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
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
of able and discreet Governours to whom we shall God willing hereafter commit this Office of Trust yet because I have found Dr. Smith's great Care in this former year and because the First year doth but enable his Experience the better to manage the Second I am desirous to put him to this years pains also And do therefore make choice of him to be my Vice-Chancellour for this year following These are therefore to pray and require you to allow of this my Choice of Dr. Smith and to give him the best Counsel and Assistance in all businesses which may any way concern the Government and the Honour of that famous University And so I bid you very heartily farewel and rest To my Loving Friends the Vicechancellour the Doctors the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the Vniversity of Oxford Fulham July 4. 1631. Your very loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. I have made all the convenient speed I can as you well know to have the Body of the Statutes of the University digested into Order and made fit for present use as occasions might be offer'd and still heartily pray you for the quickning of that work For by that Delay which hath been made a great inconvenience hath been like to arise to the prejudice of the Privileges of the University For whereas I thought the Moderation and ordering of Fees in the University if any thing be amiss therein might have staid till that Body of Statutes had been drawn up and then have been rectifi'd under the Head belonging to it it seem's now far otherwise For I find that a Friend of the University's gave intimation to some Heads of Colleges of some things which might be very prejudicial to your Privileges if they did proceed I knew his Majesty had given out a Commission to Examine Fees and that the Commissioners were quick and strict but I had never seen the Commission nor did I so much as dream that the Universities were included or that his Majesty had any purpose they should that way be look'd into And therefore when Dr. Bancroft came unto me directed by Mr. Vice-Chancellour and divers of the Heads of Houses upon the aforesaid information to make search after the Commission and privately to acquaint me with it and to desire my Endeavour with his Majesty that no foreign Commission might come in to the prejudice of the University Privilege I was much troubled at it And the more because I found things had been so privately carry'd from the knowledge of the Chancellours of both Universities But it fell out exceeding well that I had notice of this business For within few days after my Lord of Holland upon like Information had speech with me about it But his Majesties resolutions for proceeding put us both to seek what course to take till at last we resolved to go Both together to him and humbly to move him in the University's behalf that no Foreign Power might be sent to the prejudice of their Privileges And after much Debate his Majesty was at last very graciously pleass'd to grant our requests Provided that each University respectively would meet and by themselves reform whatsoever was found amiss in any Fees received and taken by any in the University of what Office or Condition soever And that this Reformation of Fees should be made according to the Letter and Tenour of his Commission Hereupon he presently called for Mr. Secretary Cook and commanded him to direct a Letter to the Chancellours of both the Universities to give them Order for this business Which Letters of his Majesty you shall find here inclosed And the like are already gone to Cambridge And I must and do pray and require you that they be published according to Course and Register'd and Obey'd in all Points as is fitting Assuring you that if this be not done his Majesties Commissioners will reform whatsoever you do not And And for my part I think 't is happy we came so timely to the knowledg of it For if the Commissioners had once entred upon it it would have been a matter of far greater difficulty to take them off than it was now to stay them And certainly if ever it be my hap to know That honourable Personage that gave the first Information I shall give him hearty Thanks for his Love to the Universities For this breach once made upon your Privileges might have laid open a wider gap in many other particulars of like nature When you have Register'd these Letters of his Majesty I must pray you to send the Original back to me And for the Business it self because his Majesty look's for a speedy reformation the best Counsel I can give you is this That the Delegates which have the consideration of the Statutes now before them may by your direction and command take the Head about Fees next into Consideration and settle that business presently that the other University may not outstrip us in Obedience to his Majesty Thus not doubting of your Care herein nor of the University's conformity and expecting as present remedy of this Abuse as may be made I leave you to the Grace of God and rest To my Loving Friends the Vice-Chancellour the Doctors the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the University of OXFORD Fulham July 4. 1631. Your Loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London The Tenor of the King's Letters Follow 's CHARLES R. RIGHT trusty and Right well beloved Cousin and Counsellour and Right Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved Counsellour We greet you well We have long had a gracious Intendment for the good of our Subjects to rectifie the Proceedings of all Courts and other Places as well within Liberties as without in matter of their Fees and Duties which they Challenge To this purpose We have granted a Commission to some Lords of our Privy Council and others to Examine what they find amiss that a remedy may be found for the Abuse where and in whomsoever it is and the Fees of all Officers and Courts reduced to that which they were found to be allow'd in the Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory And this Commission we shall pursue till we have setled those things with Honour and Justice to the great ease of all our Loving Subjects Now whereas you taking notice of this our Intendment to reduce the Fees of both our Universities where you are our Chancellours as well as other places to the same Standard have made humble suit to Us that this Commission may not trench upon the Liberties granted to the Universities by our Royal Progenitors These are first to let you know that We will as carefully preserve the Rights and Privileges of our Vniversities as We or our Progenitors have given or confirmed them And then that our further VVill and Pleasure is that presently to prevent our Commission you write expresly to
of my Lord our Chancellour If this may perswade that the Enterprize is feasible it were good that all the Dispatch were made in it that may be that the Work may begin with the Year now at our Lady-Day If the Overseers were made they might travel in the perfecting of it and enquire what were the Causes of their first failings in Cambridge and how they do now go through with it as likewise what Course they take at Norwich where this Trade hath a good while flourished and so that it leaves not as I am informed a Beggar in the whole Country thereabouts S. in Christo. SAlus vestra mihi in primis votis ut ita dicam Suprema semper Lex fuit post salutem Honos Hinc à Cancellariatu meo dicam an vestro nam non petenti imò contra nitenti summâ singulari vestrâ benevolentiâ collatus est omnem navavi operam ut vestra sive Statuta sive Privilegia sive alia 〈◊〉 generis negotia quae meam manum exposcerent ad optatum finem facilò plenis velis perducerentur Siquae restant adhuc non indulta aut non satis confirmata potestis nil dubito à Rege Serenissimo Ecclesiae Academiis addictissimo non frustra expectare Vos saltem prudenter Circumspicite quid ulterius in vestram gratiam possim antequam fato fungi ad Deum meum redire detur Et quia annis jam ingravescentibus melius videtur sarcinam deponere quam mole ejus opprimi exuvias quasdam meas Vobis praemisi Ipse quum Deus vocaverit sequuturus Exuere autem primo placuit Libros manuscriptos Quid enim mihi cum illis cui nec otium datur vel inspicere Et si daretur nec oculi ad perlegendum satis firmi nec memoria ad retinendum satis fida reperitur 〈◊〉 enim inter exteriores sensus oculos inter interiores facultates memoriam primò senectutem prodere fallere Libros igitur hosce malui vivus dare vobis clarissimis filiis quam Testamento legare mortuus tum ob alias Causas tum etiam ob hanc ne manus aliqua media furtiva forte selectiores praeriperet Mitto autem nec tot nec tales ut vestris studiis dignos existimem sed quales amor meus erga Communem Matrem pietas parare potuerunt Mitto tamen ut per Catalogum quem unà misi constabit Hebraica volumina Manuscripta quatuordecim Arabica Quinquaginta quinque Persica septendecim Turcica quatuor Russica sex Armenica duo Chinensia duodecim Graeca quadraginta quatuor Italica tria Gallica totidem Anglicana Quadraginta sex Latina supra bis centum praeter alia Quadraginta sex sed recentiora e Collegio Herbipolensi in Germania tempore Belli suecici desumpta Hos Libros Amoris mei Testes vestrae sidei committo in Bibliothecâ reponendos hâc Conditione ut nunquam inde extrahantur vel mutuo cuipiam dentur sub quocunque praetextu nisi solum ut Typis mandentur sic publici Juris utilitatis siant nec tamen illum in finem nisi data prius cautione à Vice-Cancellario Procuratoribus approbanda ut statim à Praelo locis suis in Bibliothecâ praedicta restituantur ut Cautio istaec Libros hosce à furibus Conditio ista eosdem à Blattis Tineisque tutos conservare possit quibus aliter praeda futuri sunt dum suo pulvere situque sepulti jaceant Siqui alii Libri similes aut meliores ad meas fortè manus pervenerint eos etiam ad vos mittendos curabo sub 〈◊〉 Conditione eodem loco sigendos Nolo alia negotia Libris immiscere sed omnia ncbis prospera corde quo decet pio exoptans Academiam illam Vosmetipsos omnes singulos speciali Dei gratiae commendo Vestris mihi amicissimis Dr. Pinck Vicecancellario aliisque Doctoribus Procuratoribus nec non singulis in Domo Convocationis intra Alman Universitatem OXON congregatis Datum ex aedibus meis Lambethanis Maii 22. 1635. Cancellarius vester Amicus W. CANT Reverendissime Cancellarie DVM verbis Te fragilem fateris factis immortalem Te comprobas de facilitate nostrâ dolemus qui fruituri sumus aeternâ quidem beneficiorum sed benefactoris temporali proesentiâ dum nobis intersis minus beneficus dum tamen diutius Ne unquam in fato tuo fungi videamur quomodocunque victuri nostro Cum Tibi satis vixeris vive alteram Ecclesioe alteram Reipublicae tertiam oetatem nobis vives ultra secula in 〈◊〉 Authoribus quos in mutuum aeternitatis cambium à Tineis vindicasti Quorum fidissima exemplaria natalitio atramento manu obstetrice confignata fidissimis Archivorum simul memorioe nostroe loculis reposuisti Sunt illi numero quadringenti quinquaginta duo ac plures pondere inaestimabiles linguarum varietate omnigeni Pentecosten emisti alteram sub tempore Pentecostes cum sis ipse Divini Spiritûs effusissimè plenus O! nobis perpetuò memorande tot Libris tam vivacibus tot Linguis tam disertis quot ipse detulisti Ne queraris amplius lucere tibi non̄ satis firmos ad legendum oculos cum nostro emolumento sic aciem intendas Ne queraris minus 〈◊〉 perstare ad retinendum memoriam cum nostri sis 〈◊〉 memor inter 〈◊〉 negotiorum Turbas Deficient fortasse nobis oculi si tui unquam defecerint proe nimio fluctus esfluvio Sed tuâ languescente quod obsit memoriâ nunquam elanguescet memoria Tui Hoec nobis etiam extinctis quibus jam tenax instdet nunquam è tabulis nascendae posteritatis deteretur excidet Circumspicere nos jubes si quid effectum velimus ab optimis maximisque in terrâ Rege ac Te inter accipiendum carere non vacat At quamvis Tibi obtemperare sit commodi satis fruique Te nimium si tamen Membris quid insit oculi nondum à Capite exercitum si munificentioe tuoe tanta poterit superesse inopia vel inopioe nostroe audacia ut indigia vel petere possimus 〈◊〉 egebimus rogabimus ut in hâc etiam molestiâ tuo obsequantur imperio O qui nobis Regis animum concilias Mediator politicus intercede Sanctissime summo Intercessori Christo. Nos itidem quamvis longe distantes longinquâ pietate devocabimus occumulandam in te gratiam Nos haec Manuscripta quibus tuam ditasti Academiam inscribemus Registro recondemus animo volvemus manu enunciabimus linguâ 〈◊〉 recudemus Nos pari Conditionum observantiâ munus vestrum custodiemus ac piâ gratitudinis religione accepimus Nos Codices tuos vel tanquam gemmas sinu privato amplexabimur vel tanquam stellas aprico immittemus Orbi omninò consulturi aut Gratiae tuae aut Gloriae Nisi omnibus certè impertiemur nullis Qui 〈◊〉
animitus devoti E. Domo nostra Congregationis Mart. 20. 1635 6. Sanctitatis vestrae Colentissima Oxon. Acad. Reverendissime Cancellarie CVM in corpore Academiae sim ipse Lingua in Oratorum serie membrum illud quod primum degustaverit vestroe munificientioe fructum liceat mihi oceano rivum immensurabili gratiarum acervo peculiarem sementem vestrâ cum veniâ subministrare Dum totum se exerit Gladiator vim ponit in lacerto Qui totus venerationem exhibet genu tantum oslendit Ne succenseat paternitas vestra si Academiae Lingua praesertim in re sua vehementius assici gestiat Ideoque infinito gratiarum ponderi aliquid amplius addere plus toto afferre conetur Simulachri parte interiore nomen suum inscripsit Phidias Mihi non arrogantiae ut illi vertatur sed gratitudini si in maternoe Epistolae visceribus privati Officii tesseram concludam vestrae memor memoriae Curaeque tam longe infra vestram Celsitudinem non possum non esse gratus tametsi gratitudini peccavero Martii 20. 〈◊〉 Sanctitati vestrae humillime devotissimus Guilielm Strode Academiae tuae Orator publicus In this year the Northside of Vniversity College was finisht Upon a Difference betwixt the University and Town of Oxford touching Felons Goods Court-Leets and taking Toll a Hearing was appointed by consent of the most Reverend Father in God William Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace Chancellour of the University and of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Berks Steward of the Town aforesaid as likewise by the mutual consent of both Parties divers of the University and Town aforesaid being then present who assumed in the name of the rest that whatsoever should be ordered or directed upon this hearing should be final and binding and that either Party would for ever observe hereafter and stand to it In Witness whereof the Lords above mentioned and others then present have hereunto set their Hands Dated at Lambeth this 28th day of April in the Year of our Lord 1636. W. CANT John Oxon Bryan Duppa William Smith Bryon Twyne Barkshire John Whistler Oliver Smith John Sare Tmothy Carter S. in Christo. NON diu abhinc est quo Literas Patentes Libertates avitas confirmantes conferentes Novas accepistis Munus Regium erat Cura autem mea Nunc Statuta mitto Illa vincula secum ducunt sed accommoda ne Libertates licentiam induerent sed vobis grata Non vellet enim Academia esse sine Fraeno sed in ordinem redacta ne amplius confusione contradictionibus subditos oneraret sed antiquis valdè consona nisi ubi temporum ratio aliud exigit ne quid novi videretur pati celeberrima simul vetustissima Academia Saepius tentatum hoc opus à Viris saeculis suis celeberrimis frustra tamen Nec enim quidquam in hac re ad optatum sinem perduxerunt Sed utrum Operis ipsius difficultas an aliqua alia interventens remora obstiterit planè nescio Quo magis gratulor Academiae 〈◊〉 quibus Miseratione Divinâ datum est opus hoc ad talem saltem perfectionem redactum videre qualem ferre solent Leges Statuta quae de quovis particulari cavere nequeunt Nec Academioe tantum vobis sed mihimetipsi gratulor quod Statuta situ pulvere tantùm non sepulta in lucem redacta suis numeris titulisque distincta video Multò magis tamen quòd placuit Academiae in frequenti Convocatione ne uno refragrante rem totam ad me Curamque meam referre ut sub Incude med Statuta haec limarentur à me Confirmationem acciperent Summa haec vestra Confidentia fuit certê gratias omnibus singulis ago summas ob fidem mihi in re tantâ ac tali jam liberaliter praestitam Quâ in re certe non fidem 〈◊〉 nec spem vestram fefelli Verum enim est ausim dicere me summa cum aequitate cum aequalitate pari omnia transegisses Et potestatem à venerabili Domo mihi commissam it a moderatum ut nihil prae oculis habuerim nisi quod planè in publicum Ecclesiae Academiae bonum cederet Et hoc Deum Testor omnt affectione partialitate privato respectu praesentium temporum personarum locorum officiorum qualiumcunque sepositis Vnum superest non tacendum Transmisi vobis Statuta quae annum probationis suae apud vos complevere jam ex usu illo in nonnullis emendata pro potestate à vobis concessa misi sub sigillis meo vestroque in debitâ Juris formâ confirmata Quum ecce placuit Regi Serenissimo Musisque vestris addictissimo suam etiam superadjicere confirmationem manu propriâ sigillo magno munitam Quod Academiae honorem moribus Disciplinam Statutis reverentiam firmitatem nequit non conferre Ob quam Regiae Majestatis gratiam insignem gratias referre pares nec ipse nec vos potestis Quin Commissionarios misit suos qui ob majorem negotii dignitatem Statuta haec exhiberent Collegiorum Aularum Praefectos Statutis sic exhibitis confirmatis subscribere curarent Reliquum postea erit ut Statutis sic confirmatis Obedientia praestetur qud nihil magis poterit augere Academiae splendorem Et licet primo loco authoritas vestra Legis hasce condendas curavit ea tamen natura legis est ut semel condita promulgata non alios tantum sed condentes liget Huic Obedientiae Reliquisque virtutibus quibus polletis vos semper affines futuros spero ut tales sitis supplicibus precibus se à summo Numine impetratum non dubitat Vestris mihi amicissimis Doctori Pink Vice-Cancel lario reliquisque Doctoribus Procuratoribus nec non singulis in Domo Convocationis intra Almam Universitatem Oxon. Congregatis Datum ex AEdibus nostris Lambethanis Junii 15. 1636. Amicus vester Cancellarius W. CANT These Letters were read in Convocation upon the 22 of June 1636. wherein Mr. Secretary Cook made a weighty Speech fitting the occasion and so likewise did the Vice-Chancellour Mr. Secretary's Speech follow 's in haec verba Reverend Vice-Chancellour Doctors and Masters YOU have heard with due respect and attention the Letters brought by us to his Sacred Majesty you have also heard in Conformity thereunto other Letters sent from your most Reverend Chancellour signifying his Majesty's Grace and Goodness in recommending unto you this Volume of Statutes which we now deliver and you are to receive as the Rules by which you must be governed hereafter You have also seen and heard the Confirmation and Establishment of these Statutes First by his Majesties Royal Signature and under the great Seal of his Kingdom And respectively under the Hand and Seal of the Lord Arch-Bishop both as Primate and Metropolitan of England and as most worthy
of Ours That there is no such Light to the true meaning of Scripture as the Practice of matters contained in it under the Synagogue and in the Church afterwards Now what Light can we possibly receive from the Synagogue if those things which were before can give no Rule to us Besides for ought I know of this Lord's Religion he may brand all the Old Testament as deeply as the Manichees did of old or go very near it if it can give no Rule and so be of no use to Christians St. Augustine was of another Mind through all his Books against Faustus the Manichee And St. Ambrose most expresly and very frequently recommended this tanquam Regulam as a Rule to the People And in this very Case of Episcopacy Clemens Romanus tells us There is a kind of Parallel between Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the one and High Priests Priests and Levites in the other Church And St. Jerom speaks it out that such as Aaron and his Sons and the Tribe of Levi were in the Temple the same are Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the Church of Christ. And this they might justly challenge to themselves and make it a Rule But 't is time to proceed to other Particulars In the Case of Tythes we find that they were due Jure Divino by Divine Right to the Priests under the Law and some were paid before the Law no Man doubts but many will not grant that there is any Divine Right commanding or ordering them to be paid to the Priests under the Gospel Yet this is undeniable that Tythes have been paid to the Ministers under the Gospel in all or most parts of Christendom for many Hundreds of Years together and God be thanked the Payment continues yet in some Places What was it then if not Divine Right that gave the Rule to Christians for this kind of Payment but the Practice before the Law and the Precept under it Shall we say here as this Lord doth That what was before can give no Rule to this Now God forbid The whole Christian World thought otherwise And whatsoever becomes of the Controversie about Tythes yet this is certain that the Ministers of the Gospel ought to have a liberal and free Maintenance Men whom they serve in and for Christ must not open their Mouths too often to preach and muzzle them whom they should feed And the Rule for this is given by the Law for it is written in the Law of Moses Thou shall not muzzle the Mouth of the Ox that treads out the Corn. Doth God take care for Oxen or saith he it altogether for our sakes For our sakes no doubt this is written 1 Cor. 9. 9. And yet how many of these Oxen are poorly shuted and in a manner muzzel'd is evident enough How comes this to pass How Why surely the Apostle St. Paul was utterly deceived here ask my Lord else for he proves this point of their Maintenance because 't is so written in the Law of Moses whereas that Law which was before can give no Rule to this Again The Lord himself hath ordained so saith St. Paul v. 14. that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Not starve by the Gospel but live upon it live plentifully and decently But by what Rule did the Lord himself proceed in this If his Will had been his Rule no Rule so strait it could not but have been just But St. Paul tells us there v. 13. that God himself proceeded by another Rule Do ye not know saith he that they which minister about Holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait on the Altar are partakers with the Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even so hath the Lord ordained Just so That as the Priests and Levites under the Law did wait on the Altar and live by it so must they who preach the Gospel by the Gospel Just so Why then how did the Priest under the Law live 'T is set down at large Deut. 18. 1. Numb 10. 9. and a very full Portion they had so full as that they might have no Inheritance amongst their Brethren the Lord's Portion which was made theirs was so great yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Lord ordained for the Ministers of the Gospel Press this a little farther and 't will come to the quick The Priests and Levites under the Law besides their partaking with the Altar had the Tythes of all duly paid them Will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reach to this too If so then 't is clear in the Text that the Lord himself ordained payment of Tythes to the Ministers of the Gospel For the ordained that the Ministers of the Gospel should live of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just as the Priests under the Law did of the Altar I will not be peremtory in this sense of the Text yet I would have it well considered And howsoever that a free and plentiful Certain Maintenance is the Ordinance of the Lord himself is by this Text as clear as the Sun Now this Lord should do well to tell St. Paul that either he mistook the Lord's Ordinance or if he did not that then the Lord himself was mistaken in so ordaining for the Ministers of the Gospel because what was before can give no Rule to this Farther yet you may see the Vanity the Nothing of this bold Assertion in other particulars beside the Case of Tything For if neither the State of Man before the Law nor the Law it self can give any Rule in things of this kind to us that live under the Gospel then there is nothing in God's Law that can give a Rule to us but that a Man may remove his Neighbour's Land-mark he may lead the Blind out of the way he may smite his Neighbour so it be secretly he may marry in many Degrees of Consanguinity and what may he not For all these and many things more are prohibited only in the Law Deut. 27. Levit. 18. But that going before can give no Rule to these Now the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 10. 6 11. That those things were our Examples and written for our admonition And he speaks of things before and under the Law And more generally Rom. 15. 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning Now learn well and certainly we cannot but by Rule and therefore most manifest it is that those things which were before can give us Rules whatsoever is here said to the contrary Two things there are which work much with me why this Lord should say that the things which were before and under the Law can give no Rule in this And if not in this then not in things like to this The one is the Power which Kings have in their several Dominions over the external Government and Polity of the Church The Apostle's Rule goes in the general only Let every Soul be subject Rom. 13.
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
Hominum by the Businesses which Men brought to him and he desires that he may ease himself in part upon him that was at his desire designed his Successor to which the People expressed their great liking by their Acclamation And these Businesses he dispatch'd with that great Dexterity to most Mens content that Men did not only bring their Secular Causes before him but were very desirous to have him determine them And S. Ambrose was in greater Employment for Secular Affairs than S. Augustin was for he was Bishop and Governour of Milan both at once and was so full of this Employment that S. Augustin being then upon the Point of his Conversion complains he could not find him at so much leisure as he would And this besides many Bishops and Clergy-Men of great Note who have been employ'd in great Embassics and great Offices under Emperors and Kings and discharged them with great Fidelity and Advantage to the Publick and without detriment to the Church And surely they would never have taken this Burthen upon them had their Conscience been hurt by it or had it been inconsistent with their Function or absolutely against the ancient Canons of the Church of which they were so conscientious and strict Observers My Lord goes on to another Argument and tells us They are separated unto a special Work and Men must take heed how they mis-employ things dedicated and set apart to the Service of God They are called to Preach the Gospel and set apart to the Work of the Ministery and the Apostle saith Who is sufficient for these things Shewing that this requireth the Whole Man and all is too little Therefore for them to seek or take other Offices which shall require and tie them to employ their Time and Studies in the Affairs of this World will draw a Guilt upon them as being inconsistent with that which God doth call them and set them apart unto This is my Lord's next Argument And truly I like the beginning of it very well and I pray God this Lord may be mindful of it when time may serve For surely Men ought to take heed how they mis-employ Things dedicated and set apart to the Service of God And therefore as Ministers must not mis-employ their Persons or their Times which are dedicated to God and his Service no more must Lay-Men take away and mis-employ the Church Revenues devoutly given dedicated and set apart to maintain and hold up the Service of God and to refresh Christ in his poor Members upon Earth And if ever a Scambling time come for the Church-Lands as these Times hereafter must I hope his Lordship will remember this Argument of his and help to hold back the Violence from committing more Sacrilege whereas too much lies heavy on the Kingdom already The rest of the Argument will abide some Examination First then most true it is that Bishops are called to Preach the Gospel and set apart to that Work but whether they be so set apart as that what Necessity soever requires it they may do nothing else but Study and Preach is no great Question For certainly they may in Times of Persecution labour many ways for their Perservation and in Times of Want for their Sustenance and at all Times if they be called to it give their best Counsel and Advice for the publick Safety of the State as well as their own Nor doth that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 2. 16. Who is sufficient for these things hinder this at all For though this great Calling and Charge requires the whole Man though all that the ablest Man can do in it be too little all things simply and exactly consider'd yet he that saith here None are sufficient for these things for so much the Question implieth saith also in the very next Chapter that God hath made him and others able Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. 3. 6. and if able then doubtless sufficient And the Greek word is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient in the one place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made us sufficient in the other Besides it may be the sense of the Places will bear it that no Man is sufficient for the Dignity of the Office which brings with it the savour of Life or Death to all Men and yet that many Men are made sufficient by God's Grace to perform this Office that is to bring both the one and the other But howsoever be the Office as high as it is and be the Men never so sufficient yet the Function is such as cannot be daily performed by the Priest for the Preaching part nor attended by the People for their other necessary Employments of Life which made the Wisdom of God himself command a Sabbath under the Law and the Church to settle the Lord's-Day and other Holy-days under the Gospel for the Publick Service and Worship of God and the Instruction of the People I say in regard of this a Bishop or a Priest who shall be judged fit for that Publick Service may give Counsel in any Civil Affairs and take upon him if not seek any Office temporal that may help and assist him in his Calling and give him Credit and Countenance to do the more good among his People but not to the desertion of his Spiritual Work And this Lord is much deceived if he thinks all Offices do require and tie them to employ their Time and Studies in the Affairs of this World If they be such Offices as do I grant with him that to take them unless it be upon some urgent Necessity may draw a Guilt upon them But if they be such as Clergy-Men may easily execute in their empty Hours without any great hindrance to their Calling and perhaps with great Advantage to it then out of doubt it can draw no Guilt upon them which take them And this Lord in this Passage is very cunning For instead of speaking of Bishops having any thing to do in Civil Affairs he speaks of nothing but taking of Offices Now a Clergy-Man may many ways have to do in Temporal Affairs without taking any set Office upon him which shall not tie up his Time or his Studies to the Affairs of this World as it seems this Lord would persuade the the World all do Now that a Bishop or other Clergy-Man may lawfully meddle with some Temporal Affairs always provided that he entangle not himself with them for that indeed no Man doth that Wars for Christ as he ought 2 Tim. 2. 4. is I think very evident not only by that which the Priests did and might do under the Law but also by that which was done after Christ in the Apostle's time and by some of them To Study and Practise Physick is as much inconsistent with the Function of a Minister of the Gospel as to Sit Consult and give Counsel in Civil Affairs But St. Luke though an Evangelist continued his Profession as appears Colos. 4. 14. where St.
Tables and attend them too Therefore the Work was not unlawful in its self for them for then it had been Sin in them to do it at all at any time For that which is simply evil in and of it self is ever so therefore the most that can be made of this Example is that it was lawful very lawful and and charitable too for the Apostles to take care of those Tables themselves and they did it For all the Provision for the Poor was brought and laid at the Apostles feet Acts 4. 35. which doubtless would never have been done had it been unlawful for the Apostles to order and to distribute it But when they found the encreasing Burthen too heavy for both the one Work and the other then though both were lawful yet it was more expedient to leave the Tables than the Word of God with which the World was then as little acquainted as now 't is full of and I pray God it be not full to a dangerous Surfeit Now this as I conceive in Humility states the Bishops Business For to me it seems out of Question that it is most lawful for Bishops to be conversant in all the Courts Councils and Places of Judicature to which they have been called since the Reformation in the Church and State of England till they find themselves or be found unable to discharge the one Duty and the other And then indeed I grant no serving of Tables no nor Council Tables is to be preferred But then you must not measure Preaching only by a formal going up into the Pulpit For a Bishop and such Occasions are often offer'd may Preach the Gospel more publickly and to far greater Edisication in a Court of Judicature or at a Council Table where great Men are met together to draw things to an Issue than many Preachers in their several Charges can and therefore to far more Advancement of the Gospel than any one of his Lordship's Sect at a Tables end in his Lordship's Parlour or in a Pulpit in his Independent Congregation wheresoever it be And when he hath said all that he can or any Man else this shall be found true that there is not the like Necessity of Preaching the Gospel lying upon every Man in Holy Orders now Christianity is spread and hath taken Root as lay upon the Apostles and Apostolical Men when Christ and his Religion were Strangers to the whole World And yet I speak not this to cast a Damp or Chilness upon any Man's Zeal or Diligence in that Work No God forbid For though I conceive there is not the same Necessity yet a great Necessity there is still and ever will be to hold 〈◊〉 both the Verity and Devotion which attend Religion and Non 〈◊〉 est Virtus quam quaerere parta tueri So there may be as great Vertue in the Action though perhaps not equal Necessity of it Besides Deacons were not Lay Men but Men in Holy Orders though inferiour to the Apostles as appears by Stephen's undertaking the Libertines and Cyrenians in the Cause of Christ and Philip's Preaching of Christ in Samaria and Baptizing And if they were of the Seventy as Epiphanius thinks they were Haer. then they were Presbyters before they had this Temporary Office if such it were put upon them Therefore if to meddle with these things were simply unlawful in themselves or for Men in Holy Orders Or if all meddling with them were such a Distraction as must needs make them leave the Preaching of the Gospel then these Seventy might not discharge the Office to which they were chosen and if this be so then this Lord must needs infer that the Apostles and all which chose them did sin in Instituting such Men to take care of the Tables and to distract them from Preaching of the Word which they thought unfit for themselves to do And yet I hope my Lord will not say this in his privatest Conventicle Nay yet more though this Care was delivered over to the Deacons in ordinary yet Calvin tells us plainly that in things of moment they could do nothing Nec quicquam without the Authority of the Presbyters So they meddled still Next this Lord shews since the Apostles did not think fit to distract themselves with Business about these Tables how they ought to apply themselves And this he sets down in the Apostle's Words Acts 6. 4. But we will give our selves continually to Prayer and the Ministery of the Word And yet I hope this Lord doth not think the Apostles by this word continually meant to do nothing else but Pray and Preach For if they did one of these two continually without any intermission then they could do nothing else which is most apparently false And indeed which it seems this learned Lord considered not this word continually is not in the Text. For in the Greek the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will be constant and instant in Prayer and Ministration of the Word which may and ought to be done though neither of them continually and which many of God's Servants have done and yet meddled some way or other with temporal or worldly Affairs The Argument is over The rest of this Passage is this Lord's Rhetorick which I shall answer as I repeat it Did the Apostles saith his Lordship Men of extraordinary Gifts think it unreasonable for them to be hindred from giving themselves continually to Preaching the Word and Prayer by taking care of the Tables of the poor Widows No sure they they did not think it unreasonable that is this Lord's word to make the present business of the Bishops more Odious as if it were against common Reason But there 's no such word in the Text. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not meet Now many things may not be meet or comely which yet are not altogether unreasonable Nay which at some times and upon some occasions may be meet and comely enough nay perhaps necessary for the very Gospel it self and therefore no way unreasonable howsoever at this time unfit for the Apostles and worthily refused by them Well the Rhetorick goes on Did the Apostles thus and can the Bishops now think it reasonable or lawful for them Yes the Times and Circumstances being varied and many things become fit which in some former Times were not they can think it both reasonable and lawful nay necessary for some of them What To contend for sitting at Council Tables No God forbid perhaps not to sue for sitting there but certainly not to contend for it but to sit there being called unto it and to give their best Advice there never unlawful and oft-times necessary And here let me tell this Lord by the way that the Bishop which he hath sufficiently hated was so far from contending for this that though he had that Honour given him by His Majesty to sit there many Years yet I do here take it upon my Christianity and Truth that he did
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
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-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
Opinion this Book was thrust now to the Press both to 〈◊〉 these Libellers and as much as in him lay to fire both Church and State And tho I wonder not at the 〈◊〉 yet I should wonder at the Bishop of the Diocese a Man of Learning and Experience that he should give Testimony to such a Business and in such Times as these And once more before I leave the 〈◊〉 Table Name and Thing give me leave to put you in mind that there is no danger at all in the Altar Name or Thing For at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reformation tho' there were a Law for the taking down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Altars and setting up of Holy Tables in the room of 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 places the Altars were not suddenly removed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Queen in her Injunction to this Why she says That there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of great moment in this saving for Vniformity and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law in that behalf Therefore for any danger or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in the Altars Name or Thing they might even then have been left standing but for Vniformity and the Imitation of the Law But howsoever it follows in the same Injunction That when the Altar is taken down the Holy Table shall be set In not cross the place where the Altar stood which as is aforesaid must needs be Altar-wise 14. The Fourteenth and the last Innovation comes with a mighty Charge and 't is taken out of an Epistle to the Temporal Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council Of which Epistle we got one Sheet and so for ought I yet know that Impression staid In that Sheet is this Charge the words are The Prelates to justifie their Proceedings have forged a new Article of Religion brought from Rome which gives them full power to alter the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church at a Blow as they interpret it and have foisted it such is their Language into the beginning of the 20th Article of our Church And this is in the last Edition of the Articles Anno 1628. in affront of His Majesty's Declaration before them c. The Clause which they they say is forged by us is this The Church that is the Bishops as they expound it hath Power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in matter of Faith The word is Controversies of Faith by their leave This Clause say they is a Forgery fit to be Examined and deeply Censured in the Star-Chamber For 't is not to be found in the Latin or English Articles of Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth ratified by Parliament And then in the Margent thus If to Forge a Will or Writing be censurable in the Star-Chamber which is but a wrong to a private Man how much more the Forgery of an Article of Religion to wrong the whole Church and overturn Religion which concerns all our Souls This is a heavy Charge my Lords but I thank God the Answer 's easie And truly I grant that to Forge an Article of Religion in whole or in part and then to thrust it upon the Church is a most hainous Crime far worse than the Forging of a Deed. And is certainly very deeply Censurable in this Court. And I would have humbly besought you that a deep Censure might have been laid upon it but that this Sheet was found after and so is not annext to the Information nor in Judgment at this present before you But then my Lords I must tell you I hope to make it as clear as the Day that this Forgery was not that this Clause mentioned was added by the Prelates to the Article to gain Power to the Church and so to serve our turns But that that Clause in the beginning of the Article was by these Men or at least by some of their Faction rased out and this to weaken the just Power of the Church to serve their turns They say to justifie their Charge that this Clause is not to be found in the Articles English or Latin of either Edw. VI. or Q. Elizabeth I answer The Articles of Edw. VI. and those made under Q. Elizabeth differ very much And those of Edw. VI. are not now binding So whether the Clause be In or Out of them 't is not much material But for the Articles of the Church of England made in the Queen's time and now in force that this Clause for the Power of the Church to Decree Ceremonies and to have Authority in Controversies of Faith should not be found in English or Latin Copies till the Year 1628. that it was set forth with the King's Declaration before it is to me a Miracle but your Lordships shall see the Falshood and Boldness of these Men. What Is this Affirmative Clause in no Copy English or Latin till the Year 1628 Strange Why my Lords I have a Copy of the Articles in English of the Year 1612 and of the Year 1605 and of the Year 1593 and in Latin of the Year 1563 which was one of the first Printed Copies if not the first of all For the Articles were agreed on but the Nine and twentieth day of January 〈◊〉 1563. And in all these this Affirmative Clause for the Churches Power is in And is not this strange boldness then to abuse the World and falsely to say 't is in no Copy when I my self out of my own store am able to shew it into so many and so antiently But My Lord's I shall make it plainer yet For 't is not fit concerning an Article of Religion and an Article of such Consequence for the Order Truth and Peace of this Church you should rely upon my Copys be they never so many or never so ancient Therefore I sent to the Publick Records in my Office and here under my Officers Hand who is a Publick Notary is returned me the Twentieth Article with this Affirmative Clause in it And there is also the whole Body of the Articles to be seen By this your Lordships see how free the Prelates are from Forging this part of the Article Now let these Men quit themselves and their Faction as they can for their Index Expurgatorins and their foul Rasure in leaving out this part of the Article For to leave out of an Article is as great a Crime as to put in And a Main Rasure is as Censurable in this Court as a Forgery Why But then my Lords what is this Mystery of Iniquity Truly I cannot certainly tell but as far as I can I 'll tell you The Articles you see were fully and fairly agreed to and subscribed in the Year 1563. But after this in the Year 1571 there were some that refused to subscribe but why they did so is not recorded Whether it were about this Article or any other I know not But in Fact this is Manifest that in that Year 1571 the Articles were Printed both in Latin and English and this Clause for the Church left out of both And certainly this could not be done but by
Decemb. 24. 1634. Sanctitati vestrae Devotissima Acad. Oxon. At this time there was a Proposition made for setting the Poor on work at Oxford by making New Stuffs and Drapery Ware much after the fashion that the Dutch and Walloons use at Canterbury Norwich and other places Divers Letters passed between me and the Vicechancellor and some other interessed men about it But in Conclusion such difficulties appeared in the Business that the whole project suddainly vanished and came to nothing And yet Mr. Escott of Wadham College who very carefully and certainly with a very good intention laboured in the Business gave me this Answer following to such Doubts as I had made And set down some other things very considerable in the business And yet for all this that good intention fell to nothing THE Doubts that you have made to me I think in part be thus answered To the First The Man John Roberts of Yarmouth and born there is a man as I suppose conformable for I have heard him speak with dislike of some sactious Brethren of the Town of Yarmouth and of some of this Town of Oxford And he commends Mr. Brook the Minister of Yarmouth and particularly for a Suit that he lately commenced in the High Commission against a factious Lecturer for preaching scandalously of the Blessed Virgin c. by reason of which Suit I suppose the said Minister and his Conformity is known to my Lord's Grace of Canterbury To the Second If this Man die another may be had upon the same Terms But if he live any time he will make his own Sons and others perfect in the Trade that may supply the place after him To the Third I hope we shall not need to fear the making us a number of Poor by them that shall be trained up in this Trade because this Course encreaseth not the number of Poor but only teaches them whom it finds idle and enables them to maintain themselves and their Families if they have any for it employs both Men Women and Children and where there be no Idlers 't is like there will not be many Beggars To the Fourth I find not indeed that we have power to impose a Tax upon Ale-houses To the Fifth The Taxes and Levies now made by the Town for the Poor are by the Statute to be employed and disposed of by the Overseers of the Poor with the consent of two Justices of Peace for the providing of Materials to set them to Work and for the placing out of poor Children to honest Trades Now if the Overseers of this Work be made Justices of Peace I see not but they may have a hand in disposing of those Taxes and convert as much of them as shall be fit to this use However the University may by its own power tax all privileged men There is a man of good Place in the Town who is like to be a Benefactor to this Work that thinks the Town if the University go through with it will willingly Bind themselves to a yearly Contribution towards it or else will undertake to maintain constantly a certain number of Children which shall work there But if none of these things be I think there may be shewn a way how the University of its self without the assistance of the Town may be able to go on with this charitable Work and provide for the maintaining and teaching Sixty poor Children the first year and add to them 20 or 30 more every year perpetually and yet so that whatsoever any man shall contribute towards it shall return to him within the compass of the year with advantage Which way may be this There must be raised a Sum of Money that shall issue out yearly for the maintaining of a certain number at work suppose sixty or an hundred This yearly Charge shall never increase and yet the number to be maintained shall increase every year thus Suppose there be eighty to be maintained as Apprentices for seven years at five pounds charge for every Child per annum The first year their Earnings will but answer their Spoilings The second year this Eighty will earn 120 l. which will take in twenty four Children more The third year the first eighty will earn 200 l. and the 24 taken in the 2d year will earn 36 l. in all 236 l. Out of which deduct to maintain the 24 taken in the second year 120 l. and there will remain 116 l. which will take in 23 more The fourth year the first Eighty will earn 280 l. and the rest will earn so as to take in 30 more The fifth year will take in 40 more the sixth year 50. The seventh 40. The Eighth year The first Eighty shall be manumitted and yet there will be left at work 204. and there may be taken in 30 more The ninth year will manumit the 24 that were taken in the Second year and there will be left at work 210. And so always a certain number will go off yearly as they come in and others will be taken in their room If there be taken in but 60 the first year there will be added the second year 20. the third year 16. the fourth year 20. the fifth 30. the sixth 40. and so onward as it is shewed before If the Town contribute towards it there may be taken in the first year 100. If the University go on alone they may besides the allowance of the Master and Overseers take in 60 by raising through the University by the Pole 1 d. a Week upon every man except poor Scholars or by setting a certain Sum upon every College to be raised as it shall seem meet to the Governours Now if any man think this 1 d. a Week to be a Burthen I answer him thus First that upon the matter he doth not give any thing but only lays out by the Week what within the Year will come in to him again in the Buying of his Gowns Suits Stockings c. Neither is this a thing only in imagination but it may easily be made to appear that if things be well ordered there shall be saved in some Stuffs 4 d. in some 6 d. in some 8 d. a Yard in some more in some less as it is of higher or lower price and in Stockings after the same proportion Secondly I think I may say there is well nigh as much as this given every Week at Buttery-Hatches and to Beggars in the Town which by this means might be saved for if a right course be taken there should not be seen a Beggar or an idle Person within the Precincts of the University Thirdly I believe that my Lord Keeper 〈◊〉 Petitioned by the University will easily be induced in regard of the undertaking of this work to keep this University out of all Breves which now come very frequently upon us and that we shall be burthened with no Collections save only some extraordinary ones that shall first pass the Consent and approbation