clergy and being well used a great advantage to their Calling that the Bishops and other Eminent Men of the Clergy should have moderate Plenty for Means and enjoy Honour and external Reputation and though it be well known that the Church consider'd in Abstract in and by its self only is not promoted nor advanced by such Employments yet as she is considered in her Peregrination and Warfare she gains by them great both Strength and Encouragement Secondly That which this Lord adds that those things gain the Bishops Cap and Courtesie but have cast them out of the Consciences of Men. 'T is well that these things gain them that For the Age is grown so churlish to that Calling that I believe they would have very little of either were it not for these things as will too soon appear now
this last Act of Parliament hath taken away their Trappings As for that which follows next that these things have cast them out of the Consciences of Men that 's not so For in other Kingdoms that are Christian and some Reformed as well as other they have more Employment in Civil Affairs than with us and yet are in high esteem in the Consciences of Men. But the Truth is Schisin and Separation have so torn Men from Clergy and Church from God and Christ and all that they have not only cast Bishops but Religion too out of their Consciences and their Consciences are thrown after God knows whither Now for the Reason which this Lord gives he is quite wide in that also For every thing is not esteemed as it is eminent in its own proper Excellency as he says it is Indeed it ought to be so but so it is not For in the place before cited Eccles. 9. 16. Wisdom is better than Folly and is most eminent in its own proper Excellency but is it always esteemed so No sure for the poor Man's Wisdom is despised There however it ought to be esteemed for its proper Excellency yet if it be found in a poor Subject 't is despised and accounted as mean and vile as he is that hath it And as for the Illustration which his Lordship makes of this his Proposition 't is meerly fallacious For Arguments drawn from Natural Things which ever work constantly the same way to Moral Things which depend upon voluntary and mutable Agents will seldom or never universally follow And therefore though it be true that the Eye is esteemed for seeing not hearing and the Ear for hearing not speaking and should it be otherwise it would be rather monstrous than comely That 's true because they are Agents determined ad unum to that one Operation and cannot possibly do the other but then by his Lordship's leave so it is not with Bishops for though their proper Excellency be indeed Spiritual yet they may meddle with other things so long as they can observe the Apostle's Rule 1 Cor. 7. 31. and use this World as if they used it not that is use it so long and so far as may help their Service of God and cast it off when it shall hinder them But this Lord thinks all use of these things and Employments in them to be unlawful for our Calling And therefore he adds That when they contrary hereunto seek after a worldly Excellency like the great Men of the World and to Rule and Domineer as they do contrary to our Saviour's Precept Vos autem non sic But it shall not be so amongst you Instead of Honour and Esteem they have brought upon themselves in the Hearts of the People that Contempt and 〈◊〉 which they now lie under and that justly and necessarily because the World sees that they prefer a worldly Excellency and run after it and contend for it before their own which being Spiritual is far more excellent and which being proper to the Ministery is that alone which will put a Value and Esteem upon them that are of that Calling All this which follows is but matter of Ampliation to help aggravate the business and to make Bishops so hateful to other Men as they are to himself For I hope no Bishops of this Church do seek after worldly Excellency contrary to their Function at least I know none that do And they are far from being like the Great Men of the World As to Ruling 't is proper enough to them so far as Authority is given but Domineer they do not This comes from this Lord's Spleen not from their Practice And by that time his Lordship hath sat a while longer in the State Men will find other manner of Domineering from him than they found from the Bishops Nor do they in their meddling with Civil Affairs in such sort as is now practised in England go contrary to our Saviour's Precept Vos autem non sic It shall not be so amongst you as I have proved before Most true indeed it is that the poor Bishops of this Church do now instead of Honour and Esteem lie under Contempt and Odium in the Hearts of the People Of some not of all no nor either of the greater or the better part for all the noise that hath been raised against them and this Lord is much deceived to say they have brought it upon themselves For it is but part of the Dirt which this Lord and his fellow Sectaries have most unchristian-like cast upon them And this only to wrest their Votes out of Parliament that now they are gone they may the better compass their ends against Church and State which God preserve against their Malice and Hypocrisie But this Lord says farther That the Bishops have brought this Contempt upon themselves justly and necessarily Now God forbid that it should be either and his Lordship proves it but by saying the same thing over again namely because the World sees that they prefer a worldly Excellency and run after it and contend for it before their own And surely if they do this they are much to blame but I believe the World sees it not unless it be such of the World as look upon them with this Lord's Eyes and that when they are at the worst too And I verily persuade my self and I think upon very good grounds that the present Bishops of this Kingdom all or the most of them are as far from any just tax in this or any other kind as they have been in any former Times since the Reformation 'T is true that their own Calling being Spiritual is far more excellent and I shall the better believe it when I see this Lord and the rest value it so For I have told his Lordship already that every thing which is more excellent in its self is not always so esteemed by others And though this Excellency be never so proper yet by his good leave it is not that alone which will put a value and esteem upon them and their Calling There must be some outward helps to encourage and countenance and reward them too or else Flesh and Blood are so dull that little will be done And suppose this Religious Lord and some few like himself would value and esteem them for their Spiritual Calling only yet what are these to so many as would 〈◊〉 them And yet to speak the Truth freely I do not see this Lord nor any of that Feather put a value upon that Calling for the Spiritual Excellency only for then all Ministers that do their Duty should be valued and esteemed by them the Calling being alike Spiritual and alike Excellent in all whereas the World sees they neither care for nor countenance any Ministers but such as separate with them from the Church of England or are so near to it as that they are ready to step into an Independent Congregation so soon as by the Artifice of this
Lord and others it may be made ready to receive them Now this Lord having thus belaboured these two Points that Bishops by meddling in Civil Affairs do hurt themselves in their Consciences and in their Credits he proceeds to instruct us farther And thus As these things hurt themselves in their Consciences and Credits so have they and if they be continued still will make them hurtful to others The Reason is because they break out of their own Orb and move irregularly There is a Carse upon their leaving their own Place My Lord is now come to his second general part of his Speech and means to prove it if he can that Bishops by any kind of meddling in Civil Affairs do not only hurt themselves in Conscience and in Credit but also if they continue in them they will make them hurtful to others also And that he may seem to say nothing without a Reason his Lordship tells us the Reason of this is because they break out of their own Orb and move irregularly But I conceive this Reason weak enough For first as is before proved these Stars to follow my Lord in his Metaphor are not so fixed to their Orb of Preaching the Gospel but that they may do other things also at other times so this be not neglected And therefore it will not follow that all their Motions out of this Orb are irregular Secondly when they do thus move they are not violently to break out of their Orb but to sit still till Authority find cause to call any of them a little aside to attend Civil Affairs that they may proceed never the worse and the Gospel the better As for that Curse which this Lord speaks of which follows upon their leaving of their own Place I know of none nor any leaving of their own Place This I am sure of whatever this Lord says that many extraordinary Blestings and Successes have come both upon this Kingdom and other Nations by Counsels given by Clergy-Men and I pray God his Counsels such as they have been do not bring Dishonour and a Curse to boot upon this Church and Kingdom But his Lordship goes on with his Metaphor and argues very strongly by Similitudes which hath but a Similitude of Argumentation The Heavenly Bodies while they keep within their own Spheres give Light and Comfort to the World but if they should break out and 〈◊〉 from their regular and proper Motions they would set the World on 〈◊〉 So have these done While they kept themselves to the Work of the Ministery alone and gave themselves to Prayer and the Ministery of the Word according to the Example of the Apostles the World received the greatest Benefits from them they were the Light and Life thereof But when their Ambition cast them down like Stars from 〈◊〉 to Earth and they did grow once to be advanced above their Brethren I do appeal to all who have been versed in the antient Ecclesiastical History or modern Histories whether they have not been the common Incondiaries of the Christian World never ceasing from Contention one with another about the Precedency of their Sees and Churches Excommunicating one another drawing Princes to be Parties with them and thereby casting them into bloody Wars This Argument is grounded upon si 〈◊〉 ruat if Heaven falls we shall get store of Larks But Heaven cannot sall and so 't is here The Heavenly Bodies while they keep within their own Spheres give Light and Comfort to the World but if they should break out which is impossible and fall from their Regular Motions which cannot possibly be they would set the World on fire or perhaps drown it again had not God promised the contrary according as the Irregular Motion bended So have these done Nay not so with this Lord's leave For First Clergy-Men are not so fixed to their Orbs as those Heavenly Bodies are but in themselves are free and voluntary Agents which those Bodies are not And Secondly they may and ought as occasion is offered them do many things in publick Civil Affairs which may much advantage the Gospel of Christ and they will never Fire the World by such attendance upon them and they may and ought give themselves to Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word notwithstanding this and they may be the same Benefits to the World of Light and Life as before Yea and I make no doubt but that when this Lord and his Followers will be as liberal and devout as the Primitive Christians were who sold their Land and 〈◊〉 the Money and laid it at the Apostles Feet Acts 4. 37. to make a Stock for their and the Church's Wants the Bishops will be well content to follow the Apostles Example as far and as well as they can But if the Bishops may meddle with no Temporal Affairs according to the Example of the Apostles how came the Apostles to meddle with the Receiving first and after with the Layings out of all this Money For say it was to be employed on charitable Actions yet some Diversion more or less it must needs be to the Preaching of the Gospel But since the Example and Practice of the Apostles is so often pressed by this Lord I would willingly his Lordship should tell me if he will make their Practice a Rule general and binding why now among Christians all should not be common as the Apostles and other Believers had it and that no Man might say that ought of the things which he possessed was his own Acts 4. 32. and then where is the Property of the Subject And then why do we not go up and down and Preach at large according to the Examples of the Apostles and endure neither Division of Parishes nor Parish Churches And why do we not receive the Communion after Supper at 't is well known Christ and his Apostles did Indeed if any Bishops or other Clergy-Men should become falling Stars from Heaven to Earth especially if their Sin should be so like the Devil 's as to cast themselves down by their own Ambition That as it makes the Fall heavy to them so yet I must say to this Lord that both Fall and Fault is the Person 's the Episcopal Office is not the cause of it as is here charged by him Nor did they become falling Stars so soon as they did once grow to be advanced above their Brethren as this Lord insinuates it For among the Apostles themselves there was a Chief in order S. Luke 22. 26. and some were advanced to Dignity and Power above their Brethren even in the Apostles Days whom yet I presume this Lord will not be so ill advised as to call fallen Stars As for the Appeal which he makes to all them who have been versed in Antient or Modern Ecclesiastical Histories that 's no great matter For in all Histories you shall find great Men of all sorts doing what in Honour and Duty should not be done and Ambition hath been the cause of
very much of this and Ambition sticks so close to Humane Nature as that it follows it into all Professions and Estates of Men And I would to God Clergy-Men had been freer from this Fault than Histories testifie they have But this hath been but the fault of some many Reverend Bishops in all Ages have been clear of it and 't is a personal Corruption in whomsoever it is and cannot justly be charged upon the Calling as this Lord lays it Neither have the worst of them some Popes of Rome excepted been the common Incendiaries of the Christian World But Incendiaries is grown a great word of late with this Lord and some of the poor Bishops of England have been made Incendiaries too by him and his Party But might it please God to shew some token upon us for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed Psalm 86. 17. there would be a full discovery who have been the Incendiaries indeed in these Troubles of England and then I make no question but it will appear that this Lord flames as high and as dangerously as any Man living But behold saith God all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with Sparks walk in the light of your own Fire and in the Sparks which your selves have kindled This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Isai. 50. 11. Next I pray be pleased to consider how unworthily and fallaciously withal this Lord manages this Proof For all this Discourse tends to prove it unlawful for Bishops to intermeddle in Secular Affairs that so to do is hurtful to themselves in Conscience and in Credit and to others also by this their irregular Motion And this he proves by their never ceasing from Contention one with another either about the Precedency of their Sees or Churches They have indeed some and sometimes contended too eagerly for their Sees and Churches but neither all nor any that I know with a never-ceasing but the Bishop of Rome for his Supremacy And say this were so yet these Contentions were about their own proper Places not about Civil Affairs which now should lie before his Lordship in Proof and therefore was no irregular Motion of theirs in regard of the Object but only in regard of the manner Nor were they out of their Orb for this though faulty enough The like is to be said for that which follows their Excommunicating one another upon these Quarrels As for their drawing of Princes to be Parties with them thereby casting them into bloody Wars this hath seldom happened and whenever it hath happened some Church business or other hath unhappily set it on not their meddling in Temporal Affairs But whatever caused it the Crime of such misleading of Princes is very odious and as hateful to me as it can be to his Lordship But the Persons must bear their own Faults and not the Calling and sure I am this Lord would think me very wild if I should charge the antient Barons Wars in England upon his Lordship and the Honourable Barons now living But howsoever by this 't is plain that this Lord would not only have the Bishops turned out of all Civil Employments but out of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions also They must have no Power nor Superiority there neither their Sees must be laid as level as Parity can make them For all these Mischiefs came on saith he as soon as they were once advanced above their Brethren And one thing more I shall take occasion to say Here 's great Clamour made against the Bishops and their meddling in Civil Affairs but what if the Presbytery do as much or more Do they Sin too by breaking out of their Orb and neglecting the Work of the Ministery No by no means Only the Bishops are faulty For do you think that Calvin would have taken on him the Umpirage and composing of so many Civil Causes as he did order between Neighbours if so great Sin had accompanied it For he dealt in Civil Causes and had Power to inflict Civil Punishments in his Consistory For he committed divers to Prison for Dancing and those not mean ones neither and he arbitrated divers Causes and in a great Controversie between the Senate of Geneva and a Gentleman he tells one Frumentius who laboured for a Reconciliation that the Church of Geneva was not so destitute but that Fratres mei saith he huic Provinciae subeundae pares futuri essent some of his Brethren might have been fit for that Work Belike he took it ill that in such a Business though meerly Civil he and his Fellow-Ministers should be left out And for matters in the Common-wealth he had so great Power in the Senate and with the People that all things were carried as he pleased And himself brags of it that the Senate was his and the People his And to encrease his Strength and make it more formidable he brought in Fifty or more of the French his Country-men and Friends and by his solicitation made them Free Denizons of the City of which and the Troubles thence arising he gave an account to Bullinger Anno 1555. Or can you think that Beza would have taken upon him so much Secular Employment had he thought it unlawful so to do For whereas in the Form of the Civil Government of that City out of the Two hundred prime Men there was a perpetual Senate chosen of Sixty as Bodin tells us my worthy Predecessour Arch-Bishop Bancroft assures me Beza was one of these Threescore And yet what a crying Sin is it grown in a Bishop to be honoured with a Seat at the Council-Table Besides this when Geneva sent a solemn Embassie to Henry IV. of France about the razing of a Fort which was built near their City by the Duke of Savoy Beza would needs go along to commend that Spiritual Cause unto the King and how far he dealt and laid Grounds for others to deal in all such Civil Causes as were but in Ordine ad Spiritualia is manifest by himself And I am sure Laesus proximus may reach into the Cognizance of almost all Civil Causes Or can any Man imagine that so Religious a Man as Mr. Damport the late Parson of St. Stephen's in Coleman-street would have done the like to no small hindrance to Westminster-Hall had he thought that by this meddling he had hurt both his Conscience and his Credit whereas good Man he fled into New-England to preserve both Or if Mr. Alexander Henderson would have come along with the Scottish Army into England and been a Commissioner as he was in that whole Treaty wherein many of their Acts of Parliament concerning the Civil Government of that Kingdom were deliberated upon and confirm'd if he had thought his so doing inconsistent with his Calling Or that the Scots being so Religious as they then were even to the taking up of Arms against their King for Religion
would have suffered him to take that place upon him so contrary to the command of Christ and the Practice of the Apostles if it had been so indeed Or would they have suffer'd their Preachers which then attended their Commissioners at London not only to meddle with but to preach so much temporal Stuff as little belonged to the Purity of the Gospel had they been of this Lord's Opinion Surely I cannot think it But let the Bishops do but half so much yea though they be commanded to do that which these Men assume to themselves and 't is a venture but it shall prove Treason against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and an endeavouring to bring in an Arbitrary Government Well! I 'll tell you a Tale. There 's a Minister at this day in London of great Note among the Faction well esteem'd by this Lord and others of this Outcry against the Bishops Votes in Parliament and their meddling in Civil Affairs this Man I 'll spare his Name being pressed by a Friend of his how he came to be so eager against the Church of which and her Government he had ever heretofore been an Upholder and had Subscribed unto it made this Answer Thou art a Fool thou knowest not what it is to be the Head of a Party This Man is one of the great Masters of the present Reformation and do you not think it far more inconsistent with his Ministerial Function to be in the Head of a turbulent Faction to say the least of them than for a Bishop to meddle in Civil Affairs Yet such is the Religion of our Times But 't is no matter for all this his Lordship hath yet more to say against the Ambition of the Prelates For Their Ambition and intermeddling with Secular Affairs and State Business hath been the cause of shedding more Christian Blood than any thing else in the Christian World and this no Man can deny that is versed in History This is the same over and over again saving that the Expression contains in it a vast Untruth For they that are versed in History must needs say 't is a loud one that Bishops meddling in Temporal Affairs hath been the cause of shedding more Christian Blood than any thing else in the Christian World What a happiness hath this Lord that his pale Meagerness cannot blush at such thing as this Yea but he will prove it here at home in this Kingdom For says he We need not go out of our own Kingdom for Examples of their Insolency and Cruelty When they had a dependency upon the Pope and any footing thereby out of the Land there were never any that carryed themselves with so much Scorn and Insolency towards the Princes of this Kingdom as they have done Two of them the Bishop that last spake hath named but instances of many more may be given whereof there would be no end 'T is true indeed we need not go out of our own Kingdom for Examples of their Insolency and Cruelty For in so many Ages 't is no wonder in any Kingdom to find some bad Examples be it of Insolency Cruelty or what you will Especially in the midst of so much Prosperity as accompanied Clergy-Men in those times But 't is true too that there are far more Examples of their Piety and Charity would this Lord be pleased to remember the one with the other As for their bad Examples his Lordship gives a Reason why not all but some of them carryed themselves with so much Scorn and Insolency towards their Princes even with almost as much as this Lord and his Faction carry themselves at this day towards their mild and gracious King And the Reason is a true one it was their dependency upon the Pope and their footing which thereby they had to subsist out of the Land which may and I hope will be a sufficient warning to his Majesty and his Successours never to let in again a foreign Supream Power into any of his Dominions For 't is to have one State within yet not dependent upon the other which can never be with Safety or Quiet in any Kingdom And I would have the World consider a little with what Insolency and perhaps Disallegiance this Lord and his Round-head Crew would use their Kings if they had but half so strong a foreign dependance as the Bishops then had that dare use the most gracious of Kings as they do this present day Two of these Insolent ones this Lord says the Bishop that last spake named Lincoln stands in the Margin by which it appears that Dr. John Williams then Bishop of Lincoln and since Arch-Bishop of York was the Man that named two but because this Lord names them not I know not who they are and therefore can say nothing for or against them but leave them to that Lord which censured them As for that which follows that the instances of many more may be given whereof there would be no end This is a piece of this Lord 's loud Rhetorick which can have no Truth in it especially relating as it doth to this Kingdom only But whereas this Lord said immediately before that their meddling in State business hath been the cause of shedding more Christian Blood than any thing else in the Christian World and in the very next words falls upon the proof of it in this Kingdom I must put him in mind that one Parliament in England namely that which most irreligiously and trayterously deposed Richard II. was the cause of the effusion of more Christian Blood amongst us than all the Bishops that ever were in this Kingdom For that base and unjust Parliament was the cause of all the Civil Wars those Bloody Wars which began in the Heir's time after the Usurpation of Henry IV. and ceased not till there were slain of the Royal Blood and of Nobles and the common People a Numberless Number And I heartily beg it of God that no disloyal Parliament may ever bring this Kingdom into the like distress For our Neighbours are far stronger now than they were then and what desolation it might bring upon us God in Heaven knows So this Lord may see if he will what a Parliament it self being misgoverned may do But will his Lordship think it Reason to condemn all Parliaments because this and some few more have done what they should not do as he here deals by Bishops Sure he would not But having done with the Bishops dependency on the Pope he goes on and tells us farther that Although the Pope be cast off yet now there is another Inconvenience no less prejudicial to the Kingdom by their sitting in this House and that is they have such an absolute dependency upon the King that they sit not there as free Men. I am heartily sorry to see this Lord thus far transported The Pope is indeed cast off from domineering over King Church and State But I am sorry to hear it from this Lord that this other
Inconvenience by Bishops sitting in the House of Parliament is no less prejudicial to the Kingdom Where first I observe that this Lord accounts the Pope's ruling in this Kingdom but a matter of inconvenience for so his words imply For that must be one Inconvenience if the Bishops voting be the other and I am sure the Laws both of this Church and State make it far worse than an Incovenience Had I said thus much I had been a Papist out of Question Secondly I 'll appeal to any prudent and moderate Protestant in the Christian World whether he can possibly think that the Bishops having Votes in the Parliaments of England can possibly be as great or no less an Inconvenience than the Pope's Supremacy here And I believe this Lord when he thinks better of it will wish these words unsaid Well! but what then is this inconvenience that is so great Why my Lord tells us 't is because they have such an absolute dependency upon the King that they sit not there as free-Men Where first 't is strange to me and my Reason that any dependency on the King be it never so absolute can be possibly so great an Inconvenience to the King as that upon an Independent foreign Power is the King being sworn to the Laws but the Pope being free and as he challenges not only independent from but superiour to both King and Laws Secondly I conceive the Bishops dependency is no more absolute upon the King than is the dependence of other Honourable Members of that House and that the Bishops sit there as absolute free-men as any others not excepting his Lordship And of this Belief I must be till the contrary shall be proved which his Lordship goes thus about to do That which is requisite to Freedom is to be void of Hopes and Fears he that can lay down these is a Free-man and will be so in this House But for the Bishops as the case stands with them it is not likely they will lay aside their Hopes greater Bishopricks being still in expectancy and for their Fears they cannot lay them down since their Places and Seats in Parliament are not invested in them by Blood and so hereditary but by annexation of a Barony to their Office and depending upon that Office so that they may be 〈◊〉 of their Office and thereby of their Places at the King's pleasure My Lord's Philosophy is good enough for to be void of Hopes and Fears is very requisite to Freedom and he that can lay these down is a Free-man or may be if he will But whether he will be so in that great House I cannot so well tell For though no Man can be free that is full charg'd with Hopes or Fears yet there are some other things which collaterally work upon Men and consequently take off their Freedom almost as much as Hopes and Fears can do Such are Consanguinity Affinity especially if the Wife bears any sway private Friendship and above all Faction And therefore though I cannot think that every Man will be a Free-man in that House that is void of Hopes and Fears yet I believe he may if he will Now I conceive that in all these collateral Stiflings of a Man's Freedom the Lay Lords are by far less free than the Bishops are Again for the main bars of Freedom Hopes and Fears into which all the rest do some way or other fall I do not yet see but that Bishops even as the case stands with them may be as free and I hope are in their Voting as Temporal Lords For their Hopes this Lord tells us 't is not likely they will lay them aside greater Bishopricks being still in expectancy Truly I do not know why a deserving Bishop may not in due time hope for a better Bishoprick and yet retain that Freedom which becomes him in Parliament as well as any Noble-man may be Noble and Free in that great Court and yet have moderated Hopes of being called to some great Office or to the Council-table or some honourable and profitable Embassage or some Knighthood of the Garter of all or some of which there is still expectancy Lay your Hand on your Heart my Lord and examine your self As for Fears his Lordship tells us roundly the Bishops cannot lay them down Cannot Are all the Bishops such poor Spirits But why can they not Why because their Places in Parliament are not hereditary but by annexation of a Barony to their Office and depending upon it so that they may be deprived of their Office and thereby of their Place at the King's pleasure First I believe the Bishops gave their Votes in Parliament as freely to their Conscience and Judgment as this Lord or any other Secondly If any of them for Fear or any other motive have given their Votes unworthily I doubt not but many Honourable Lords have at some time or other forgot themselves and born the Bishops company though in this I commend neither Thirdly I know some Bishops who had rather lose not their Baronies only but their Bishopricks also than Vote so unworthily as this Lord would make the World believe they have done Lastly it is true their Seat in Parliament depends on their Barony their Barony on their Office and if they be deprived of their Office both Barony and Seat in Parliament are gone But I hope my Lord will not say we live under a Tyrant and then I will say Bishops are not deprivable of their Office and consequently not of the rest at the Kings Pleasure But this Lord proceeds into a farther Amplification And to whet his inveterate Malice against the King says as follows Nay They do not so much as sit here dum bene se gesserint as the Judges now by your Lordships Petition to the King have their Places granted them but at Will and Pleasure and therefore as they were all excluded by Edward the First as long as he pleased and Laws made excluso Clero so may they be by any King at his Pleasure in like manner They must needs therefore be in an absolute dependency upon the Crown and thereby at Devotion for their Votes which how prejudicial it hath been and will be to this House I need not say If I could wonder at any thing which this Lord doth or says in such Arguments as these when his Heart is up against the Clergy I should wonder at this For if he will not suppose the King's Government to be Tyrannical the Bishops have their Places during Life and cannot justly be put out of them unless their Miscarriage be such as shall merit a Deprivation And therefore by this Lord 's good leave they have as good a Tenure as the Judges is of a Quamdiu bene se gesserint And this they have without their Lordships Petition to the King as his Lordship tells us was fain to be made for the Judges thereby galling the King for giving some Patents to the Judges during Pleasure which as
the Case stood with them whether he had Reason to do or not I will not dispute So that manifest it is that the Bishops do not hold their Bishopricks at the King's Will and Pleasure and consequently neither their Baronies nor their Places in Parliament And I would have my Lord consider whether all the Noblemen that sit in that House by Blood and Inheritance be not in the same Condition upon the matter with the Bishops For as Bishops may commit Crimes worthy Deprivation and so consequently lose their Votes in Parliament so are there some Crimes also which Noblemen may commit God preserve them from them which may consequently void all their Rights in Parliament yea and taint their Blood too And as for the Bishops Baronies they are not at the King's Will and Pleasure neither For they hold their Baronies from the Crown indeed but by so long Prescription as will preserve them from any Disseisure at Will and Pleasure of the King So if they merit not Deprivation by Law and Justice their Baronies are safe and that by as good Right and far antienter Descent than any the antientest Nobleman of England can plead for himself For Edward the First he was a brave Prince and is of glorious Memory and respected the Dutifulness of his Clergy very Royally As for the Acts of Parliament made in his Time and the Time of his Royal Successor Edward the Third I conceive nothing can be gathered out of the Titles or Prefaces of those Acts against either the Bishops presence at or their Voting to those Laws by any Prohibition of Exclusion of them by those famous Kings For though the Statute of Carlisle 35 Edw. I. not Printed be recited in the Statute 25 Edw. III. of Provisoes and says that by the Assent of the Earls Barons and other Nobles and all the Commonalty at their Instances and Requests in the said full Parliament it was ordained c. without any mention at all of the Prelates yet it is more than probable that the Prelates were Summoned to and present at these Parliaments For first it appears expresly that the Statute of the Staple 27 Edw. III. made in the same Parliament with the Statute of Provisoes that the Prelates were Assembled and Present there And I rather think that in all these Statutes of Provisoes being professedly made against the Liberty and Jurisdiction of the Pope in those Times challenged in this Kingdom to whose Power the Bishops were then Subject they voluntarily chose to be absent rather than endanger themselves to the Pope if they Voted for such Laws or offend the King and the State if they Voted against them But these Laws were not made excluso Clero and that as long as the King pleased as this Lord affirms and this is very plain in the Statute it self of 38 Edw. III. For in the last Chapter of that Statute though the Prelates be omitted in the Preamble yet there 't is expresly said That the King the Prelates the Dukes Earls and Barons c. So here was not exclusion of the Bishops by the King but their own voluntary Absence which made those kind of Laws pass without them As for the Parliament at Carlisle I conceive the Books are misprinted and a common Errour risen by it For that Parliament was held Anno 35 Edw. I. and was the first of Provisoes and as appears in the Records the Prelates were present But in 25 Edw. I. the Parliament was Summoned to London and the Bishops called to it And there was another Summons to Salisbury in the same Roll to which the Prelates were not called But this I conceive was a Summons of the King 's Great Council only and not of a Parliament the Commons not being called any more than the Prelates Nor were there any other Summons 25 Edw. I. but these two That which his Lordship infers upon this is that therefore the Bishops are in absolute dependency upon the Crown which is manifestly untrue since they cannot be outed at Will and Pleasure but for Demerit only and that may fall upon Temporal Lords as well as Bishops And therefore neither are they at Devotion for their Votes and therefore in true Construction no Prejudice can come by them to that Honourable House And I pray God their casting out be not more prejudicial both to State and Church than I am willing to forespeak After this his Lordship tells us what he hath done in this great Argument saying I have now shewed your Lordships how hurtful to themselves and others these things which the Bill would take away have been I will only Answer some Objections which I have met withal and then crave your Pardon for troubling you so long His Lordship tells us he hath shewed how hurtful these things are both to the Bishops and others which this Bill would hew down and out of his Zeal and Love to the Church he hath gone farther than any Man in this Argument yet I conceive he hath not shewed what he thinks he hath 'T is true he hath strongly laboured it but I hope it will appear he hath not master'd it I shall now see how he Answers such Objections as his Lordship says he hath met with And the First Objection is his Lordship says 1. That they have been very Antient. 2. That they are Established by Law 3. That it may be an Infringement to the House of Peers for the House of Commons to send up a Bill to take away some of their Members To these three the Answer will be easie I know not how easie the Answer will be but these must needs be hard Times for Bishops if neither Antiquity can fence them against Novelty nor Law defend them against Violence nor fear of weakning the House of Peers preserve them against the Eagerness of the House of Commons and that in the very House of Peers it self Let us see then and consider how easie the Answer will be to these and how sufficient also To the First Antiquity is no good Plea for that which is by Experience found hurtful the longer it hath done hurt the more cause there is now to remove it that it may do no more Besides other Irregularities are as antient which have been thought fit to be redressed and this is not so antient but that it may truly be said Non fuit sic ab initio This Answer may be easie enough but sure 't is not sufficient Nor do I wonder that Antiquity is no good Plea in this Lord's account for he is such an Enemy to it that he will have his very Religion new If any thing be antient it smells of Antichrist Yea but if it be found hurtful the longer it hath done hurt the more cause to remove it That 's true if it be hurtful in and of it self so is not this If it does hurt constantly or frequently else you must cast out the Lay Lords Votes too and his Lordship 's with the
in that House is as essential as the Lords And this about the Laws made without them is built only upon some difficult emergent Cases from which they desired to be exempt and free themselves Not from any constraint of the State nor from any Opinion of the King Peers or People that it was fit to make Laws without them But to this we have given an Answer before But this Objection of taking away the Earls and Barons next strikes as I conceive another way at the Lord's House than either of those Answers or Reasons seem to meet with And perhaps this Lord himself is willing to pass it by if he does see it and 't is thus The House of Commons sees and knows well enough that should they bring up a Bill open and with a bare edge to take away the Votes from the Lords it could not possibly be endured by either King or Peers Therefore the Bill which may come to take them away next and which may be meant in this Objection may be a Bill to make one House of both and set them altogether under the pretence of greater Unity and more free and quick dispatch of all Business all Messages and Conferences and breach of Correspondencies and Differences happening between the Two Houses while they are Two being by this means taken away And this I am sure hath been much spoken of since this Parliament began and may with far more ease be next compassed now the Bishops are thrust out both because there are fewer in the Lord's House to help to cast out such a Bill and because the Commons House which would willingly receive the Lords in among them would never admit the Bishops into their House So that both ways this is made far more easie to Pass And should this happen I would fain know of this Lord wherein this Objection would fail that they might the next time remove the Barons and the Earls Not remove them from making Laws as his Lordship speaks of it but remove them into the House of Commons where their Votes shall be swallow'd up among the many and might be quite overmaster'd though they should not all Agree and Vote one way For then the meanest Commoner in that House would have his Vote as great as the greatest Earls Whereas now in their own House being distinct though all the House of Commons agree upon a Bill or any thing else the Lords may if they see Reason alter or reject it So that if hereafter they be reduced to one House I make no question but their Votes are gone next after the Bishops And if his Lordship shall think this an impossible Supposition let him know it is not half so impossible as that which he made before of the Heavenly Bodies breaking out of their own Spheres But we are now come to the last Objection the other of the two which his Lordship says are stronger And 5. The other Objection is this That this Bill alters the Foundation of this House and Innovations which shake Foundations are dangerous And truly this Objection seems to me very strong but perhaps that is by reason of my Weakness for my Lord tells us before that it is capable of a satisfactory Answer and here his Lordship gives two for failing I Answer First That if there should be an Errour in the Foundation when it shall be found and the Master-Builders be met together they may nay they ought rather to amend it than to suffer it to run on still to the prejudice and danger of the whole Structure This Answer whatever this Lord thinks of it is not satisfactory and the thing will be full of danger whensoever it shall be put to trial For Foundations are seldom meddled withal but with great hazard and a Fundamental Errour in a Kingdom is born with more Safety to the whole than it can be taken away And this happens partly because among the many Subjects of a Kingdom there are different Judgments and as different Affections whence it follows that all Men are not of Opinion that that which is called an Errour in the Foundation is so indeed Nor do the Affections of all Men dislike it nay perhaps the greater perhaps the better part will approve it In this Case if the Master-Builders fall to mending of this somewhat boisterously may they not rend all in pieces to fall about their own Ears and other Mens And partly because the Master-Builders which are to meet to repair the decays of the State though in all Ages they have the same Authority to make Laws yet they have not in all Ages the same Skill and Wisdom for the making or the mending of them Whence it follows that even the Master-Builders themselves may mistake and call that the Errour which is indeed a great part of the Strength of the Foundation And so by tampering to mend that which is better already endanger the shaking if not the fall of the whole Structure which they would labour to preserve And I pray God Posterity do not find it that even the Master-Builders which are now met be not so deceived and with as ill Success in casting the Bishops Votes out of the House under the Name of an Errour in the Foundation But if this Answer satisfie not his Lordship may hope his next will For Secondly he says This is not Fundamental to this House For it hath stood without them and done all that appertains to the Power thereof without them yea they being wholly 〈◊〉 and that which hath been done for a time at the King's pleasure may be done with as little danger for a longer time and when it appears to the fit and for publick good not only mahy but ought to be done altogether by the Supreme Power It seems this Lord distrusts his former Answer about mending Fun damental Errours in a State and therefore here he denies that Bishops and their Votes are Fundamental to the Lords House But I doubt his Lordship is mistaken in this For that is Fundamental in any Court which in that Court is first laid and settled upon which all the future Structure is raised Now in the Lords House of Parliament the Bishops Votes were laid at the very first as well as the Votes of the Lords Temporal Nay with a Precedency both in Place and Number and all the Ordinances and Powers of that great Court have equally proceeded from the Votes of the Bishops and the Lords and therefore for ought which yet appears to me either the Lords Vote are not Fundamental to that House or the Bishops are But his Lordship proves they are not Fundamental to that House because that House hath stood without them But weakly enough God knows like a House whose Foundations are shaken upon one side and because that House hath done all that appertains to the Power of it without them It may be so But I doubt whether it did all that appertains to the Wisdom of it without them For this
relation again to that Parliament under Edward the First from which his Lordship says Bishops were excluded and we know that Parliament is called Indoctum Parliamentum the unlearned Parliament For all the Lawyers were excluded from that Parliament as well as the Clergy-Men And therefore were this Lord indifferent he might argue that Lawyers Votes are not Fundamental in the Commons House which is true tho' no way convenient rather than that Bishops Votes are not Fundamental in the Lords House which is utterly against all Truth and Convenience But his Lordship's Tooth is so sharp and so black against that Order that he snaps at them upon all and upon no Occasion and would invenom them had he Power To make this seem the better his Lordship ends this Speech with a piece of Philosophy which I cannot approve neither For he says That which hath been done for a time at the King's Pleasure may be done with as little danger for a longer time For First this Proposition is unsound in it self For many Cases may happen in which divers things may be done for a Prince's Pleasure once or for a time and with no great danger which continued or often repeated will be full of danger and perhaps not endured by the Subject Secondly I am confident let the Tables be but turned from a Bishop to a Lay-Man and this Lord shall eat his own Proposition For instance in another Parliament and in a time generally received to be as good as that of Edward the First in Queen Elizabeth's time and within my own Memory Mr. Peter Wentworth moved in the House of Commons to have an Heir apparent declared for the better and securer Peace of the Kingdom in After-times The Queen for her meer Will and Pleasure for that which he did was no Offence against Law took him either out of the House or so soon as he came out of the House clap'd him up in the Tower where he lay till his Death What will this Lord say to this Will he say this was done once at the Prince's Pleasure Why then I return his Proposition upon him and tell him that that which was done once at one Prince's Pleasure may be done oftner at other Prince's Pleasure with as little danger Or will this Lord say this was not done at the Queen's Pleasure but but she might justly and legally do so Then other Princes of this Realm having the same Power residing in them may do by other Parliament Men as she did with this Gentleman And which soever of the two he shall say King Charles had as good Right and with as little Breach of Parliament-Privilege to demand the Six Men which by his Attorney he had accused of Treason as that great Queen had to lay hold on Mr. Wentworth Since I had written this the Observer steps in and tells us That a meer Example though of Queen Elizabeth is no Law for some of her Actions were retracted and that yet without question Queen Elizabeth might do that which a Prince less beloved could never have done 'T is true that a meer Example is not a Law and yet the Parliaments of England even in that happy Queen's Time were not apt to bear Examples against Law and if that she did were not against Law that 's as much as I ask For then neither is that against Law which King Charles did upon a far higher Accusation than could be charged against Mr. Wentworth 'T is true again that Queen Elizabeth might do that which a Prince less beloved could not have done that is she might do that with safety which a Prince less beloved could not do that is not do with safety But whatsoever is lawful for one Prince to do is as lawful for another though perhaps not so expedient in regard of what will be well or ill taken by the People But otherwise the Peoples Affection to the Prince can be no Rule nor Measure of the Princes Justice to the People I will be bold to give him another Instance King Charles demanded Ship-Money all over the Kingdom Either he did this justly and legally for the Defence of himself and the Publick or he did it at his Will and Pleasure thinking that an honourable and fit way of Defence I am sure this Lord will not say he did it legally for his Vote concurred to the condemning of it in Parliament And if he say he did it at his own Will and Pleasure then I would fain know of his Lordship whether this which was done for a time at the King's Pleasure may be done with as little danger to the Liberty of the Subject and the Property of his Goods for a longer time and so be continued on the Subject And if he says it may why did he Vote against it as a thing dangerous And if he says it may not then he must Condemn his own Proposition For he cannot but see that that which is once done or done for a short time at a Prince's Will and Pleasure cannot be often repeated or continued but with far greater danger than it was once done Though for the thing it self if it were not legal I am sorry it is not made so For it would be under God the greatest Honour and Security that this Nation ever had Whereas now the Tugging which falls out between the King's Power and the Peoples Liberty will in time unless God's infinite Mercy prevents it do that in this Kingdom which I abhor to think on This Lord goes on yet and tells us That that which hath been so done for a time when it appears to be fit and for publick Good not only may but ought to be done altogether by the Supream Power So then here this is his Lordship's Doctrine that that which was once done at a Prince's Will and Pleasure when it shall appear to be fit and for the publick Good as he supposeth here the taking away of Bishops Votes to be it not only may but ought to be done altogether by the Supream Power as now that is done by Act of Parliament Not only may but ought Soft a little His Lordship had the same Phrase immediately before Why but First every thing that is fit ought not by and by to be made up into a Law For fitness may vary very often which Laws should not Secondly Every thing that is for the publick Good is not by and by to be made up into a Law For many things in Times of Difficulty and Exigency may be for publick Good which in some other Times may be hurtful and therefore not to be generally bound within a Law And if his Lordship shall say as here he doth that they ought to be done altogether and be made up into a Law by the Supream Power but fitted only to such Times under his Lordship's Favour that ought not to be neither For let such a Law be made and he that is once Master of the Times will have the Law ready to
serve his turn and theirs whether the Times bear the like Necessity or not And since every thing that is fit and is for publick Good ought not by and by without more Experience of it to be made up into a Law then much less that which appears so yea though it appear never so evidently yea and to the wisest Parliament that ever sat 'T is true they may make such a thing into a Law and 't is fit for the most part so to do but to say they ought to do it is more than I can believe For no Parliament is or can be so wise as to be infallible and no Evidence can be so apparent unto them in those things of infinite variety for the publick Good and in which is so much uncertainty but that they may both piously and prudently forbear the making of some of them into a Law if they please But no Man may forbear that which he ought to do when he ought to do it And till that time comes he ought not This Lord hath now done and so have I And I shall end with my Prayers to God that this Act of Parliament now made to cast the Bishops and their Votes out of the Parliament how fit soever it seems and how much soever it appears to this Lord to be for the publick Good do not turn to the decay of Religion and the great Damage and Detriment of King and Peers of Church and State Amen A SPEECH Delivered in the STAR-CHAMBER On Wednesday the Fourteenth of June 1637. AT THE CENSURE OF J. Bastwick H. Burton and W. Prinn CONCERNING Pretended Innovations IN THE CHURCH By the Most Reverend Father in GOD WILLIAM LAUD Then Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury TO HIS MOST Sacred Majesty CHARLES By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious and Dread Sovereign I Had no purpose to come in Print but Your Majesty commands it and I obey Most sorry I am for the Occasion that induced me to speak and that since hath moved You to command me to Print Nor am I ignorant that many things while they are spoken and pass by the Ear but once give great Content which when they come to the Eyes of Men and their often Scanning may lie open to some Exceptions This may fall to my Lot in this particular and very easily considering my many Diversions and the little time I could snatch from other Imployment to attend this Yet chuse I rather to obey Your Majesty than to Sacrifice to mine own Privacy and Content Since then this Speech uttered in publick in the Star-Chamber must now come to be more publick in Print I humbly desire Your Sacred Majesty to Protect me and it from the undeserved Calumny of those Men whose Mouths are spears and arrows and their Tongues a sharp sword Psal. 57. 4. Though as the wise Man speaks their foolish Mouths have already called for their own stripes and their Lips and Pens been a snare for their Souls Prov. 18. 6 7. The Occasion which led me to this Speech is known There have of late been divers Libels spread against the Prelates of this Church And they have not been more bitter which is the Shame of these raging Waves than they are utterly false which is Our Happiness But I must humbly beseech Your Majesty to consider That 't is not We only that is the Bishops that are struck at but through our sides Your Majesty Your Honour Your Safety Your Religion is impeached For what Safety can You expect if You loose the Hearts of Your People And how can You retain their Hearts if You change their Religion into Superstition And what Honour can You hope for either present or derivative to Posterity if You attend Your Government no better than to suffer Your Prelates to put this Change upon You And what Majesty can any Prince retain if he lose his Honour and his People God be thanked 't is in all Points otherwise with You For God hath blessed You with a Religious Heart and not subject to Change And he hath filled You with Honour in the Eyes of Your People And by their Love and Dutifulness He hath made You safe So that Your Majesty is upheld and Your Crown flourishing in the Eyes of Christendom And God forbid any Libellous Blast at Home from the Tongues or Pens of a few should shrivel up any growth of these We have received and daily do receive from God many and great Blessings by You And I hope they are not many that are unthankful to You or to God for You. And that there should be none in a Populous Nation even Enemies to their own Happiness cannot be expected Yet I shall desire even these to call themselves to an Account and to remember that Blasphemy against God and slandering the Footsteps of his Anointed are joined together Psal. 89. For he that Blasphemes God will never stick at the Slander of his Prince and he that gives himself the liberty to Slander his Prince will quickly ascend to the next Highest and Blaspheme God But then as I desire them to remember so I do most humbly beseech Your Majesty to account with Your self too And not to measure Your Peoples Love by the Vnworthiness of those few For a Loyal and Obedient People You have and such as will spare nor Livelihood nor Life to do You Service and are joyed at the Heart to see the Moderation of Your Government and Your Constancy to maintain Religion and Your Piety in Exampling it And as I thus beseech You for Your People in General so do I particularly for the Three Professions which have a little suffer'd in these Three most Notorious Libellers Persons And first for my own Profession I humbly beg of Your Majesty to think Mr. Burton hath not in this many Followers and am heartily sorry he would needs lead The best is Your Majesty knows what made his Rancour swell I 'll say no more And for the Law I truly Honour it with my Heart and believe Mr. Prynn may seek all the Inns of Court and with a Candle too if he will and scarce find such a Malevolent as himself against State and Church And because he hath so frequently thrust mistaken Law into these Pamphlets to wrong the Governors of the Church and abuse your good and well-minded People and makes Burton and Bastwick utter Law which God knows they understand not for I doubt his Pen is in all the Pamphlets I do humbly in the Church's Name desire of Your Majesty that it may be resolved by all the Reverend Judges of England and then published by Your Majesty That our keeping Courts and issuing Process in our own Names and the like Exceptions formerly taken and now renewed are not against the Laws of the Realm as 't is most certain they are not that so the Church-Governnors may go on chearfully in their Duty and the Peoples Minds
but two Objections should Malice it self go to work The one is That I moved His Majesty to command the Change And the other That now when I saw my self challeng'd for it I procured His Majesty's Hand for my security To these I Answer clearly First That I did not move the King directly or indirectly to make this Change And Secondly That I had His Majesty's Hand to the Book not now but then and before ever I caused them to be Printed as now they are And that both these are true I here again freely offer my self to my Oath And yet Fourthly That you may see His Gracious Majesty used not his Power only in commanding this Change but his Wisdom also I shall adventure to give you my Reasons such as they are why this Alteration was most fit if not necessary My first Reason is In the Litany in Henry VIII his time and also under Edward VI. there was this Clause From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities from all false Doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us But in the Litany in Queen Elizabeth's time this Clause about the Pope was left out and it seems of purpose for avoiding of Scandal And yet the Prelates for that not accounted Innovators or Introducers of Popery Now 't is a far greater Scandal to call their Religion Rebellion than 't is to call thir chief Bishop Tyrant And this Reason is drawn from Scandal which must ever be avoided as much as it may My second Reason is That the Learned make but Three Religions to have been of old in the World Paganisns Judaism and Christianity And now they have added a Fourth which is Turcism and is an absurd mixture of the other Three Now if this ground of theirs be true as 't is generally received perhaps it will be of dangerous Consequence sadly to avow that the 〈◊〉 Religion is 〈◊〉 That some Opinions of theirs teach Rebellion that 's apparently true the other would be thought on to say no more And this Reason well weighed is taken from the very Foundations of Religion it self My third Reason is Because if you make their Religion to be Rebellion then you make their Religion and Rebellion to be all one And that is against the ground both of State and the Law For when divers Romish Priests and Jesaits have deservedly suffered Death for Treason is it not the constant and just Profession of the State that they never put any Man to Death for Religion but for Rebellion and Treason only Doth not the State truly affirm That there was never any Law made against the Life of a Papist quatenus a Papist only And is not all this stark false if their very Religion be Rebellion For if their Religion be Rebellion it is not only false but impossible that the same Man in the same Act should suffer for his Rebellion and not for his Religion And this King James of ever blessed Memory understood passing well when in his Premonition to all Christian Monarchs he saith I do constantly 〈◊〉 that no Papist either in my time or in the time of the late 〈◊〉 ever died for his Conscience Therefore he did not think their very Religion was Rebellion Though this Clause passed through Inadvertency in his time And this Reason is grounded both upon the Practice and the Justice of the Law Which of these Reasons or whether any other better were in His Majesty's Thoughts when he commanded the Alteration of this Clause I know not But I took it my Duty to lay it before you that the King had not only Power but Reason to command it 10. The Tenth Innovation is That the Prayer for the Navy is 〈◊〉 out of the late Book for the Fast. To this I say There is great Reason it should For the King had no declared Enemy then nor God be thanked hath he now 〈◊〉 had he then any Navy at Sea For almost all the Ships were come in before the Fast-Book was set out But howsoever an excellent Consequence it is if you mark it The Prayer for the Navy was left out of the Book for the Fast therefore by that and such like Innovations the Prelates intend to bring in Popery Indeed if that were a piece of the Prelates Plots to bring in Popery from beyond Sea then they were mightily overseen that they left out the Prayer for the Navy But else what Reason or Consequence is in it I know not unless perhaps Mr. Burton intended to befriend Dr. Bastwick and in the Navy bring hither the Whore of Babylon to be ready for his Christening as he most prophanely Scoffs Well I pray GOD the time come not upon this Kingdom in which it will be found that no one thing hath advanced or ushered in Popery so fast as the gross Absurdities even in the Worship of God which these Men and their like maintain both in Opinion and Practice 11. The Eleventh Innovation is The Reading of the Second Service at the Communion-Table or the Altar To this First I can truly say That since my own Memory this was in use in very many Places as being most proper for those Prayers are then read which both precede and follow the Communion and by little and little this antient Custom was altered and in those Places first where the Emissaries of this Faction came to Preach And now if any in Authority offer to reduce it this antient Course of the Church is by and by called an Innovation Secondly With this the Rubricks of the Common-Prayer Book agree For the first Rubrick after the Communion tells us that upon Holy-Days though there be no Communion yet all else that 's appointed at the Communion shall be read Shall be read That 's true but where Why the last 〈◊〉 before the Communion tells us That the Priest standing at the North-side of the Holy Table shall say the Lord's Prayer with that which follows So that not only the Communion but the Prayers which accompany the Communion which are commonly called the Second Service are to be read at the Communion Table Therefore if this be an Innovation 't is made by the Rubrick not by the Prelates And Mr. Burton's Scoff that this Second Service must be served in for Dainties savours too much of Belly and Prophanation 12. One think sticks much in their Stomachs and they call it an Innovation too And that is Bowing or doing Reverence at our first coming into the Church or at our nearer Approaches to the Holy Table or the Altar call it whether you will in which they will needs have it That we Worship the Holy Table or God knows what To this I Answer First That God forbid we should Worship any thing but GOD Himself Secondly That if to Worship GOD when we enter into his House or approach his Altar be an Innovation 't is a very old one For Moses did Reverence at the very Door of the