their Authority and power in Spiritual matters from no other hands than those of Christ and his Apostles their Temporal honours and possessions from the bounty and affection only of our Kings and Princes their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in causes Matrimonial Testamentary and the like for which no action lieth at the common Law from continual usage and prescription and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm and owe no more unto the Parliament than all sort of Subjects do besides whose Fortunes and Estates have been occasionally and collaterally confirmed in Parliament And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon that of the 24 H. 8. doth only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and consecrated without recourse to Tome for a confirmation which formerly had put the Prelates to great charge and trouble but for the form and manner of their Consecration the Statute leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was performed and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were Lawfully and Canonically ordained and consecrated the Bishops of that time not only being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawful and Canonical Bishops but called on to assist at the Consecration of such other Bishops Cardinal Pool himself for one as were promoted in her Reign whereof see Masons Book de Minist Ang. l. c. Next for the Statute 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer as it relates to their Canonical Consecrations it was repealed in Terminis in the first of Queen Maries Reign and never stood in force nor practice to this day That of the Authorizing of the Book of Ordination in two several Parliaments of that King the one à parte ante and the other à parte post as before I told you might indeed seem somewhat to the purpose if any thing were wanting in it which had been used in the formula's of the Primitive times or if the Book had been composed in Parliament or by Parliament-men or otherwise received more Authority from them then that it might be lawfully used and exercised throughout the Kingdom But it is plain that none of these things were objected in Queen Maries days when the Papists stood most upon their points the Ordinal being not called in because it had too much of the Parliament but because it had too little of the Pope and relished too strongly of the Primitive piety And for the Statute of 8 of Q. Elizabeth which is chiefly stood on all that was done therein was no more than this and on this occasion A question had been made by captious and unquiet men and amongst the rest by Dr. Bonner sometimes Bishop of London whether the Bishops of those times were lawfully ordained or not the reason of the doubt being this which I marvel Mason did not see because the book of Ordination which was annulled and abrogated in the first of Queen Mary had not been yet restored and revived by any legal Act of Queen Elizabeths time which Cause being brought before the Parliament in the 8th year of her Reign the Parliament took notice first that their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and then declare that by the Statute 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been added to the Book of Common-prayer and Administration of the Sacraments as a member of it at least as an Appendant to it and therefore by the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 2. was restored again together with the said Book of Common-prayer intentionally at the least if not in Terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubts they therefore did revive now and did accordingly Enact That whatsoever had been done by virtue of that Ordination should be good in Law This is the total of the Statute and this shews rather in my judgment that the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them than that they were conceived to have had too much And so I come to your last Objection which concerns the Parliament whose entertaining all occasions to manisest their power in Ecclesiastical matters doth seem to you to make that groundless slander of the Papists the more fair and plausible 'T is true indeed that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times have been very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil into their own hands And some there are who being they cannot hope to have their sancies Authorized in a regular way do put them upon such designs as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments nor the Authority of the King nor with the privileges of the Clergy nor to say truth with the esteem and reputation of the Church of Christ And this hath been a practice even as old as Wickliffe who in the time of K. R. 2. addressed his Petition to the Parliament as we read in Walsingham for the Reformation of the Clergy the rooting out of many false and erroneous Tenets and for establishing of his own Doctrines who though he had some Wheat had more Tears by odds in the Church of England And lest he might be thought to have gone a way as dangerous and unjustifiable as it was strange and new he laid it down for a position That the Parliament or Temporal Lords where by the way this ascribes no Authority or power at all to the House of Commons might lawfully examine and reform the Disorders and Corruptions of the Church and a discovery of the errors and corruptions of it devest her of all Tithes and Temporal endowments till she were reformed But for all this and more than this for all he was so strongly backed by the Duke of Lancaster neither his Petition nor his Position found any welcome in the Parliament further than that it made them cast many a longing eye on the Churches patrimony or produced any other effect towards the work of Reformation which he chiefly aimed at than that it hath since served for a precedent to Penry Pryn and such like troublesome and unquiet spirits to disturb the Church and set on foot those dreams and dotages which otherwise they durst not publish And to say truth as long as the Clergy were in power and had Authority in Convocation to do what they would in matters which concerned Religion those of the Parliament conceived it neither safe nor fitting to intermeddle in such business as concerned the Clergy for fear of being questioned for it at the Churches Bar. But when that Power was lessened though it were not lost by the submission of the Clergy to K. H. 8. and by the Act of the Supremacy which ensued upon it then did the Parliaments
and the lawful Rights Ceremonies and Observations of the same by his Majesties advice and confirmation under the great Seal of England shall be by all his Graces Subjects fully believed obeyed observed and performed to all purposes and intents upon the pains and penalties therein to be comprized as if the same had been in express words and sentences plainly and fully made set forth declared and contained in the said Act 32 H. 8. c. 26. where note That the two Houses of Parliament were so far from medling in the matter which was then in hand that they did not so much as require to see the Determinations and Decrees of those Learned men whom his Majesty had then Assembled before they passed the present Act to bind the Subject fully to believe observe and perform the same but left it wholly to the judgment and discretion of the King and Clergy and trusted them besides with the ordaining and inflicting of such pains and penalties on disobedient and unconformable persons as to them seemed meet This ground-work laid the work went forwards in good order and at last being brought unto as much perfection as the said Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Learned men would give it without the co-operation and concurrence of the Royal assent it was presented once again to the Kings consideration who very carefully perused it and altered many things with his own hand as appears by the Book it self still extant in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton and having so altered and corrected it in some passages returned it to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who bestowed some further pains upon it to the end that being to come forth in the King's Name and by his Authority there might be nothing in the same which might be justly reprehended The business being in this forwardness the King declares in Parliament Anno 1544. being the 34 year of his Reign his zeal and care not only to suppress all such Books and Writings as were noysome and pestilent and tended to the seducing of his Subjects but also to ordain and establish a certain Form of pure and sincere Teaching agreable to God's Word and the true Doctrine of the Catholick and Apostolick Church whereunto men may have recourse for the decision of some such controversies as have in Times past and yet do happen to arise And for a preparatory thereunto that so it might come forth with the greater credit he caused an Act to pass in Parliament for the abolishing of all Books and Writings comprizing any matters of Christian Religion contrary to that Doctrine which since the year 1540. is or any time during the King's life shall be set forth by his Highness and for the punishment of all such and that too with most grievous pains which should preach teach maintain or defend any matter or thing contrary to the Book of Doctrine which was then in readiness 34 35 H. 8. c. 1. Which done he caused the said Book to be Imprinted in the year next following under the Title of A necessary Doctrine for all sorts of People prefixing a Preface thereto in his Royal Name to all his faithful and loving Subjects that they might know the better in those dangerous Times what to believe in point of Doctrine and how they were to carry and behave themselves in points of Practice Which Statute as it is the greatest Evidence which those Times afford to shew that both or either of the Houses of Parliament had any thing to do in matters which concerned Religion so it entitles them to no more if at all to any thing then that they did make way to a Book of Doctrine which was before digested by the Clergy only revised after and corrected by the Kings own hand and finally perused and perfected by the Metropolitan And more then so besides that being but one Swallow it can make no Summer it is acknowledged and confessed in the Act it self if Poulton understand it rightly in his Abridgment That recourse must be had to the Catholick and Apostolick Church for the decision of Controversies Which as it gives the Clergy the decisive power so it left nothing to the Houses but to assist and aid them with the Temporal Sword when the Spiritual Word could not do the deed the point thereof being blunted and the edge abated Next let us look upon the time of K. Ed. 6. and we shall find the Articles and Doctrine of the Church excepting such as were contained in the Book of Common-Prayer to be composed confirmed and setled in no other way then by the Clergy only in their Convocation the Kings Authority co-operating and concurring with them For in the Synod held in London Anno 1552. the Clergy did compose and agree upon a Book of Articles containing the chief Heads of the Christian Faith especially with reference to such Points of Controversie as were in difference between the Reformators of the Church of England and the Church of Rome and other Opponents whatsoever which after were approved and published by the Kings Authority They were in number 41. and were published by this following Title that is to say Articuli de quibus in Synodo London Anno 1552. ad tollendum opinionum dissentionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios Eruditis viros Convenerat Regia authoritate in lucem Editi And it is worth our observation that though the Parliament was held at the very time and that the Parliament passed several Acts which concerned Church-matters as viz. An Act for Vniformity of Divine Service and for the Confirmation of the Book of Ordination 5 and 6 Edw. 6. c. 1. An Act declaring which days only shall be kept for Holy days and which for Fasting days C. 3. against striking or drawing weapon either in the Church or Church-yard C. 4. And finally another Act for the legitimating of the Marriages of Priests and Ministers C. 12. Yet neither in this Parliament nor in that which followed is there so much as the least syllable which reflecteth this way or medleth any thing at all with the book of Articles Where by the way if you behold the lawfulness of Priests Marriages as a matter Doctrinal or think we owe that point of Doctrine and the indulgence granted to the Clergy in it to the care and goodness of the Parliament you may please to know that the point had been before determined in the Convocation and stands determined by and for the Clergy in the 31 of those Articles and that the Parliament looked not on it as a point of Doctrine but as it was a matter practical conducing to the benefit and improvement of the Common-wealth Or if it did yet was the Statute built on no other ground-work than the Resolution of the Clergy the Marriage of Priests being before determined to be most lawful I use the very words of the Act it self and according to the Word of God by the Learned Clergy of this realm
begin to intrench upon the Churches Rights to offer at and entertain such businesses as formerly were held peculiar to the Clergy only next to dispute their Charters and reverse their privileges and finally to impose some hard Laws upon them And of these notable incroachments Matthew Parker thus complains in the life of Cranmer Qua Ecclesiasticarum legum potestate abdicata populus in Parliamento coepit de rebus divinis inconsulto Clero Sancire tum absentis Cleri privilegia sensim detrahere juraque duriora quibus Clerus invitus teneretur Constituere But these were only tentamenta offers and undertakings only and no more than so Neither the Parliaments of K. Edward or Q. Elizabeths time knew what it was to make Committees for Religion or thought it fit that Vzzah should support the Ark though he saw it tottering That was a work belonging to the Levites only none of the other Tribes were to meddle with it But as the Puritan Faction grew more strong and active so they applyed themselves more openly to the Houses of Parliament but specially to the House of Commons putting all power into their hands as well in Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Causes as in matters Temporal This amongst others confidently affirmed by Mr. Pryn in the Epistle to his Book called Anti-Arminianism where he avers That all our Bishops our Ministers our Sacraments our Consecration our Articles of Religion our Homilies Common-prayer Book yea and all the Religion of the Church is no other way publickly received supported or established amongst us but by Acts of Parliament And this not only since the time of the Reformation but That Religion and Church affairs were determined ratified declared and ordered by Act of Parliament and no ways else even then when Popery and Church men had the greatest sway Which strange assertion falling from the pen of so great a Scribe was forthwith chearfully received amongst our Pharisees who hoped to have the highest places not only in the Synagogue but the Court of Sanhedrim advancing the Authority of Parliaments to so high a pitch that by degrees they fastened on them both an infallibility of judgment and an omniotency of power Nor can it be denied to deal truly with you but that they met with many apt Scholars in that House who either out of a desire to bring all the grist to their own Mill or willing to enlarge the great power of Parliaments by making new precedents for Posterity or out of faction or affection or what else you please began to put their Rules in practice and draw all matters whatsoever within the cognizance of that Court In which their embracements were at last so general and that humour in the House so prevalent that one being once demanded what they did amongst them returned this answer That they were making a new Creed Another being heard to say That he could not be quiet in his Conscience till the holy Text should be confirmed by an Act of theirs Which passages if they be not true and real as I have them from an honest hand I assure you they are bitter jests But this although indeed it be the sickness and disease of the present Times and little to the honour of the Court of Parliament can be no prejudice at all to the way and means of the Reformation amongst sober and discerning men the Doctrine of the Church being settled the Liturgy published and confirmed the Canons authorized and executed when no such humour was predominant nor no such power pretended to by both or either of the Houses of Parliament But here perhaps it will be said that we are fallen into Charybdis by avoiding Scylla and that endeavouring to stop the mouth of this Popish Calumny we have set open a wide gap to another no less scandalous of the Presbyterians who being as professed Enemies of the Kings as the Popes Supremacy and noting that strong influence which the King hath had in Ecclesiastical affairs since the first attempts for Reformation have charg'd it as reproachfully on the Church of England and the Religion here established that it is Regal at the best if not Parliamentarian and may be called a Regal Faith and a Regal Gospel But the Answer unto this is easie For first the Kings intended by the Objectors did not act much in order to the Reformation as appears by that which hath been said but either by the advice and co-operation of the whole Clergy of the Realm in their Convocations or by the Counsel and consent of the Bishops and most eminent Church men in particular Conferences which made it properly the work of the Clergy only the Kings no otherwise than as it was propouned by him or finally confirmed by the Civil Sanction And secondly had they done more in it than they did they had been warranted so to do by the Word of God who hath committed unto Kings and Sovereign Princes a Supreme or Supereminent power not only in all matters of a Temporal or Secular nature but in such as do concern Religion and the Church of Christ And so St. Augustine hath resolved it in his third Book against Cresconius In hoc Reges sicut iis divinitus praecipitur pray you note that well Deo serviunt in quantum Reges sunt si in suo Regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanum societatem verum etiam ad Divinam Religionem Which words of his seemed so significant and convincing unto Hart the Jesuite that being shewed the Tractate writ by Dr. Nowel against Dorman the Priest in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths time and finding how the case was stated by that Reverend person he did ingenously confess that there was no Authority ascribed to the Kings of england in Ecclesiastical affairs but what was warranted unto them by that place of Augustine The like affimed by him that calleth himself Franciscus de S. Clara though a Jesuite too that you mjay see how much more candid and ingenuous the Jesuits are in this point than the Presbyterians in his Examen of the Articles of the Church of England But hereof you may give me opportunity to speak more hereafter when you propose the Doubts which you say you have relating to the King the Pope and the Churches Protestant and therefore I shall say no more of it at the present time SECT II. The manner of the Reformation of the Church of England declared and justified HItherto I had gone in order to your satisfaction and communicated my conceptions in writing to you when I received your Letter of the 4th of January in which you signified the high contentment I had given you in condescending to your weakness as you pleased to call it and freeing you from those doubts which lay heaviest on you And therewithal you did request me to give you leave to propound those other scruples which were yet behind relating to the King the Pope and the Protestant-Churches either too little
darling Doctrine of this present time so is it very eagerly pursued by Buchannan who affirms expresly Quicquid juris populus alicui dederit Buchann de jure Regni idem justis de causis posse reposcere that whatsoever power the people give unto their King or Supream Magistrate they may resume again upon just occasions Their Power they make so small and inconsiderable that they afford them very little even in matters of Temporal and no Authority at all in things Spiritual Calvin professeth for himself that he was very much agrieved to hear that King Henry the eighth had took unto himself the Title of Supream Head of the Church of England accuseth them of inconsiderate zeal nay blasphemy who conferred it on him and though he be content at last to allow Kings a Ministerial power in matters which concern the Reformation of Gods Publick Worship yet he condemns them as before of great inconsiderateness Calvin in Amos cap. 7. Qui facerent eos nimis spirituales who did ascribe unto them any great authority in spiritual matters The designation of all those who bear publick Office in the Church the calling of Councils or Assemblies the Presidency in those Councils Ordaining publick Fasts and appointing Festivals which anciently belonged unto Christian Princes as the chief branches of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which is vested in them are utterly denied to Kings and Princes in their Books of Discipline Insomuch that when the Citizens of Embden did expel their Earl they did it chiefly for this reason Thuan. hist l. 114. Quod se negotiis Ecclesiasticis Consistorialibus praeter jus aequitatem immisceret that he had intermedled more than they thought fit in Ecclesiastical causes and intrenched too much upon their Consistory As for their power in Temporal or civil Causes by that time Knoxes Peers and Buchannans Judges Paraeus his inferiour Magistrates and Calvins popular Officers have performed their parts in keeping them within the compass of the Laws arraigning them for their offences if they should transgress opposing them by force of Arms if any thing be done unto the prejudice of the Church or State and finally in regulating their Authority after the manner of the Spartan Ephori and the Roman Tribunes all that is left will be by much too little for a Royd'Ivitot or for a King of Clouts as we English phrase it Last of all for their persons which God held so sacred that he gave it for a Law to his people Israel not to speak evil of their Princes saying Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people Let us but look upon these men and we shall find the basest attributes too good for the greatest Kings Calvin calls Mary Queen of England by the name of Proserpine Calvin in Amos cap. 7. and saith that she did superare omnes Diabolos that all the Devils of Hell were not half so mischievous Beza affords Queen Mary of Scotland no better Titles than those of Medea and Athaliah Beza in Epist ad Jo. of which the last was most infamous in divine the other no less scandalous in humane stories the one a Sorceress and a Witch the other a Tyrant and Usurper The Author of the Altare Damascenum whosoever he was can find no better attribute for King James of most blessed memory than infensissimus Evangelii hostis Didoclaviuâ— in Epistola ad â—â—ctor the greatest and deadly Enemy of the Gospel of Christ And Queen Elizabeth her self did not scape so clear but that the zealous Brethren were too bold sometimes with her Name and Honour though some of them paid dearly for it and were hanged for their labour How that seditious Hugonot the Author of the lewd and unworthy Dialogue entituled Eusebius Philadelphus hath dealt with three great Princes of the House of France and what reproachful names he gives them I had rather you should look for in the Author than expect from me being loath to wade too far in these dirty puddles save that I shall be bold to add this general Character which Didoclavius gives to all Kings in general viz. Naturâ insitum est in omnibus Regibus Christi odium that all Kings naturally hate Christ which may serve for all This is enough to let us see how irreconcileable an hatred these of the Calvinian faction bear against Kings and Princes how well they play the part of the very Antichrist in exalting themselves against whatsoever is called God and that the special reason why they affect so much to be called the Saints is out of a strong probable hope to see the day in which they shall bind Kings in chains and all the Princes of the earth in fetters of iron Finally such is their disaffection unto sacred Monarchy which they have sucked out of the grounds and principles here laid down by Calvin that we may justly say of them what was most truely said of the ancient Romans quasi nefas esset Regem aliquem prope eorum terminos esse Jâ—stin hist l. 29. they have bestirred themselves so bravely in defiance of the Regal Government as if they did account it an unpardonable sin to suffer any King though most good and gracious to border near them Which lest they should not be of power to compass by their popular Magistrates or by the Judges or the Peers or the People severally which make the main Battel for this Combat let us next look on the Reserve and see what hopes they have to effect the business by the three Estates conjoyned in Parliament or by what other name soever we shall call their meeting which Calvin in the last place doth reflect upon but cautiously with a qua forte or a peradventure as in that before CHAP. V. What are the three Estates in each several Kingdom in which CALVIN speaks and what particularly in the Realm of England 1. Of the division of a People into three Estates and that the Priests or Clergy have been always one 2. The Priests employed in Civil matters and affairs of State by the Egyptians and the Persians the Greeks Gauls and Romans 3. The Priests and Levites exercised in affairs of Civil Government by Gods own appointment 4. The Prelates versed in Civil matters and affairs of State in the best and happiest times of Christianity 5. The Clergy make the third Estate in Germany France Spain and the Northern Kingdoms 6. That antiently in the Saxon times the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm were called to all publick Councils 7. The Prelates an essential fundamental part of the English Parliament 8. Objections answered and that the word Clerus in the Legal notion doth not extend unto the Prelates 9. That the inferior Clergy of the Realm of England had anciently their Votes in Parliament to all intents and purposes as the Commons had 10. Objections answered and that the calling of the Clergy to Parliaments and Convocations were after different maners and by several Writs
Scripture there is no question made amongst Learned men but they were Obligatory to the Church for succeeding Ages The blessing of the Bread the breaking of it and the distributing thereof unto his Apostles the blessing of the Cup and the communicating of the same to all the Company those formal Energetical words Take eat this is my Body and drink ye all of this this is the Cup c. and all this to be done in remembrance of me Are rites and actions so determined words so prescribed and so precisely to be used that it is not in the Churches power unless she mean to set up a Religion of her own devising for to change the same And this I take it is agreed on by all Learned Protestants Certain I am it was so in the Churches practice from the first beginning as may appear to any one who will take the pains to compare the Rites and Form of administration used by S. Paul and his Associates in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 11.24.25 with that which was both done and prescribed by Christ according as it is related in the holy Gospel A further proof hereof we shall e're long Nor find I any difference considerable amongst moderate men touching the Priest or Minister ordained by Christ for the perpetuating of this Sacrament for the commemoratingof his death and passion until his coming unto judgement The publick exercises of Religion would be but ill performed without a Priesthood and that would soon be brought to nothing at least reduced unto contempt and scorn if every one that listeth might invade the Office Our Saviour therefore when he did institute this Sacrament or as the Fathers called it without offence in those pious times the Sacrifice of the blessed Eucharist Cum novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem Prenaeus cont hares l. 4. c. 32. to use the words of Irenaeus give an hoc facite unto his Apostles a faculty to them and their successors in the Evangelical Priesthood to do as he had done before that is to take the Bread to bless to break it and to distribute it amongst the Faithful to sanctifie the Cup and then to give it to the Congregation Men of on Orders in the Church may edere bibere as the Lord appointed and happy 't is they are permitted to enjoy such sweet refection But for hoc facere that 's the Priests peculiar And take they heed who do usurp upon the Office lest the Lord strike them with a fouler Leprosie than he did Vzzah 2 Chron. 26.20 when he usurped upon the Priesthood and would needs offer Incense in the House of God These points are little controverted amongst sober men The matter most in question which concerns this business is whether our Redeemer used any other either Prayers or Blessings when he did institute this blessed Sacrament than what were formerly in use amongst the Jews when they did celebrate their Passeover and if he did then whether he commended them unto his Apostles or left them to themselves to compose such Prayers as the necessities of the Church required and might seem best to them and the Holy Ghost This we shall best discover by the following practice in which it will appear on a careful search that the Apostles in their times and the Church afterwards by their example did use and institute such Forms of Prayer and Praise and Benedictions in the Solemnities of the blessed Sacrament of which there is no constat in the Book of God that they were used at that time by our Saviour Christ And if they kept themselves to a prescript Form in celebration of the Eucharist as we shall shortly see they did then we may easily believe it was not long before they did the like in all the acts of publick Worship according as the Church increased and the Believers were disposed of into Congregations And first beginning with the Apostles it is delivered by the Ancients that in the Consecration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood they used to say the Lords Prayer Hierom. adv Pelagium l. 3. There is a place in Hierome which may seem to intimate that this was done by Christs appointment Sic docuit Apostolos suos saith that Reverend Father ut quotidie in corporis illius sacrificio credentes audeant loqui Pater noster c. Whether his words will bear that meaning I can hardly say Certain I am they are alledged to this purpose by a late Learned writer Steph. Durantes de ritibus Ecelesiae Cathol l. 2. c. 46. who saying first Eam i. e. orationem Dominicam in Missae sacro dicendam Christus ipse Apostolos docuit that Christ instructed his Apostles to say the Lords Prayer in the Celebration of that Sacrament or in the Sacrifice of the Mass as he calls it there doth for the proof thereof vouch these words of Hierome But whether it were so or not most sure it is that the Apostles are reported to have used that Prayer as often as they Celebrated the Communion Mos fuit Apostolorum saith S. Gregory ut ad ipsam solummodo orationem Dominicam oblationis hostiam consecrarent It was Gregor M. Epist l. 7. Ep. 54. V. Bellarm. de Missa l. 2. c. 19. Durand Ration divinorum l. 4. saith he the use or custom of the Apostles to Consecrate the Host or Sacrament with reciting only the Lords Prayer Which passage if he took from that of Hierome as some think he did the one may not unfitly serve to explain the other The like saith Durand in his Rationale The Lord saith he did institute the Sacrament with no other words than those of Consecration only Quibus Apostoli adjecerunt orationem Dominicam to which the Apostles added the Lords Prayer And in this wise did Peter first say Mass you must understand him of the Sacrament in the Eastern parts Platina in vita Sixti Platina saith the like as to S. PETER Eum ubi consecraverit oratione Pater noster usum esse That in the Consecration of the Sacrament he used to say the Lords Prayer or the Pater noster See to this purpose Antonius tit 5. cap. 2. § 1. Martinus Polonus in his Chronicon and some later Writers By which as it is clear and evident that the Apostles used the Lords Prayer in the Celebration of the holy Mysteries which is a most strong argument that it was given them to be used or said not to be imitated only So it may seem by Gregories solummodo that they used the Lords Prayer and nothing else And therefore that of Gregory must be understood either that they used no other Prayer in the very act of Consecration or that they closed the Form of Consecration with that Prayer of Christs which may well be without excluding of the words of Consecration which our Saviour used or such preparatory Prayers as were devised by the Apostles for that great solemnity For certainly
who thus succeeded one another in these several Churches were no more than Presbyters as some please to say then must we quit the cause and let fall the action And though I cannot think that men of wit and learning whatsoever they say doe or can possibly conceive them to be other than Bishops Bishops distinct from Presbyters both in power and title yet we are told and we shall see how truly that Anicetus Pius Higinus Smectym p. 23. Telesphorus and Sextus whom the Papists call Bishops and the Popes Predecessors are by Eusebius termed Presbyters and therefore for what else must be the inference that Bishops and Presbyters are the same A passage in the which there are almost as many fallacies and mistakes as words which I shall briefly represent and so pass them by For first Eusebius whom they cite doth not call them Presbyters but Irenaeus in Eusebius Euseb eccl hist l. 1. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which so great Criticks should have seen The difference of the Age or time when these Authors lived maketh a great difference in the use and acceptation of the word And I believe it cannot easily be found whatever may be said of Irenaeus that Bishops are called Presbyters by Eusebius or any Writer of his time 2. It is not evident by the Authors words that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there used to denote the Office but the Age or rather Seniority of those holy men which preceded Victor in the Church of Rome Or if it were yet 3ly it is past all question that simply Presbyters they were not though by him so called but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as had had the government of that famous Church and so were Bishops at the least both in name and office 4. The calling of them by the name of Presbyters doth no more conclude that Presbyters and Bishops were the same than if a man discoursing of the state of London should say that my Lord Mayor was a wealthy Citizen and thereupon a stander by should make this conclusion that every Citizen is Lord Mayor of London and hath as much to do in the Government thereof as he 5. The Papists do not call Higinus Pius Sixtus and the rest there mentioned by the name of Bishops or if they do they do not call them so quà Papists or if so too and that none call them so but Papists there is almost no Father in the Church of Christ who may not presently be endited and condemned of Popery because there is almost no Father nor any other ancient Writer who doth not call them by that name 6. And lastly it is no Popery nor the language of a Papist neither to say that Pius Sixtus and the rest there named were the Popes Predecessors for Predecessors of the Popes they were in their See and Government though neither in their Tyranny nor Superstition Nor doth this Argument strike only at the Popes of Rome though they only named but at all the Bishops of the Primitive Church whether of the greater Patriarchal Sees or of any other who if the observation of these men be good and valid were no more but Presbyters The best way to refel which fancy is to behold the latitude and extent of that jurisdiction which the Bishops of these Churches did enjoy at this present time which when we have laid down sincerely according as it stood in the times we speak of it shall be left to be considered of by any sober-minded man whosoever he be whether the men that held such ample jurisdiction were no more than Presbyters or whether such Bishops were the same with Presbyters which comes both to one Now that the latitude of jurisdiction belonging to these four prime Sees especially to those of Antioch Rome and Alexandria was as ancient as the times whereof we speak appeareth plainly by the Canon of the Nicene Council For whereas it was ordered by the aforesaid Council Concil Nicen. Can. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ancient customs should prevail viz. the Churches of Alexandria Rome and Antioch should enjoy those priviledges which before they had those priviledges or customs call them which you will could not of right be counted ancient unless we place them at the latest in this second Century the close thereof being not much above an hundred years before that Synod Now for those priviledges what they were we are in part informed by the self same Cannon Id. ibid. where it is said that the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria did extend over all Egypt Epiphan adv haer 68. Libya and Pentapolis To which though Epiphanius addeth Thebais Maraeotica and Ammoniaca yet he adds nothing in effect the two first being Provinces of Egypt and the last of Libya So that his jurisdiction reached from Gaza in the parts of Syria unto the Western border of Cyrenaica for that was the Pentapolis mentioned in the Canon where it conterminated on that of Africk The Canon having thus laid out the bounds of the command and jurisdiction belonging unto him of Alexandria proceedeth unto that of Rome who had his mos parilis or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an answerable latitude and extent of power But for the certainty of this extent we must refer our selves unto Ignatius directing his Epistle to the Romans Ignat. in epist ad Romanos with this superscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the sanctified and illuminated Church of God presiding in the place of the Religion of the Romans If Bellarmine can out of this extract an Argument for the Popes supremacy Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l. 2. c. 15. as he pretendeth to have done he is a better Chymist than I took him for And therefore I must turn him over to be better tutored by Vedelius who howsoever in his notes upon that Father he lean too much on his own affections and opinions doth in this very well declare the good Fathers meaning agreeably unto the tendries of antiquity And by him we are told Vedel exercit in epi. ad Ro. c. 2. that nothing here is meant by the place or Religion of the Romans nisi quicquid in Italia terrarum Praefecti urbis administrationi suberat but only those parts of Italy which were directly under the civil government of the Provost of Rome that is to say Latium Tuscia and Picenum To which perhaps were added in the following Ages the whole East part of Italy which we now call Napleâ— â—ogether with the Isles of Corsica Sardinia and Sicilia all which made up the proper Patriarchate of the Bishop of Rome In which regard as anciently the Bishop of Rome was called Vrbicus as doth appear plainly by Optatus Optat. de schis-Donatist l. 1. Ruffin hist eccl lib. 1. cap. 6. calling Pope Zephyrinus by the name of Zephyrinus Vrbicus the City-Bishop So the said Provinces or Regions unto him belonging were called by Ruffinus an Italian writer Suburbicariae Regiones or
since been ordained reverend for their Age for their Faith sincere tried in Affliction and proscribed in time of persecution Nor doth he speak this of his own time only which was somewhat after but as a matter of some standing cum jam pridem per omnes provincias that so it had been long ago and therefore must needs be so doubtless in this present Age being not long before his own And this extent of Christianity I do observe the rather in this place and time because that in the Age which followeth the multitudes of Christians being so increased we may perhaps behold a new face of things the times becoming quicker and more full of action Parishes or Parochial Churches set out in Country-Villages and Towns and several Presbyters allotted to them with an addition also both of trust and power unto the Presbyters themselves in the Cure of Souls committed to them by their Bishops with many other things which concern this business And therefore here we will conclude this present Century proceeding forward to the next in the name of God CHAP. IV. Of the authority in the government of the Church of Carthage enjoyed and exercised by Saint Cyprian and other Bishops of the same 1. Of the foundation and preheminences of the Church of Carthage 2. Of Agrippinus and Donatus two of St. Cyprian's Predecessors 3. The troublesom condition of that Church at Cyprian's first being Bishop there 4. Necessitated him to permit some things to the discretion of his Presbyters and consent of the People 5. Of the authority ascribed by Cyprian to the People in the Election of their Bishop 6. What Power the people had de facto in the said Elections 7. How far the testimony of the People was required in the Ordination of their Presbyters 8. The power of Excommunication reserved by St. Cyprian to the Bishop only 9. No reconciliation of a Penitent allowed by Cyprian without the Bishops leave and licence 10. The Bishop's power as well in the encouragement as in the punishment and censure of his Clergy 11. The memorable case of Geminius Faustinus one of the Presbyters of Carthage 12. The Bishop's Power in regulating and declaring Martyrs 13. The Divine Right and eminent authority of Bishops fully asserted by St. Cyprian SAint Hierom tells us of S. Cyprian Hieron de Scriâ—tor Eccl. in Tertulâ—d that he esteemed so highly of Tertulian's writings that he never suffered any day to pass over his head without reading somewhat in the same and that he did oft use to say when he demanded for his works Da mihi magistrum reach me my Tutor or Praeceptor So that considering the good opinion which S. Cyprian had harboured of the man for his Wit and Learrning and the nearness of the time in which they lived being both also members of the same Church the one a Presbyter the other Bishop of the Church of Carthage We will pass on unto S. Cyprian and to those monuments of Piety and Learning which he left behind him And this we shall the rather do because there is no Author of the Primitive times out of whose works we have such ample treasures of Ecclesiastical Antiquities as we have in his none who can give us better light for the discovery of the truth in the present search than that blessed Martyr But first before we come to the man himself we will a little look upon his charge on the Church of Carthage as well before as at his coming to be Bishop of it the knowledge of the which will give special light to our following business And first for the foundation of the Church of Carthage Cited by Baronius in Annal Eccl. Anno 51. if Metaphrastes may be credited it was the action of Saint Peter who leaving Rome at such time as the Jews were banished thence by the Decree of Claudius Caesar in Africam navigasse Carthaginensem erexisse Ecclesiam is by him said to sail to Africa and there to found the Church of Carthage leaving behind him Crescens one of his Disciples to be the Bishop of the same But whether this be so or not it is out of question that the Church of Carthage was not only of great Antiquity but that it also was of great power and credit as being the Metropolitan Church of Africk the Bishop of the same being the Primate of all Africa properly so called together with Numidia and both the Mauritanias as well Caesariensis as Sitisensis So witnesseth S. Cyprian himself Latius fusa est nostra Provincia Cypri Ep. 45. habet enim Numidiam Mauritanias duas sibi cohaerentes as his own words are And this appeareth also by the subscription of the Bishops to the Council of Carthage convented ex Provincia Africa Concil Tom. 1. p. 149. Edit Binil Numidia Mauritania as is most clear on the record For whereas antiently the Roman Empire was divided into fourteen Diocesses reckoning the Prefecture of the City of Rome for one every Diocess being subdivided into several Provinces as was said before the Diocess of Africa was not of the meanest containing in it six large Provinces Notitia Provinciarum and reaching from the greater Syrtis Eastward where it confined upon the Patriarchat of Alexandria to Mauritania Tingitana on the West which did belong unto the Diocess of Spain Now Carthage standing in that Province which was called Zeugitana or Proconsularis and being the Seat or Residence of the Vicarius or Lieutenant General of the Roman Empire for that Diocess The Bishop of it was not only the Metropolitan of his own Province but the Primate also in regard of the other sive which were Tripolitana Byzacena Numidia and the two Mauritanias before remembred Nor was he only the supream Bishop in regard of them but also absolute and independent in regard of others as being neither subject or subordinate to the Patriarchs of Alexandria though the prime City of all Africa nor to the Popes of Rome the Queen and Empress of the world Concil Carthaginiens 6. against whose machinations and attempts the Church of Carthage for a long time did maintain her liberty Such being the Authority and power of the Church of Carthage we must next look upon the Bishops of the same who though they had not got the name of Patriarchs as those of Antioch Rome and Alexandria now had and they of Constantinople and Hierusalem shall be found to have in the times succeeding yet had they all manner of Patriarchal jurisdiction Of these the first I meet withal was Agrippinus who flourished in the beginning of this Century bonae memoriae vir a man of blessed memory as S. Cyprian Cyprian Epist 71. Vincent Lerinen adv haeres cap. 9. Aug. de Bap. lib. 2. cap. 7 8. Cypr. Epi. 71. Venerabilis memoriae of venerable memory as Vincentius Lerinensis calls him S. Austin also mentioneth him in one of his discourses against the Donatists as a Predecessor of S. Cyprians
to a publick tryal for their misdemeanours before himself and all the People 'T is true indeed that in the outward action and formality of this great work of Reconciliation the Clergy did impose hands with the Bishop upon the head of him that was reconciled Epist 10.11 c. for we find often in St. Cyprian Manus ab Episcopo clero imposita but this was only as I said before in the outward action the power of admitting him unto that estate and giving way to his desires in making of him capable of so great a favour belonging only to the Bishop as before appears Thus have we seen how and in what particulars as also upon what considerations Saint Cyprian communicated some part of his Episcopal Authority either unto the Presbyters or to the People or to both together We will next look on those particulars which he reserved wholly and solely to himself and they concern his Clergy chiefly in his behaviour towards whom in matters of reward and punishment he was as absolute and supream as ever any Bishop since his time And first in matter of reward the greatest honour whereof the Clergy in his time were capable was their place of sitting distinct and separate from the People A place by Sozomon Sozom. l. 5. c. 14. Concil Laodi Can. 55. Canon Sacerdot distinct 2. Cypr. Ep. 35. called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were the Sacrarie by the Council of Laodicea entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason it was higher than the rest that all the people might behold it by others Presbyterium the place for Presbyters but by what names soever called a place it was appointed for the Bishop and his Clergy only Into this place St. Cyprian admits Numidicus a stranger to the Church of Carthage as before was noted from Baronius but by him added to the number of the Presbyters there adscriptus Presbyterorum Carthaginiensium numero as his own phrase is that so he might enjoy the honour of that place with the less distast And so for point of maintenance which was another part of the Reward that did belong to the Laborious and painful Presbyter the distribution of the same was wholly in the Bishops power So wholly in his power that howsoever it belonged unto none of right but unto the Presbyters yet he having bestowed on Celerinus and Aurelius the place of Readers in the Church did also give unto them or assign the same full maintenance Id. Epi. 34. which was allowed to any of the Presbyters Presbyterii honorem designasse nos illis jam Sciatis ut sportulis iisdem cum Presbyteris honorentur divisiones menstruas aequatis portionibus partiantur Know you saith he in an Epistle to the whole Church of Carthage that we have assigned them to the full honour of Presbyters appointing that they should receive the same proportion of allowance and have as great a share in the monthly dividends as any of the Presbyters had Where by the way this portion or allowance had the name of Sportula from the reward or fees which anciently were allowed to Judges and by that name are mentioned in the Civil Laws which being assigned to the Presbyters pro singulorum meritis according to the merits of the persons to some more some less at the discretion of the Bishop gave them the name of Fratres sportulantes whereof we read in Cyprian Ep. 66. And they were called divisiones mensurnae the monthly Dividends because that as the contributions of the people were made once every month menstrua quaque die as Tertullian a Presbyter of this Church hath told us so as it seems Tertul. in Apolog c. 36. the Dividend was made accordingly as soon as the mony had been brought to the Bishops hands So also in the way of punishment when any of the Clergy had offended the Bishop had Authority to withdraw his maintenance and with-hold his stipend For when complaint was made to Cyprian of Philumenus and Fortunatus two of his Sub-deacons Cypr. Ep. 28. and of Favorinus an Acolythite qui medio tempore recesserunt who formerly had forsook their calling and now desired to be restored again unto it although he neither would nor could determine in it before he had consulted with his Colleagues and the whole body of his People the matter being great and weighty yet in the mean time he suspends them from their monthly pay interim se à divisione mensurna tantum contineant as he there resolves it leaving the cause to be determined of at better leasure This was a plain suspension à Beneficio and could he not suspend ab Officio also Assuredly he both could and did as appears evidently by his proceeding with these Presbyters who had entrenched upon his jurisdiction as before was said Whose great offence though he reserved unto the hearing both of the Confessors themselves and the whole body of the People for a final end yet in the mean time prohibeantur interim offerre Idem Ep. 10. it was his pleasure to suspend them for the Ministery from their attendance at the Altar Suspend them then he might there 's no doubt of that but might he not if he saw cause deprive them also He might assuredly or otherwise he had never given that counsel to Rogatianus that if the Deacon formerly remembred did not repent him of his faults eum vel deponat vel abstineat Idem Ep. 65. he either might deprive or excommunicate him which he would himself He were a very greedy Bishop who would not be content with that allowance of Authority which S. Cyprian had The like authority he used towards the People also not suffering them to be remembred in the Churches Prayers if they had broken or infringed the Churches Canons And this appeareth by the so celebrated case of Geminius Victor who at his death had made Geminius Faustinus one of the Presbyters of Carthage tutorem testamento suo Idem Ep. 66. the Executor of his last Will and Testament which being like to be a means whereby Faustinus might be taken off from his employment in the Ministery the displeased Bishop doth declare ne deprecatio aliqua nomine ejus in Ecclesia frequentetur that he should neither be remembred in the Offertory nor any Prayer be made in his name in the Church And this he did upon this reason ne quis Sacerdotes Ministros Dei Altari ejus Ecclesiae vacantes ad seculares molestias devocet that none hereafter should presume to withdraw the Priest and Ministers of God from their attendance at the Altar in the Churches service unto the cares and troubles of the world Which passage as it shews expresly the great tye which the Bishops of those times had upon the Conscience of the People whom they could punish thus after death it self So is it frequently alledged Smectym p. 46. to shew that neither Presbyters nor Bishops were to be molested
difference in this case betwixt a living man and a stock or Statua for so it follows in my Author Sed nullam prorsus voluntati tribuetant Actionem nec quidem adjuvante spirity sancto quasi nihil interesset inter statuam voluntatem In both directly contrary to that divine counsel of S. James where he adviseth us to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and to receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls Chap. 1. ver 21. That of S. Peter exhorting or requiring rather That we work out our salvation with fear and trembling And finally that golden Aphorism of S. Augustine si non sit liberum arbitrium quomodo Deus judicabit mundum With what justice saith the Father can God judg or condemn the world if the sins of men proceed not from their own free will but from some over-ruling power which inforc'd them to it Others there were who harbouring in their hearts the said lewd opinions and yet not daring to ascribe all their sins and wickednesses unto God himself imputed the whole blame thereof to the Stars and Destinies the powerful influence of the one and the irresistable Decrees of the other necessitating then to those wicked actions which they so frequently commit Thus we are told of Bardesanes Quod fato conversationes hominum ascriberet That he ascribed all things to the power of Fate August de Haeres cap. 25. Ibid. cap. 15. 70. And thus it is affirmed of Priscillianus Fatalibus Astris homines alligatos That men were thralled unto the Stars which last S. Augustine doth report of one Colarbus save that he gave this power and influence to the Planets only but these if pondered as they ought differed but little if at all from the impiety of Florinus before remembred only it was expressed in a better language and seemed to savour more of the Philosopher than the other did For if the Lord had passed such an irresistible Law of Fate that such and such should be guilty of such foul Transgressions as they commonly committed it was all one as if he was proclaimed for the Author of them and then why might not every man take unto himself the excuse and plea of Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not I that did it Homer Illiad but the Gods and Destiny Or if the Lord had given so irresistable a power to the Stars of Heaven as to inforce men to be wickedly and lewdly given what differs this from making God the Author of those vitious actions to which by them we are inforced And then why might not every man cast his sin on God and say as did some good fellows in St. Augustines time Accusandum potius esse Autorem syderum August de Gen. ad lit lib. 2. c. 27. quam commissorem scelerum That he who made the Stars was in the fault not the men that did it But this absurdity being as much cryed down by Augustine and other learned Writers of those elder times as the impiety of Florinus had been before were either utterly extinguish'd or lay concealed for many hundred years together Amongst the philosophical Heterodoxies of the Roman Schools that of the Maniches first revived by Martin Luther who in meer opposition to Erasmus who had then newly written a Book De Arbitrio libero published a Discourse intituled De Arbitrio servo In which Discourse he doth not only say That the freedom ascribed unto the Will is an empty nothing Titulus nomen sine re a name of no such thing in Nature but holds expresly that man is drawn no otherwise by the grace of God than Velut inanimale quiddam No otherwise than as a sensless stock or stone the Statua of the ancient Maniches in the great work of his conversion to a state of Righteousness And though Luther afterwards conformed his Judgment in this Point unto that of Melancthon as appeareth by the Augustan Confession in drawing up whereof he is acknowledged to have had a principal hand yet was he followed in this first Errour as in almost all the rest of his extremities by the rigid Lutherans headed by Flaccus Illyricus and his Associats in the City of Magdeburg at his first separation from the Melancthonian Divines who remained at Wittenberg and had embraced more moderate and sober counsels of which more hereafter But Luther shall not go alone and not take Calvin along with him how much soever they might differ in some other Points Luther revived the Error of the Maniches in denying all freedom to the will especially in matters which relate to eternal life and Calvin will revive the Errors of Bardesanes and Priscillian in charging all mens wicked actions on the Stars and Destiny not positively and in terminis I must needs say that but so that he comes close up to them to Tantamont ascribing that to the inevitable Decrees of Almighty God which Bardesanes attributed to the powers of Fate Priscillian Clolarbus to the influences of the Stars and Planets For if God before all Eternity as they plainly say did purpose and decree the Fall of our Father Adam Vt sua defectione periret Adam In the words of Calvin Calv. instit lib. 3. c. 23. sect 7. V. Synod Rom. There was in Adam a necessity of committing sin because the Lord had so decreed it If without consideration of the sin of man he hath by his determinate sentence ordained so many millions of men to everlasting damnation and that too necessario and inevitabiliter as they please to phrase it he must needs pre-ordain them to sin also there being as themselves confess no way unto the end but by the means The odious Inferences which are raised out of these Opinions I forbear to press and shall add only at the present That if we grant this Doctrine to be true and Orthodox we may do well to put an Index expurgatorius upon the Creed and quite expunge the Article of Chrins coming to Judgment For how could God condemn his Creature to unquenchable Flames or put so ill an Office upon Christ our Saviour as to condemn them by his mouth in case the sins by them committed were not theirs but his or punish the for that himself works in them unto which rather he decred them before all Eternity Falgent ad Monimum Nothing more true than that excellent saying of Fulgentius Deus non est eorum ultor quorum est Autor That God doth never punish his own actings in us Such were the men and such the means by which the blame of sin was transferred from man and charged on the account of God either expresly and in terms or in the way of necessary consequence and undeniable Illation by which lost man was totally deprived of all abilities for resisting Satan or otherwise concurring with Gods grace in his own conversion Nor wanted there some others in those elder times who did
ill but all cometh from absolute necessity and in us is no Free-will and to affirm it is a meer fiction 3. Free-will since the sin of Adam is lost and a thing only titular and when one doth what is in his power he sinneth mortally yea it is a thing fained and a Title without reality 4. Free-will is only in doing ill and hath no power to do good 5. Free-will moved by God doth by no means co-operate and followeth as an Instrument without life or an unreasonable Creature 6. That God correcteth those only whom he will though they will not spurn against it Upon the first Article they spake rather in a Tragical manner than Theological that the Lutheran Doctrine was a frantick wisdom that mans Will as they make it is prodigious that those words a thing of Title only a Title without reality are monstruous That the Opinion is impious and blasphemous against God that the Church hath condemned it against the Maniches Priscilianists and lastly against Aballardus and Wickliff and that it was folly against common sense every one proving in himself his own Liberty that it deserveth not confutation but as Aristotle saith Chastisement and Experimental proof that Luther's Scholars perceived the folly and to moderate the Absurdity said after that a man had liberty in External Political and Oeconomical actions and in matters of Civil Justice that which every one but a Fool knoweth to proceed from Councils and Election but denied Liberty in matter of Divine Justice only Marinarus said That as it is foolish to say no huane action is in our power so it is no less absurd to say that every one is every one finding by experience that he hath not his affections in his power that this is the sense of the Schools which say that we are not free in the first motions which freedom because the Saints have it is certain that some freedom is in them which is not in us Catarinus according to his opinion said That without Gods special assistance a man cannot do a moral good said there was no liberty in this and therefore that the Fourth Article was not so easily to be condemned Vega after he had spoken with such Ambiguity that he understood not himself concluded that between the Divines and the Protestants there was no difference in Opinion for they concluding now that there is liberty in Philosophical Justice and not in Supernatural in External works of the Law not in external and spiritual that is to say precisely with the Church that one cannot do spiritual works belonging to Religion without the assistance of God And though he said all endeavour was to be used for composition yet he was not gratefully heard it seeming in some sort a prejudice that any of the differences might be reconciled and they were wont to say that this is a point of the Colloquies a word abhorred as if by that the Laity had usurped the Authority which is proper to Councils A great Disputation arose upon them Whether it be in mans power to believe or not to believe The Franciscans following Sotus did deny it saying That as Knowledge doth necessarily follow Demonstrations so Faith doth arise necessarily from persuasions and that it is in the understanding which is a natural Agent and is naturally moved by the Object They alledged Experience that no man can believe what he will but what seemeth true adding that no man would feel any displeasure if he could believe he had it not The Dominicans said that nothing is more in the power of the Will than to believe and by the determination and resolution of the Will only one may believe the number of the Stars is even Upon the I hird Article Whether Free-will be lost by sin very many Authorities of S. Augustine being alledged which expresly say it Hist of 〈◊〉 cil p. 108. c. Soto did invent because ke knew no other means to avoid them that true Liberty is equivocal for either it is derived from the Noun Libertas Freedom or from the Verb Liberare to set Free that in the first sense it is opposed to Necessity in the second to Servitude and that when S. Augustine said That Free-will was lost he would infer nothing else but that it is made slave to Sin and Satan This difference could not be understood because a servant is not free for that he cannot do his Will but is compelled to follow his Masters And by this opinion Luther could not be blamed for entituling a Book of SERVILE WILL many thought the Fourth Article absurd saying That Liberty is understood to be a power to both the contraries therefore that it could not be said to be a Liberty to Evil if it were not also to Good But they were made to acknowledge their Error when they were told that the Saints and blessed Angels in Heaven are free to do good and therefore that it was no inconvenience that some should be free only to do Evil. In the examining the fifth and sixth Articles of the consent which Free-will giveth to Divine Inspiration or preventing Grace the Franciscans and Dominicans were of divers Opinions The Franciscans contended that the Will being able to prepare it self hath Liberty much more to accept or refuse the divine Prevention when God giveth assistance before it useth the strength of Nature The Dominicans denied that the Works preceding the Vocation are truly preparatoy and ever gave the first place to God Notwithstanding there was a contention between the Dominicans themselves For Soto defended that although a man cannot obtain Grace without the special preventing assistance of God yet the Will may ever some way resist and refuse it and when it doth receive it it is because it giveth assent and doth will so and if our assent were not required there would be no cause why all should not be converted For according to the Apocalyps God standeth always at the Gate and knocketh And it is a saying of the Fathers now made common That God giveth Grace to every one that will have it and the scripture doth always require this consent in us and to say otherwise were to take away the Liberty of the Will and to say that God useth violence Fryer Aloisius Catanca said to the contrary That God worketh two sorts of preventing Grace in the mind according to the Doctrine of S. Thomas the one sufficient the other effectual To the first the Will may consent or resist but not to the second because it implieth contradiction to say that Efficacy can be resisted for proof he alledged places of S. John and very clear Expositions of S. Augustine He answereth that it ariseth hence that all are not converted because all are not effectually prevented That the fear of overthrowing Free-will is removed by S. Thomas the things are violently moved by a contrary Cause but never by their own and God being the cause of the WIll to say it is moved by God is to
After the miserable fall of Adam August Confes cap. 2. all men which were to be begotten according to the common course of Nature were involved in the guilt of Original sin by which they are obnoxious to the wrath of God and everlasting damnation In which Estate they had remained but that God beholding all mankind in this wretched condition was pleased to make a general conditional Decree of Predestination Appel Eving cap. 4. under the condition of Faith and perseverance and a special absolute Decree of electing those to life whom he foresaw would believe and persevere under the means and aids of Grace Faith and Perseverance and a special absolute Decree of condemning them whom he foresaw to abide impenitent in their sins 2. Of the Merit and Efficacy of Christs Death The Son of God who is the Word assumed our humane Nature in the Womb of the Virgin and being very God and very Man he truly Suffered was Crucified Aug. Confess c. 3. Dead and Buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be the Sacrifice not only for Original sin but also for all the Actual sins of men A great part of St. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews is spent in the proving of this Point that only the Sacrifice or Oblation made by Christ Id. cap. de Missa procured for others Reconciliation and Remission of sins inculcating that the Levitical Sacrifices were year by year to be reiterated and renewed because they could not take away sins but that satisfaction once for all was made by the Sacrifice of Christ for the sins of all men 3. Of Mans Will in the state of depraved Nature The Will of man retains a freedom in Actions of Civil Justice Ibid. cap. 18. and making Election of such things as are under the same pretension of natural Reason but hath no power without the special Assistance of the Holy Ghost to attain unto spiritual Righteousness according to the saying of the Apostle That the natural man perceiveth not the things which are of the spirit of God And that of Christ our Saviur Without me you can do nothing And therefore the Pelagians are to be condemned who teach that man is able by the meer strength of Nature not only to love God above all things but also to fulfill the Law according to the substance of the Acts thereof 4. Of Conversion and the manner of it The Righteousness which is effected in us by the operation and assistance of the Holy Ghost which we receive by yielding our assent to the Word of God Idem cap. 18. according to that of S. Augustin in the third Book of his Hypognosticks in which he grants a freedom of the Will to all which have the use of Reason not that they are thereby able either to begin or g o through with any thing in the things of God without Gods assistance but only in the Affairs of this present life whether good or evil 5. Of falling after Grace received Remission of sins is not to be denied in such who after Baptism fall into sins Idem cap. 11. at what time soever they were converted and the Church is bound to confer the benefit of Absolution upon all such as return unto it by Repentance And therefore as we condemn the Novatian Hereticks refusing the benefit of Absolution unto those who having after Baptism lashed into sin gave publick Signs of their Repentance so we condemn the Anabaptists who teach that a man once justified can by no means lose the Holy Ghost as also those who think that men man have so great a measure of perfection in this present life that they cannot fall again into sin Such is the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches agreed on in the famous Augustin Confession so called because presented and avowed at the Diet of Auspurge Augusta Vindelicorum the Latins call it 1530. confirm'd after many struglings on the one side and oppositions on the other by Charles the fifth in a general Assembly of the Estates of the Empire holden at Passaw Anno 1552. and afterwards more fully in another Dyet held at Auspurge Anno 1555. A Confession generally ebtertained not only in the whole Kingdoms of Demnark Norway and Sweden but also in the Dukedom of Prussia and some parts of Poland and all the Protestant Churches of the High Germany neither the rigid Lutherans nor the Calvinians themselves being otherwise tolerated in the Empire than as they shrowd themselves under the Patronage and shelter of this Confession For besides the first breach betwixt Luther and Zuinglius which hapned at the beginning of the Reformation there afterwards grew a subdivision betwixt the Lutherans themselves occasioned by Flacius Illyricus and his Associates who having separated themselves from Melancthon and the rest of the Divines of Wittenberge and made themselves the Head of the rigid Lutherans did gladly entertain those Doctrines in which they were sure to find as good assistance as the Dominicans and their party could afford unto them The wisdom and success of which Council being observed by those of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Faction they gladly put in for a share being not meanly well approved that though their Doctrines were condemned by the Council of Trent yet they found countenance especially in the Sublapsarian way not only from the whole Sect of the Dominicans but the rigid Lutherans And that the Scales might be kept even between the Parties there started out another Faction amongst the Calvinists themselves who symbolized with the Melanctbonians or moderate Lutherans as they did with the Jesuit and Franciscan Fryers For the abetting of which their Quarrel this last side calling to their ayd all the Ancient Fathers both Greek and Latine who lived before the time of S. Augustine the others relying wholly on his single judgment not always constant to himself nor very well seconded by Prosper nor any other of great Note in the times succeeding Finally that Catarinus may not go alone in his middle way I will follow him with one of his own Order for he was afterwards made Bishop of Minori in Italy that is to say the right learned Doctor Overal publick Professor of Divinity in Cambridge Dean of S. Pauls and successively Bishop of Lichfield and Norwhich whose judgment in a middle way and though not the same that Catarinus went the Reader may find in Mr. Playferts notable Picce intituled Apello Evangelium to which I refer him at the present as being not within the compass of my present design which caries me to such difputes as have been raised between the Calvinians and their Opposites in these parts of the world since the conclusion and determination of the Council of Trent And for the better carrying on of my design I must go back again to Calvin whom I left under a suspition of making God to be the Author of sin from which though many have taken much pains none more than industrious Doctor Field to absolve and
bring them to utter tuin if justly and in time they did not provide against it So that King James considering the present breach as tending to the utter ruin of those States and more particularly of the Prince of Orange his most dear Ally he thought it no small piece of King-craft to contribute toward the suppression of the weaker party not only by blasting them in the said Declaration with reproachful names but sending such Divines to the Assembly at Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation So that part of the Argument which is borrowed from the States themselves it must be proved by some better evidence than the bare word of Mr. Hickman before it can deserve an Answer the speech being so Hyperbolical not to call it worse that it can hardly be accounted for a flower of Rhetorick The greatest trouble which the States themselves were put to in all this business was for the first eight years of it but the hearing of Complaints receiving of Remonstrances and being present at a Conference between the parties And for the last four years for it held no longer their greatest trouble was to find out a way to forfeit all their old and Native Priviledges in the death of Barnevelt for maintenance whereof they had first took up Arms against the Spaniard In all which time no blood at all was drawn by the Sword of War and but the blood of five or six men only by the Sword of Justice admitting Barnevelts for one Whereas their Wars with Spain had lasted above thrice that time to the sacking of many of their Cities the loss of at least 100000 of their own lives and the expense of many millions of Treasure And as for Barnevelt if he had committed any Treason against his Countrey by the Laws of the same Countrey he was to be tryed Contrary whereunto the Prince of Orange having gotten him into his power put him over to be judged by certain Delegates commissionated by the States General who by the Laws of the Union can pretend unto no Authority over the Life and Limb of the meanest Subject Finally for the conspiring of Barnevelts Children it concerns only them whose design it was Who to revenge his death so unworthily and unjustly contrived and as they thought so undeservedly and against their Laws might fall upon some desperate Counsels and most unjustifiable courses in pursuance of it But what makes this to the Arminian and Remonstrant party Or doth evince them for a turbulent and seditious Faction not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a well-ordered Commonwealth Barnevelts Kindred might be faulty the Arminians innocent or the Armanians faulty in their practice against the life of the Prince of Orange under and by whom they had suffered so many oppressions without involving those in their Crimes and Treasons who hold the same Opinion with them in their Neighbouring Churches The reason is because there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Arminians it as relates to the Five points in difference which can dispose the Professors of it to any such practices And therefore if the Arminians should have proved as turbulent and seditious as their Enemies made them yet we were not to impute it to them as they were Arminians that is to say as men following the Melancthonian way of Predestination and differing in those points from the rest of the Calvinists but as exasperated and provoked and forced to cast themselves upon desperate courses Quae libertatis arma dat ipse dolor in the Poets language But so some say it is not with the Doctrine of the other party by which mens actions are so ordered and predetermined by the eternal Will of God even to the taking up of a straw as before was said ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil than they do And then according to that Doctrine all Treasons Murders and Seditions are to be excused as unavoidable in them who commit the same because it is not in their power not to be guilty of those Treasons or Seditions which the fire and fury of the Sect shall inflame them with And then to what end should Princes make Laws or spend their whole endeavours in preserving the publick Peace when notwithstanding all their cares and travels to prevent the mischief things could no otherwise succeed than as they have been predetermined by the Will of God And therefore the best way would be Sinere res vadere quo vult in the Latin of an old Spanish Monk to let all matters go as they will since we cannot make them go as we would according to that counsel of the good old Poet. Solvite mortales animos Manil. de Sphe lib. curisque levate Totque super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt Orbem certa stant omnia lege That is to say Discharge thy Soul poor man of vexing fears And ease thy self of all superfluous cares The World is governed by the Fates and all Affairs by Heaven's decree do stand or fall To this effect it is reported that the old Lord Burleigh should discourse with Queen Eliz. when he was first acquainted with the making of the Lambeth Articles Not being pleased wherewith Hist Artic. Lambeth p. 6 7. he had recourse unto the Queen letting her see how much her Majesties Authority and the Laws of the Realm were thereby violated and it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who had most stickled in the same For saith he this is their Opinion and Doctrine that every Humane action be it good or evil it is all restrained and bound up by the Law of an immutable Decree that upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise than they did will Which Opinions saith he Madam if they be true Frustra ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae ministri c. then I and the rest of your Majesties faithful Ministers do sit in Council to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm Cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio since in those things that came to pass of necessity all consultation is foolish and ridiculous To which purpose it was also press'd by the Bishop of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buckingham concerning Mountagues Appeal Ann. 1625. Cabuba p. 116. In which it is affirmed that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of Preaching and external Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinins as some which are opposite and contrary to those delivered by Mr. Mountague shall be publickly taught and maintained More plainly and particularly charged by Dr. Brooks once Master
those times did build their studies and having built their studies on a wrong foundation did publickly maintain some point or other of his Doctrines which gave least offence and out of which no dangerous consequence could be drawn as they thought and hoped to the dishonour of God the disgrace of Religion the scandal of the Church or subversion of godliness amongst which if judicious Mr. Hooker be named for one as for one I find him to be named yet is he named only for maintaining one of the five points that namely of the not total or final falling away of Gods Elect as Dr. Overald also did in the Schools of Cambridge though neither of them can be challenged for maintaining any other point of Calvins Doctrine touching the absolute decree of Reprobation Election unto life without reference to faith in Christ the unresistible workings of Grace the want of freedom in the will to concur therewith and the determining of all mens actions unto good or evil without leaving any power in men to do the contrary And therefore secondly Mr. Hookers discourse of Justification as it now comes into our hands might either be altered in some points after his decease by him that had the publishing of it or might be written by him as an essay of his younger years before he had consulted the Book of Homilies and perused every clause in the publick Liturgy as he after did or had so carefully examined every Text of Scripture upon which he lays the weight of his judgment in it as might encourage him to have it printed when he was alive Of any men who publickly opposed the Calvinian tenents in this University till after the beginning of King James his Reign I must confess that I have hitherto found no good assurance though some there were who spared not to declare their dislike thereof and secretly trained up their Scholars in other principles An argument whereof may be that when Dr. Baroe dyed in London which was about three or four years after he had left his place in Cambridge his Funeral was attended by most of the Divines then living in and about the City Dr. Bancroft then Bishop of London giving order in it which plainly shews that there were many of both Universities which openly favoured Baroes Doctrines and did as openly dislike those of the Calvinians though we find but few presented to us by their names Amongst which few I first reckon Dr. John Buckridge President of St. Johns Colledge and Tutor to Archbishop Laud who carried his Anti-Calvinian doctrines with him to the See of Rochester and publickly maintained them at a conference in York House Ann. 1626. And secondly Dr. John Houson one of the Canons of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of the University Ann. 1602. so known an enemy to Calvin his opinions that he incurred a suspension by Dr. Robert Abbots then Vice Chancellor And afterwards being Bishop of Oxon subscribed the letter amongst others to the Duke of Buckingham in favour of Mountague and his Book called Appello Cesarem as before was said And though we find but these two named for Anti-Calvinist in the five controverted points yet might there be many houses perhaps some hundreds who held the same opinions with them though they discovered not themselves or break out in any open opposition 1 King 19 18. 1 King 19 1◠as they did at Cambridge God had 7000. Servants in the Realm of Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal though we find the name of none but the Prophet Eliah the residue keeping themselves so close for fear of danger that the Prophet himself complained to God that he alone was left to serve him A parallel case to which may be that the Christians during the power and prevalency of the Arian Hereticks St. Jerome giving us the names of no more than three who had stood up stoutly in defence of the Nicene council and the points of Doctrine there established viz. 1. St. Athanasius Patriark of Alexandria in Egypt St. Hillary Bishop of Poictious in France and St. Eusebius Bishop of Vevelli in Italy of which thus the Father Siquidem Arianis victis triumphatorem Athanasium suum Egyptus excepit Hillarium è prelio revertentem galliarum ecclesia complexa est ad reditum Eusebii sui lugubres vestes Italia mutavit that is to say upon the overthrow of the Arians Egypt received her Athanasius now returned in triumph the Church of France embraced her Hillary coming home with victory from the battel and on the return of Eusebius Italy changed her mourning garments By which it is most clear even to vulgar eyes that not these Bishops only did defend the truth but that it was preserved by many others as well of the Clergy as of the People in their several Countreys who otherwise never had received them with such joy and triumph if a great part of them had not been of the same opinions though no more of them occur by name in the records of that age But then again If none but the three Bishops had stood unto the truth in the points disputed at that time between the Orthodox Christians and the Arian Hereticks yet had that been sufficient to preserve the Church from falling universally from the faith of Christ or deviating from the truth in those particulars Deut. 17.6 Mat. 18 19. the word of truth being established as say both Law and Gospel if there be only two or three witnesses to attest unto it two or three members of the Church may keep possession of a truth in all the rest and thereby save the whole from errour even as a King invaded by a foreign Enemy doth keep possession of his Realm by some principal fortress the standing out whereof may in time regain all the rest which I return for answer to another objection touching the paucity of those Authors whom we have produced in maintenance of the Anti Calvinian or old English doctrines since the resetling of the Church under Queen Elizabeth for though they be but few in number and make but a very thin appearance Apparent rari nautes in gurgite vasto in the Poets language yet serve they for a good assurance that the Church still kept possession of her primitive truths not utterly lost though much endangered by such contrary Doctrines as had of late been thrust upon her there was a time when few or none of the Orthodox Bishops durst openly appear in favour of St. Athanasius but only Liberius Pope of Rome Theod. Hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 15. who thereupon is thus upbraided by Constantius the Arian Emperour Quota pars tu es orbis terrarum qui solus c. How great a part saith he art thou of the whole world that thou alone shouldst shew thy self in defence of that wicked man and thereby overthrow the peace of the Universe To which Liberius made this answer non diminuitur solitudine mea verbum dei nam olim
Princes of the line of Cecrops now it began to be Elective Tacit. hist l. 1. and to be given to them who best pleased the people Et loco libertatis erat quod eligi coeperunt and it was some degree of liberty and a great one too that they had power to nominate and elect their Princes But long they did not like of this although no doubt a great intrusion on the Regal dignity The Princes were too absolute when they held for life not so observant of the people as it was expected because not liable to accompt nor to be called unto a reckoning till it was too late till death had freed them from their faults and the peoples censure And therefore having tried the Government of thirteen of these perpetual Archontes of which Medon the son of Codrus was the first and the last Alemaeon In decem annos Magistratuum consuetudo conversa est they introduced another custom Euseb in Chr. Asrican apud Euseb Chronâ— and every tenth year changed their Governors These they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Decennial Archontes of which they had but seven in all and then gave them over and from that time were governed by nine Officers or Magistrates chosen every year who for that cause were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Annual Magistrates And yet it is to be observed that in both these changes the Archon whosoever he was and whether he was for term of life or for ten years only had all the power which formerly was belonging to the Kings save the very name in which regard Eusebius doth not stick to call them by the name of Kings where speaking of the institution of these Annual Magistrates he doth thus express is Euseb Chron. Athenis Annui principes constituti sunt cessantibus Regibus as S. Hierom renders it Now for these Annual Magistrates they were these that follow that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jul. P. 〈◊〉 in Onomast l. 8. c. 9. which we may call the Provost who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was called the Archon the Bishop or High Priest the Marshal and the six Chief Justices Of these the Provost was the chief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom they did denominate the ensuing year and by whose name they dated all their private Contracts and Acts of State Id ibid. Sect. 2. To him it appertained to have a care of celebrating the Orgies of Bacchus and the great Festival which they termed Thargelia consecrated to Apollo and Diana as also to take cognizance of misdemeanors and in particular to punish those who were common Drunkards and to determine in all cases which concerned matter of inheritance and furthermore to nominate Arbitrators for the ending of Suits and private differences to appoint Guardians unto Orphans and Overseers unto Women left with child by their Husbands The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom we call the Bishop or High Priest had the charge of all the sacred mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. Sect. 3. and the administration of the usual and accustomed Sacrifices together with the cognizance of sacriledg prophaneness and all other actions which concerned Religion as also power to interdict litigious persons or Common Barretters as we call them from being present at the celebration of the holy Mysteries And he retained the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that anciently their Kings as in all places else had the chief hand in matters which related to the publick service of the Gods and the solemn Sacrifices On the which reason and no other the Romans had their Regem Sacrificulum whom Plutarch calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in imitation of the Latine but Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Problemat Dionys Halicarnas hist l. 5. Livie hist Roman lib. 2. in the true Greek phrase of which Livie thus Rerum deinde divinarum habita cura quia quaedam publica sacra per ipsos Reges factitata erant necubi Regum desiderium esset Regem Sacrificulum creant But to proceed the Polemarchus whom we English by the name of Marshal sat Judg in cases of sedition and such whereby the grandeur of the State might suffer detriment as also in all actions which concerned either Denizens or Merchant-strangers and unto him it appertained to sacrifice to Diana and to Mars the two military Deities Jul. Pollux in Onomast l. 8. c. 93. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to prescribe the funeral pomp for such as lost their lives in their Countreys service Each of these had their two Assessors Id. ibid. Sect. of their own Election but so that they were bound to chuse them out of the Senate of five hundred from no lower rank Finally for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who we call Chief Justices they were six in number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in Lex and had authority to give Judgment absolutely in all Civil pleas to judg of strangers which abused the priviledges which they had in the City of Bribery Conspiracies false inscriptions in cases of Adultery and publick crimes in points of Trade Jul. Pollux in Onomast ll 4. c. 9. sect 1. and actions which concerned the Stannaries as also to review the sentence of the Provost and the decrees of the Senate if occasion were and to give notice to the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Julius Pollux if any man preferred a Law which was not profitable and expedient for the Common-wealth Such were the Officers and such the duty of those Officers ordained at Athens upon the last alteration of the Government which before we spake of and amongst these we find not any popular Magistrate who was to have a care of the common people and to preserve them in their rights and liberties from the oppression of the greater and more powerful Citizens much less set up of purpose to oppose the Senate And to say truth we must not look for any such amongst the Nine nor in these times in which this alteration of the Government was first established They could not fall immediately from a Regal State to a Democratical but they must take the Aristocratie in the way unto it They had been under Kings at first or such as had the power of Kings although not the name And when they chose these Annual Officers they chose them ex nobilibus urbis out of the Nobles only Euseb Chron. Scaliger in Aâ—imadveâ—s as Eusebius hath it which Scaliger is forced to grant to be so at first though out of a desire to confute his Author he would very fain have had it otherwise Whether or no they had such Officers as Calvin dreams of when they had setled their Democratie we shall see anon having first shewn by whom and by what degrees the Government of the State was cast on the peoples shoulders and the form thereof made meerly popular or Democratical For certainly it is most true that never
apud Scotos for the suppressing of Tyrannical Government in which themselves must be Judges which the Ephori enjoyed at Sparta and the Tribunes in the City of Rome For though he durst not go so far in terminis as to advise the instituting of such popular Magistrates as Calvin speaks of in this place yet he comes very near it to a Tantamont For that which Calvin doth ascribe to his popular Magistrates Buchannan gives to the whole body of the people generally to whom he doth allow as much Authority over the persons of their Kings Quod illi in singulos è multitudine habent Id. ibid. as they have over any one of the common people and thinks it both unreasonable and absurd that they should not be called to accompt before the ordinary Judges of their several Kingdoms which must supply the place of these popular Magistrates as often as any of their Subjects shall accuse them of murder or adultery or neglects in Government or whatsoever else they shall charge them with instancing in no fewer than twelve Kings of Sctoland who either were condemned to perpetual Prison or else by voluntary death or exile Justas scelerum poenas fugerunt escaped the punishment which was most justly due unto them as he most impudently saith for their wicked lives If any ask as some justly may what might induced our Author to these different courses to lay so sure a ground-work for obedience in the first part of his Discourse and afterward to build upon it such a superstructure as absolutely pulls up his own foundation the answer is that the man was very much distracted between his reason and his passion his conscience and his private interess Aliudque eupido mens aliud suadet His reason and his conscience told him that every Subject was to yield obedience to the authority and commands of the Sovereign Princes and that if any other Doctrine should be plainly preached it would conduce both to the Scandal and the hinderance of the Reformation And his experience in the World could not chuse but tell him that many of the chief Reformers by their heat and iolence had given too great advantage to the publick Enemy and made the Protestant Religion to be much suspected Nil aliud quaerere captare quam Seditionum opprrtunitatem Calvin in Epistola Dedic ad Franciscum l. 1536. for giving too much ground to seditious courses and publishing some Doctrines which were inconsistent with the rules of Government This made him write so soundly of the Subjects duty even to wicked Princes and the unlawfulness of resisting in the way of Arms though open force and violence were offered to them by ungodly Tyrants and this he doth so well that few do it better Vtinam sic semper errasset CALVINVS as once the learned Cardinal said of him in another case But then his Interess in the cause and quarrel of Geneva who by the help of some such popular Officers as he speaks of here had not long before expelled their Bishop who had also all the jurisdiction of a temporal Prince within the City and the Territory which belonged unto it inclined him to say somewhat which might serve o defend that action and give the like advantage unto other Cities to follow the Example which was laid before them Thuan. Hist sui temp l. The case is briefly touched by Thuanus thus Jus Supremi Domini in Civitatem Genevae Episcopos semper penes se retinuisse donec mutata religione Syndici qui sub Episcopali autoritate libertatem antea tuebantur illus proprium sibi fecere ejectis Episcopis sub imperii patrocinio Rempub. administrabant The Sovereignty saith he or Supream Dominion over the City of Geneva the Bishops stillkept unto themselves till in the alteration of Religion the Syndicks who before preserved the liberty of the people under the Government of the Bishops assumed the same unto themselves and absolutely casting out the Bishops governed it like a Common-wealth under the patronage or protection of the German Emperours In which it is first clear on the Bishops side that they had jus Supremi Dominii the Sovereignty or Supream Dominion of the City And so much is affirmed by Calvin in another place Habebat jus gladii alias civilis jurisdictionis partes Calvin in Epistola ad Sadoletum He had saith he the power of the Sword and other parts of temporal Jurisdiction but as he thinks but foolishly and against all records Magistratui ereptas either by fraud or force extorted from the Civil Magistrate Next it is clear that the Bishops did continue the possession of this Supream Power till Viret and Farellus two zealous Gospellers came to live amongst them who finding that those of Berne in the year 1528. had made an alteration of Religion practised the like upon the City of Goneva Which not being likely to effect with the Bishops leave and as little able to effect against his liking considering the great power and sway which legally and properly was inherent in him they set the Syndicks whom they had wrought upon before to make head against him who by a popular Tumult madehim fly the City which presently they changed to a Common-wealth after the manner of the Free or Imperial Cities In which respect Calvin bestows upon Farellus the Title of libertatis Patrem In Epistola ad Minist Tigurin 1553. the Father of that common Liberty which by his means the people of Geneva at the time enjoyed As for the Syndicks by whose power and countenance they advanced the business they were a kind of popular Officers who had the care of looking to the conservation of the peoples Liberties as Thuanus intimates and were much used in many parts of France and Italy Bodin de Repub lib. 4. c. 4. Id. ibid. as Bodinus tell us Their Office did consist of two special points the one à Magistratibus rationem reposcere to call the ordinary Magistrates to an after-reckoning if they did any thing unworthy of their place and dignity or to the hinderance and disservice of the Common-wealth which had somewhat in it of the Ephori in the State of Sparta the other was prospicere ne tenniores infimae sortis homines à nobilibus uti fit premerentur to have a care that the poor people be not wronged or injured as many times it hapneth by the power of the Nobles which mas the main reason for the institution of the Roman Tribunes In this regard the Civil Laws interpret Syndicus to be the same with defensor Civitatis Calvin in Lexico Jurid verbo Syndicus the Conservator of the liberties of a Town or City as full well they might the Office being made up as it seems it was of that of the Ephori and the Tribunes mixt together Now though this change was made before Calvins coming to Geneva which was not till the year 1535 yet he affirms it of
cannot be but that there must be many of them in that famous Session an equal number at the least with those who had been Polemarchi or the yearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Add here that we are told by Julius Pollux in his Onomasticon Lib. 8. cap. 8. sect 3. that it pertained to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rex Sacrorum besides the service of the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to endite those before the Court who were guilty or murther but then withal that having put in the Enditement and laid by his Crown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sat upon the Bench with the other Judges and passed sentence on them Thus was it with the Druides or the Priests of Gallia who did not only take the charge of all sacred matter which did relate unto the service of the gods but de omnibus fere controversiis publicis privatisque Caesar de Bello Gallico l. 6. they did determine in almost all suits and controversies as well publick as private particularly in matters of inheritance real actions capital crimes as murther and the like offences and also had a power to decree both rewards and punishments as they saw occasion And for the better dispatch of business both for their own ease and the Peoples too they chose some certain times or Terms in which they met together not far from Chartres being in the middle of the Countrey whither all sorts of People who had suits and differences did repair unto them eorumque judiciis decretis parebant and to their Judgments and Decrees did submit themselves And thus it also was with the Pontifices or Priests of Rome who had not only a chief place in the holy Mysteries such as concerned the publick worship of their gods but also a great power and sway in the greatest and most important businesses which concerned the State which Tully makes one of those Constitutions or Arts of Government which seemed to have been devised by the gods themselves Cicero in Orat. pro Domo sua Cum multa divinitus à majoribus nostris inventa atque instituta sunt tum nihil praeclarius quam quod Pontifices eosdem Religionibus Deorum immortalium summae reipub praeesse voluerunt And as the principal Priests in Athens had their place and Vote not only in the Court of Areopagites but in the Senate of five hundred as before was noted so some of the more eminent sort of Priests had the like preheminence of sitting and voting in the Roman Senate which was as high an honour as that State could give them For besides that Rosinus hath observed that some of the Priests were chosen out of the number of the Senators who doubtless did not lose the right of suffrage which before they had Rosin Antiqu. Rom. there is a memorable case in Livie touching C. Flaccus who was no sooner chosen the Flamen Dialis or Priest of Jupiter but presently he put in his title to a place in Senate which anciently belonged unto his predecessors in the right of their Office though of late years it seemed to have been forfeited by discontinuance The issue of which plea was this That though Licinius the Pretor did the best he could to cross the business alledging Non exoletis vetustate Annalium exemplis stare jus Livie hist Rom. lib. 26. that they were not to be guided in the case by Worm-eaten Precedents but by the late practice of the State yet it was otherwise determined by the Fathers generally and Flaccus setled in his place in the Roman Senate Magno assensu Patrum Plebisque with the joynt consent of all the People But what need these particulars have been brought to confirm this point whenas it is affirmed in generals by Synesius a right godly Bishop of the Primitive times Synes Epist 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in old times the same men were both Priests and Judges Which said he instanceth in the particulars of the Jews and Egyptians who for long time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been chiefly governed by their Priests This brings me on to the power and practice of the Priests in the Land of Judah who from the very first beginning of that State and Nation to the final dissolution of it were of great authority not only in composing of inferiour differences which casually did arise amongst the People but in the managery of the chief affairs both of State and Government and that not gained by Connivence of Frinces or by entrenching on the rights of the secular powers but by the institution and appointment of the Lord himself When Moses first complained that the sole Government of the People was a burden too heavy for him to bear it pleased God to appoint a standing Consistory of seventy Elders men of ability and wisdom Numb 11. v. 16 who were to have a share in the publick Government and to decide amongst themselves such weighty businesses great matters as the Scripture calls them Exod. 18. v. 22. which were reserved to Moses by a former Ordinance Of these the Priests as men who for the most part were at better leisure than the rest to attend the service and generally of more abilities to go through with it made always a considerably number and many times the major part In which respect it was ordained by the Lord when a matter did arise to be scanned in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea and stroke and stroke being matters of controversie within their gates the People should arise and go unto the place which the Lord should choose and come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days and enquire and they shall shew them the sentence of judgement Deut. c. 17. v. 8 9. The like is also ordered in the case of false witnesses where it is said that if a false witness rise up against any man to testifie against him that which is wrong then both the men between whom the controversie is shall stand before the Lord before the Priests and Judges which shall be in those days Deut. 19. v. 17. Which passages are not understood of any particular Priests or Judges dispersed in their several dwellings up and down the Country but of the Priests and other Judges united and assembled in that famous Consistory of the 70 Elders conveened together in that place which the Lord should choose called by the Jews the Sanhedrim by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was the great Council of estate for the Jewish Nation To this Josephus doth attest where he informeth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Priests of Jewry had the cognizance of all doubtful matters Joseph adv Appion lib. 2. more plainly Philo who knew well the customs of his native Countrey where he affirms expresly and in terminis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Priests had place and suffrage in this
intermitting their own studies to ingage themselves in the determining of such secular causes as were brought before them for the contentation of the People and the diseharge of their own duty both to God and man And this is that which both S. Ambrose and S. Austin tell us in their several writings viz. that they did undergoe this trouble for no other reason than out of a conformity and obedience to the words and imitation of S. Paul 1 Cor. cap. 6. touching the ending of such suits and differences as did arise amongst the Faithful S. Austin saying Constituisse Apostolum talibus causis Ecclesiasticos cognitores Id. in Psal 110. serm 174. Id. de opere Monach. 29. Amb. Epist 24. and iisdem molestiis eos affixisse Apostolos S. Ambrose that he had undertook the businesses which were brought before him Secundum sacrae formam praeceptionis qua eum Apostolus induebat which did impose such a necessity upon him that he was not able to decline it Both of them do agree in this and Posidonius doth agree with both in the same particular that they were not only warranted but obliged by S. Pauls injunction Posidon in vita August c. 19. to undertake the cognizance of such secular causes as were from time to time committed to their care and trust and that they had not done their duty had they made any scruple of the undertaking But these being only private matters let us next see whether their service was not used in affairs of State and we shall find that Constantine did always take some Bishops with him when he went to War not only for their ghostly counsel in spiritual matters but for advise in matters which concerned the occasion the prosecution of the War which was then in hand Euseb in vita Constant l. 4. c. 54. that Ambrose was twice sent Ambassador from Valentinian the younger to the Tyrant Maximus which he performed to the great contentment of his Prince and the preservation of the Empire whereof he gives us an accompt in an express unto the Emperor that when Firmus had rebelled in Africk Amb. Epist 27. lib. 5. and saw himself too weak to resist the Forces which were raised against him under Theodosius Antistites ritus Christiani pacem oraturos misit he sent the African Prelates his Ambassadors to treat of peace Ammian Marcel hist l. 29. Socrat. Eccles hist l. 7. c. 8. that Marutha Bishop of Mesapotamia was in like nature sent to the Court of Persia in the time of the Emperour Honorius I. as after that Epiphanius Bishop of Ticinum which we now call Pavie employed from the Ligurians to Athalaricus King of the Gothes in Italy from him unto the Court of Burgundy as Cassiodorus and Ennodius do describe at large that James the godly Bishop of Nisibis a frontier Town against the Persians was also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both Governour of the place and Captain of the Souldiers which were there in Garrison Theodoret. hist Eccl. l. 2. c. 30. and did most manfully defend it against all the force and fury of the Persian Armies An. 338. or thereabouts and finally which was an argument of great power and trust that the Bishops in Justinians time were by him appointed to oversee the Civil Magistrates and to give notice to the Emperour if they failed in any thing which did concern the Government of the Estate in their several places Novel 56. in Append. ad Novel 8. of which the very Edicts are still extant in the Book of Novels The Prelates being grown into this esteem for their integrity and wisdom with the Roman Emperours it is no wonder if they were imployed in the greatest Offices of trust and counsel after the Empire was dismembred and shared betwixt such several Princes as grew up in the place of those mighty Monarchs And this they did on so good motives and with such success that in short time the Prelates were not only used for advice and counsel but the inferiour Clergy also were called unto imployments of the highest nature and in conclusion with the Prelates made up the third Estate in most Christian Kingdoms For being that the study of Divinity is diffused and large and that the knowledge of Philosophy and the Art and Histories is but attendant on the same and subservient to it there was no question made at all in the times we speak of but that a Church-man so accomplished might be as useful in the service of the Common-wealth as those who wanted many opportunities to be so versed in Books the best guides to business especially when to those helps in poin of Learning were joyned a suddenness of apprehension a perspicacity of judgment and which swayed most of all integrity of life and conversation These when they met together as they often did in men admitted by the Church unto holy Orders it was not either thought or found and indeed how could it that their admittance into Orders did take off from any of those natural or acquired indowments of which before they were possessed or that it was a disabling to them to make use thereof in any matter of debate or action which concerned the publick And that it hath been so of old in all Christian Kingdoms besides that it is intimated by our Author here we shall clearly see by looking over such particulars as have most influence and power in the affairs of Christendom And first beginning as of right with the German Empire August Thuan. hist lib. 2. Thuanus gives this note in general Imperium in tria omnino membra dividi that that Emire is divided into three Estates over all which the Emperour is the Head or the Supream Prince Of these the first Estate is ex sacro Ordine of the holy Hierarchy composed of the three spiritual Electors together with the residue of the Archbishops and Bishops and many Abbots Priors and other Prelates The second is of the Nobility consisting of the three temporal Electors the Dukes Marquesses Lantgraves Burgraves Earls and Barons of which there is no determinate number the Emperour having power to add daily to them as he sees occasion The third Estate is of the free or Imperial Cities in number 60. or thereabouts who represent themselves at the General Diets by such Commissioners or Deputies as are authorized to that purpose Now for these Diets for by that name they call their Conventus Ordinum or Assembly of the three Estates they are summoned at the will and pleasure of the Emperour only and at such place and time as to him seems meetest Id. ibid. Where being met as all the three Estates must meet either in person or by their Ambassadors they use to treat of Peace and War of raising Subsidies and Taxes to support the State of leagues and confederacies of raising and decrying moneys of making abrogating and expounding laws and of such other points and matters as do pertain unto the
times the Kings did graciously vouchsafe to pass the whole Bill in that Form which the Houses gave it or to reject it wholly as they saw occasion yet still the Privy Council and the Judges and the Council learned in the Laws have and enjoy their place in the House of Peers as well for preservation of the Kings Rights and Royalties as for direction to the Lords in a point of Law if any case of difficulty be brought before them on which occasions the Lords are to demand the Opinion of the Judges and upon their Opinions to ground their Judgment As for Example In the Parliament 28 of Hen. VI. The Commons made suit that William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk should be committed to Prison for many Treasons and other Crimes and thereupon the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges 28 Hen. 6. whether he should be committed to Prison or not whose Answer was that he ought not to be committed in regard the Commons had not charged him with any particular offence but with generals only which Opinion was allowed and followed In another Parliament of the said King held by Prorogation one Thomas Thorpe the Speaker of the House of Cemmons was in the Prorogation-time condemned in 1000 l. damages upon an Action of Trespass at the suit of Richard Duke of York and was committed to Prison for execution of the same The Parliament being reassembled the Commons made suit to the King and Lords to have their Speaker delivered to them according to the Privilege of Parliaments The priviled of the Barons p. 15. the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges in it and upon their Answer did conclude that the Speaker should stilll remain in Prison according to Law notwithstanding the privilege of Parliament and according to this resolution the Commons were commanded in the Kings name to chuse one Tho. Carleton for their Speaker which was done accordingly Other Examples of this kind are exceeding obvious and for numbers infinite yet neither more in number nor more obvious than those of our Kings serving their turns by and upon their Parliaments as their occasions did require For not to look on higher and more Regal times we find that Richard the 2d a Prince not very acceptable to the Common people could get an Act of Parliament 21 Ric. 2. to confirm the extrajudicial Opinion of the Judges given before at Notingham that King Henry IV. could by another Act reverse all that Parliament entail the Crown to his posterity 1 Hen. 4. and keep his Dutchy of Laneaster and all the Lands and Scigneuries of it from being united to the Crown that King Edward the 4th could have a Parliament to declare all the Kings of the House of Lancaster to be Kings in Fact but not in Right 1 Ed. c. 1. and for uniting of that Dutchy to the Crown Imperial notwithstanding the former Act of separation that King Richard the 3d could have a Parliament to bastardize all his Brothers Children Speeds Hist in K. Richard 3. Verulams Hist of K. Hen. 7. 11 Hen. 7. c. 10. to set the Crown on his own Head though a most bloody Tyrant and a plain Usurper that K. Henry VII could have the Crown entailed by an Act of Parliament to the issue of his own body without relation to his Queen of the House of York which was conceived by many at that time to have the better Title to it another for paying a Benevolence which he had required of the Subject though all Benevolences had been damned by a former Statute made in the short but bloudy reign of King Richard the 3d that King Henry VIII could have one Act of Parliament to bastardry his Daughter Mary in favour of the Lady Elizabeth 65 Hen. 8. c. 22 28. c. 7. 35 H. 8. c. 1. another to declare the Lady Elizabeth to be illegitimate in expectation of the issue by Queen Jane Seymour a third for setling the succession by his Will and Testament and what else he pleased that Queen Mary could not only obtain several Acts in favour of her self and the See of Rome but for the setling of the Regency on the King of Spain 1 Mar. ses 2. c. 1 2. 1. 2 Ph. M. c. 8.10 in case the Children of that Bed should be left in non-age And finally that Queen Elizabeth did not only gain many several Acts for the security of her own Person which were determinable with her life but could procure an Act to be passed in Parliament for making it high Treason to affirm and say That the Queen could not by Act of Parliament bind and dispose the Rights and Titles which any person whatsoever might have to the Crown 13 Eliz. c. 1. And as for raising moneys and amassing Treasures by help of Parliaments he that desires to know how well our Kings have served themselves that way by the help of Parliaments let him peruse a book entituled the Privilege of Parliaments writ in the manner of Dialogue between a Privy Counsellor and a Justice of Peace and he shall be satisfied to the full Put all that hath been said together and sure the Kingdom of England must not be the place in which the three Estates convened in Parliament have power to regulate the King or restrain his actions or moderate his extravagances or where they can be taxed for persidious treachery of they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the Common-people or otherwise abuse that power which the Lord hath given them Calvin was much mistaken if he thought the contrary or if he dreamt that he should be believ'd on his ipse dixit without a punctual enquiry into the grounds and probability of such a dangerous intimation as he lays before us But against this it is objected that Parliaments have disposed of the Militia of the Kingdom of the Forts Castles Ports and the Navy Royal not only without the Kings leave but against his liking that they have deposed some Kings and advanced others to the top of the Regal Throne And for the proof of this they produce Examples out of the Reign of King Henry III. Edw. II. and King Richard the second Examples which if rightly pondered do not so much prove the Power as the Weakness of Parliaments in being carried up and down by the private conduct of every popular pretender For 't is well known that the Parliaments did not take upon them to rule or rather to over-look K. Henry III. but as they were directed by Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester who having raised a potent faction in the State by the assistance of the Earls of Glocester Matth. Paris Henr. 3. Hereford Derby and some others of the great Lords of the Kingdom compelled the King to yield unto what terms he pleased and made the Parliaments no other than a means and instrument to put a popular gloss on his wretched purposes And