to excommunicate here and there several Christians and their families as single Slips and Off-sets of Christianity which might grow apart by themselves but their aim was with preaching Verity to plant Unity and with true Faith to graft fraternal Charity which conjoyned them to and with Christ and all Christians in the world This being a most visible mark of Christs Disciples also a special means for mutual assistance and comfort amidst the many persecutions which Christians would meet with sufficient utterly to discourage them if when they were scattered from each other they were presently without any joynt harmony greater combination and ampler communion of Saints by which means whereever Christians fled from one place to another if they met with Christians they were sure of hospitable friends bringing as they ever did letters of communication or commendation from their Bishops which presently made their way to such a kind reception and communion in all holy duties as that station permitted as Catechumens or Penitents or Eucharistical Communicants in which they stood whereever they had lived Therefore as the Apostolical wisdom so all their successors diligently gathered single believers and private families of Christians into greater Congregations these they led on to larger combinations which comprehended the Christians of many Villages Towns Cities and Territories according as the Spirit of Christ directed them for the greater conveniency and benefit of both Ministers and people who scattered in small bodies or parcels must needs be both more cold and more feeble but so united in grand Societies they would be both warmer stronger and safer and besides more eminent and conspicuous in the eyes of all the world Such beyond all doubt were those Apostolical and famous Churches distinguished by the Spirit of God according to the chief Cities which were the centre of their Religious addresses for Church-Order Authority and Communion as the Church of Jerusalem Antioch Rome Ephesus Corinth Sardis Smyrna Colosse with many more whose Cities being most-what Metropolitan or Mother-cities as to secular power and distribution of civil justice they were chosen as meetest for the principal residency of Religious Order Polity and Authority wherein as was meet the blessed Apostles did during their lives preside as Bishops either in their persons or by those faithful Apostolick men whom they as St. Paul did Timothy Titus Archippus others appointed as Rulers or Bishops under them for the carrying on of the service of Christ his Church partly by the common duty and office Ministerial which was to preach baptize celebrate other holy Mysteries in an orderly way even in lesser Congregations yea to private Families and single persons as occasion required which was the work of Bishops and Presbyters in common and partly to manage that presidential power and Episcopal Authority over both Presbyters and people united in larger combinations and Churches as might best preserve the Purity Unity and Honor of the Church and Christian Religion in doctrine and discipline also derive by way of right Ordination after the pattern given to Timothy and Titus and others a continued succession of an holy and authoritative Ministry by such an eminent power of Order as was specially delivered to the chief Apostles and by them to their principal successors as Bishops in those great Apostolical and complete Churches where as Christians increased many Presbyters were ordained by the chief Pastor or Bishop to be both Counsellers and Assistants to him in that Evangelical work of teaching and governing the Church committed to him First as appointed immediately by the chief Apostles while they lived and after as chosen by the surviving Presbyters in every precinct or Diocese to succeed so far in that Apostolical eminency and presidential authority as was necessary for the Churches constant Order and good Government according to that precedent Charter and Commission which all Churches had received from the Apostles and they from Christ not as a temporary Ordinance but such as for the main end and method the Lord would have continued till his coming again by a succession of ordinary Bishops who are a lesser or second sort of Apostles in many things short of their gifts yet having the same ordinary power to ordain Presbyters and Deacons to appoint them their offices and places in the Churches Ministry and to see they execute the same as is meet for the edifying of the Church in Truth and Love to rebuke and reject them in case of failing and obstinacy As the Church daily thus increased spreading its boughs even to the utmost seas still its Polity or Government as the bark or rinde of the Tree enlarged with the body or bulk being most necessary for the preserving both of lesser and greater branches to knit and bind all together to convey the sap and juice to every part and to the whole This once peeled or broken or cut wounds the tree weakens and oft kills that part which is so injured Trees may as well thrive without their bark and bodies live without their skins as Churches without setled and united Government Therefore that all true Christians might still keep a Catholick Correspondence Subordination and holy Communion between the whole and every branch or member they had not onely Deacons above the people but Presbyters above Deacons and Bishops above Presbyters yea and as the borders and numbers of the Church so increased that not onely Presbyters but Bishops grew many and so fit to be put into some method and order they had Archbishops or Metropolitanes above ordinary Bishops and Patriarchs above Archbishops or Metropolitanes and a generall Council above all thus still drawing nearer to a center of union and mutuall intelligence So that first three afterward five Patriarchs had the general Episcopacy Superintendency and Inspection over all the Christian world Nor were these Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs any ambitious affectations or forcible intrusions of pride or tyranny upon the Churches of Christ but by a wise and general consent on all sides Christian Bishops did so cast themselves into comely rancks of Subordination after the Apostolical pattern as might most suit to the good order correspondence and unanimity of all Christians as but one Church there being in the first 300. years of sore persecution no other motives to these eminent places and regular orders in the Church of Bishops Archbishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs but onely those of Labours and Cares of Sufferings and Martyrdoms which still pressed most upon the Presidents and chief Governours or Bishops of the Churches as was evident in the glorious marks of the Lord Jesus to be seen on the Faces Hands and other parts of the Bodies of those venerable Bishops 318 which met at the first great gaudy-day of the Church in the Council of Nice which all made but one Episcopacy and were Representers as well as Presidents or Rulers of but one Catholick Church After which time by the favour of
violence wrested the staffe out of its hands Presbytery seeming like the plant called Touch me not which flies in the face and breaks in the fingers of those that presse it but Independency as the sensible plant rather yielding to then resisting any hand that is applyed to it This later and softer plant no sooner almost began to be set on foot in England about the year 1650. but it soon gained much ground of Presbytery which had been an old bitten shrub ill rooted and never very florishing or fruitfull and lesse apt to be now at last transplanted But Independency as a new slip or full-shoot springs up apace spreads its roots and branches without any noise erects its Churches as fast as Presbytery could its Consistories out of the ruines of Presbyterians Parishes as well as of Bishops Dioceses Independency hath no great line or out-work to maintain and so can do it with fewer numbers and lesse noise it desired onely in Peace to enjoy it self affecting no forced ambition or unvoluntary Rule over others as did Presbytery it professeth to aime at nothing but a nearer and greater strictnesse of Sanctity Unity and Charity among Christians in their Church-way than it thought could well be had among the larger combinations of Presbyterian or Episcopall Churches which they think are not easily managed without much labour and toile besides offence and complaint because they urge many things as of duty and by constraint when this is onely by every ones free will and consent Nothing is more soft and supple than Independency in its first render branches and blossomes nor is it other than a little Embryo of Episcopacy in a little Parish or Diocese For Bishops Presbyters and People did of old and at first so neerly correspond as Fathers Brethren and Sons of a Family when they were but few and scarce made up one great Congregation in a City where one Minister at first was both Pastor and Teacher Bishop and Presbyter who as Christians increased ordained them Presbyters to carry on the work and yet to keep a filial Correspondency with him and respect to him as became them The pomp and solemnity of Independent Episcopacy is lesse but the Power and Authority Ecclesiasticall is though broken and abrupt yet full as great and absolute as to all Church-uses and intents as ever Bishops challenged How far this willow will grow an oake more rough and robust as it growes Elder Bigger Higher and Stronger no man knowes I presume it cannot have better beginnings of Order Unity Purity Piety Charity Meekness and Wisdom than Episcopacy had in its first Institution which is owned by all learned men to be at least Apostolicall both as to the enlarged Churches made up of many Congregations and the enlarged Authority of one Bishop placed by the Apostles over many Presbyters and Congregations so gathered by them into one Ecclesiastick Society or Combination as those Primitive Churches were in the Scripture Nor can it have more specious and modest beginnings for Purity and Sanctity than some former sects have professed such as were the Novatians and Donatists of which St. Cyprian and Optatus with St. Austin and others give us liberall accounts whose procedings did not answer their beginnings either in Modesty Charity or Equity but from rending from they fell to reviling and ruining all Churches but their own From the rise and advantages which these two new and now almost parallel plants in England Presbytery and Independency neither of which are yet any way grown up comparable to the Procerity Height and Goodliness which Episcopacy had and yet hath as in many Churches of Christ so in many English mens minds notwithstanding that both of them as notable suckers strive all they can to draw away all sap and succour from the old root of Episcopacy that it may quite wither and be extirpated every where as it hath been lately with Swords and Pickaxes terribly lopped and almost quite stubbed up in England From these two I say which have so much pleased either some Ministers or People with shewes of Novelty Liberty and share of Authority other Parties Sects and Factions have began to set up their scaling ladders and for a time staying one of their feet either on the standards of Presbytery or Independency they fall amaine with their hatchets to hack and hew down the remaines of all Episcopal order and Communion in Churches to cut off the battered stript and bare branches of that Ancient and goodly Tree which contained once the Catholick Church under its boughs and shade Thus these petty planters begin their new plantations that every one set up new Churches and Pastors after their own Hearts Opinions and Fancies making use of what seare barren and Schismatick slips or abscissions they are able to break or cut off aiming still to plant as they say further off from the root and bulk of Episcopacy as a notable character of more perfect Reformation than either Presbytery or Independency seem to have done who sometime professe they can comply with something in Episcopacy Hence first Erastians or Polititians begin to resolve all Churches into States all Ministry into Magistracy making no other origine of church-Church-power than that of the Common-wealth nor of any Ministers Bishops or Presbyters Authority than of a Justice or a Captaine or a Constable After this Anabaptists Quakers Enthusiasts Seekers Ranters all sorts of Fanatick Errors and lazy Libertines pursue their severall designes and interests under the notions of some new-found Church Sprigs and better plantations filling all places in England like a wood or thicket with Bushes and Briers and Thornes of Separations Abscissions Raptures Ruptures Novelties Varieties Contentions Contradictions Inordinations Reordinations Deordinations and Inordinations no Ordinations scarce owning any Church or Christians which are not just of their way and form as Optatus tells us the Donatist Bishop Parmenian and his party did All of them agreeing with Presbytery and Independency in this one thing however differing in others as in the matter of Tithes which these are reconciled to that they are enemies against all Diocesan Ruling Episcopacy quarrelling even the Honesty and Credit of Primitive Churches on that account despising all the Fathers and all the Councils and Canons of all Churches as levened with Episcopacy The reason in all of them is one and the same because true Episcopacy was a notable curb and restraint and remedy equally against all Schisms and Innovations in the Church of Christ as St. Hierom tells us And further by its venerable Authority so Famous so Ancient so Universal so Primitive so truely Apostolick it infinitely and intolerably upbraids all their Novelties and Extravagancies besides they are conscious that they shall hardly ever one for a hundred either equallize or exceed in many Ages the useful and excellent Abilities Gifts Graces and Miracles or the Benefits and Blessings which by and under regular and holy Episcopacy the Lord was pleased to bestow if ever any were
mischiefs as small parties cannot avoid or remedy In like manner Christians have in all ages grown up from the first Apostolical Plantations of Christianity which were in particular persons and private families to such holy Associations Charitable Combinations and regular Subordinations as reached not onely to the first Families or lesse Congregations and Neighbourhoods which as I said may be called Churches in their Infancy Youth and Minority but they grew up spread and increased by the spirit of Prudence Peace Order Love and Unity even to great Cities large Provinces and whole Nations To all which more publick and extensive relations Christians finding themselves obliged by the ties not onely of their common faith and love but of their own wants and mutuall necessities for Order Safety and Peace they ever esteemed themselves so far bound in duty to every relation both greater and lesser as the generall good and more publick concernments of those Churches of Christ did require of them which were ever esteemed as Ecclesiae adultae Churches in their full growth beauty harmony procerity vigour and completenesse both as to the good to be enjoyed and the evils to be avoided by all Christians not onely in their private but publick and politick capacity 'T is happy indeed when one Sinner or one Family one Village or Congregation give their names to Christ at which the Angels in Heaven rejoyce But how much more august must their joy be how much more magnificent must the glory of Christ and the renown of his blessed name be when whole Cities Countreys and Nations willingly give themselves and be joyned to the Lord and to his Ministers or Ambassadours This carries more proportion as to the merit of Christs Sufferings price of his Blood and power of his Spirit so to the accomplishment of those many cleare and munificent promises foretold with so great pomp and majesty by the Prophets of Gods giving in the Nations with the glory and fulnesse of their multitudes to Christ for his Inheritance so far that many and mighty Kings and Queens should be nursing Fathers and Mothers to the Churches of Christ which should be not onely diffused and scattered according to the latitude and extent of their civil Dominions but piously owned prudently governed and orderly preserved by their princely and paternall care in their severall distributions and orderly jurisdictions according as all true prudence and polity Ecclesiasticall as well as Civil doth require of wise and good men Namely to such a grandeur beauty comelinesse and safety as was and is infinitely beyond any of those modern Models and petty Inventions which seek to slip goodly Boughs into small Twigs or Branches to reduce ancient Churches of long growth of tall and manly stature to their pueriles their long coats and cradles Such famous and flourishing Churches for instance were those in the Apostles times and long after which received their denomination or distinction from those great â—â—ties of Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Philippi Thessalonica Corinth Rome and the like Mother-Cities According to whose latitude and extensions in point of civil distinction and proconsulary jurisdiction the union and communion of Christians there first converted and formed into severall Churches did extend by the holy and happy Association of their respective Bishops Presbyters Deacons and people into one Ecclesiasticall polity whose orderly and united influence contained in it not onely some one particular Congregation whose number might fitly meet in one place to worship God but it comprised all Christians and Congregations in that city how numerous soever yea and extended not onely to the walls of that city but to the suburbican distributions yea to their several Territories and Provinces appertaining to them in which although there were no doubt many thousands of Christians who were divided into severall Congregations according to the nearnesse of their dwellings and conveniencies of their meetings in one place to serve the Lord yet were they still but one Church as to that Polity Order Authority Government Inspection and Subordination which was among them which cast and comprehended them by a native kind of right and spirituall descent as children to fathers under the care rule and guidance of that Apostle or Apostolick Teacher who first taught and converted them which Apostle afterward committed them together with his own ordinary Authority over them to his Vicegerents Suffragans or Successors in that chief city who residing there was called the Angel Apostle Bishop President or Father of that Church even by the Apostles themselves and by the Spirit of Christ writing to the seven Churches of Asia Ephesus Sardis Pergamus Thyatira Smyrna Philadelphia and Laodicea All which were ever reckoned by Pliny Strabo Stephanus and others as chief Cities or Proconsulary Residencies to which many other Villages and Towns yea some lesser Cities and Countreys were subordinate and united as first in civil dependence and jurisdiction so afterward in Ecclesiasticall Communion and Subjection So that it is most evident by Scripture-dialect by the wisdome of Christs Spirit by the Apostolick prudence and the subsequent practices of all famous Churches as at Alexandria Constantinople Carthage and many other instances that the compleatnesse and perfection of Church-polity order union power and authority was never thought to be seated or circumscribed in every particular congregation of Christians as they were locally divided in their lesser conventions which would make all Churches as small twigs both feeble in themselves and despicable to others but it was placed in those great branches those strong and extensive boughs which had in them the united power or authority not onely of many Christians but of many congregations in which were many godly people many grave Deacons many venerable Presbyters and one eminent Bishop or Father who continued in that Presidentiall authority to water propagate increase preserve and â—overn in order peace and unity those Churches which the Apostles had so planted fixed and established in their severall polities and limits as to Ecclesiasticall union order and jurisdiction In which the chief Pastor President or Bishop so presided in the place power and spirit of the Apostle yea and of Jesus Christ that no private Christian no Deacon no Presbyter yea no particular congregation might as Ignatius and other Ancients tell us regularly doe any thing in publique doctrine discipline worship or ministration without his respective authority consent and allowance Yea all good Christians did ever make great conscience of dividing from the principall succession seat and Pastor who was the centre and conservator of that Church-union and government which was first setled by the Apostles in Primitive Churches and imitated by all others which grew up after them Primitive Christians ever esteeming it as the sin of schisme the work of the flesh a fruit of pride and factious arrogancy for any Christian or any company of Christians to dissolve to divide from and so to destroy that
varying in this as in other things from the whole ancient Churches constitution no less than from this of England are likely to differ among themselves even till Doomesday unless they return under some new name and disguised notion of moderators and superintendents to what they have rashly deserted the true pattern in the Mount that paternall Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy which was the centre and crown of the Churches unity peace order and honour which imports no more after all this clamour and terrour than one grave and worthy Presbyter duly chosen in the severall Dioceses limits to be the chief Ecclesiastick Overseer and Governour succeeding in the managing of that Ecclesiasticall power and authority which without an Apostolick President or Bishop properly so called Presbyters alone in parity or equality never did enjoy and so never ought to exercise in the Churches of Christ as to ordination and jurisdiction no more than Bishops regularly may without the counsel and assistance of Presbyters Which ancient Order eminent Authority of Primitive Episcopacy if neither right Reason nor the Word of God either in the Old or New Testament did clearly set forth to us as best if neither Apostles at first nor the Primitive Fathers after them if neither Church-history nor Catholick custome nor Primitive Antiquity nor the approbation of the best Reformed Churches and Divines if all these did not commend it as they evidently do to my best understanding yet the late mad and sad extravagancies in Religion do highly recommend it yea the great want of it in England shews the great use necessity and excellency of it especially if advanced to its greatest improvement of counsel order and authority I may adde the votes of all sober and impartiall Christians even now in England who are grown so wise by their woes as generally to wish for such Episcopacy whose restitution would be more welcome to the wiser and better sort of Christians in this nation than ever the removall of it was or the medlies of Presbytery and Independency is like to be Nor do I believe that the restauration of a right Episcopacy would be unacceptable to many of the soberest men even of those two parties if any expedient could be found to salve and redeem the reputations of some lay-leaders and popular Primates of those sides whose credits lie much at pawn with the people upon this very score as having been by them rashly biassed against all Episcopacy the abusing of which Apostolick order on one side and the abolishing of it on the other side were I think two of the greatest Engines the Devil used to batter the Church of Christ withall pride and parity insolency and Anarchy being equally pernicious to Church-polity and Christian piety The overboylings of some mens passions which the Scotch Thistles being set on fire under them chiefly occasioned having now almost quenched themselves by bringing infinite fedities and deformities upon the whole face of the Christian Reformed Religion in this Church as well as otherwhere these sad events may save me the labour of further asserting in this place the use and honour of Catholick Episcopacy in the Churches of Christ which is already done as by my owne so many abler pens as it was also done by Mr. Hooker sufficiently proving that the Church of England deserved not upon the account of its retaining the Catholick and Apostolick order of Episcopacy to have suffered these many calamities which have ensued since the Schismes and Apostasy of many from this Church and from that Primitive Government other than which was not so much as known or thought of in the Catholick Church of Christ for 1500 years nor then when the Church of England began its wise and happy Reformation which did not indeed abolish but reform and continue as became its wisdom that Ancient and Apostolick government of the Church which was primitively planted in these British Churches as in all others throughout the world long before the Bishop of Rome had any influence or authority among them being highly blessed of God and honoured of all good men nor hath yet any cause appeared why it should be blasted or accursed or scared by Smectymnuan terrors CHAP. XI AS for the Doctrinals of Christian Religion this Church of England ever had so high an approbation from the best Reformed Churches and so harmonious a consent with the most Orthodox and Primitive Churches that it must be extreme ignorance or impudence on this part to esteem the present miseries of this Church as merited by Her wherein it was indeed most exact and compleat as wholly consonant to the Word of God so nothing dissonant from the sense and practise of the ancient and purest Churches Yea I find that the bitterest enemies of the Church of England do in This least shew their teeth or clawes except onely in the point of Infant-Baptism not for want of ill will for nothing more pincheth them then the Doctrine of the Church of England which was according to godliness teaching all men that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they should live righteously soberly and godlily in this present world but for want as of just cause so of skill and abilitie most of them being such as have no great stock of knowledge learning or judgement nor very capable on this side to assault the Church of England whose strength and shield is the invincible Word of God rightly understood Therefore the cunning Adversaries and Vastators of the Church of England drive a lesser trade of small cavellings and bitings rather as the serpent at the heel than head not much engaging themselves in any grand controversies of Divinity which are generally above the reach of their capacities whose feeble assaults the Church of England hath no cause to fear against the Doctrine set forth in Her 39. Articles Her Catechisme Her Liturgy and Her Homilies since She hath so many years mightily maintained this post of her Doctrine against the Learning Power and Policy of the Roman party who are veterane Souldiers and mighty Troopers weightily armed in comparison of whose puissance these light-armed Schismaticks and small Skirmishers are like Pot-guns to Canons or Pigmies to Giants seeking to deface the Pinnacles and Ornamentalls of Religion but not capable to shake the foundations of it as it was happily established and duly professed in the Church of England CHAP. XII NOr have they had either more cause for or better successe in their disputings against the Devotionals of the Church of England in its publick worshipping of God by Confessions Prayers Praises Psalmodies and other holy Oblations of rationall and Evangelicall Services offered up to God by the joynt devotion of this Church the subject and holy matter of which ever was is too hard for their biting therefore most of them contented themselves to bark at the manner of performing them chiefly quarrelling at that prescript form or Liturgie used in this Church under the title
preach that Gospel which Christ hath taught he industriously omits the use of that prayer which Christ hath not onely commended but enjoyned and commanded as an Evangelicall institution Which shamefull compliance of many Ministers with vulgar levity and licentiousnesse seems to me so far from really advancing their own honour or the true interests of the Christian and Reformed Religion that in earnest they have by these and the like mean desertings of their own judgements duties very much exposed themselves and the Reformed Christian Religion to the insolencies and contempts of the meanest people which as easily crowd and prevail upon them as waters do against crazy and yielding banks when once they see Ministers so stoop and debase themselves to the dictates and censures the fears and frowns the fancies and humours of giddy and inconstant people who naturally affect such liberty or looseness in Religion as may have least shew of divine Ligation and Authority but onely such as being of mens own choice and invention they may as easily reject as others obtrude The very Directory and its ordinances which gave the supersedeas or quietus est to the Liturgie of the Church of England doth not yet seem to intend any such severity as wholy to silence sequester eject the Lords Prayer ten Commandements or the Apostles Creed out of childrens Catechisms Ministers mouths or Christians publick profession and devotion in which they seem to me to appear a rich and invaluable Jewels giving the greatest lustre price and honour to their religious Solemnities CHAP. VII I Have already shewed you O worthy Gentlemen one great and evil instance of that inordinate liberty which some people have challenged of late to themselves in England to the great dishonour and detriment of the Christian Reformed Religion besides the disgrace and indignity cast upon this sometime famous and flourishing Church while they have endevoured to abolish all those holy Summaries and wholsome Forms which are the best and meetest preservers of true Faith holy Obedience and mutual Charity among the community of Christian people Nor are these the onely extravagancies of vulgar licentiousnesse whose inordinate and squalid torrent like an inundation of waters knows not how to set any bounds of modesty reason or conscience to it self but they have farther adventured as a rare frolick of popular freedome to invade and usurp upon to confound and contemn to divide and destroy the office honour authority the succession and derivation yea the source and original of that sacred Priesthood or Evangelical Ministry and mission which was ever so highly esteemed reverenced and maintained among all true Christians as well knowing that Its rise and institution was divine from our Lord Jesus Christ as sent of God his Father who alone had authority to give the Word and Spirit the Mission and Commission the Gifts and Powers that are properly ministeriall Which as the blessed Apostles first received immediately from Christ so they duly and carefully derived them to their Successours after such a method and manner as the Primitive and Catholick Churches in all places and ages both perfectly knew and without question exactly followed in their consecrating of Bishops and ordaining of Presbyters with Deacons as the onely ordinary Ministers of Christs Church whose ministeriall authority never was any way derived from depending upon or obnoxious to the humour fancy insolency and licentiousness of the common people To which miserable captivity and debasement as the Aaronicall or Levitical Priesthood was no way subjected so much less ought the Melchisedekian Christian and Evangelicall Priesthood which is no less soveraign and sacred nor less necessary and honourable in the Church of God So that those licentious intrusions which some people now affect in this point of the Ministry cannot be less offensive to Gods Spirit than they are directly contrary to those holy rules of power and order prescribed in the New Testament which both the Apostles and their successors both Bishops and Presbyters together with all faithfull people precisely observed in all those grand Combinations and Ecclesiasticall Communions whereto the Church of Christ was distributed in all nations where if sometime the peoples choice and suffrage were tolerable as to the person whom they desired and nominated for their Bishop or Presbyter yet it was never imaginable that either Bishop or Presbyter was sufficiently consecrated and ordained that is invested with the power office and authority ministeriall meerly by this nomination and election of the people which indulgence in time grew to such disorder as was intolerable in the Church much less was any esteemed a Minister of Christ onely because he obtruded himself upon that service The late licentious variations innovations invasions corruptions and interruptions even in this grand point of the Evangelicall office and Ministry in England have partly by the common peoples arrogancy giddiness madness and ingratitude and not a little by some Preachers own levity fondness flattery and meanness of spirit not onely much abated and abased to a very low ebbe that double honour which is due but they have poured forth deluges of scorn contempt division confusion poverty and almost nullity not onely upon the persons of many worthy Ministers but upon the very order and office the function and profession whose sacred power and authority the pride petulancy envy revenge cruelty and covetousness of some people have sought not onely to arrogate and usurp as they list but totally to innovate enervate and at last extirpate For nothing new in this point can be true nothing variable can be venerable that onely being authentick which is ancient and uniform that onely authoritative which is Primitive Catholick and Apostolick both in the copy and originall in the first commission and the exemplification I confess I formerly have been and still am infinitely grieved to hear and ashamed to report what enormous liberties many men have of late years taken to themselves in this point of being Ministers of the Gospel what contradictions of sinners what cruell mockings sawings asunder what buffetings strippings crucifyings and killings all the day long the Ancient and Catholick Ministry of this all Churches hath lately endured in England since the wicked wantonness of some men hath taken pleasure to be as thorns in the eyes goads in the sides of the Ch. of England and Its Ministers be they never so able successfull and deserving whom to calumniate contemn impoverish and destroy in their persons credits estates liberties yea and lives hath seemed like Mordecai to Hamans malice and wrath so small a sacrifice to the fierceness and indignation of some men that they have aimed at the utter extirpation of the Nation the nullifying cashiering and exautorating of their whole office and function either owning no Ministers in any divine office place and power or obtruding such strange moulds and models of their own invention as are not more novell and unwonted than ridiculous and preposterous
piety than in the barren heights of uselesse sublimities Then was it that the sweet and fruitfull dews of heaven crowned those true Ministers labours with all spiritual proficiencies and heavenly blessings then was the Church of England and thousands of pious souls in it like Gideons fleece full of holy distillations or like the garden of Eden liberally watered with the rivers of God I mean the faithful endeavours of able honest and Orthodox Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters duly ordained and divinely authorized for that service then was the time common people had less of curiosity and liberty but more of piety and charity they were more kept to their bounds and inclosures but enjoyed far better pastures than they now find in the ramblings and extravagances of those commons where they have chosen to enjoy their Pastors and Preachers after their own heart Nor is this insolency of people any wonder though it be a great grief to sober Christians when they consider how far this gangrene of abused liberty hath spread among men and women too the meanest and most mechanick He or She as Tertullian observes of some bolder Hereticks and Schismaticks in his dayes dare contrary to all Primitive pattern and Scriptural precept to preach to baptize to consecrate to censure to excommunicate scorning and opposing all things that are not branded with their schismaticall marks their novell badges and factious discriminations Wherewith so soon as any silly men or women come once to be dubbed and signalized their first vow and adventure is against the whole frame and constitution of the Church of England but specially against the orderly ancient and Catholick Ministry of it which is the rind or bark of Religion by which the sap life and nourishment of it is preserved and conveyed from the root Christ Jesus to the severall branches of his Church in every place This this must by all means be peeled round stripped off and cast away under pretence of Christian liberty and a better because freer course of deriving Chirstian Religion to peoples eares and hearts by another Ministry than that Ancient Apostolick Catholick and Primitive way of an orderly ordained Ministry which consisted of Bishops Presbyters Deacons be brought in Against the constitution succession of all these as corrupt adulterous Popish Babylonish spurious and superstitious in England whole troops of plebeian spirits have been and still are engaged whose fierce onsets and encounters were at first begun and are still carried on with as great resolution and errour as his that assaulted a Windmill instead of a Giant The great alarm given by their chief leaders is First to rail bitterly against the whole Clergie and all sacred orders used in the Church of England thence they proceed to wipe off their Baptisme as vain and invalid to vomit up their Lords Supper as nauseous and superstitious to read their Creeds backward to an unbelief of all things have been preached next they cancell the Decalogue as a Judaick phylactery a legall prescription lastly they learn to account and call the Lords Prayer a kind of spell and conjuration being perfect enemies to any thing that looks like a Liturgy or set form of prayer and devotion After this with stiff necks and haughty looks they scornfully defie all ancient ordination all Catholick succession all Apostolick commission derived to any Bishops and Presbyters as Ministers of Christ altering and annulling as much as in them lies all the order descent and power of the Evangelicall Ministry both in this and all other Christian Churches since the Apostles dayes the right of resumption and redemption of which they challenge to themselves according as their severall fancies list to make themselves or others Ministers or to have none at all which is the highest pitch of their Christian liberty counting all Ministers to be but their curbs and manacles Having thus commenced Masters of mis-rule their next work is to tuâ—n the garden of God any setled Church as this of Engl. was into ruinous heaps or a very dunghil to expel the Priests of the Lord out of his Temple to make Churches of Stables and Stables of Churches to bring in the lips of bleating calves there where the calves of learned devout and eloquent lips were wont to be offered It is not liberty enough for them to separate from the Church of England and apostatize from those Ministers that baptized them unless they utterly destroy them both setting up instead of one National and renowned one uniform and flourishing Church in which were truth and order unity and beauty strength and safety all Christian gifts and graces every good word and work to admiration innumerable little swarms in severall Conventicles with Ministers strangely multiform mutable and mis-shapen in which novell confederacies both Preachers and people rather catch and hang together by chance like burres in confused knots than grow like Olive-branches or the kernels of Pomgranates with order and comeliness from the same root Christ Jesus after the methods of those ancient Churches which were the prime and exemplary branches whereto after-successions should conform themselves As these factious people are so must their new Priests and Ministers be Grave and godly Bishops with their learned Presbyters must be set aside as broken vessels that they may set up by popular and plebeian suffrages some miserable mechanicks some antick engines some pittifull praters and parasites of the vulgar who have had no higher breeding or degree in Church or State than that of poore tradesmen for the better bred and more ingenuous sort of men abhor such impudence and usurpation their shop hath been their school their hammers or shuttles or needles have been their books At last coachmen footmen ostlers and grooms despair not to become Preachers by a rare and sudden metamorphosis coming from the office of rubbing horses heeles to take care of mens souls as some Farriers in time turn Physicians It matters not how sordid how silly how slovenly how mercenary how illiterate they are provided they have cunning enough to pretend a call impudence enough to display their ignorance and hypocrisie enough by much talk of Gods grace in them to supply the reall wants of all competent ability as well as authority to be Ministers of the Gospel Yet these these O my noble Countrey-men are in many places rude intruders insolent usurpers doughty undertakers to discharge the duty of Evangelicall Ministers in any one of these you must seek and may find as they pretend a Bishop a Presbyter and a Deacon all Evangelicall power Ecclesiasticall offices and Ministeriall authority these are the new-invented Machines or Engines which the Church of England and all others since the Apostles times were not so happy as to know or use which must set up the decayed Kingdome of Jesus Christ these must propagate the glorious Gospel these must exalt Christ crucified these must consecrate for you holy Elements these must administer to you the blessed Sacraments
these must exercise all Church-power and Divine authority over your consciences whereas for my part I do not think that the best of these new Masters and Ministers can have from their own fancies or peoples forwardness so much authority because they have none either from God or the Church of Christ or the laws of this Land as would make them petty Constables or Bom-baylies a Lay-elder or an Apparitor This I am sure that in the purest and primitive times as Justin Martyr Irenaeus Tertullian S. Cyprian and others assure us the holy mysteries of Christian Religion the power of the Keyes the sacrating of Sacraments the pastorall ruling and preaching as of office duty and necessity to any part of Christs flock was esteemed the peculiar and proper work of Bishops and Presbyters in their order and degree as the true and onely Pastors and Teachers that succeeded the twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples in their ordinary Ministry nor were men branded for other how able soever than insolent and execrable usurpers who did adventure to officiate unordained that is not duly authorised as Ministers Such intruders Tertullian notes both some men and women to have been in his time who were leavened with Schisme and Heresie so Epiphanius and S. Austin tell us of the Quintilliani Pepuziani and Colliridiani who were confounders of the Ministeriall order Sozomen Socrates Nicephorus and other Church-historians sharply censure one Ischyras or Ischyrion who unordained pretended to be a Presbyter and so to officiate calling him a detestable person and worthy of more than one death whom Athanasius finding about to consecrate or rather desecrate the Eucharist he in an holy and heroick zeal as Christ in the Temple brake the Communion Cup overthrew the Table and repressed his insolent impiety counting him as another Judas Iscariot a traitor to Christ and the Church Yet in the place of the Ministers of the Church of England I beseech you how few Athanasiusses how many Ischyrasses may you now see challenging to themselves the care of mens souls as Ministers of Christ undertaking the managerie of mens eternall interests confident to interpret Scriptures to resolve doubts to decide controversies to satisfie mens consciences to keep up the truth power and majesty of Christian Religion by new undue and exotick wayes against the torrent and impetuous force of ignorance Atheism profaneness errour malice and madness of men and Devils For all which grand designs of Gods glory and the Churches good those men are as fit agitators as Phaeton was to drive Phoebus his Chariot and truly with like success they will do it for instead of enlightening the world these Incendiaries will set all on fire as far as they meet with any combustible matter in which sad conflagrations begun and blown up by them in this Church of England some of them are so vain as to glory calling them the spirituall day of judgement an invisible doomesday a coming of Christ in the spirit of burning and refining to purge his Church For this purpose they say the Sun must be turned into darknesse and the Moon into blood government of Church and State must be subverted nor do they according to their severall fancies and interests fail to presage and expect a glorious Resurrection to their parties which they hope shall reign with Christ if not a thousand years yet as long as they can prevail so as to get power and preserve those liberties they have ravished to themselves CHAP. VIII NOr are these novell undertakers ever more ridiculous than when they sow pillowes under their own rustick arms and others elbows excusing yea abetting their illiterate rudeness and idiotick confidence with the primitive plainness and simplicity of the Apostles when Christ first chose them who were Fishermen Tent-makers or the like Which is truly but very impertinently alledged as any parallel case with these impotent and pragmatick intruders unless they could manifest to the world which they never yet did nor ever will such miraculous endowments such power and anointing from above as came upon the Apostles which in one moment was able to furnish them with more sufficiency and authority than all study and industry can ever do any of us which are the now ordinary means appointed and blessed by God succeeding in the place of miraculous gifts where Churches are once fully planted and Christianity setled To all which the constant testimony of an uninterrupted Ministery and holy succession of ordained Bishops and Presbyters from the very Apostles as they from Christ is a more pregnant witnesse and conviction than any new miracles could be much more than any such pittifull accounts can be as these wonders of ignorance and arrogancy can give to the world of any extraordinary matters they say or do either as Ministers or Christians The best of some of whose lives would deform I fear the golden legend which seems to be written by a man of a brazen forehead a leaden wit and an iron heart We the despised Clergie of England do profess to use and pray God to bless our long preparative studies meditations writings readings also our immediate care concomitant labours in this kind habitually to fit us for that dreadfull work and for every actuall discharge of it We find these methods practised by the most famous lights of the Church recommended by S. Paul to Timothy though a person in some things extraordinarily gifted that he should attend didiligently to those exercises that his profiting might appear We do not now expect fire from heaven with Elias to come down upon our sacrifices but we are glad to take the ordinary coals of Gods altar which may by his Word and Spirit going along with our pains and prayers both enlighten our minds and kindle our hearts so as to make us burning and shining lights in Gods house which is his Church Truly those proud and poor wretches who know no coals but those of their own chimney-corners may possibly have a few embers on their hearths or in their potsheards they may like dark lanthorns have a bit of a farthing-candle in them that shines with a little dim and dubious light on one side onely as in the smatterings of some plain primer-knowledge which they have gathered either by superficiall reading the Scriptures or by hearing some Sermons heretofore from the able Ministers of England or by gleaning a little out of the plainest of their writings but 't is most apparent that on three sides of them that is for Grammaticall skill historicall knowledge and polemicall learning they are so horridly black and dark that they seem fitter implements to bring in such ignorance irreverence Atheism superstition and confusion as shall quite put out the Christian and Reformed Religion in this nation reducing all to pristine darkness deformity and barbarity than probable ever to be either propagators purgators or preservers of it which had long ago been over-run with the rank weeds of
Idolatry Heresie Schism and Apostasie in all the world if God had not in the place of primitive miracles supplied the Church with such Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters whose admirable learning undaunted courage indisputable authority uniform order and constant succession was beyond any miracle which did at once both wonderfully attest and mightily preserve the sanctity mystery and majesty of Christian Religion from the subtilty of persecutors the sophistry of Philosophers the contumacy of Schismaticks and contumelies of Hereticks being too hard by Gods assistance for the malice of men and the wiles of Satan All which are then under severall new notions and disguises probable to prevaile over this or any Christian Church when such liberty shall be used by vulgar spirits and inordinate minds as shall not onely diminish and abate but quite in time destroy and vacate the divine reverence and inviolable sanctity of religious mysteries and holy ministrations which will inevitably follow where the Catholick order and divine authority of Ministers derived through all ages is not onely questioned and disputed but denied despised variated prostituted usurped by whosoever list to make himself a Minister in any new way which cannot be true if new nor authentick if it be exotick unwonted in the Church of Christ either broken off or different from that primitive commission and constant exemplification or Catholick succession which was owned and observed in Bishops and Presbyters throughout all the Christian world For my part I abhor all intrusion and obtrusion of dangerous Novelties both from Papists and Separatists either in Doctrine Discipline or Government of the Church and those I account dangerous yea detestable Novelties which not upon any plea of ignorance or necessity but meerly out of wantonness and wilfulness seek to alter the sacred streams and currents of Ecclesiasticall power authority and order from those fountains where Christ first broached it and those conduits by which the Apostles derived it which unquestionably was by Bishops and Presbyters I know that the sacred office and Angelick function of the Evangelicall Ministry as it is from my Lord Jesus Christ and is in his name and stead so it ought to be managed reverenced esteemed transmitted and undertaken among all true Christians as a visible supply of Christs absence in body as an authoritative embassie or delegation from Him as a sacred dispensation of that Ministry to his Church by chosen and duly ordained men setting forth his History his Precepts Promises Sacraments and other holy Institutions together with the Ministrations and Gifts of his holy Spirit by which he promised to his Apostles to be with them to the end of the world in that holy work wherein he employed them and their lawfull successors to be his witnesses among all nations whither he should send them So that every true Minister as with the ancients Mr. Calvin observes in his proper place and order as Bishop or Presbyter is first a Prophet to teach and instruct in the truths of God that part of Christs Church over which he is constituted next he is as a Ruler Shepherd and Governour over them in the Lord to feed and guide them in that holy order and discipline which becomes the lesser and the greater the single and sociall parts of Christs flock according as they are under their several care and inspection lastly every true Minister is in his proper station to perform in Christs stead those offices of his Evangelicall Priesthood which he hath assigned to be dispensed for his Churches good as the solemn consecration and celebration of that Eucharisticall memoriall of the great oblation of Christ to his Father upon the Cross for the redemption of the world by which all mankind is put into a conditionall capacity of salvation and upon their true faith and repentance Christs body and blood with all his meritorious benefits are evidently set forth signally confirmed and personally exhibited in that great Sacrament and most venerable mystery to every worthy Receiver He is further to offer up upon the altar of Christs merits the spiritual sacrifices of the Church in prayers praises thanksgivings alms and charities Besides this there is in the true Pastor or Minister of the Church of Christ according to their proportion and degree their line and measure as Bishops and Presbyters a power of mission and propagation in order to maintain that holy succession of an Evangelicall Priesthood which Christ Jesus hath appointed and which the Apostles with their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in all the world have to this day continued without any interruption or any variation as to the maine of the power and practise of Ordination So then as these three offices are eminently in Christ as the great Prophet Prince and Priest of his Church to all which he was consecrated by the mission of his Father by his own Blood-shed and Passion also by the anointing of his eternall Spirit which filled him with all divine Graces ministeriall Gifts and miraculous Power necessary for so great a work so the Lord Christ being absent in body but present in his power and Spirit had derived and committed the outward ministeriall execution of these his offices to chosen and ordained men as over-seers and workers together with Christ of themselves but earthen vessels yet the fittest instruments for the present dispensations of his Gospel and grace which yet are to be carried on according to the first appearance of Christ in the flesh in such darkness weaknesse and meannesse as may most set forth the present excellency of Gods gracious power and set off the future manifestations of his glory to his Church which even in this inferiority and obscurity of the Gospel hath yet as three that bear witnesse to its truth in heaven the wisdome of the Father contriving the love of the Son effecting and the power of the holy Ghost applying Evangelical mercies to poor sinners so it hath three that bear witnesse on earth to that glorious truth and mystery of the Gospel the water of Baptism which sprinkles to Regeneration the blood of the Lords Supper which feeds and refreshes believers also the Spirit of ministeriall Power and Authority which hath been and still is from Christ continued in all true Christian Churches As the first three are one in an essentiall unity of divine nature so these later three as S. John tells us agree in one that is in one Soveraign author Jesus Christ and in one sacred order and office of Church-Ministry or Evangelical dispensations successively derived from the Apostles Elders and Deacons by a power and commission peculiar to those who are duly ordained to be Christs Deputies Lieutenants and Vicegerents in his Church for those holy offices and divine ministrations whereto they are severally appointed in an higher or lower degree as Apostles or Elders as Bishops or Presbyters as Pastors or Teachers either over-seeing as
Rulers and Guides or attending as Deacons and Servitors CHAP. IX IN reference to which sacred grand employments St. Paul's modesty and humility asked with trembling that unanswerable question Who is sufficient for these things Whereas now in Engl. there are such insolent intruders who act as asking quite contrary Who is not sufficient for these things as if forwardness boldness and confidence were all the sufficiency required in a Minister of the Gospel in which plebeian and pretended sufficiencies as these novell intruders do most abound so I am sure there were really never more blunt and leaden tooles in any age applyed to Church-work than many if not most of them are they come indeed with their beetles and wedges their swords and staves their axes and hammers to beat down all the carved work of Gods house rather than to prepare or polish the least stone or corner of that sacred building Who being not a little conscious to themselves that they are grosly defective in all those reall abilities of good learning sound knowledge sober judgement orderly method grave utterance and weighty eloquence which all wise and sober Christians expect should appear in every true Minister of the Church of Christ in such a competent measure evident manner as they may be able comfortably to discern them and usefully to enjoy them these crafty Intruders do first cry down all those reall and visible abilities as meerly naturall humane carnall as enemies to the Cross Grace and Spirit of Christ for as the apes in the fable these deceitfull workers having no tails themselves they would fain perswade all other creatures which have that ornament to cut them off as burdens and superfluous After this rude essay of craft and malice in vain attempted against the fruits of learned industry wherein the Ministers of the Church of England have and still do so vastly exceed these Mushrome Ministers of the last and worst editions they cunningly flie to the pretentions of speciall callings extraordinary inspirations illuminations and graces ministeriall which they well know are not easily to be discerned by any other but a mans self even there where they may possibly be real Who knows not that as to the point of inward Graces they are far more easily pretended and voiced than discerned and enjoyed in ones self much less can they be so proved and manifested to others as to satisfie their conscience in the points of anothers power and their own duty I am sure neither gifts nor graces ministeriall are by wise and sober Christians to be much supposed or expected there where men evidently silly and weak mean and vain ignorant and arrogant dare yet to disdain all that ancient order and uniform succession of the Evangelicall Ministry which hath been visible in all Churches as in this of England for 1500. years and to salve their credit or gain reputation as Teachers they bring for the satisfaction of their own and other mens conscience in point of that office duty and power ministeriall which they challenge and undertake no other signature and character of their commission and investiture into that office save onely what themselves pretend to be within them of secret impulses which being to mans judgement undiscernable are utterly insignificant nor ought they to bear any sway in the Church of Christ where the power ministeriall was first declared by miraculous gifts and endowments also by evident signs wonders sufficient to confirm its first commission and to authorize its after-succession from those onely with whom it was deposited to be transmitted by them and their successors to the Churches of Christ in all ages by such gifts and ordinary endowments as might be first duly tried and approved in men before they were ordained to be Ministers in the Church of Christ But these Heteroclite Teachers for the further corroboration of their dubious title and claim to the office of the Ministry are content to accept of some appointment from that power which is meerly military or civil and magistratick which powers in Primitive Churches for 300. years were so far from making any Minister either Bishop or Presbyter or Deacon in the Church of Christ that they sought by all means to persecute and destroy the whole profession of Christianity yea when the Empire became Christian as in Great 's time neither He nor any Christian Emperour Prince or Magistrate after him was ever so impertinent as to imagine that because they could derive civil and military power to others they had also power to make Christian Ministers or to invest them with the Ecclesiasticall power of holy orders nor did they think they had any thing more to do with the Clergie by way of authority save onely to take care for their due and comfortable discharge of that Ministery to which they were by another principle and power ordained according as the peace honour and order of the Church required which so conformed to the State and Common-weal that all Ministers were humbly subject to the Scepters of Princes in the severall places and stations Ecclesiasticall to which they were applied The Clergie owe to Princes the civil endowments of honour and revenue given to them as the temporall reward of their spirituall work but they are not the sources of their orders nor can their broad seal confer that power of the holy Spirit which onely makes a Minister of Jesus Christ not by way of graces or gifts so much as by way of mission and authority flowing onely from the Spirit of Christ as the chief Pastor Bishop and Minister of his Church Others of these new-modell'd Ministers in a way not more preposterous than ridiculous seek to deduce their ministerial power from meer plebeian suffrages from vulgar examinations approbations and elections which commonly are factiously begun foolishly carried on and schismatically concluded having not less weakness but less madness or possibly a little more seeming order civility or tameness than those whose who pretend no other warrant or authority for their being Ministers but what is to be had from their own blindness and boldness their proud conceit and flattering confidence of themselves which emboldens them by a self-ordination to take this holy power to themselves beyond what Aaron or the true Prophets or the Apostles or Christ himself as man did who were not self-sent or ordained but chosen and appointed solemnly consecrated and inaugurated to their office and Ministry either by clear prophecies accomplished or visible miracles wrought in the sight of the people or by some such other signall token ordinary or extraordinary by word or work as God was pleased to use for the manifestation of his will and for the satisfaction of his Church as to those persons which were to minister to the Lord and to whom his Church was conscientiously to submit as to the Lord. Agreeably to which holy pattern and as a full answer to all those clamours envies and despites which the
enemies rivals and extirpaters of the ancient Clergie and Ecclesiastick order in England can pretend the true Ministers Bishops and Presbyters of this Christian and Reformed Church doe challenge use and maintaine no other power priviledge or authority Ecclesiasticall than what they have duly and constantly received in the way of holy orders from their predecessors hands who have descended from the very Apostles dayes Nor are they such Monopolizers or appropriators of this power and office ministeriall to their own persons or to such onely as are formall Academicks professed Scholars and University Graduates as not willingly to admit into that holy Order and Fraternity by the right and Catholick way of due ordination not onely any worthy Gentlemen of competent parts pious affections and orderly lives whose hearts God shall move to so holy an ambition to desire so good a work but even those that are of plebeian proportions of meaner parts and less improved erudition provided they be found upon due trial to have acquired such competent abilities by Gods blessing upon their private industry and studious piety as may render them meet for any place or work in Christs husbandry where one may sow another may water a third may weed a fourth may fense the Church and Vineyard according to the severall gifts and dispensations ministred by the same Spirit and power of Christ which ought to be dispensed and carried on not in an arbitrary rude and precarious usurpation and intrusion but in an authoritative orderly and decent derivation succession for the honor profit peace of the Church of Christ Certainly no worthy Minister or sober Christian can so undervalue and debase those Evangelicall offices of Christ which are exercised by his ordained Ministers as to think that every self-flatterer and obtruder is presently to officiate without any due examination approbation and ordination from those with whom that commission and power hath been ever deposited in a regular and visible succession from Christ the great exemplar or Original which visible order mission and delegation is as necessary for the outward unity authority solemnity and majesty of Christs militant Church and Ministry upon earth as the workings of his blessed Spirit are for the inward operation and efficacie of true grace in mens hearts So that as no private and good Christian hath any cause to complain in this part of the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England who in dispensing of holy orders or ministeriall power acted after the Catholick pattern of Primitive Churches no less than the particular constitutions of this Church allowed by all estates and degrees of men no more have any secular Powers or civil Magisrates who are or shall be professors of true Christian Religion any cause to be jealous of the ancient Bishops and Ministers of the Church nor shall they need either out of conscience or reasons of state to pervert and innovate that pristine course and regular succession of ministeriall authority yea as worthy Christians and wise Governours they ought both in piety and policy in honour and conscience to be no less exact in preserving this sacred order and divine authority from alteration invasion and usurpation than they are for their own civil power and secular jurisdiction which the renowned patterns of Christian Potentates Constantine Theodosius and other great and godly Princes were so far from arrogating to their imperiall power that they humbly submitted themselves to the order and power Ecclesiasticall in the things of Christ highly esteeming and venerating that Apostolick race of Bishops and Presbyters in the Church as the great Luminaries of the world the constant witnesses of Christs life and death the celebraters of his mysterious sufferings grace and glory the ministerial Fathers and confirmers of Christians faith as terrestiall Angels as Gods gracious Ambassadors for pardon and peace as Christs speciall commissioners appointed for to carry on the great work of saving mens souls Just and generous Princes if they be truly Christian cannot be so partial as to forbid any man under the highâ—st pain and penalty of high treason and death it self to challenge to himself any part of their civil or military power without a due commission derived either from themselves immediately or from those to whom they have deputed power for such ends and purposes which order they permit no man to violate or usurp however conceitedly or really able he may seem to be to himself or others for the managing of such power and yet permit such persons as are for the most part heady and high-minded insolent and disorderly to intrude themselves by a meer usurpation upon that sacred office authority and Ministry which is Christs without any due and solemn derivation of this power in such a way as hath ever been Apostolick Primitive Catholick and onely authentick in the Churches of Christ Certainly the rude innovation and usurpation upon this office and honour merits above any boldness as Nilus in Balsamon expresseth it that black brand of the last and perillous times when men shall be emphatically Traytors not onely to men but to Christ not onely to Common-weals but to Churches disobedient to parents not onely naturall and politick but also spirituall and ecclesiastick violating and betraying not onely the visible peace order uniformity and successive authority of the Church but the invisible comforts quiet and grace of poor peoples souls who must needs be at a great loss in a very sad and shamefull case as to their Religion where their spirituall leaders and shepherds are usurpers intruders clamberers not coming into the sheep-fold by the door of right ordination but climbing some other way as thieves and robbers when their titular and intruding Pastors prove either grievous wolves or miserable asses as they commonly are found to be who are not admitted by due ordination but crowd into the Ministry by rude and novell obtrusions so domineering over the flock of Christ over whom not the holy Ghost by an ordinary derived power and authority but their own unruly spirits have made them not so much over-seers of others as either stark blind or grosly over-seen in themselves CHAP. X. THe sense of this High Treason against Christ and of those sinfull disorders which men bring on themselves the Church of Christ by their intrusion usurpation upon this ministeriall power and office makes me here seriously suggest to You my honoured and beloved Country-men this religious caution That it very much concerns you for your own and your posterities souls good to be very wary not to be imposed upon and abused by vulgar pretensions of zeal and Christian liberty in this point of the Ministry but to be vigilant with whom you intrust as Ministers your own your childrens or any other peoples souls where you are Patrons of Livings And since your own prudent abilities for learning piety and experience are so modest as not rashly to adventure upon this
Ravens must not be hoped for to feed us where Providence gives us opportunity to get our bread by honest industry Where then there are so many intruders and deceivers gone out as Ministers of the Gospel it is a matter of conscience as well as necessary prudence in all good Christians to be cautious and inquisitive whom they allow and follow as Ministers to be first satisfied in that question which the Jews rationally asked of Christ By what power or authority dost thou these things No discreet person in civil affairs will obey any warrant or order which hath no other authority than a private and pragmatick activity and can it be piety or prudence in Christians to be deluded by any pretenders in the great concernments of their souls to have no more of Sacraments or any other holy duties than the meer sensible shell and husk of them for the spiritual life and power of them is no where to be had but from such dispensers of them as have the authority and power the mission and commission of Christ rightly derived to them which was evident first in Christ after in his holy Apostles and their lawfull successors Certainly the cheat and falsity of such mock-Ministers and Pseudo-pastors is of far greater danger and detriment than those of spurious and supposititious children or of embased coin and counterfeit money Some people have been so wicked as to change their own children steal others from their parents but it was never heard that children of any discretion were so foolish and unnaturall as to abdicate their true Fathers and genuine mothers that they might adopt false parents and superinduce upon themselves the Empire of bastardly progenitors The mischief abuse is not less in Churches than in Common-weales in Christian Congregations than in families Due respect of paternall care and filiall love such as ought to be between Pastor and People can never be mutually expected where the relation is either supposititious or presumptuous or meerly imaginary or at best but arbitrary which is inconsistent with humane much more with divine Authority the measure of which is not the pleasure of man but the will of God whose will is asserted by his power For my part I firmly conclude that as no true Christians may admit of any Gospel or Sacraments or holy Institutions other than such as have been already once delivered to the Catholick Church and preserved by her fidelity against which the preaching of an Angel from heaven is not to be received or believed but accursed so nor may any Church or good Christians either broach invent or admit any new ministeriall power order mission or authority beside or beyond that which the Church of England and the Catholick Church of Christ hath received and transmitted in a constant succession That sacred ordination which began in Christ and flowed from him as the effect of his Melchisedechian Evangelicall and eternall Priesthood must never be interrupted innovated or essentially altered no not under any pretense or removing or reforming what corrupions may possibly be contracted by time and humane infirmities which are but accidentall as diseases to the body to Catholick prescriptions founded upon divine institutions Fields once sown with good corn must not be rooted up or fired because tares may be sown by the enemy while men slept Trees that are full of moss missletow through age yet bearing good fruit ought not to be cut down but pruned and cleared The decayes or dilapidations of the Temple before Hezekiah and Josiah repaired it were no excuse for peoples neglect to frequent it much less were they justified and to sacrifice other where than there onely as the place which the Lord had chosen to put his name there nor did those pious Princes set that house of God on fire because it was decayed but duly repaired it with great cost and care And such indeed was the excellent piety and prudence of the Church of England such wisdome and moderation it observed as in all other things so in this of the ministeriall order and office What injuries it as other holy things had suffered in the darkness of times by the dulness of Presbyters the negligence of Bishops or insolence of Popes it wisely reformed not abrogating the authority or breaking the Catholick succession of Bishops and Presbyters in this as in all Churches not broaching a new fountain not obstructing as Philistins the wells their fathers had digged not diverting the ancient course and conduits of the waters of life but cleansing the fountains and continuing the streams of primitive holy orders in the constant descents degrees and offices of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons They did not raise up new Ministers like Mushromes out of every mole-hill noâ— force them like Musk-melons out of the hot beds of popular zeal and novellizing faction without any regard to the ancient stock and root of Ecclesiasticall power and Ministeriall authority from which as Irenaeus Tertullian S. Cyprian and all the ancients clearly tell us Bishops and Presbyters were ever derived as slips and off-sets of the twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples No time ever did or ever shall render that Primitive plant and root of Evangelicall Ministry so dry dead and barren that they may or ought to be quite stubbed up or new ones set in their room No they are only to be pruned and trimmed that so they may be worthy of that honor which indeed they have to be by an uninterrupted succession derived and descended from the blessed Apostles whom Christ first planted by his own hands nor may any mans presumption undertake to pul up that holy plantation as those design to do who endeavour to destroy the derivation and succession of the power Ministeriall The truth sanctity and validity of which as to the Ministry of the Church of England by its Bishops and Presbyters hath been fully and clearly asserted by able pens against both Papists on the one side and Novellists on the other The one confining all Episcopal and Ministeriall power to one head and origin the Bishop of Rome as if there had not been twelve fountains and foundations of prime Apostles but onely one S. Peter appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ the other lewdly scattering that sacred office and divine authority even among vulgar and plebeian hands that every man may scramble for it as he list according as he fancies that his abilities and liberty in these times may extend The putid and pernicious effects of which in their present usurpations divisions confusions debasements discouragements upon the Clergie and Church of England as I shall afterward in the third Book more fully set them forth so I cannot here but justly condemn those partiall unreasonable and irreligious principles from whence so pragmatick an itch or thirst of novelty in so grand a concernment of Religion must needs arise that fond men should be so eager to stop up the ancient fountains
which I am sure give all the seeing world in this point so clear so perfect so full a light and so uniform a testimony that no learned impartiall and conscientious Christian can desire more nor can they but acquiesce in these unless they dare to doubt and deny the veracity and fidelity of all authors that have given us account of any Ecclesiasticall Catholick affairs and customes since the Apostles times in all which no one point or practise hath less doubt or dispute less variation or diversity than this of Ecclesiasticall order both as to the Ministry and government of the Church What the ignorant vulgar who are the bran and courser sort of people may endlesly fancy and affect or what others of better parts but as base passions may cunningly pretend I know not the better to bring in their new modelings of Ministers and Churches but I am sure it will very ill become you O noble Gentlemen who are the best and finest flower the beauty and honour the strength and stability of this English Nation who are the choice and chiefest sons of the Church of England it ill becomes you to suspect all those burning and shining lights both Bishops and Presbyters Fathers and Historians single and sociall in their Closets and in their Councils even in the first innocent ages when the Church was most pure and persecuted as if they had all been either grosly ignorant of or supinely negligent in following the mind of Christ and methods of the blessed Apostles as to these great affairs of the Church which were openly uniformly universally both preached and practised by the Apostles also delivered to and received by their successors as in other things so most indisputably in this which so much concerned not onely the right ordering and well-being and polity of the estate of the Church militant but it s very being and Essence in Doctrine Ministry Duties Discipline and Government Can it I beseech you without great uncharitableness and pervicacy unworthy of any ingenuous soul be imagined that from the beginning during the life of some Apostles and their scholars the whole Church and the most eminent persons in it Ministers Martyrs and Confessors did all conspire to delude themselves and to deceive all posterity in so clear great and sacred concernments as those of the Churches Ministry and Polity were ever esteemed The incomparable and unanswerable Mr. Rich Hooker who is not to be read without admiration nor named without veneration long ago urged this Absurdity against the then more modest Sticklers for their Disciplinarian Innovations in the Ministry and Polity of the Church of England Sure saith he it were a very strange thing that such a Discipline meaning the Presbyterian as ye speak of should be taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God and no Church hath ever found it out nor received it till this present time or contrariwise that the Government of the Church against which you bend your selves should be observed every where through all generations and ages of the Christian world and no Church ever perceive it to be against the word of God We require you to find out but one Church upon the face of the earth that hath been ordered by your Discipline or that hath not been ordered by ours that is Episcopall government for ordination and jurisdiction since the times that the blessed Apostles were conversant upon earth This unanswered challenge did that excellent person heretofore make in order to prevent if possible these innovations and mischiefs which are now grassant in England to the hazard of quite overthrowing all that ancient Order Ministry succession and Government which had been conserved in this Church conform to all parts of the Catholick Church If your other employments and studies have hindred you from being so well acquainted with the authentick works and authoritative testimonies of the ancientest writers of Church-affairs as those grand Authors deserve and your ingenuity cannot but desire yet far be it from your prudence piety and charity to derogate from the honour and credit of your own Countrey-men who have in the Histories of England both Civil and Ecclesiasticall to which you cannot well be strangers sufficiently shewed from the originall of these British Churches what Ministry and Orders they had If you are yet strangers to those eldest ages times and authors of your own and so cannot maturely ground your judgements upon their testimony yet what think you of the learning piety honesty and courage of those later and reall and renowned Reformers of this Church whether Clergie or Lay-men who lived in your fathers memories whose blood and ashes as Martyrs and Confessors against Papall innovations and corruptions is still warm and precious These did not lay new foundations of a Christian Church a true Religion or an authentick Ministry here in England but they onely repaired the decayes of the old and lightned them of those either erroneous or dangerous superstructures with which long ignorance and superstition had over-laded them and not so much built upon them as almost quite buried them These Heroes these worthy men I say who were worthy of the name of Christians English-men and Reformers did not ever design or go about to broach new fountains nor to cut new channels nor to lay new pipes by which to convey the Ecclesiasticall order and Ministeriall authority here in England but they cleansed the foulness they removed the obstructions they sodered the ruptures of the former Catholick way which was very good as well as very old yet not the antiquity but the veracity and divinity of it attested both by Scriptures and by the Catholick usage of all Churches made those blessed Reformers now an hundred years ago cheerfully subscribe to that polity Ministry and authority Ecclesiasticall which they mended but changed not these they recommended to all estates in this nation by whose Parlamentary votes and sanction they were established as the best means to preserve this Church both Christian and Reformed After these famous Fathers of England's happy Reformation whose judgement is manifest in the point of ministeriall power and holy order to be carried on by Bishops and Presbyters can you suspect that their later successors in office and judgement I mean all those learned grave and godly Ministers of England whom your eyes have seen and your ears have heard heretofore with great respect love and admiration dispensing the word of God and holy mysteries to you who till the divisions and deformities of these last and worst dayes have baptized instructed and guided both you and your hopefull posterity in the way to heaven and happiness in truth and peace in faith and repentance in humility and holiness in all graces vertues and good works powerfully set forth to you by their excellent Sermons and fervent Prayers by the blessed Sacraments and worthy Examples they have communicated to you can you I say suspect that all these together with the
conferences occasion better understanding between many of them and so by Gods blessing in time produce some such counsels as may be worthy of them and the publick But if their aime be slily to get into some hands such popular advantages by their soft insinuations of seeming equanimity and moderation as shall further displace and disparage the former Catholick Government of this and all ancient Churches they will be but as new patches put to an old garment which will make the rent and deformity the greater Certainly the state of the Reformed Religion in England will never be happy till it is setled nor setled till it be uniform nor uniform till the office and authority of Ministers be valid and venerable nor will this ever be untill the sanctity and samenesse of ordination together with the use of Ecclesiasticall power and holy Ministrations be rendred so August so Sacred and Complete as may be most conforme to Scripture and to pure Antiquity for while Ministers are of diverse makes and moulds they will be of diverse minds nor can they produce other than multiforme Christians of different fashions and deformed factions in Religion which do as necessarily bring forth infinite mischiefs in any Church or Christian State as the itch breeds scratching and scratching fetches blood As the blessed Apostles so their holy successors kept to one way of Religious Order and Power which preserved the unity of faith and love among Christian Bishops Presbyters and people I confess I do sometimes in my sad and retired solitudes hope that our common calamities may by Gods softning and calming grace upon mens spirits make both all Godly Ministers and all good people so wise as humbly sincerely and charitably to search into the cleare steps of Primitive prudence Apostolicall order and Ecclesiacall Authority which had due and tender regard to all sorts of Christians so as to keep up a meet subordination with a Christian communion To which end I was willing to hope this shew of Association might conduce But when I find in some of them nothing that looks civilly upon Episcopacy many things cast reprochfully and scornfully upon the excellent Bishops of England and all the Episcopall Clergy who were not inferiour in any regard to the best Associators when I find that some of them have the confidence to exclude all that have of late yeares been ordained by any Bishop with Presbyters though such an one as the late most venerable Bishop of Norwich Dr. Hall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I see that some rigid Presbyterians and popular Independents affect with great Magistery to Duopolize all Church-power to grasp into their hands and bosomes as the sides of a drag-net meeting together all Ministeriall Authority not onely not owning the best surviving Bishops with any respect nor yet in any faire way applying to any of them after all their undeserved indignities but spitefully and professedly abdicating all communion with them under the name of Bishops reducing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the levell and parallel of Presbyters which the 630. Orthodox Fathers in the fourth generall famous Councell of Chalcedon which all Ministers of England approved and I think subscribed to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absurd and unreasonable practise yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great sacriledge and Zonaras upon that Canon makes it a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fighting as Giants against God as a dethroning of Christ the Bishops eminent authority and presidency in the Church being a lively representation of Christs sitting in the midst of the throne who did undoubtedly delegate his visible authority of governing the Church to the chief Apostles above the 70. and all other Teachers after which manner and proportion these chief Apostles who were the first and great Bishops after Christ did both commit and derive their authority to the following Bishops their successors who were a lesser sort or second edition of Apostles when I see what an Idol some Ministers and people make of their Scotch-Covenant by which great Engine or Military Ram they still think themselves bound to batter Episcopacy as if their Covenanting against it as it then stood in England were an obligation to persecute all Episcopacy for ever when in earnest the least variation of its former constitution both satisfies and absolves from that bond which some men still superstitiously venerate as if it were an image faln from heaven a matter of divine precept and institution and not rather of humane machination and politick invention which we are sure it was as if it were the solemn result of the pious or of the peaceable and publick sense of this Nation and not rather the issue of troubled braines and broken times indeed many forget that the Covenant smells more of fire smoke of sulphur and gun-powder than of the Spouses myrrh and perfumes of Christian Love and Charity Again when I consider how passion and pride betrayes many men to rashnesse rashnesse to folly folly to obstinacy obstinacy to presumption presumption to animosities and these to unchristian fewds everlasting despite and bitternesse which must still be vented as cholerick humors once in a month against the most innocent and Primitive Episcopacy yea against the most deserving and yet most suffering Bishops of this Church and of all the world old and new when I see the personall errata's and exorbitances or infirmities of some few Bishops by most uncharitable Synecdoches which put a part for the whole are in a pittifull fallacious way of vulgar oratory urged against all Episcopacy and Bishops in any orderly eminency or presidentiall authority in the Church contrary to the faith and honour of all antiquity and the former happy experiences of this Reformed Church when I find how wary and shy some Ministers are in their zeal and forwardnesse for their petty Associations to seem to own even their own judgements and reall inclinations toward any such condescentions and close with Episcopacy as may reflect upon their former transports how loth they are really and freely to offer such proposals as are equable and ingenuous pure and peaceable to the Episcopall party who aim at no more than such a paternall presidency and order as may best preserve the undoubted power of ordination and Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction as it was Primitively setled in and transmitted by the hands of the first Bishops who immediately succeeded the Apostles When I see as I plainly do this partiality restivenesse and cowardise in some Ministers of good parts then do I almost sink in despaire ever to see or enjoy while I live in England any thing in the Order Government and Discipline of this Church that may look like the Primitive pattern which was indeed a Catholicon approved in all Churches used in all ages and submitted to by all sorts of good Christians the onely proper Antidote I think against the poysons of our times farre beyond any of these kind of new confections which tampering and partiall Empiricks
part of the whole body so it exerciseth this authority with such confusion and passion with so much Childishnesse and petulancy that there is little or nothing of due subordination feare reverence and submission as to any Divine Authority as of Conscience of or for Christs sake but every one takes offence when he listeth growes froward and insolent divides and so destroyes as much as in him lyes and at as easie a rate as one doth crush a worme those petty bodies and puny Churches which are indeed but Infants Embryo's and Pygmies compared to that stature and strength that procerity and puissance which of old was preserved and ever ought to be in the Church of Christ when it hath its peace and growth not shred into poor patches and pittifull parcels but united maintained and managed in conspicuous combinations in ample and august proportions in which may well be contained many thousands of Christian people some hundreds of worthy Presbyters and Deacons under some one or more venerable Bishops in so holy so happy and so handsome a subordination or dependency as was of old that whatever was done by the Authority of those that ruled or the Humility of those that obeyed all was done with Charity and Unanimity while excellent Bishops knew how to keep the true temper of Christian Government and both Presbyters and people concurred with them in filial obedience and fraternall love CHAP. X. THus we see every party or side however it justifie or magnifie it selfe yet it falls under either the blame or jealousie of its rivals as defective or excessive yet not so much in the fundamentals of Religion or main points either for Doctrine Worship Duty or Manners as chiefly in matters of Ordination Discipline and Government Nor is the difference here so broad that any side denies them as necessary both in the parts and whole in greater and lesser proportions for the Church of Christ but the reall dispute is who shall mannage and execute them in whom the chief power and Authority shall reside whether eminently in Bishops or solely in Presbyters or supremely in the people as the Alpha and Omega the first recipient and the last result of church-Church-power All sides except Fanaticks Seekers and Enthusiasts seem to agree as in the Canon of the Scripture so in the soundnesse of the faith in the sanctity of divine mysteries in the celebration of them by such as are some way ordained and authorised for that holy service also in the participation of them by such onely as are in the judgement of Charity worthy or meet to be partakers of them All agree in the main Christian graces virtues and morals required in a good Christians practise yet still each party is suspected and reproched by others the brisk Independent boasts of the Liberty simplicity and purity of his way yet is blamed for Novelty Subtilty Vulgarity Anarchy the rigid Presbyterian glories in his Aristocratick Parity and levelling community which makes every petty Presbyter a Pope and a Prince though he disdain to be a Priest yet is taxed for petulancy popularity arrogancy and novelty casting off that Catholick and ancient order which God and Nature Reason and Religion all civill and military policy both require and observe among all societies Episcopacy justly challengeth the advantages right and honor of Apostolick and Primitive Antiquity of universality and unity beyond any pretenders yet is this condemned by some for undue incrochments and oppressions upon both Ministers and peoples ingenuous Liberty and Christian priviledge by a kind of secular height and arbitrary soveraignty to which many Bishops in after-ages have been betrayed as by their own pride and ambition so by the indulgence of times the munificence of Christian Princes and sometimes by the flatteries of people Take away the popular principle of the first which prostrates Government to the vulgar Take away the levelling ambition of the second which degrades Government to a very preposterous and unproportionate parity Take away the monopoly of the third which seems to ingrosse to one man more than is meet for the whole each of them will be sufficiently purged as I conceive of what is most dangerous or noxious in them for which they are most jealous of and divided from each other Restore to people their Liberty in some such way of choosing or at least approving their Ministers and assenting to Church-censures as may become them in reason and conscience restore to Presbyters their priviledges in such publick counsel and concurrence with their Bishops as may become them lastly restore to Bishops that Primitive precedency and Catholick presidency which they ever had among and above Presbyters both for that chief Authority or Eminency which they ever had in ordaining of Presbyters and Deacons also in exercising such Ecclesiasticall Discipline and Censures that nothing be done without them I see no cause why any sober Ministers and wise men should be unsatisfied nor why they should longer stand at such distances and defiances as if the Liberties of Christian people the Privileges of Christian Presbyters and the Dignity of Christian Bishops were wholly inconsistent whereas they are easily reconciled and as a threefold cord may be so handsomely twisted together that none should have cause to complaine or be jealous all should have cause to joy in and enjoy each other Bishops should deserve their eminency with the assistance counsel and respect of their Presbyters Bishops and Presbyters might enjoy the love reverence and submission of Christian people both people and Presbyters might be blessed with the orderly direction and fatherly protection of the Bishops all should have the blessings of that sweet subordination harmony and unity which best becomes the Church of Jesus Christ both in the Governors and Governed in Ministers and People wherein we see the most Antiepiscopall Presbyters and refractory people cannot but be so sensible by their own sufferings of the want of some principle of order some band of unity and some ground of due Authority among them that they are forced to make use of some Moderator Chaire-man or Prolocutor as a kind of temporary Pilot and arbitrary Bishop there being no regular moving of popular bodies in Church or State without such an head or President as the rudder of a ship whose order as it is usefull so then most when it is fixed and confirmed with a valid power and venerable authority which are the maine wheeles of all Government As for the Sacramentall scrutinies and other holy severities to be used in any part of Christian Discipline with charity and discretion however the Presbyterian and Independent preachers have very much sought in this point to captate popular applause and exalt themselves above measure as if they exacted farre greater rigors of preparatory sufficiency and sanctity than the Episcopall Clergy ever did or do either require or practise Yet is this but either a vapour or a fallacy or a calumny in respect of the
and tyrannies of some Bishops as if all were to be blamed none to be commended and highly magnifying the zeal themselves have for a through Reformation that is that they might freely and fully gratifie their own and peoples ambitions by setting Episcopacy and all Bishops quite beside the saddle on purpose to make way for themselves who are for the most part as fit to governe Churches alone as apes are to build houses I crave leave in order to promote a faire and firme accommodation with all ingenuous freedom and candor to make some more particular application of my desire and designs to those Ministers of the Presbyterian and Independent waies who have opposed their faces sharpned their tongues or pens and hardened their hearts most against all Episcopacy even in the most innocent usefull regular and moderate constitution of it I meane that Primitive order and paternall residency which was universally acknowledged to be eminently in one President as Bishop or chief Pastor over many Presbyters in his Diocese after the pattern of the 12. Apostles who were by Christs appointment above the 70. and so their declared successors as Timothy Titus Archippus those others who are called the Angels of the 7. Asian Churches with many others to whom they derived not onely their example and practical constitution but their Authority and Power Ecclesiastical as is evident by the Canons and Rules set forth not onely in ancient Councils but in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus for the setling and managing of Church-order Discipline and Government in such a way as clearly gives not to any consistory or company of Presbyters and people but to one man a Paramount Authority as Bishop or Superiour both in Ordination and Jurisdiction above others as his inferiours and so subordinate to his spirituall power so far as to reprove examine censure reject c. All which being to me immoveable and immutable foundations for the establishing of Episcopall presidency as the onely succession of that ordinary Apostolick power and authority which is necessary to be alwaies in the Church of Christ they do make me dayly by these considerations more restive and lesse compliant to any new waies or Associatings than perhaps otherwise I should be both by the sociablenesse of my temper and my earnest desire for another way of happy union among Ministers of worth and moderation This uncorrespondency to which I am upon those grounds compelled is with the greater regret to me because I know the learning the industry the zeal the piety the ingenuity the potency of some of those my dissenting brethren in their preaching writing praying and living I am charitably perswaded of many of their sincerity in aiming at Gods Glory and at the purity of holy Ministrations I do not see wherein many of them differ from the best Episcopall Divines ancient or modern as to any main matter of Religion in doctrine or duty Nor can I find any reason yet alledged by any of them sufficient to justifie that pertinacious distance and defiance which of later yeares onely they have taken up against Episcopacy meerly upon the account of jealousie and impatiency to choose and admit a learned grave and worthy Bishop as a fixed Father or constant Governour and Grave Moderator authoritatively to preside among them in their severall grand distributions or Dioceses after that order and eminency which were most comely for them and most unquestionable as to the fixing and completing of Church-order and Government to all sober Christians satisfaction I will not tax or suspect the soberest of my Presbyterian or Independent brethren of such pride and arrogancy as can endure no superiour or chief among them I rather conceive it was a Sympathethick impulse at first from those Scotish motions and pretentions which swerved them not onely from the former good constitution of the Church of England to which they heretofore very orderly and happily submitted but also from their conformity to the Catholick Church in that point to which I believe their judgement heretofore ahd inclination now may incline and lead them as apparently best for their publick and private interests Some are prone to suspect that the best of them did not heretofore submit so humbly and heartily to their Lawfull Superiours and Governours in the Church as in duty and conscience by the lawes of God and man they ought to have done others challenge them for want as of piety and honesty so of Christian charity yea and of common humanity or compasâ—ion for their forwardnesse and fiercenesse to undoe all Bishops and all dignified Clergy-men at least for their ready consent to their utter ruine holding the garments of those that stoned them to death never so much as praying heartily for them while they were in power nor yet pittying them in their miscarriages or calamities no nor so far interceding for or listning to any just moderation which was oft proposed and offered as might have been not more happy for the Bishops than for themselves as Presbyters yea for this whole Church and all Christian people in England I am willing to hope that many Ministers mutations began with good affections and were carried on at first with principles of sincerity and zeal though not with that knowledge meekness and wisdome which was requisite But to many of them that are now the most haughty stiffe and obstinaâ—e against all accommodating with Episcopacy I cannot but still appeale whether they do not in their consiences find that either at first or afterward some secular advantages and private hopes did not a little warp and sway their inclinations to novelties whether they felt not the secret but dissembled strokes of discontent anger envy revenge popularity ambition feigned jealousies inordinate affectations of liberty exciting and animating them to the utter extirpation of Episcopacy whether they did not by a self-conceit generally imagin themselves not onely jointly but severally as fit and able to govern the Church in the whole or in parcels as any yea all the Bishops in England whether any of them do believe the case of Episcopacy to have ever been fully heard freely discussed and impartially stated by the peaceable wisdom and piety of this nation whether many of these Ministers as Politicians and Statesmen did not rather comply with the streame and vogue of times running fiercely against Episcopacy than with their own clear convictions in reason law scripture antiquity conscience whether they kept that equanimity and moderation in all things of this nature which became wise and good men of an Evangelicall Spirit and temper or were not biassed yea transported by something that was popular and sinister whether they do not think that the violence and precipitancy of some of their examples was beyond all solid arguments to drive many well-meaning Ministers and People to such heady and hot petitionings against Episcopacy and to such pittilesse Antipathies against all the most excellent Bishops which were then and still are England
would be established and the tranquillity of the Nation highly setled and confirmed upon the best foundation of peace that can be among mankind In all which things we have and do on all sides so far extremely suffer as we differ by such unreasonable distances and uncharitable defiances first among Ministers which are presently followed with all disorder lukewarmenesse irreligion profaneness arrogancy Atheism Affectation and Faction among the people in England chiefly as I conceive upon this account The needlesse variating shifting and changing of that Primitive plat-forme that Apostolick and Catholick order and succession of Ecclesiasticall Authority and Ministeriall power in this Church which hath ever been owned with religious reverence and conscience in Engl. ever since it was Christian preserved as sacred by the most pious Princes honored as Divine by the most Religious and reformed Parlaments prospered by the speciall benignity and grace of God peaceably enjoyed by all devout judicious and humble Christians to the unspeakable comfort of their souls living and dying when they knew who were their Bishops Pastors and spirituall Fathers owning them with all due respect and love as in Christs stead submitting to them for conscience sake as to the Lord and receiving from them good instructions just reproofes holy comforts and heavenly Mysteries not as from man but God after the rule of the Scriptures and the example of the best Christians in all ages who looked upon Episcopacy or the Government of the Church as fixed completed and exercised chiefly by Bishops assisted with worthy Presbyters not onely as a book of a larger volume greater print and fairer binding than Presbytery or Independency that is the sole power of Presbyters or people by themselves but they looked upon the Episcopall eminency as having more in it of Apostolick power and Ecclesiasticall Authority both in point of ordination and jurisdiction than is either in Presbyters or people by themselves Bishops and Presbyters being as the eyes and hands which are not more members of the body than the leggs and feet yet they are the more noble parts and have more of publick use and virtue as to inspection direction and operation for the common good of all parts in the body No wonder then if the honor of all Religion be much abated if the renown of this Reformed Church be thus abased no wonder that Presbytery it self is so baffled and Independency despised no wonder that all the Office Power and Authority of Ministers together with their persons be reduced to such a low ebb and almost quite exhausted when Bishops the grand Cisternes and chief Conduites of all Ecclesiasticall Orders and Ministeriall Authority as derived from Christ and his Apostles are not onely bruised and crackt but utterly broken cut off and cast away whom yet no Presbyter or Independent of any learning or forehead can deny actually to have been in all ages used and esteemed as the constant successors and immediate substitutes of the Apostles first invested with that power by the Apostles themselves after their decease chosen by the Presbyters and after consecrated by other Bishops to be as the prime receptacles conservators and conveyers of all Ecclesiasticall Power and Ministeriall Authority not onely as Teachers of Divine truths preachers of the Gospell and dispensers of holy Mysteries in common with Presbyters but as chief Fathers Pastors and Rulers of those larger flocks which constituted those famous ancient Churches which were not limited to the bounds of one family or one congregation or one little parish in which one Preacher or Presbyter may in ordinary duties suffice but they extended to such ample combinations as contained large Cities and their Territories in which were many thousands of Christians many congregations and many Presbyters who all made but one Church or polity Ecclesiasticall under one chief Pastor or Bishop residing with the Presbyters at first in the chief City afterward these were fixed to particular parishes or villages by the care of the Bishops Without whose authority and consent nothing of consequence was done by any in the publick managing of Religion without the just brand and censure of Schismaticall arrogancy it being ever judged that Bishops had derived to them an higher degree of Apostolick power and Church jurisdiction than ever was or could be in any one or many Presbyters or people without them who could not regularly nor never did unblamably ordaine of themselves or by their own sole Authority any Ministers or exercise the censures of the Church in a plenary and absolute jurisdiction without deriving their power from their respective Bishops without whom and against whom few ever acted in any age of the Church and never any good Christian refused subjection to and communion with their lawfull and orthodox Bishops no nor did ever any Hereticks or Schismaticks proceed to such extravagancy as to reject and disclaime all Episcopall order till of later yeares whose example hath little in it to make it compared with much lesse preferred before Catholick customes and Primitive patternes of all ancient Churches what ever glosses the wit of men or their craft or their successes or their Godly and necessary pretences may put upon their variations and schismes CHAP. XII IT is not now my design either to spin out or to wind and summe up that long and tedious thread of dispute which hath been so much snarled and entangled of late yeares in England by popular pens or cleared and unfolded by more able learned and impartiall Writers Who is not weary now and ashamed of those thread-bare allegations drawn from the samenesse or promiscuous use of Names which we know vary with time and must yield to use and custome as if Apostle Evangelist Bishop Presbyter Pastor Preacher Teacher and Ruler they may adde Deacon and Servant and Minister were all one in the equivalency of their power order and authority in the Church For any one nay all these names are in the latitude of their sense given to some one man or officer in the Church yet in the more strict precise and Emphatick sense they denote different gifts orders authorities dispensations and functions as well as degrees in the Church of Christ which did never confound Deacons with Presbyters nor Presbyters with Bishops nor all with the Apostles because the chief Apostles who contained in their ample authority and commission all Ecclesiasticall powers eminently under Christ are sometimes called Presbyters Compresbyters and also Deacons or Ministers of Jesus Christ and servants of the Church deriving all these powers in their severall degrees and orders to Bishops Presbyters and Deacons after them To the first as to a lesser sort of Apostles but chief Rulers or Overseers in the Church they gave the eminent and peculiar power of ordaining Presbyters and exercising spirituall jurisdiction over them as is evident in the power that Timothy and Titus had given them by Commission from the great Apostle St. Paul who certainly in this was conforme to
all other Apostles in their severall Bishopricks or Distributions To the second as Presbyters or a lesser kind of Bishops and Apostles over private and particular congregations they gave power to preach the Gospel administer Sacraments and assist their chief Pastor or Bishop in governing the Church according as they were required and appointed to their severall duties and charges But no where in Scripture that I see do we find either the sole or chief power of ordaining Ministers or of exercising any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction over them by correption or rejection given to any one or more Presbyters as such unlesse men list for ever to play the children and cavill with the identity or samenesse of the names used of old which calls Apostles Presbyters as a word of honor and Presbyters Bishops as overseers and all of them Deacons as servants to Christ and the Church and all may be called Apostles too in some sense as sent by Christ on his work Which Crambe is so fulsome a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cavilling about words to confound all good sense and order that all sober men are now weary of it when they clearly see that all ages and actions of the Catholick Church have sufficiently declared beyond any fallacy of identity as to Names and titles the reall and actuall differences of persons and duties or offices to which words may at first be indifferently applied without implying any such confusion of places and powers in the Church any more than when the name of ruler is applyed to supreame and subordinate Magistrates or when the name of Officer is given to Corporalls Lieutenants Captaines Colonells and Generalls or that of Alderman to such as are so by age or office or estate just as if one should obstinately maintain that the petty Constables of every parish the High Constables of every Hundred and the Lord high Constable of England or France were the same things as to office power and honor because the same name of Constable is applyed to all of them It may with as much reason be urged that every Master of Arts in a Colledg and the Master of the Colledg are the same in office place and power or that every one who is called Father by nature age affinity adoption merit or relation either Domestick Civil or Ecclesiasticall presently may challenge the same Authority over us and the same Duty or Obedience from us as our naturall parents have and do expect because all are called Fathers So we shall have many Gods and Lords to justifie the Polytheisme of the heathens because there are many that are in Scripture called Gods and Lords as the Apostle tells us These Sophisticall equivocations from names and words have been indeed the bushes or thickets the borrowes and refuges a long time of those men who aimed to bring in all factions innovations and confusions into this and other Churches onely under such empty colours and fallacious pretentions out of all which they have been lately so stripped ferreted by many learned unanswerable assertors of Episcopacy in its just presidency and authority that they are now naked and ridiculous to all sober spectators who see that all the judgement and practice of antiquity besides the Scriptures analogy is so clear and distinct against all their petty cavillings and popular levellings that the reall differences of the powers orders degrees and offices in the Church as begun by Christ exercised by the Apostles also continued in that method and series through all ages are not lesse evident than their peevishnesse and pertinacy are who list to urge the first indifferency or latitude of words against the after and evident distinctions of things declared and confirmed by the constant judgement and practice of all Churches which is in my judgement the best and surest interpreter and distinguisher of what ever seems wrapped up or any way obscured and confused in Scripture-expressions otherwaies we must with the Papists own as many Sacraments and Mysteries as these words are applyed to in Scripture either in the Greek or Latine Presbyters might well enough be then called Bishops in a generall and lower sense when there were so many Apostles as chief Bishops above them which Name of Apostle the modesty of after Bishops refusing they contented themselves with the peculiar title of Bishops and confined that of Presbyter to that second order or degree of Clergy-men as that of Deacon to the third which yet in their latitude are applyed to Bishops and Apostles themselves I know there have been many things speciously urged for Presbytery and odiously against Episcopacy all which have been so abundantly answered that it is time they were forgotten and all enmity buried with them My aime in this pacificatory addresse to all worthy Ministers is not to revive the cavils and disputes but to reconcile all interests to compose all differences and to satisfie all demands Onely because I know there is no closing or glewing of pieces together with firmnesse where there is not first made an evennesse and smoothness on all sides for their apt meeting I shall here further endeavour fairly to take away some remaining roughnesse swelling and protuberancy which possibly may be still in some sober mens minds as great hinderances of the desired closure and composure of all sides I know it is further urged by some that every Presbyter singly and much more socially that is in a joynt body and Associate fraternity may be rationally thought to have the full power and divine authority of a Bishop to all ends offices and purposes since it is well known in all antiquity as St Jerome tells us and it is confessed by all Episcopall men that Presbyters as such primitively chose their respective Bishops as at Antioch Jerusalem Alexandria from S. Marks time in other places so that Bishops may seem primarily to receive all their authority and eminency from Presbyters who certainly can conferre no more upon any of Bishop than is radically seminally and eminently in themselves as a superiour Magistrate that nominates an inferiour or a Corporation that chooseth a Major or chief officer or as Fellowes of a Colledge who choose a Master or President over them or as an army which is St. Jeromes instance who choose their Imperator or Generall From this ancient and well-known priviledge of Presbyters to choose their respective Bishops many conclude their joynt power at least to be equall to any Bishops yea superiour to them as causall and efficient insomuch that they may if they please exercise it apart from and wholly without any Bishop by choosing none to be over them or among them but serving their occasionall meetings with a temporary Moderator rather than a constant Superintendent To this it is easily answered That however Presbyters of old did and of right as I conceive ought by the leave and permission of Christian Princes to choose and appove the persons of their Bishops as being the fittest men in
the Church to judge of a Bishops sufficiencies for that place and charge yet it no way followes that any Bishop hath his Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power from them as the originall of it any more than of his temporall Barony and revenues to which he is admitted by the Presbyters election of him but only he is by their election and comprobation duly admitted and regularly enabled to exercise that power whose roote as that of Presbyters rise and foundation is from a far higher principle and greater authority Just as the Fellowes of a Colledge choose the Master President or Warden at least they admit and accept of him to the possession enjoyment and use of that power which is not in them joyntly or singly without their Master nor yet is it derived from them to the Master but he hath it from the first Founders Will and the Statutes or Customes of the Colledg In like manner the chief Magistrate of any City or Corporation though he be chosen by the Commons or Fraternities in it to his chief place and office yet his power and jurisdiction is not from them but from that Charter or Grant which gave the first constitution to that power and polity So in an Army Officers may choose their Generall to a power above them which he enjoyes and exerciseth beyond what any one or all of them hath right unto or any capacity to use yet doth that power accrew to him from those principles of Right Reason Order Polity and Authority which is derived and vested in him by the suffrage or consent of many who have right and reason thus to advise for their common order and safety by preferring one above themselves by whose suffrages and consents as by the Suns beames united in the centre of a burning-glasse a greater heat and luster of authority is raised than is in any one or many beames scattered and divided By vertue of which principles of reason order and polity as these other civil instances which act by their severall Charters and Statutes are neither left at liberty to choose or not choose any to be their chief Magistrate or Governour nor yet may they in right reason or law exercise that paramount power without him but they are bound in conscience and duty as well as by custome and charter to choose such a chieftane and so to invest him in that power paramount above them yet do they not give the power to that elect person but the person to that power which was setled before them So in the Church of Christ Presbyters of old did freely choose indeed their Bishops at least they consented afterward to accept of him whom the Prince or possibly the people in some cases nominated as a worthy and deserving person yet neither people nor Prince nor Presbyter did conferre upon any Bishop that power Episcopall or that eminent Ecclesiasticall Authority which he had properly in himself to use and exert it after he was thus chosen consecrated and installed No he had it from that grand Charter and Catholick Custome which was in the Church of Christ by which the first Apostolick Canons or Scripture-Statutes and Institutions not only founded but derived this Authority as received from Christ and by the Spirit of Christ conveyed it to their Successors the Bishops in the name and power of Christ for the orderly governing of his Church in all places which hath been and I think ought where God hinders not to be continued in the Churches of Christ by the like successive choise or approbation of Presbyters in the want and vacancy of their Bishops Nor do I doubt but Ministers are sinfully wanting to that duty which they ow to Christ and his Church when they cease to do as much as in them lies what they ought in this point to do might do if themselves did not hinder their choosing and having their lawful Bishops as well as people their Presbyters according to the Primitive rule and Catholick pattern which hath the force of a law it being no lesse necessary for the Church to be orderly governed and thus united than to be taught and communicated to in holy things Nay those two or three Bishops which after the great Nicene Councill were required to joyne in the more solemn consecration and investiture of every Bishop did not impart of their own power but solemnly declared and blessed as good and worthy the choise and investiture of him that was first duly elected by the Presbyters and then further confirmed by their publication and benediction which benediction was never that I read done by any Presbyters as being now inferiours to him whom their consent and suffrages had chosen to that Episcopall degree and eminency above them who as Presbyters might choose their Bishops but yet not depose him this work requiring their appeal to the higher power of a Council or Synod of many Bishops who were in that joynt capacity above any one Bishop and so onely capable to be his judges upon the complaint of Presbyters or people against him As Presbyters have their Office and Authority by Bishops ordination as conduits but not from them as fountaines of it there being but one spring of it which is Jesus Christ so Bishops have their power by Presbyters election as instruments or mediums but not from their donation as the source and originals of their power and authority which is Christs Thirdly Some Presbyters and Independents do with great brow and confidence urge that Bishops are wholly superfluous because Presbyters and any ordinary Preachers two or three or more of them are very able and willing every where to beget their like every petty Presbytery is become a seminary or spawner to ordain Ministers and conferre all degrees of holy orders for which they think themselves no lesse fitted than for preaching and administring Sacraments which they say are employments requiring greater abilities and no lesse authority yea many Country-Presbyters have made themselves and one another of late Chorepiscopi or Country Bishops ordaining Ministers when where and how they list without any Bishop among them And this they say with very good success and acceptance to Country-people who besides the pleasure they take in any daring novelty and insolency in Religion protest to find no lesse judgement discretion and gravity than was heretofore pretended to be in Bishops for that service Nor is it to be doubted say they but the ordination authority and Commission of such Presbyters is as valid as that done by Bishops since these Godly Ministers do so try and examine such as come to be ordained that they commonly pose the best Schollars and soberest men that come to them Further they pray and preach as well as most Bishops did yea they very gravely exhort and charge the ordained brother with as great weight and severity both for gifts and graces Ministeriall as ever the Bishops did though it may be not with so much pomp and formality Hence they deny
the necessity and use of Bishops yea they deny any flaw or defect to be in their new Presbyterian and popular ordinations for want of any other Bishops but themselves who are as pert in their novelty as ever any Prelates were in their antiquity That these Heteroclite or equivocall ordinations have of late been acted in England with much self applause and popular parade by meer Presbyters I well understand but quo jure by what right from God or man by what authority civill or Ecclesiasticall I could never yet see yea I am sure no law of God or men heretofore ever was thought to give any such power to meer Presbyters without yea against their lawfull Bishops insomuch that many learned and sober men have much blamed at least suspected these Presbyterian transactions for Schismaticall presumptions these ordinations for disorderly usurpations at least in such a Church as England was where there were and still are venerable Bishops of the orthodox faith reformed profession and ancient constitution willing and able to do their duty in the point of ordination Which in all ordinary cases appeares to have ever been their peculiar right specially derived to them as Bishops from the Apostles through all successions of times and Churches without any interruption except when some factious and insolent Presbyters ventured to be extravagant and usurpant whom all the learned Fathers venerable Councils and good Christians in the Church every where condemned as most injurious because usurping that Authority which no Apostle no Councill no Bishop ever gave to any that were meer Presbyters in their Ordination and Commission no more than the Lawes or Canons of this Church and State Nor is there as far as I can perceive any one place in Scripture that by any precept or example invests either one or more simple Presbyters with the power of trying and examining of laying on of hands of giving holy orders as from themselves alone of committing or transmitting what they had received to other faithfull men that should be able to teach All which were given to Timothy and Titus as chief Bishops The Pope of Rome indeed animated by those flatterers which would make him the sole Bishop by Divine right and all other Bishops as surrogates to him dependants upon him and derived from him as if there had not been 12 or 13 but onely one â—â—sion â—lick Chaire or prime seat of Episcopacy hath some â—eath given power of ordination to such as were but Presbyters as â—nd read of some Abbots and Priors but it was alwaies to the great scandall of the best Bishops and Presbyters of the Church as contrary to all ancient Orders Canons and Customes of the Church unlesse he first made them as Chorepiscopi or suffragane Bishops But in earnest it is hard to judge whether Popes or Presbyters be most enemies to Catholick Bishops As for the pious pomp and the specious apparences the formall dressings and verball adornings which they say are used by Presbyters in their late Ordinations in England though I never saw any of them yet I have heard and read so much of them as gives me to judge far less to be in them of authority true complete and valid than ought to be For besides the persons not impowered or commissionated to that office there is as I heare no transmitting and so no receiving of the holy Spirit as to that Ministeriall Order and Power which is thereby derived to Ministers as from Christ whatever there may be of godly solemnity and plausible formalities which are usually more studied and affected to please the people there where men are most conscious to the defect of authentick reall and righteous power But all these saintly shewes to wise men signifie nothing no nor the personal abilities either of the ordainers or ordained who cannot by their personall power knowledg virtues graces or private gifts make any Officer in State or in Armies in War or in Peace much lesse in the Church and Ministry of Jesus Christ Alas no private capacity in any man can make the least petty Constable or Bailiffe or Corporall or Serjeant without they first have a publick and lawfull Commission from the fountains of Authority to give them an Authority far beyond any private arrogancy and presumed sufficiency of their own Possibly extraordinary cases may in time be their own excuses in such Churches where Bishops may be all dead or banished or where such as are Orthodox cannot be had and they that are will not ordain any Presbyters without imposing upon them such things as are erroneous and unlawfull but nothing can be pleaded that I yet see no nor doth the candor and charity of Bishop Usher know how to excuse such Presbyters from being Schismaticks factious presumptuous and disorderly who first cast off and forsake such Bishops as are of the same faith and reformed profession worthy and willing able and ready every way authorized by Church and State to do their duty The contempt and rejecting of such Bishops is I fear a great sin before God I am sure a great grievance to such Churches as first suffer those distractions And no doubt it is as a great so a needlesse scandall to most Churches and the best Christians in all the world nor can it be other then a foule reproach and scorn cast on all pious antiquity nor will it prove other than a lasting misery to any Church and Nation that wilfully continues that guilt and defect upon themselves and their posterity especially when God â—s them sufficient meanes to remedy that mischief to supply thâ—â—fects and to compose those differences which are ever followâ—â—he waâ— much more the needlesse expulsion of Primitive Episcopacy For whose power and authority while either Presbyters or people are scrambling they do but make Religion a May-game bring as we see both themselves and their Ministry into contempt for no Presbyters or people can while the world stands ever stamp such an honor and Authority Ecclesiasticall upon themselves as was in all ages and by all Churches consent besides the Scripture-Character and Apostolick signature set upon Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy which ever united centred and confirmed power in one man not over all which the Pope affects but over their Dioceses or Provinces A 4 th Objection much flourished by some popular Preachers against Bishops and all Episcopacy in any Authority and eminency above Presbyters is that Episcopacy is the root of Popery that Prelates were the parents of Antichrist that every Bishop hath a Pope in his belly and that the Pope is no other than an overgrown Bishop that to rout all Popery and raze the foundations of Romes pride all Prelacy or Episcopacy must be stubbed up My answer to this is that this objection sounds as little of truth as it savours much of malice especially in any Presbyters of any learning and ingenuity who well know the abasing of Bishops is the design and hath
Roman Communion must not the fate of your either miscreant or miserable posterity necessarily be such that their teeth will be so set on edge by the sowre grapes you have eaten and left for them that they will not endure sound Doctrine much lesse wholesome Discipline Thus untaught and ungoverned unbred and unfed in Religion can you expect other from them than all debaucheries immoralities and such Atheisticall indifferences and impudencies as the heart of man easily runs into if left to it self as the Horse and Mule without bit or bridle of Religion and conscience to restraine them May they not have cause in their sad reflections upon the Beauty Order Honor and Happinesse of Religion in England which they may read of in former daies besides the many afflictions and civill dissentions which have and will inevitably follow divided Religion to an irreligion in any Nation may they not in their doubting dying and despairing retreates have cause to count you yea and to curse you as their carelesse and cruell parents who are never quiet or content till you settle your honors estates and civill affaires in some safe posture as you imagine but are wholly negligent as to any religious establishment which many men feare oppose and abhorre lest in cleare waters their faces should appeare the fouler varieties and uncertainties of Religion being most fomented by those whose piety is wholly resolved into policy who never tasted how gracious the Lord is in the waies meanes and fruites of true Religion But for you O my noble Countrimen that have seen and rejoyced in that glorious light of Reformed Religion which shined so long and illustriously in the Church of England how can you with any conscience or comfort leave the world and leave your posterity with your Country exposed to such variety uncertainties distractions deformities and confusions as to the Reformed Religion and its Ministry which makes them look like the Temple of God in Jerusalem after Nebucadnezzar and Nebuzaradan had visited it with fire and sword so defacing and deforming it that it was the pitty of all good men and the scorn of the wicked As Augustus Caesar was wont in his most impotent passion of grief and vexation to teare his haire and cry out Ridde Vare Legiones O Varus restore the Legions of brave and veterane souldiers which thou hast so unadvisedly or unworthily lost when they were slaine by the Germane surprises so may you heare the soberest Christians and truest-hearted English-men in their grief and shame cry out Reddite nobis Religionem Reformatam Uniformem Christianam primaevam Catholicam Reddite Ecclesiae Anglicana priscam pietatem pacem ordinem pulchritudinem patrimonium regimen Majestatem debitam decus antiquum Reddite nobis patres fratres filios spiritales Episcopos atate virtute authoritate venerandos Presbyteros literatura industria humilitate unitate ordine conspicuos Plebem probe instructam modestam sobriam mutua charitate amulam non effrâ—nem infrunitam laceram non erroribus lascivam non novitatibus foedam non scabie rigentem non nimia petulantia deformem non irreligiose Religiosam c. This was the voice of the Church of England while it dared to speake Latine which being now scandalous and reprochfull to many as the language of the Beast not understood by them She is forced to expresse her Prayer in English for mens better understanding Restore restore I beseech you to me to your selves to your country to your posterity the purity the peace the sanctity the solemnity the sobriety the order the honor the unity the solidity the stability the power the efficacy the fruites and works of true Christian and Reformed Religion Restore to us the happinesse of living not onely united in one civill polity as men but in one Ecclesiasticall Correspondency Combination and Communion as Christians It is more for our honor and peace to be Members of one Church than of one Commonwealth to have the same Religion and Devotion than the same Lawes and Statutes Restore to us those prime veines and Catholick conduits of Ecclesiasticall order of church-Church-power and spirituall authority under Christ those paternall Pastors those Primitive Bishops those successive Apostles That so we may have such Presbyters as have the Catholick Character of due Ordination and the most undoubted Derivation of Ministeriall Authority upon them being at once able and willing duly proved and empowered by Christs deputed Ministers and the whole Church to consecrate and dispense holy Mysteries to us not in the new names of Presbyters or people or Parlaments or Princes onely but in the name of Christ and his Church according to the commission he first gave to the Apostles and they transmitted to their successors in a constant undoubted and uninterrupted succession to this day Redeeme this ancient Church and renowned Nation from those lice and flies those locusts and frogs whose importune malice and wantonnesse seeks to deface and devour whatever yet remaines of the Reformed Religion in England Redeeme all sober Christians whose little life affords them no leisure to play with Religion redeeme them from the Rents and Schismes the raggs and tatters the breaks and divisions the fragments and fractions the chaines and fetters the childish and ridiculous janglings the scandalous and pernicious liberties with which pragmatick Spirits seek to poyson and to imprison their judgements and consciences Nothing is at least ought to be more pressive and urging upon your Honors and Consciences who are persons sensible of these two great regards to God and man than these concernments of true Religion whose influence reacheth to the eternall interest of your own and your posterities soules Nor is their lapsed estate to be helped by faire words and soft pretentions by demure silences and â—ary reserves by State-stratagems and politick artifices by vaporing of reformations and conniving at popular insolencies as if they were tendernesses and liberties due to conscience No the recovery of Religion is to be effected by potent convictions and impartiall suppressions of all enormous opinions and actions by serious trying of errors and establishing of sound Doctrine by just restraining all inordinate liberties by incouraging an able and uniform Ministry by discountenancing all fanatick novelties by composing al uncharitable divisions and by punishing all pragmatick arrogancies which evidently vary from or run counter against that truth order ministry authority and holy Discipline of Religion which Scripture and all Catholick conformity to it have commended to all Christians as Christs will and appointment which being accordingly setled in this Church and State ought not to be contradicted or rudely contemned by any new lights by pretended inspirations or the novel inventions of any man or men whatsoever seem they never so holy so devout so well-affected so sincere so saintly This and other true Churches of Christ did know very well what belonged to the unity sanctity charity and constancy of Religion as Christian and Reformed long before
and moves upon this one hindge give me leave with all humble and earnest advise to commend to your Christian consideration First the preservation of the very being or essence of a true and authoritative Ministry upon which depends the visible polity and orderly being of any true Church also the powerfull dispensation and comfortable reception of all holy mysteries Secondly the bene esse well-being or flourishing estate of such a true Ministry by which it may be kept in such order honor and unity as may redeem it both from vulgar arrogancies contempts and confusions also from mutuall factions and divisions by which meanes of later yeares the very face of a Church as to any Nationall harmony fraternity subordination and Communion in England is either quite lost or so hidden deformed and disguised that not onely the sacred dignity and authority but the very Name and Office of a true Minister is become odious infamous and ridiculous among many people who either will have no Ministers at all or onely such as themselves list to create in their severall Conventicles which are in respect of the true Church and Clergy of England no more to be esteemed than the concubines of jealousie and harlots of adultery are to be compared to lawfull wives that are Matrons of unspotted honor 1. The Essentials of a true Christian Ministry consist First in the person or subject fitly qualified for that callings Secondly in the commission or power by which the proper Forme and Authority Ministeriall is duly applyed to any person so qualified 1. The person subject matter or recipient of Holy Orders ought to be such persons as are furnished with those Ministeriall gifts and abilities both internall and externall for knowledge and utterance for unblamable life and good report as may make them not onely competent for that holy work in generall but likewise fit for that particular place whereto God by man doth call them Of these reall and discernable competencies besides those sincere and gracious propensities in charity to be hoped and presumed to glorifie God in that service not out of ambition covetousness popularity or meer necessity but out of an humble zeal and an holy choice a judicious serious strict solemn publick and authoritative triall and approbation ought to be made as was appointed in the Church of England by such Ecclesiasticall persons as are in all reason most able and so most meet to be appointed by law for the examining and judging of Ministers both as to their personall sufficiencies and the publick testimonies of their life and manners In this point I know some men are jealous that some Bishops in former times were too private remisse and superficiall approving and ordaining Ministers onely upon the Chaplaines triall and testimony which after proved but sorry Clerks for which easinesse they had many times to plead the meannesse of those Livings to which such Ministers were presented as could not bear an exacter triall Poor people must have such preachers or none in such starving entertainments as were in many places which like heathy grounds neither can breed nor feed any thing that is grand or goodly Were the maintenance of Ministers every where made competent nothing shouid be more severely looked to by the ordainers of Ministers than the competent abilities and worth of those to whom they transmit and impart that sacred power charge and Ministration For not onely the consciences of the ordained but of the ordainers stand here highly responsible to God and the Church that God may be glorified that the Church both in generall and particular may be satisfied that both other Ministers may cheerfully joyne with them in the work of the Lord and that their peculiar charge may receive them with that due respect love and submission which becomes those that minister to them the holy things of God in the stead of Jesus Christ as his Stewards Lieutenants and Embassadors No men will conscienciously no nor civilly regard any Minister when once the plebeian heat of faction is allayed of whose sufficiency and authority too they have no just confidence because no publick triall credible testimony or authoritative mission How much lesse when men shall have pregnant evidences of a Ministers weaknesse ignorance folly schisme and scandall many waies T is true in the highest and exactest sense as the Apostle sayes none are sufficient for those things but yet in a lower and qualified sense none ought to be ordained who are not in some sort sufficient for them Because none are by way of Divine equivalency worthy we must not therefore admit such as are in humane morall or intellectuall proportions utterly unworthy since the Lord of his Church is pleased in all ages to give such gifts and blessings to mens tenuity as may in some sense fit those earthen vessels to be workers together with God by the help of the excellency of his Divine power whose operations in this kind are not miraculous as without any fit meanes but morall and proportionate to the aptitude of such meanes as God hath appointed and required in his Church for humane ability and industry When the Materiall qualifications of one that is a Candidate or Expectant of the Ministry are thus examined by the ordainers discovered to all those who are concerned the next care for the Essentials of a Minister consists in applying that true Character stamp and Authority wherein the Essential Form and Soule as it were of a Minister of the Gospel doth consist which as I have in another work largely declared doth not arise from any thing that is common in Nature or Grace from any morall civill or religious respects for then all men and women too that have naturall or acquired abilities religious or gracious endowments might presently either challenge to themselves the place power office and authority of a Minister of Christ and his Church or communicate it to others as they please which would be the originall of all presumption and confusion in the Church of Christ as much as parallel practises would be in civill States if every man should put himself into what place and imployment publick he listeth either magistratick or military without any Commission or expresse authority derived to him from the fountaine of civill or magistratick power No the true valid and authentick authority of an Evangelicall Minister of any rank and degree as Deacon Presbyter or Bishop in the Church consists in that Divine mission and Ecclesiasticall Commission which is duly derived and orderly conferred to meet persons by those who are the lawfull and Catholick conduits of that power to whom it bath been in all ages and places committed and who are in a capacity to transmit or communicate and impart it to others by way of holy ordination such as Jesus Christ received from his Father such as he derived to his Apostles such as they committed to their deputed successors the Bishops and Pastors of the
Church in all Ages and places of which we have two expresse witnesses and great exemplifications in the commissions given by Saint Paul to Timothy and Titus both as to ordination and jurisdiction Such as hath been preserved in the Church through all times and places as a sacred depositum of Spirituall power enabling Bishops and Presbyters to act as Ministers of Christ in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit in those holy Offices and Mysteries which are instituted by them for the calling collecting constituting and governing of the Church in a regular society and visible polity which least of all affects or admits any novelty or variety in its holy orders or authority Which great Trust Power and Commission for duly ordaining and sending forth Ministers into the Church of Christ no man not wilfully blind but must confesse that it hath been in all times parts and states of the Church of Christ executed if not onely yet chiefly by the Ecclesiasticall presidents or Bishops in every grand distribution of the Churches polity So as it was never regularly warrantably or completely done by any Christian people or by any Presbyters or Preachers without the presence consent or permission of their respective Bishops in the severall limits or partitions Nor was this great sacred and solemn work of Ordination ever either usurped by Bishops as arrogant and imperious or executed by them as a thing arbitrary and precarious but it was alwaies owned esteemed and used by all true Christians both Ministers and People as an Authority Sacred and Divine fixed and exercised by way of spirituall Jurisdiction and power Ecclesiasticall specially inherent and eminently resident in Bishops as such that is so invested with the peculiar power of conferring holy orders to others even from the hands and times of the Blessed Apostles who had undoubtedly this power placed in them and as undoubtedly ordered such a transmission of it as to Timothy and Titus so to all those holy Bishops that were their Primitive Successors who did as they ought still continue that holy succession to all ages by laying on such Episcopall hands as were the unquestionable Conservators and chief distributers of that Ministeriall power ever esteemed Sacred Apostolick Catholick and Divine being from one fountain or source Jesus Christ and uniformly carried on by one orderly course without any perverting or interrupting from any good Christians either Presbyters or people Nor were they ever judged other than factious schismaticall irregular impudent and injurious who either usurped to themselves a power of Ordination or despised and neglected it in their lawfull and orthodox Bishops upon any pretence of parity or popularity as Learned Saravia proves unanswerably against Mr. Beza when to make good the new Presbyterian Consistory at Geneva he sought in this point to weaken the ancient Catholick and constant prerogative of Episcopall Ordination which never appeares either in Scripture to have been committed or in any Church-History to have been used by any Presbyters or People apart from much lesse in despite and affront of the respective Bishops which were over them This great power of Ordination which the Author to the Hebrewes signifies by the solemn ceremonie or laying on of hands is esteemed by that Apostolick writer as a maine principle or chief pillar of Christian Religion in respect of Ecclesiastick Order Polity Peace Authority and Comfort necessary for all Christians both as Ministers and as people in sociall and single capacities For there is ordinarily no true and orthodox believing without powerful and authoritative preaching and there can be no such preaching without a just mission or sending from those in whom that Sacred Commission hath ever been deposited exemplified and preserved which were the Bishops of the Church beyond all dispute who did not ordaine Presbyters in private and clandestine fashions but in a most publick and solemn manner after fasting preaching and praying so as might best satisfie the Presbyters assistant and the people present at that grand transaction both of them being highly concerned the first what Ministers or fellow labourers were joyned with them in the work of the Lord the other what Pastors and Teachers were set over them as from the Lord and not meerly from man in any natural morall or civill capacity whence the authority of the Christian Ministry cannot be since it is not of man or from man but from that Lord and God who is the great Teacher and Saviour of his Church who onely could give power as gifts meet for the Pastors Bishops and Teachers of it These serious weighty and undoubted perswasions touching one uniforme holy and divine ordination being fixed in the consciences of all wise and sober Christians it will follow without all peradventure that true Religion as Christian and Reformed will never be able to recover in this or any Christian Nation its pristine lustre and Primitive Majesty its ancient life and vigor its due credit and comfort much lesse its just Power and Authority over mens hearts and consciences untill this point of Ordination or solemn investiture of fit men into Ministeriall Office and Power be effectually vindicated and happily redeemed from those moderne intrusions usurpations variations and dissentions which are now so rife among Preachers themselves whence flow those licentious and insolent humors so predominant in common people who by dividing the other by usurping both by innovating in this point of Ordination have brought those infinite distractions contempts and indifferences upon Religion and its Ministry as Christian and Reformed which are at this day to be seen in England beyond any Nation that I know under Heaven It is most certain that the major part of mankind yea and of formall Christians too do not much care for the power of any Religion nor for the Authority of any Ministry no nor for any serious profession or form of Religion further than these may suite with their fancies lusts and interests If custome or education have dipped them in some tincture of Religion during their minority if the cords of counsell and example have bound them up to some form of godlinesse in their tender yeares and tamer tempers yet as they grow elder they are prone to grow bolder to sin and to affect such refractory liberties as may not onely dispute and quarrell some parts but despise and trample under feet all the frame of Religion that is not indulgent to their humors or compliant to their inordinate desires and designes Especially when once they find publick disorders distractions and disgraces cast upon that very Religion in which they were instituted when they see contumelies and affronts cast upon that whole Church in which they were baptized and all manner of contemptuous insolencies offered to those chief Church-men by whom they had received the derivations and dispensations of all Holy Orders Truths and Mysteries When men see new Religions new Churches new Ministers and new modes of Ordination set up to the reproch
and defiance of all that went before who I beseech you of most ordinary Christians who are yet agitated by their youthfull lusts and unbridled passions will be so constant as to hold fast that profession which formerly they had taken up Who will continue to venerate that Church and Clergy whose heads they see crowned with thornes and their faces besmeared with blood and dirt whose comelinesse is deformed with the spittings buffetings and scornes of those that seek to expose them to open shame and to fasten them to the Crosse of death and infamy Alas they will not at all regard in a short time any orders of the Church or any ordination of Ministers or any sacred ordinances and mysteries dispensed by them since no pleas never so pregnant and unanswerable for the Antiquity Uniformity and Constancy of that way and method which was used in all ages and places of the Church of Christ since no gracious and glorious successes attending such ordaining Bishops and such ordained Presbyters since nothing prevailes against vulgar prejudices and extravagancies provoked by that impatient itch they alwaies have after novelties Many we see will have no Ordination no Ministers no Sacraments rather than Bishops should have any hand in ordaining The honor of that Ordination which was in all ancient Churches must be cruelly sacrificed with all ancient and Catholick Episcopacy rather then some mens passions for a parity or popularity or an Anarchy in the Church be not gratified All Bishops as such and all Presbyters and all Christians and all Churches and all holy duties performed by them in that station and communion must be cryed down yea thrown down as the adulteratings and prostitutions of the Churches Liberty and of the purity of Christs Ordinances The hands of Bishops and Presbyters too though joyned and imposed in Ordination must be declared as impure vile and invalid yea a flat novel and impertinent distinction must be found out to vacate the Bishops eminency and yet to assert the Presbyters parity and sole power as resting in any three two or one of them though never so petty poor and pittifull men in all respects naturall and civill sacred and morall Yet these forsooth some fancy as Presbyters may still ordain because a Bishop say they did so meerly as a Presbyter of the same degree and order not as having any eminency of office degree authority or jurisdiction above the meanest Minister which St. Jerom and all antiquity acknowledged as a branch of Apostolicall dignity and eminency peculiar to a Bishop above any one or more Presbyters Which reproches against the persons power and practise of Bishops in England as usurpers and monopolizers in this point of ordination which they ever challenged and exercised as their peculiar honor office and dignity in this as all Churches if they could by any Reason or Scripture by Law of God or Man by any judgement or practise of any one Church or of any one godly and renowned Christian in any age or History of the Church be verified so as to make their power of ordination to be but a subtile or forcible usurpation in Bishops it would have been not onely an act of high Justice to have abrogated all the pretensions of Bishops to that or any power in the Church but it will be a work of admiration yea of astonishment to the worlds end in all after-ages and successions of Christian Religion which will hardly last another 1500 yeares to consider the long and strong delusion which possessed the Christian world in this point of Ordination as onely regular and complete by Bishops where their presence and power might be enjoyed Nor will it be more matter of everlasting wonder to ponder not onely Gods long permission of such a strong delusion but his prospering it so much and so long as a principall meanes to preserve and propagate the Ministry Order Government Peace and Power of true Religion and the true Churches of Christ which were never without Bishops as Spirituall Fathers begetting as Epiphanius speakes both Presbyters and people to the Church Nor will it be the work of an ordinary wit whether Presbyterian or Independent to salve all those aspersions and diminutions of either ignorance and blindness or fatuity and credulity or weaknesse and impotency which must necessarily fall from this account not onely upon the wisest and best Church-men but upon the most Christian and wise Princes the most zealous and reformed Parlaments of England who in the grand Reformation of this Church and ever since for neer an 100. yeares have after grave counsell and mature debate approved and appointed countenanced by a law and incouraged by their actuall submission the ordination of Ministers chiefly by the authority of Bishops never without them And this they did certainly not out of policy but piety not in prudence onely but in conscience convinced not only of the lawfulnesse of Bishops but of the necessity of them where Providence doth not absolutely hinder or deny them as it never did in England or elsewhere by the example of the Apostles by the ancient constant and uniform practise of this and all Churches by the suffrages of all Learned and Godly men of any account in all ages To all which were added as great preponderatings in behalfe of Episcopacy the many and most incomparable Bishops that have been in all successions of the Church the many Martyrs Confessors excellent Preachers Writers and Governours of that order lastly the unspeakable blessings which by their Ordination Consultation and Jurisdiction have been derived to the Church of Christ If all Estates in the Reformed Church of England have been hitherto deceived as to this point of Episcopall Ordination by Bishops sure they are the more excusable because they have erred with all the Christian world Nor could they be justly blamed if when they reformed superfluous Superstition they yet abhorred in this point so great and dangerous an innovation which must needs shake and overthrow the faith of many if the peculiar office and power of Bishops to ordaine Ministers and governe the Church were either onely usurped or wholly invalid as some of late have pretended not with more clamor than falsity But if all these jealousies and reproches cast upon Bishops and their Authoritative Ordination as a peculiar office and exercise of power eminently residing in them be most false and by some mens calumnies heightned to such impudent lies that no eructations of Hell or belchings of Beelzebub had ever more blackness of darknesse in them or more affrontive to the glory God and the Honor of the Catholick Church whence I beseech you O my Noble and worthy Countrymen is that dulness stupor and indifferency come upon us in England so far as not onely connives at the arrogancy of some Presbyters who without Scripture-precept or Catholick-patterne challenge this ordaining and Governing power as onely and wholly due to themselves discarding all Episcopall Eminency and Authority above them but
Seates they had most evidently continued in all Churches without any interruption or variation of the forme or power however the persons had been oft changed by mortality Certainly it is most easie for all learned honest and unbiassed men to see what the uniform and Catholick form then was of all Churches orderly combinations I dare appeale to Independents and Presbyterians as well as Episcopall men to declare bona fide what they find it was in the first and best times after Churches were once fully formed and setled in their severall partitions No man not more bold than bayard or more blind than a beetle but must see and confesse that according to the first platform which we read of in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles the Order Polity and Government of the Church was completed setled and continued first in Deacons who had the lowest degree of Church-office order and Ministry consisting in reading the Scriptures in making collections for the poor in distributing of charity in visiting the sick in providing things necessary safe convenient and decent for Christian Ministers and people when they met to serve the Lord in one place which place or house from hence was called Dominicum or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church or House of the Lord. Next these in order degree and office were Presbyters that is ordained preachers to whom was committed by the Apostles first and after by Bishops their successors the Charge and Office of Catechizing the younger of Preaching to the elder of Baptizing believers and their children of consecrating the holy Elements of the Lords Supper and of admitting worthy Communicants to receive them besides the grave and venerable Presbyters had as brethren the priviledge of electing their Bishops also of counsell confessions and assistance with their respective Bishop's in publick concernment and grand transactions of the Church Above both these in eminency of place degree and power as to gubernative Authority were those prime Bishops or overseers of the Church first called by the name of Apostles as immediately set by Christ in that Episcopacy next were those that were personally appointed by the Apostles to supply their absence or to succeed them in that ordinary presidency and constant jurisdiction which was necessary for the Churches peace union and good Government of which we have two pregnant instances in Timothy and Titus who to be sure had Episcopall power given them not as Evangelists or Preachers but as Ordainers and Rulers of many Presbyters After these Bishops of a lesser size constantly succeeded being first chosen by the Presbyters of each grand Church or Diocese to that power and office and then consecrated to it or confirmed in it by neighbour-neighbour-Bishops who solemnly imparted to them and invested them in that Eminency of Ordaining and Ruling power which is properly Episcopall not onely for the dispensing of holy mysteries for the preaching of the word and absolving penitents as Presbyters who were a minor sort of Bishops but for confirming those who had in infancy been baptized for solemn excommunication and absolution for examining and ordaining Presbyters and Deacons for transmitting that Episcopall and Ministeriall power in a constant and holy succession according as they had received it so for judging of and inflicting publick censures and reproofes likewise for all Synodal Conventions and representations of the Churches lastly for the authoritative enacting and executing of all Ecclesiasticall decrees and Church-disciplines all which things Bishops did as a Major sort of Presbyters though a Minor sort of Apostles if we may believe the judgment practise and testimony of all Antiquity in the purest times which are diligently collected evidently set down and unanswerably urged by many late writers who have brought forth such a cloud of witnesses as to this point of Ecclesiasticall Order and Government by Deacons Presbyters and Bishops a threefold cord not to be broken that men may as well deny the Evangelicall History as the Original Institution and Succession of the Evangelicall Ministry and the orderly constant Government of the Church by the service of Deacons the assistance of Presbyters and the superintendency of the Apostles whom no sober man denies to have been while they lived the eminent Rulers authoritative Overseers and chief Governours and Bishops of all the Churches where they were fixed or which they had under their particular care and charge Nor may it with any more shadow of reason or truth be denied that Bishops in a distinct place and eminent power were a successive and secondary sort of Apostles inferiour to them in their immediate call in their extraordinary gifts and the latitude of their power but equall to them in that ordinary constant and regular jurisdiction which was and is ever necessary for the Churches good Order and Government If all sorts and sides would look beyond their own later prejudices and presumptions to this holy patterne this so cleare constant and Catholick prescription they would be ashamed of such grosse ignorance or impudence such peevishnesse or partiality as should beyond all forehead or modesty affect any novelty or variety from an Ecclesiastick custome and an Apostolick precedent so undeniably Primitive so famous so glorious so prosperous so never altered or innovated as to the maine that all true believers all humble Deacons all orderly Presbyters all Confessors all Martyrs all Synods all Councils submitted and subscribed to the same form and kind of Government in its severall stations and degrees according as the wisdome of the Church saw cause to use its prudence power and liberty as Calvin Zanchy and Bucer tell us in having not onely Bishops but Metropolitanes or Arch-Bishops Primates and Patriarchs ad conservandam disciplinam as Calvin ownes for the better Order Unity and Correspondency of the Church in all its parts which were never quarrelled at till pride begat oppression and envy schisme in the Church till foolish and factious spirits chose to walk contrary to the true principles and proportions of all right Reason and Religion of all prudence and polity which are to be observed in all Societies sacred or civil which the Divine wisdome as St. Jerom observes had exemplified in the ancient Church of the Jewes and directed us to as Salmasius confesseth in all successions of Churches by the Spirit of wisdom which Christ gave to his Apostles and all their immediate successors the Bishops who were conform to them and impowered by them to be a kind of Tutelary Angels of presidentiall Intelligences in the larger circles and higher orbes of the Church where as in Ephesus and the other grand Metropolitane Churches which are denominated by the Spirit of Christ and the pen of the Apostle from the chief Cities in those Provinces there were no doubt many Christian people Presbyters and Deacons yet all these subject as Beza glossing on St. Jerom confesseth to that one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Provost or President as their
ownes as the badg or bond of his admission into Communion with Christ and his Church both Catholick and congregationall generall and particular This it seemes must now not at all be owned or slighted nulled and forgotten by the superfetation of a new form of Christian confederation more solemn sacred and obliging as they fancy to Christian duties than that was which was solemnly made in the presence of the congregation ratified in the blood of Jesus Christ and testified in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost yea and after this the poor Episcopall Divines if they will gently comply and for feare Associate must quietly permit either the community of the people or the parity of the Presbyters in their severall lesser bodies and congregations or in their greater classes and conventions to challenge to themselves the plenary sole absolute perfect and unappealable power of not onely ordination which of old they never had as St. Jerom confesseth but of all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Discipline and this under the conduct and auspicious management of onely some Diurnall Dictator some temporary prolocutor or extemporary moderator who is forsooth to have the Image of a superficiall Bishop and the shadow of a short-liv'd superintendent a thing meerly occasional and unauthoritative as to any office or power inherent in him or of right to be challenged or exercised by him enjoying onely an horary arbitrary and humane presidency for fashion and civility sake without any Ecclesiasticall eminent or constant Authority residing in him as derived from Christ the Apostles or their successors or any Churches custome designation and consent in former times Such as was ever committed to owned in and used by the Bishops of the Church as regularly succeeding to the Apostles in that ordinary eminency of power which was necessary to keep both Presbyters and all Christian people and Churches good Order Peace and Unity which blessings they never more enjoyed or more happily than under a right Episcopacy Whose cause however of later yeares it hath been run down and trampled in a hurry under foot by some men in England Scotland and Ireland yet hath it suffered no reall diminution as to the true Honor of its Apostolick Authority its Primitive Antiquity its Catholick succession its high descent and its holy Originall which was never denyed or much disputed by any men of any considerable Learning and Piety till these later Dog-dayes in which not onely some single Stars of nebulous and dubious light but whole Constellations of them like Sirius or the Canicular Juncto erected under the new name and figuration of Smectymnuus to calculate the Nativity of a new Reformation became Lords of the Ascendent being filled contrary to their former Conformity and declared submission with a very unbenigne that I say not malignant influence not only against Episcopacy but in effect against the whole visible Constitution of this Church in which as Goods in a sunk ship all things are much wasted and abased by the ruine of Episcopacy Their destructive fires kindled from the colder parts of this Island first flamed into strange Logomachies thredbare cavillings and triviall strifes about Words and Names as if after sixteen hundred years all the Christians and Ministers of England its Princes and Parliaments its Synods and Councels yea all the Christian world elsewhere were to be Catechized by a few petty Presbyters in comparison and their Scot-English Assembly what the names of Bishop and Presbyter of Pastor and Teacher of Elder and Ruler of Helps and Governments of Apostle and Evangelist of Ecclesiastical Stars and Angels did mean which not onely all Writers but all times and practises of all Churches had sufficiently interpreted and cleared from the first promiscuous use of some general names which called the chief Apostles Prophets Evangelists Bishops Presbyters Elders Ministers and Deacons too in whose offices authorities and duties there were real and great differences to more proper and peculiar distinctions according to the several ranks degrees orders offices and powers then established in the Church After the Squibbs and Crackers of paper had been lighted and cast in the face of venerable Episcopacy at last as the manner is things came to dreadful Chiromachies such scufflings and fightings with hands and arms of flesh against that Government which is as the Ancient of dayes that they looked more like that Gigantomachy the Giants assaulting Heaven and the Gods than that Good fight of faith which ought to contend earnestly onely for that which was once uniformly delivered to all true Saints and received by all true Churches of Christ in doctrine order and government among whom all lesser disputations and differences circumstantial rising among good Christians were wont to be fairly debated and determined in lawful Assemblies in Ecclesiastical Synods and National or general Councils from which Christian and Orthodox Bishops were never either terrified or excluded but principally called and admitted as the chief Fathers of those holy Oeconomies or Christian Polities Nor was Episcopacy ever condemned by any of those Councils Synods or Assemblies in any Age of the Church much less was it ejected and extirpated as uselesse unlawful and abominable no not by any Synods and confessions of any Protestant and reformed Churches of note notwithstanding they could not conveniently enioy the blessing of it for so they accounted it either by reason of the petulancy of people or the impatience of civil Magistrates or the Sacrilegious humours and designes of all against the Clergy After all these prepossessions and just presumptions thus challenged to the cause and state of Episcopacy in point of its venerable and undeniable Antiquity I cannot but offer to its still scrupulous or implacable Adversaries these following Quaeres 1. How sad I beseech you and wretched how confounded and astonished must the awakened Consciences of those men be who have been the chief Authors and Fautors of our late troubles variations and miseries chiefly upon the account of their Antiepiscopal Antipathies if after all these combustions perturbations and plunderings of Religion which have rather pleased mens private passions and opinions than any way profited the publick welfare of this Church or State if I say these great sticklers against Episcopacy should be either grosly mistaken or malitiously perverted from the right path that good old way of which former Ages can better inform us then those that are but of yesterday and can know nothing but by their light 2. What if it should be as true as it is most probable because generally so believed in all Ages parts and places of the Church that the cause of Primitive Episcopacy is indeed the cause of God of Christ and of the whole Church the cause of all the Apostles of all Primitive Bishops their immediate successors yea the cause of all true Presbyters and all true Christians a cause in which the glory of God the wisdome of Christ the honor of the Apostles the fidelity of their successors the
Directory of Ecclesiasticall prudence and practise 8. What if the Great God of order peace and truth as well as so many learned and godly men so many famous and flourishing Churches in all Ages should by beating or scaring men from their popular prejudices pitiful subterfuges and sinister designes thus mightily plead the cause of true Episcopacy against all those who have spoken and done so many perverse things against that excellent government What if he should by some powerful means rebuke their confidences as he did Job's justly demanding of these Destroyers Where is that Wisdom that Modesty that Gentleness that Charity that Moderation that Humility that Gravity and Christian Caution which became godly men to their betters to such a Church and to such worthy Bishops as were the Governours of it under God and the King Could you be ignorant of the learning graces virtues merits and worth which were in Bishops suitable to their lawful Autority Did you not know and with some repining see how justly they were preferred before Presbyters and People as every way fittest to be over and above them Are these immoderations and injuries the wayes of true Religion and Reformation Can there be true piety without charity yea without equity or pitty If evil men are not to be injured much less good men good Ministers and least of all good Bishops which were not wanting among you May not thus the lightnings of Gods rebukes be clearly seen and the terrors of his thunders be justly heard and the blastings of his displeasure be felt by all the unjust tumultuary malicious and implacable enemies of venerable Episcopacy Methinks I hear the Divine Majesty thus uttering his glorious voice against them O foolish People O unthankful Nation O degenerous Christians or deformed Church not worthy to be beloved of God or happily governed by wise men Do you thus requite the Lord and thus despise all the ancient Churches of Christ by forsaking yea rejecting your own mercies and happiness Is it a small thing that you have broken through all Laws and the arm of mans civil authority but will you also contend against the power of God and the wisdom of Christ whose out-stretched arm in the way of Episcopacy hath been in all Ages a defence and refuge to his Church Should you beyond the boldnesse of Balaam dare to curse what God hath not cursed or to defie what God hath not defied but signally owned with his blessing in all Ages and Churches In seeing do you not see and in reading do you not understand the constant methods of Gods guiding and governing both this and all other Christian Churches How hath a novel zeal but not according to knowledge blinded your minds Who called the first Apostles to be chief Bishops over all Churches Who supplied the Apostasie of Judas by the Election of Matthias to his Episcopacy Upon whom did the power of the Holy Ghost first come Who placed Bishops immediately after them in all completed Churches through the world What planted preserved united and reformed them but that Apostolical that is the Episcopal autority assisted by such Presbyters whom they ordained to part of the Office Labour Honour and Ministry Who were the chief Champions of the Gospel but the venerable Bishops in all Ages Who were the most resolute Confessors holy Bishops Who the most glorious Martyrs excellent Bishops Who were the most Learned and Valiant Asserters of the Orthodox faith Primitive purity sanctity order and harmony becoming Christian Churches but admirable Bishops Who were counted the prime Starres in the hand of Christ Who were called by way of eminency Angels by him but the chief Presidents and Bishops of the seven Churches To whom was Divine Power first given and after derived not onely to teach and feed but to ordain Presbyters and Deacons also to rebuke rule and govern both Presbyters Deacons and People as St. Paul enjoynes but to holy Bishops in the persons and patterns of Timothy and Titus Archippus and others whose Authority as such no man ought to despise Who were they that wounded and destroyed the Great Behemoth and Leviathans of prodigious errors and spreading heresies in the four first Centuries but incomparable Bishops such as were Irenaeus Athanasius Epiphanius Augustine Ambrose Hilary Prosper both the Cyrils the Basils the Gregories and others Who quenched the wild-fires of Schisme and faction among Christian people and Ministers but excellent Bishops such as Clemens Ignatius Cyprian both the Dionysiu's Austin Optatus Fulgentius and others By whose sweat and blood next after the Apostles were the plantations and necessary Reformations of Churches watered and weeded but by the vigilancy and industry of worthy Bishops both in their single capacity and in their joynt Synods or Councills wherein Bishops as the Representatives or chief Fathers of all Churches as the families of Christ might orderly meet duly deliberate and autoritatively determine what seemed good to the Spirit of God and to them for the Churches Purity and Peace according to the Scriptures precept and Catholick practise Who were those renowned Pastors and Preachers of old that mitigated the Spirits of great Princes that converted many Nations that baptized mighty Kings and Emperours that advanced the Gospel beyond their Empires and set up the Crosse of Christ above their Crownes not in soveraignty or civill power but in the Divine Empire of Verity Sanctity and Charity Who moderated the Spirits and passions of persecutors Who convinced them of their errors resolved their scruples who condemned their sins who terrified their consciences and who either raised or restored them through repentance to the peace of Christ and his Church but heroick wise and invincible Bishops Who have been the chief Luminaries in all Churches in all Ages the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel the prime Pillars of Piety and Peace of Hospitality and Honour of Order and good Government but wise and renowned Bishops Who furnished all Churches with fervent Prayers devout Liturgies convenient Catechises learned Homilies practical Sermons accurate Commentaries and excellent Epistles with sound Decisions of Controversies and Cases arising in the Church or any private Conscience Who made up with charitable Composures all uncomfortable breaches and unkind differences among Christians but pious and prudent Bishops whose autority was ever esteemed as sacred being experienced in all Ages to be sanative and soveraign to Religion and the Church where they had freedom and encouragements to act as became the chief Pastors Counsellors and Governours of the Church in all Ecclesiastick concernments Sure if God would have them utterly destroyed he would not so long have accepted such sacrifices from the hands of Bishops both ancient and modern nor thus mightily have pleaded the cause of Episcopacy in all Ages and in this both as to Gods wisdom in and his blessing upon that way of Church-government and Governours But possibly our later Bishops especially in England whose cause is here chiefly pleaded were such
degenerous persons as deserved not to bear the name or knew not how to use the Office of a Bishop Doubtless their Enemies being Judges no place no Age no one Nation or Church in the world since the Apostles ever exceeded the Bishops of England for piety and learning for useful and exemplary vertues of which I shall afterward give more exact account no Church ever more happy flourishing or prosperous then the reformed Church of England was under such worthy Bishops as some men so despitefully used Could Bishops in this and all Churches be so blessed of God and yet Episcopacy deserve to be so abhorred of men Were the Evangelical labours of godly Bishops so plentifully watered with the Dew of Heaven and yet doth their function deserve to be rooted out of the Earth If Episcopacy in its secular riches and honours must needs be destroyed in order to confiscate the Churches Lands yet at least primitive though poor Episcopacy might have been preserved whose ancient eminency would have been both authoritative and conspicuous among good Christians through the Clouds of such undeserved poverty Though some men might presume to deprive Bishops of their deserved and lawful Estates yet sure they were too bold to rob the Church of all excellent and deserving Bishops such as England ever afforded both before and since the Reformation which the Romish and Jesuitick policies never hoped more effectually to deforme and destroy than by helping to carry on the routing of Episcopacy Certainly the excellent Bishops of England were the greatest Eye-sore of the Pope and his Conclave nor did they care to fight by their secret and open Engines against small or great Presbyters so much as against these Prelates who had so long stood in their way They knew when these chief Shepherds were smitten the Sheep would soon be scattered nor were Papists ever more gratified than when Episcopacy was extirpated out of England What if the God the Lord of his Church the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath laid the Government of it on the Shoulders of Christ Jesus and he derived the external administration or dispensation of it to the Apostles and they to succeeding Bishops as spiritual Pastors and venerable Fathers of his Church what if he should thus plead the cause of Episcopacy in the eminency of its Apostolical order and primitive authority against all those that have spoken acted and written so many peevish spiteful popular partial and perverse things against it What if he should lay to their Consciences what is visible to their and all mens eyes the sad divisions miserable confusions and horrid vastations of this Church and the Reformed Religion which have followed the destroying of harmlesse honourable ancient venerable useful and necessary Episcopacy Would they not be infinitely ashamed and mightily confounded for the new Modes which they have taken up for the Oakes which they have chosen to over-shadow themselves yea for the Briars and Brambles which they fancy as fittest to rule themselves and the Church of Christ in this Land either by way of parity or popularity which are not fit methods to rule their own families withall Will a few arbitrary precarious Presbyters and unautoritative Preachers or their new Associations serve their turn Or will a few petty Congregations or Schismatizing Conventicles here and there scattered and scrambled together in Cities and Countries be able to countervail the damage or to recompence the unspeakable defects and detriments which this Church and Nation which all estates and degrees of Christian people have sustained by the totall loss and overthrow of primitive Episcopacy which was as it were smothered to death in a crowd and huddle never legally examined or fairly condemned by the free and full suffrages of all estates so as its Antiquity worth and honour did deserve What learned prudent and conscientious Ministers or other Christians can be fully satisfied with those new-fashioned ordinations and ministrations of holy things which neither they nor their Fore-fathers nor any ancient Churches ever knew and wherein that Divine Authority which they challenge is so justly doubted or disputed as by no Catholick hand or regular course committed to them If that Ministeriall power which is challenged and exercised upon such new accounts of humane policies and later inventions if it should really be none at all or as weak and defective as it is dubious for Ordination as it is for Jurisdiction which is very much feared and suspected by very wise and good men especially where not want and necessity deny but wantonnesse and wilfulnesse seek to deprive Christians of their true Bishop O how vain how invalid how arrogant how insignificant must those Ministers and all their holy Ministrations appear to many Christians who have of later years set themselves up by a Presbyterian Commission or Popular Election not onely without but against their lawful Superiours who were every way so able so worthy and so lawfully authorized for that office and eminency not onely as they were ordained Presbyters but as they were further consecrated Bishops that is placed by Christ and appointed by the Church in an higher degree capacity use and exercise of Ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction then ever was in any Presbyters Of which eminency Episcopal as that famous Council of Nice took such care to have it continued after the cient mode and patern of publick Election and solemn Consecration or the Churches Benediction so all this formality must have been very superstitious and ridiculous if it added nothing of authority and power peculiar to them as Bishops but onely what they formerly had received in common as Presbyters Doubtless reordination as rebaptization to the same office and degree in the Church was ever condemned in the Church of Christ as impious because superfluous a meer mockery of Religion a taking the name of God in vaine forbidden by the African Canons and many Councils never practised by any but such as St. Basil the Great reports one Eustathius of Sebastia to have been whom he calls an infamous Heretick a notorious deserter of the Churches Catholick Communion If St. Chrysostome in the fourth Century had judged it enough to complete him in his Episcopall power and Authority to have been once ordained a Presbyter as he was in Antioch where he so lived twelve yeares sure he would not have troubled himself to have been after ordained or consecrated a Bishop by Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria and others of that order when he was chosen to be Bishop of Constantinople Nor would St. Austin a person no lesse pious and learned who had been ordained Presbyter by Valerius Bishop of Hippo been ordained anew by Megalius Patriarch of Numidia when he was chosen to be Bishop of Hippo. In like sort was one Alexander a Presbyter ordained by St. Chrysostome to be Bishop of Bassinopolis according to the uniforme method of Antiquity which judged that the Presbyters chusing the peoples approving and the
next Bishops consecrating or blessing of the Elect Bishop made up that complete power and eminent Authority in which he that was formerly but a Presbyter was now invested as a Bishop or President of any Church which made Epiphanius brand Aerius for a mad man and subverted by the Devill upon his discontent for being repulsed from a Bishoprick of which he was ambitious because he made Episcopacy and Presbytery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of equall dignity efficacy and authority yet is Epiphanius often and highly commended by St. Jerom who was but a Presbyter and lived in his Diocese sometime as a person sanctae venerabilis memoriae of holy and happy memory This then appearing so pregnantly to have been the judgement and practise of all Antiquity which preferred Episcopall dignity and Authority above simple Presbytery I do not see how learned modest and ingenuous men can lightly esteem or actually oppose so Ancient and Catholick an order in the Church so usefull so necessary for any Churches well-being which is unseparable from its good Government Lay aside then passions prejudices partiality love of novelty and childish pertinacy I cannot but hope sober men will cheerfully returne in their judgements desires and endeavours to correspond with Primitive and paternall Episcopacy acknowledging the ancient Rights of it as well as the use of it to be Catholick and Apostolick so delivered to us in all Ages and successions not onely by Bishops but by Presbyters and Deacons too such as Clemens of Alexandria Tertullian Origen and others were from all which wholly to vary and recede cannot be other than shaking and in great part subverting the very foundations of Unity Charity and Stability in the Catholick Church as to its visible Order Communion and Government wherein all good Christians should not so much study the temporary satisfaction of particular parties and interests as the constant and common good of the whole Polity and Society wherein all honest mens private concernments are best preserved by such a publick Authority as is most venerable and least disputable What some have alledged to weaken and baffle the Catholick Antiquity of Episcopacy as to its Primitive and Apostolick plantation by bastardizing all the Epistles of Ignatius as wholly supposititious and so interpolated at best with the oft-repeated Crambes of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons to a kind of nauseous affectation savouring they say more of later subtilty than Primitive simplicity All this hath no weight in it considering the high esteem was had of Ignatius in the Churches of the second and third Centuries besides what the learned Usserius and Vossius do own in their late Examens not onely for his Martyrly constancy but for his so holy and generous Epistles so full of devout flames and sacred fervors of love to Christ of Charity to his Church and zeal for Martyrdome that it were a thousand pitties this lukewarm Age should want the warmth of Ignatius his spirit glowing in his Epistles such as were often owned and cited by the first Ecclesiastick Writers St. Jerom Eusebius and others as genuine Nor doth it seem so probable that any in those or after-times which had no dispute either for or against Episcopacy should studiously adde those frequent testimonies for it which are seen in the most unsuspected parts of Ignatius but rather that Holy man was directed by Gods good Spirit in his Martyrly zeal and extasies of love to Christ and the Church to reinforce and reiterate as he doth the validity of his testimony for Order and Unity in the Church as foreseeing the quarrels which might be about Episcopacy and that the Communion of the Church would be much dissolved when the reverence and submission to Episcopall order and eminency should be so remitted disputed or denied that either Presbyters or people should run to parity and popularity the certaine high-waies to Anarchy Truly Ignatius is not more frequent for the honor and eminency of Episcopacy than for a venerable Presbytery in its due place and rank which might make him seem lesse fulsome to some Presbyters if they were not their own enemies out of excessive transports against all Bishops Vedelius of Geneva who had as good a nose and quick a sent as most men would not have so studied Ignatius his Epistles and sifted them as he doth if he thought them all drosse or refuse yea he is so evicted by them that he cannot forbear to subscribe to many of them in many places yea and to such an Episcopacy as that holy Martyr joynes with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a venerable Presbytery which he hardly doubts much lesse denies to have been in that first Century after Christ when Ignatius wrote those Epistles being Bishop of Antioch after Eâ—odias constituted there by Saint Peter when he left that Church to go to others Nor is there any more force in the fancies that some men draw from St. Clemens contemporary with St. Paul who in his Epistles ownes no Bishops as distinct among or above Presbyters in the Church of Corinth to whom he wrote that divine letter upon occasion of Schisme or Sedition risen among the Presbyters of that Church Sure the enemies of Episcopacy are hardly driven to find testimonies in Antiquity against it when they are forced to wrest them out of such Writers who were undoubtedly themselves Bishops as Clemens was in the Church of Rome in whose person he writes that Epistle to the Corinthians as Eusebius St. Jerom and all Antiquity before them do witness It is true St. Clemens then wrote when the Name of Bishop and Presbyter were not so distinct as afterward Episcopal eminency being either in the Apostolicall persons and power yet surviving or conveyed under the Names of Bishops and Presbyters to lesser Apostles and Apostolick successors whom St. Clemens calls the first fruits of the Apostles placed by them as he saith to be Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in all Churches to serve and oversee or Rule the Church according to Christian order and Ecclesiasticall comelinesse as the State of the Churches required Which he represents by those three orders among the Jewes which God had appointed namely the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief Priests the Priests and Levites which Orders as he sayes God confirmed by the miracle of Aarons Rod against the factious and seditious spirits among the Jewes so the Apostles foreseeing the contention that would arise about the name of Episcopacy did place those worthy persons to be their successors whom others in like order might follow to execute as he expresseth the proper ministrations and offices which are to be performed in the Church not confusedly but by such persons and in such times and places as the Lord had appointed So that either the Corinthian Presbyters were then as so many particular Bishops attended onely with their Deacons in their severall Charges which might be many and large enough in that ample
can be proper to usher in true Christian Religion and Reformation these methods have made them so stunted and ricketly that they are come to a stop-game so that in these last and worst Ages of the world there hath been little or no progresse made to the true propagating of the Gospel among any heathen Nations or of any Reformation among the decayed Christians because Religion is every where even among many Christians and Reformers too much managed as the Spaniards did among the West-Indies with force and fraud with covetousnesse and cruelty with faction and ambition with regard to worldly interests of men more than to the true precepts and holy concernments of Christ and his Church Who is there that will entertaine Christianity or any Reformation when it comes in like Turcisme and Barbarisme with fire and brimstone with swords and canons pretending to convert and save soules but to be sure it will first pervert the Lawes ravine mens Estates and destroy at last mens lives if they do not submit even against their consciences as well as the Lawes to strange Innovations Truly these are engines onely fit to be used by such spirits as are Antichristian who know not of what Spirit Christ and his Apostles with their successors the Primitive Bishops and Presbyters were Nor did the Popes of Rome ever more staine the honor of that Apostolick See and the glorious name of Catholick Episcopacy than when they forgot to follow their pious predecessors holy and humble Bishops of that famous Church for 600. yeares who were Martyrs or Confessors or true Professors of the Gospel and betook themselves to such arts of secular policy and power of sedition and ambition as made some after-Bishops of Rome seem rather Monsters of men as their own writers confesse than Ministers of Jesus Christ imitators of Sylla Marius and Caesar more than of St. Peter or St. Paul or St. Clemens when they sought by Hildebrandine arts to exalt themselves above all that is called God in civil Magistracy which justly claimes under God and from him as did the Kings of Judah that supreme visible power which within their respective dominions doth orderly and duly manage all ministrations Ecclesiasticall as well as Civil for the publick peace and welfare Certainly since Christianity it self in its grand Articles Ministry and Mysteries must not thus be brought in by head and shoulders by force and affronts upon any Prince or State whatsoever much lesse may any Reformation never so desirable and just As for some little defects or veniall deformities they ought not in any sort to be so urged as should carrie Religion beyond good manners or Reformation to rudenesse Not persecuting but persecuted Bishops and Presbyters are the ablest preachers and aptest propagators of the Gospel such as while they lift up their voyce like a trumpet not to give the alarmes of war but to tell Judah of their sins and Israel of their transgressions do also lift up holy hands and pure hearts to God in prayer for all men but chiefly for Kings and all in Authority In the greatest depressions of Christianity and Episcopacy for they ever went together as Truth and Order Ministry and Authority both of them being necessary for the being or well-being of any Church never any godly Bishop or orderly Presbyter who were still the foremost and stoutest Champions for Religion did make any seditious appeales scurrilous libels or declamatory invectives against the powers that were by whatever meanes they either obtained or held or exercised their soveraignty They never thought it their duty as Christians or Ministers to stir up the spirits of any men great or small many or few to any unlawfull commotions and so they esteemed all to be which had not the consent and Commission of those in civil dominion who were supreme and the present Powers ordained of God When any of those holy Bishops and Presbyters were necessitated not out of revenge or anger but out of charity and pitty to their persecutors to bring forth their strong reasons by way of Learned Grave and unanswerable Apologies for their Religion as many of them did hoping thereby to buoy up the cause of Christianity not onely from unjust persecutions but from false prejudices they did write them indeed with an heroick kind of freedom yet with all due respect dedicating their writings by way of humble supplications or cleare yet comely Remonstrances to the Emperours or Senates to the Princes and supreme Magistrates themselves so did Justine Martyr his first Apology to the Senate of Rome his second to the Emperour Antoninus Pius so Tertullian his to the Emperour Severus and his Son so Quadratus Bishop of Athens to Adrian the Emperour and in like manner did others But never any Primitive Bishop or Presbyter did use any Satanick Stratagems or such seditious practises as were to advance Religion by any thing that tended to or intended popular tumults and rebellion no impudent libellings and scurrilous pamphletings to make either the persons of Princes odious or their Government infamous Episcopacy never used any such conjurations as would either bring down fire from heaven or stir up Earth-quakes neither exciting the Optimacy and Nobility nor the Populacy and Communalty against any either supreme or subordinate powers they never made the waters above the firmament and those under it so to meet by breaking up the great deeps of subjection or by opening the fountains of plebeian Liberties as to bring in terrible inundations upon Kingdomes or Common-wealths No they alwaies by the word and Spirit of Christ which were their onely swords and these two as Christ said to St. Peter were enough for that work set bounds to the proud waves of that raging Sea the tumultuating people and rather repaired the banks and breaches that others rashnesse as the Circumcellions and Euchites somtime made than either assisted or countenanced those horrid deluges of sedition They never wrested the Revelation or any other places of Scripture so as to animate the earth that is the common and meanest people to help the Woman that is whatever some list to call their Church and Religion in its agonies that by their unlawfull motions they might bring forth something that faction lists to call Reformation a word that is never out of the mouths of John of Leiden and his complices though far from their hearts Godly Bishops and Presbyters never either taught or thought those practises to be any helping of the Lord against the mighty No they ever judged and preached after St. Pauls St. Peters and our Blessed Saviours Doctrine and example that such inordinate motions upon pretexts of Religion are cursed and damnable resistings of those powers which God hath ordained by the civil Lawes and customes of any Church or State The Lord and true Religion are onely to be helped by laudable and lawfull actions the measures of which are not to be sought in every mans private breast and
Custom and Canons of this as of all Churches also by the ancient Lawes of this Nation thus splitting even their dear Presbytery in pieces which was best embarqued with Episcopacy while they ran this on ground upon the Rocks Quick-sands the oppositions of power and the despiciencies of people between which all Church-government and publick respect is now removed from both Bishops and Presbyters Alas how pitiful a part of any Government have any of these Ministers now to act and please themselves with who affected to play a new game at Chesse in this Church onely with pawns and rooks without Kings or Bishops whose unseparable fate at least as to the Genius of England King James very wisely foresaw would stand and fall together if he had as wisely prevented the danger and damage of both it being very hard for any Soveraign Prince to govern such an head-strong people unless he have power over their minds as well as their bodies This a Prince cannot have but by Preachers who as the weekly Musterers Orators and Commanders of the populacy do exercise by the Scepter of their tongues a secret and swasive yet potent Empire over most peoples soules These preachers he knew were not easily kept either in good order or in just honor being men of quick fancies of daring and active confidences great valuers of themselves and ambitious to be many Masters yea popular and petty Monarchs in the Thrones of their Pulpits and Territories of their Parishes unlesse there were some men over them who are fittest to be above them as being too hard for them in their own sphere and mystery best able to judge of Ministers Learning Opinions Preaching Praying and Living men for yeares of Gravity and Prudence rewarded with Estates and Honors And such were Bishops without whom Christian Monarchs are like those Kings who had their thumbs and great toes cut off it being not possible for a Prince immediately to correspond with every petty Presbyter nor is it comely to contest with them nor can he be quiet from their pragmatick janglings unlesse they be curbed by some such Learned Authoritative and Venerable Superiours as are properest for them who were the fittest mediums between the King and his other Clergy both to perswade Princes to favour the Church and to perswade Church-men to preach and practise loyalty toward their Princes which tends to the honor of both Magistracy and Ministry So that it was no other then an obvious conjecture to foretel No Bishop no King since the same Scriptures and Principles of both reason and religion piety and policy lead men to obey both as rulers over them in the Lord or to reject both by affecting popular parities and communities as in Church so in State Which abatement of Kingly or Soveraign power in one person as to its civil Magistratick and Monarchical eminency hath by late experience been found so inconsistent with the Genius of this English Nation that the Representatives of the People have not onely importunely petitioned the restitution of Monarchical yea Kingly government but they have actually setled the main authority in one person under an other Name and Title justly fearing lest the dividing and diminishing of Soveraignty Majesty and Authority as to the chief Governour should in time make a dissolution of the civil Government by frequent emulations and ambitions incident to any such Nation as England is which hath so many great and rival Spirits in it prone to contemn or contest with any thing that looks like their Equal Nor do I doubt but Time will further shew us if it hath not done it already sufficiently that no less inconveniences and mischiefs both as to Church and State may follow the debasing and destroying of Ecclesiastical power and authority in England dividing and mincing it so diverting the ample and fair the ancient and potent stream of Episcopacy which flowed from the Throne of Christ and of Christian Kings into the new rivulets small channels and weak currents either of Presbytery or Independency The Scepter of Government in Church or State like the staff or rod of Moses when it is cast out of his hand on the Earth or populacy turns to a serpent Democracy being a very terrible Daemogorgon untill it be resumed into Moses his hand as King in Iesurun it doth not return to its former beauty strength and use which that did after it had justly devoured the rods and serpents of the Magicians as in time Monarchical Government will do all other kinds or essayes in Engl. which are but the effects of popular passions and encroachments carried on more by some Preachers Inchantments then by Lay-mens Ambitions Strabo and others tell us that the people of Cappadocia when the Romanes had conquered their Kings and offered them their Liberty as a Province or free State under them they refused the favour affirming the temper of their Country was such that the people in it could not live if they were not governed by a King So pertinacious were they as indeed most people in the world have been and are at this day to retaine the sacred Tradition of Kingly or Monarchicall Government which being parentall and Patriarchall is most naturall and divine derived to us by nature and confirmed by good experience ever since Noah and Adam who had their just Soveraignty as Fathers and Kings over all mankind derived to them from God the Great Father and Eternall King over all from whom Monarchy and so Episcopacy derive their Majesty and Authority Primogeniture carrying with it as Princely so Priestly power which made the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 41.45 Exod. 3.1 to signifie both Prince and Priest The want of either of which and the swerving from either of them commonly occasioneth infinite distractions in any Nation and Church especially if they have been in all times wonted to be governed by them To avoid which miseries among Mankind the Wisdom of God hath guided as most Nations to Monarchy so this and all primitive Churches to the royall Priesthood of Episcopacy from the very cradle or beginning of Christianity At which time S. Jerom to Euagrius confesseth it was toto orbe decretum a Catholick Decree and Order through all the Christian world which could be no other then Apostolical at least And however other Reformed Churches may make a shift to live and some of them thrive without the formal name and title of Bishops though most of them have the efficacy of the power and the reality of the authority in their Superintendents yet I am confident till English Spirits are wholly cow'd and depressed with war and such exhaustings as utterly dis-spirit and embase the Nobility Gentry and Communalty nothing will be more inconsistent with them than what savours of parity and popularity in Church-Government They will rather affect to have every one what they list which in effect will be no Government properly Ecclesiastick further then they may be commanded
same Faith Spirit Power and Authority was it that made the just and valid sentence of Excommunication in Primitive times so terrible and that of absolution so comfortable to all good Christians even as the sentence of Jesus Christ at the last day which Tertullian Cyprian the first Council of Nice and others tel us of Because it was no private spirit of any Christian or Congregation or Church or Presbyter or Bishop or Metropolitane or Patriarch that properly did excommunicate but it was the Spirit Power and Authority of Jesus Christ given to diffused among and shed abroad in his whole body of the Catholick Church and in that name dispensed by the particular Bishops and Pastors of it in their severall Stations or Places as the visuall and audible powers or faculties which are in the soul are exerted and exercised onely by the Eyes and Eares Hence was it that whoever was by any one Catholick Bishop with his Presbyters and his people excommunicated was thereby cast out of that and all other Churches Communion in all the world nor was it lawfull as the Nicene Councill and African Canons tell us for any Bishop Presbyter or Christian people to receive into Church-fellowship or to the holy Communion of the Eucharist any one that was thus secluded Then did this great and weighty Thunderbolt of Excommunication seemingly lose its Primitive virtue and value not really for it holds good still according to the Originall Commission when lawfully executed in binding or loosing in opening or shutting as Christ deposited it with his Apostles and their successors when Factions or Schismes being risen in the Church contrary sentences of Excommunication were on all sides passionately bandied against each other not from that unity of the Spirit which kept the bond of Truth and Love but from the private Passions Presumptions Prejudices and Opinions of such as either openly deserted or occasionally declined from that Catholick Community and Unity of one Faith one Lord one Baptisme one Spirit for gifts and graces for the Authority and Efficacy of Christs holy Ministry After these preposterous and partiall methods not onely many particular Christians but some Presbyters and Bishops yea whole Synods and Councils have sometimes passed the sentences of Excommunication both as to declaring the guilt and merit of it also to the act and execution of it very precipitantly partially passionately and uncharitably even against such Doctrines Practises and Persons as were orthodox and peaceable really in Communion with Christ and with the Catholick Church of which one early great and sad instance was that in the second Century of Victor Bishop of Rome who in the case of Easter grew so zealously exasperated against the Greek and Eastern Churches as Quartadecimans that he thought them worthy to be excommunicated in the name of all the Latine Churches notwithstanding that many grave and Learned Bishops with their Churches testified that in observing the fourteenth day of the month they followed the Primitive Custome and pattern delivered by the Apostles to them wherein St. Irenaeus according to his name with greater Moderation and Charity sought not onely to appease but to represse the inordinate heats of that Pope and his adherents who had a zeal but not according to Charity breaking Christian Communion while he urged too much conformity in all outward things beyond the liberty which was granted and had been long used in the Church concluding that difference of times or daies not divinely determined in the observation of the same duty ought not to make any breach of Catholick Unity Christian Charity but rather assert exercise that Christian Liberty which may in Circumstantialls as to outward Rites be in the severall parts of Christs Church untill all think fit to agree in that Circumstance of time as well as they did in the substance of the duty which was the Eucharisticall Celebration of Christs Blessed Resurrections which was the reviving of the Christian faith and hope After this example did St. Cyprian in Africa excommunicate those that would not rebaptize or did communicate with such as Hereticks and Schismaticks baptized herein being contrary to the sense of the Catholick Church At length these and the like passions or surprises even of some Orthodox Bishops were made patterns and encouragements to any pragmatick Hereticks and arrogant Schismaticks These as they grew to any bulk and number like Snow-balls by rouling ventured to handle this hot Thunderbolt of Excommunication when they had most cause to fear it because their Petulancy Obstinacy and Contumacy against the true and Catholick Churches Judgement and Communion most deserved it if their first error did not Hence Excommunication was at last every where reduced and debased to private spirits full of pride revenge and partiality the Catharists or Novatians the Donatists and Arrians feared not by their Pseudoepiscopal Conventicles and Schismatical Assemblies to denounce these Terrors and Anathema's and to use the sharp sword of spiritual curses against the soundest parts of the Church as some dared to do against Athanasius and all the Orthodox both Bishops Presbyters and People This made in after-times all Excommunication very much slighted and despised while it either served to little other use than to execute the Popes wrath for many hundred years of great Darkness and blind Devotion or afterward in times of more Light and Heat it was uâ—ed as Squibbs are rather to scare and smut than much to burn or blast those who either used it or abused it rather to gratifie their own private spirits than to execute that publick power and Authority which Jesus Christ hath committed with his Spirit and Word to his Church and the Rulers of it by which who so was justly cut off cast out and given over to Satan was looked upon as separate from the comfort of Communion with Jesus Christ and the true God as well as the true Church in all the World Nor was this onely a declarative act as to the merit of that fearfull doome and state confirmed by the consonant suffrage of all the Church as damnablâ— without Repentance and Reconciliation of which every private Christian might easily make a verbal report and oral denunciation but it was an authoritative and effectual act executive of the just and deserved judgement of God so as to be ratified in Heaven according to the original tenor and validity of Christs Word and Commission without Repentance just as what is by virtue of their Office done by any publick Judge Notarie or Herald is not onely declarative but also executive of the Will and command of the Prince specified in the authentick Commission or mandate under the Broad seal which is not onely the voice of the King and his Councel but of the Law and publick Justice it self yea of the whole Republick or Community as every man lawfully condemned by any Judge or cast by any Jury is virtually cast and condemned by the Will suffrage and consent of the Body politick
this Venerable resolver of No Sacriledg in selling Bishops Lands O! but this he tels us freely and with some earnestnesse as concerned had been horrid Sacriledg because of those he hath a good share those he hopes to enjoy together with his Bishops Lands Thus this irrefragable D. resolves that to rob the lesser Gods is Sacriledg but not to rob the greater Bishops were but Egyptians whom the Presbyterians as true Israelites might strip and spoyle So it were a sin to take any thing from an ordinary Citizen and common souldier but not from an Alderman or a Colonel It is lawfull to deprive Governours in Church or State of what they have but not the Governed Presbyters must jure divino have meat and drink and clothes to maintaine them that they may eate and preach but they need no Over-seers or Church-Governours to take care they preach no strange Doctrine nor live scandalously They must have victualls as beasts but they need no Government as Men Christians and Ministers O thrifty project O Blessed Paradox If it hold in all societies Civil and Military as well as Ecclesiastick it will spare the State many thousands of pounds upon the Civil account as it hath got it many upon the Church-account by taking away Bishops and their Revenues there being no need of such Governours and such Maintenance of Honor in the Church no more will there need any Judges in the Law nor Captaines and Colonels in the Army their places their pensions their pay may be spared if these be necessary why were not Bishops so for Order and Honor and Government and Judgement among the Clergy But he fancies that himself and other doughty Presbyters can do the work and govern without Bishops Possibly he may do it the better not onely for his grave carriage and reverend fashion of Living for his moderate meek and quiet Spirit for his great Learning and rare Endowments for the high Esteem that is had of him but especially because he is rich and hath a good part of the old Bishops Lands it may be a Spirit of government may go with them as a Spirit of prophesie did with the High-priests Office in Caiaphas but as for other poorer Presbyters and petty Rulers of his brethren the Antiepiscopal Ministers how fit they will be to govern in common how well they have managed Phoebus his Chariot since they undertook to drive it I leave to all wise and sober men to judge But it may be this purchaser is not against Bishops but against landed and Lorded Bishops he would have primitive and Apostolick Bishops which had no Revenues or Lordships or Lands or Palaces How sad is it that so good a man should have so evil an eye against the good hand of God and the bounty of good Christians onely as to their munificence to the Bishops and chief Pastors of Christs Church But why so blind and partial against Bishops when it is as primitive and Apostolical for Presbyters to have no Tithes or Glebes or Livings These were the setled blessings of the Church after the glory of Constantines time whom the Revelation seems so much to set forth to the Beauty Rest and Honor of the Church If this Pleader will be honest and impartial let him conform himself a Presbyter as well as Bishops to the primitive pattern They have not left but forcibly lost all let Presbyters leave also their Livings let this great Example begin let him turn sportulary Presbyter as well as he would have beggarly Bishops let him and others depend upon the Basket of Charity and the Bishops Distribution as was of old both for occasional contributions of Decimal Oblations and Imperial pensions of which Presbyters at first had no parochial portion or right which now this Pleader so much challengeth as if it had been his purchase or penny-worth and not the Alms of the Nation excited hereto chiefly by the piety of primitive Bishops and other Ministers in imitation of Gods ancient portion which they thought still the right of Jesus Christ Lord of all as to his merit and priestly portion to be kept in his Churches possession for his Ministers enjoyment especially since it hath by the devotion of the Nation been legally dedicated to his service and the support of his Servants which may be as well said of Bishops and other Church-lands as of Presbyters little Livings unless this Pleader think that those were too much for Christ and any of his chief Ministers to enjoy or that there was less of Law and publick consent as well as of private gift in them than other Donations or lastly unless he fancy there is not as much need of Government Order and Discipline and consequently of meet Bishops as chief Pastors or Shepherds for Christs flock as there is of pasture It seems he is more for the Bag Scrip and Wallet than for Crosier Crook or Shepherds staff O! but his blessed Tithes his rich Glebe his fat Parsonage these these he challenges as his right in Gods name as patrimonium Crucifixi Christs patrimony the Presbyterian Churches Dowry the Priests portion the Levites wages the Labourers hire the most holy things and utterly unalienable even Impropriations seem to him sacrilegious Alienations derived from no other title than the Popes Usurpation annexing them to Monasteries and by a continued succession of Sacriledge given to the Crown and so at last become Lay-fees Thus he seems to make Princes and Parlaments guilty at the second hand of this foul sin of Sacriledg which onely lies against Tithes Glebes and Parsonage-Houses the onely preferment it seemes that this plaintiffe hath been capable of or now aspires to O how far is reason from some mens Religion and justice from their Consciences And what I beseech all wise sober and upright men were Bishops Houses and Revenues but greater Glebes and Livings given to men of the same calling for the same holy and good ends for the service of God and the Church though to some higher degree of Duty and Dignity of Office and Authority not onely to preach the Gospel and administer the holy Sacraments in common with Presbyters but further to preserve a right succession of Ministers and to dispense the power of holy Orders by a Catholick Ordination which ever was Episcopall also to manage duly that Ecclesiasticall Discipline and Government which ought to be carried on as by men of greater Age Gravity Ability and Authority than ordinary Presbyters use to be so with a proportionable conspicuity for Honor and Estate for Hospitality and Charity all which are as lawfull just and becoming a Bishop or chief Governour among the Fraternities of Ministers as a greater pay or Salary is to Judges Colonels and Captaines not for their doing more drudging work and duty than common men or souldiers may do but for that eminent worth and prudence and sufficiency which they are presumed to have in order to Rule and Command others who are men equall as themselves and
well he hath digested these Bishops Lands which now seem as a Lay fee to nourish the Beast and Man not the Presbyter Minister or Bishop as him will give the world cause in after-Ages to look as narrowly to him and his posterity how they thrive as the Roman Souldiers did to the Jews Guts and Excrements when they searched for the Gold which they had swallowed as Josephus tells us Some are so superstitious as to imagine that Bishops and all Church-lands or Revenues properly such as pertaining to the support of that Order Government Authority Ministry Charity and Hospitality which ought to be in Clergy-men are like Irish wood to Spiders and venemous beasts prone to burst them so that vix gaudet tertius haeres nay though they possesse them yet they do not enjoy them for nothing temporal can be enjoyed without a serene Mind an unspotted Fame and an unscrupulous Conscience all which if this gallant purchaser enjoyes together with his Bishops Lands and other fine things which he hath bought truely he is an object of most unfeigned Envy where I leave him and his Vindication This I am sure some men Ministers and others are so scrupulous in such a case that they never think a good penny-worth can be had of Bishops or Church-lands nay they would not have them gratis to stuff their Feather-beds fuller lest they should lye and sleep less at their ease highly magnifying that one thing recorded as commendable among the Jews in their greatest Hard-heartedness Madness and Sedition that during the siege straitness and famine of Jerusalem under Titus-Vespatian yet they were not wanting to furnish the Temple Priests and Altar of God with that juge sacrificium daily sacrifice Morning and Evening which God had once required till the great sacrifice of Messias had finished all by his once Oblation of himself which their blindness and unbelief would not understand Nothing can be too much for his Service who is the Giver of all But I return whence I was forced to digress CHAP. XXVII BEsides the Preservation of the Churches patrimony and Ministers maintenance which needs more an honourable Augmentation than any sordid Diminution there is in the second place great need O my worthy and honoured Countrymen of your redeeming this Church its Reformed Religion and its worthy Ministers from plebeian Arrogancies and Mechanick Insolencies from private Usurpations and popular Intrusions whereto both some Peoples Petulancies and some Preachers Pragmaticalness or Easiness are prone to betray them to the utter dissipation and destruction of that Order Honor Power and Authority of Religion which ought by wise men to be preserved as much as in them lyes It is certain that the Ministers of the Church of Christ which are made up of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons duely ordained and united in an orderly Subordination are as the Arteries of the Body politick in any Nation State or Kingdom which is Christian these carry from the Head which is Jesus Christ the vital and best that is the Religious spirits to all the parts as good Laws do in respect of civil Justice and Commerce like veins convey the animal Spirits with the blood and grosser nourishment from the Heart or Supreme power Once check abate or exhaust those vital Conduits of Piety and true Religion all parts of Church and State both noble and ignoble will soon be enfeebled abased mortified neither Common-people nor Yeomen nor Gentlemen nor Noblemen nor Princes neither Governours nor Governed will ever have either that Esteem Love and Honor for Religion which becomes it and them nor will they receive that Vigour Influence and Efficacy from it which is necessary for them while in the general Levelling Impoverishing Shrinking and Debasing of Scholars and Clergy-men none shall have either discreet Tutors for their Children or learned Chaplains for their Families or able Preachers for their Livings or grave Reprovers for their Faults or prudent Confessors for their Souls relief or reverend Governours to restrain them or spiritual Fathers to comfort them for none of their petty Pastors Preachers or Ministers will appear to them much beyond the proportions of Country-pedants not under any such character of eminent worth either for their personal Abilities or any such beam of publick Dignity and Conspicuity as may either deserve or bear the love respect and value of either Nobility Gentry or Communalty in England which are all high-spirited enough Not onely the civil and visible Complexion but the inward Genius and religious Constitution of this Nation will extremely alter in a few years as it is already much abated and abased by reducing all Scholars that are of the Clergy or Ministry to a kind of publick Servility Tenuity and Obscurity beyond any men of any ingenuous profession none of whom are so excluded but that by their industry and Gods blessing they may attain such eminence and encouragements as may make them most useful both to Church and State both in Policy and Piety neither of which can thrive or flourish to any Respect Power or Splendour of Religion in any Nation where the Clergy are made the onely Underlings and Shrubs condemned everlastingly to the basest kind of Villenage which is a sneaking and flattering Dependence which posture not onely streightens and shrinks but aviles and embaseth the spirits of any men there being nothing left them as to publick Favour Employment or Reward under any notion of hope which might heighten their parts or quicken their spirits to any such generous industry as might at least seek to merit them though they never attained them for still the Publick will hereby have the benefit of Ministers improved abilities however few Ministers obtain the deserved eminency the merit and capacity of which is many times better than the real enjoyment Having thus commended to you the publick interest of Church and State as they are very much depending upon the Honor and Happiness of your Clergy in the last place I beseech all persons of sober sense and judgement not to suffer themselves to be so far scandalized against the true Reformed Religion or this Church of England by its present distempers and sufferings as to abate of you former value and esteem of Her or of your present pitty for Her nor yet of your prayers and endeavours to repair Her O give not such advantages to your own innate corruptions or to other mens fond Innovations or to the Papists Triumphs or every Jesuits Machination or the Devils Temptations as either to discountenance or desert or decry or distrust the former excellent Constitution and Reformation of true Religion in the Church of England in which I am fully perswaded in my conscience there was nothing wanting to the being and well-being of a true Church and true Christians The first your own inordinate Lusts will be well enough content with no Religion or at least such an one as shall most find fault with the Church of England and all its
Christian Emperors the Churches Polity and Government being carried on by the same Apostolical power and Episcopal spirit was highly promoted even to secular Dignities and Estates Bishops being not onely every where unfeignedly venerated by all sorts of Christians as chief Pastors and spiritual Fathers succeeding to the chief Apostles by an uninterrupted and undoubted succession of which every Church had pregnant Records and Memorials but they were invested in such civil honors as make them Peers to the Senators Nobles or Patricians of the Empire which was more to their pomp and lustre but not more to their Episcopal authority and that filial respect which was paid to Bishops by all good Christians even then when they and their Clergy had nothing to live upon but the dona Matronarum oblationes Communicantium the contributions and offerings of devout people In this fair and sun-shine-weather as secular Peace and Plenty increased to the Church so Christianity spread very far as to the Fashion Profession and Form of it in branches and leaves but grew among many less fruitful in the real effects of Piety and Charity many now thronged into Christs Church but fewer touched him with the hand of Faith so as to heal their infirmities Yea as in the very first times under the Apostolical Episcopacy the Simonians Nicolaitans Gnosticks Corinthians and others afterward during the still-persecuting Ages the Marcionites Carpocratians Valentinians Montanists and others so in the most prosperous times the Manichees Novatians Donatists Arrians and Pelagians with diverse others became as branches either miserably split and slivered by their own schismatick and separate humors or quite wholy broken off by blasphemous Apostasies and the just sentences of Excommunication from that one Catholick Church and the unanimous Bishops of its communion for whom one Bishop did rightly excommunicate by the lesser or greater câ—nsure all Bishops Presbyters and Christians in all the world did the same virtually Hence many lesser and greater branches even some Bishops with their whole Presbyters and Churches grew sometimes scare and withered twice dead and pulled up by the roots by Error and Obstinacy by voluntary Desertion and Ecclesiastick Abdication as many Arrian and Donatist Bishopâ— Yet still by the correspondence and care of the excellently learned resolute and unanimous Bishops of the fourth fifth and sixth Centuries with their orderly Presbyters and faithful Flocks the Church ceased not to flourish for the most part in Verity and Unity in Piety and Charity as well as in civil Peace Plenty and Honour the holy and good Bishops every where still clearing the mosse and cankers which grew upon this fair Tree they pruned the Excrescencies and superfluities both of Jewish presumptions and Heathenish superstitions all and every one being prudently intent as far as times and the manners of men would bear to preserve his lot part or Diocese committed to him by consent of the people by the choice of his Presbyters and by the comprecation or consecration of his collegues the Neighbour-bishops so as became the relation they had to the whole Church after the grand patterns and models received from the blessed Apostles who first as Bishops of equal size and authority yet as men using an orderly precedency sprang from that one Root Christ Jesus and by their united Ministry spread abroad the Church far and neer 'T is true the primitive severity and rigour of Christian discipline much abated in times of greater peace and plenty many primitive signs of Christian love and communion as the Holy Kisse their Love-feasts their Oblations their Hospitality to all Christian strangers and the like were crowded out by the Wantonness Factiousness Hypocrisie Luxury and Avarice of some Christians besides Church-mens Ambition and Hereticall Furie none of whom would indure the sharp yoke of primitive Pennances Abstentions Castigations and many wayes of Mortification by Watching Sackcloth Fasting Prostrating Weeping Confessing c. At length Mahometan poyson and power cruelly pressed upon the divided and debauched Eastern Churches after this the Papal policy and power by insensible degrees in ignorant and turbulent Ages so prevailed upon the blindness and credulity of these Western Churches who were much wasted also with wars in Spain Italy Franee and here in Britanny by domestick Rebellions and barbarous Invasions that the face of this goodly Tree was much battered and altered from the primitive floridnesse and fruitfulnesse the Roman Church and its Bishop or Patriarch being like an Hydropick body swoln by secular Pride and Usurpation so much beyond its pristine comelinesse and honor that in stead of an holy and humble Apostolick Bishop of the same Order and Authority with his other brethren he must be owned in a superecclesiastical and a superepiscopal and a superimperial height as Lord and Soveraign and Prince above that is called God in Church and State Yet still while this Papal branch presumed thus to grow beyond its proportions to the over-dropping and dwindling of all other parts of the Church its form or fashion as a Tree in its winter or less-thrifty state remained even under those sad seasons of Papal perturbations and presumptions God never suffering the Church to be quite deformed much less hewen down because it was never so barren even in those dayes but it brought forth some tolerable Bishops Presbyters and other Christians yea many of them very commendable ones Neither Papal Foxes nor Mahometane Wild Bores had ever power to lay it quite wast or overthrow it both root and branch as to its saving foundations or its orderly constitutions or its authoritative successions in Bishops Presbyters and Deacons still holy Mysterys and holy Orders the holy Ministry and holy Scriptures holy Examples holy Doctrines holy Duties and holy Lives were continued in such order and by such conduct as easily represented the primitive pattern and Apostolick figure of this Tree though with many accressions and some deformities which time and ignorance and superstition or humane policy and secular pride had affixed to some main Branches of it in these Western parts of the Church yet the ancient Lineaments and true Model were very visible in Christian People Christian Deacons Christian Presbyters and Christian Bishops directed into several stations as Helps for the more orderly carrying on of the Churches Government in grand and national combinations In this posture stood the state of the Catholick Church as in all other places where the Vastations of Saracens and Turks had left any miserable Remnants of Christian Churches so most eminently in this Western world which the Providence of God had not yet wholly delivered over to Gog or Magog none of these Churches were without their Deacons Presbyters and Bishops untill that great Reparation rather than Alteration of Christian Religion began in these Western Churches about the Year 1520. which was justly called a blessed Reformation in many respects as to clearing the corruptions of Doctrine and Manners which had been contracted every where which
many young Preachers of very active fancy and eager to rule After all this digging and delving this rare plant of Presbytery soon dwindled either as having no great depth of good earth or as not planted by so lucky an hand as it should have been in so publick and grand a concern as Government is in any Church or State or as watered so much with Christian and Reformed blood In fine its very Bark grew streight and hide-bound its soft branches and sudden shootes grew weak and withering its junctures loose and infirm its top too heavy for its body and its bulk for its roots as an Epidemick terror at first so now a nauceous scorn befell most people some laughing at others despising these new Undertakers to govern all sorts of Christians great and small in England without the leave of the chief Governour in Church and State to whom they had sworn to be subject as to the supreme Governour in Church and State In a few years the breach which these Trojans had made in the walls of their own City this Church of England to bring in this wooden Horse of Presbytery so weakned their own defence both for maintenance and authority that when they thought Town and Country and City had been their own they saw themselves much forsaken as by Prince and Peers so by the people generally yea and by some of their greatest Masters who listed not to write upon Presbytery Jugum Christi or Sceptrum Crucifixi the Yoke or Scepter of Jesus Christ After this damp and coldness had fatally come upon most men who were now as willing not to be governed at all by any Presbyters as Presbyters were unwilling to be governed by their lawful Bishops no Agitating no Stickling no Preaching no Praying no Fasting no Printing no repeated Crambes of Christs Discipline of Elders and Elderships of Helps and Governments of the Necessity of the Divine right of the Aarons Rod of Presbytery which had been kept hid it seems in the Ark of the Covenant for 1600. years no splendid Names of Mr. Calvin Mr. Beza Mr. Farel Mr. Knox Mr. Cartwright Mr. Baines Mr. Brightman Mrs. Smectymnuus no urging the Covenant the Votes the temporary Ordinances of two Houses no engine was capable to buoy up Presbytery which was either leaky as built of green timber in hast or overloaden beyond its bulk and capacity Many sober and good Christians bred up under Episcopal prudence and gravity had already felt and others feared the Pertness and Impertinency the Arrogancy and Emptinesse the Juvenility and Incompetency the Rusticity and Insolency of some ruling and teaching Elders too Sober men disdained till they saw better reason from God and Man to put their necks thus into a new Noose and their hands under the Girdles of their either Equals or Inferiours no ingenuous man or woman thought that High-shoes and the Scepter of Government yea of Church-government yea of Christs Government could well agree together So that the decoy and fallacy the sophistry and shooing-horn of bringing in Lay-elders by Divine right with some shew of Common-peoples having an influence in the new Church-government was soon discovered and despised it being most apparent that Ministers must be very silly Schollars and less Politicians not to over-bear by florishes of Words and Wit or shews of Reason Learning and Religion all his Lay-elders oâ— ruling partners so that he would upon the point enjoy the sole government of his parochial Principality or petty-Episcopacy which would make the little-fingers of Presbytery in time heavier than the loyns of Episcopacy ever were by so much as many poor mens Oppressions and young mens Follies are like to be more ponderous than one rich and aged persons power At this stand and maze some Ministers and people who could not for shame return to Episcopacy not yet well persist in promoting Presbytery which they saw a lost game very notably betook themselves to a new Invention of Independency of which the first five famous Planters and Commencers in England were men as of prudential parts so of good esteem for their piety where they were known and some of them were reputed for their learning These Quinqueviri with very modest Applications and humble Insinuations first begged leave and liberty not onely to dissent from Presbytery with more brotherly tenderness than that had done from Episcopacy but to attend the further completing of that Church-way which they called Congregational or bodying of Christians of which they already had some general light and model in their heads as most scriptural though least discernable in any track or practise of former Churches Their grand postulate or principle was as Jacob very smooth popular and pleasing probable enough to gain Disciples in a more gentle way than Preâ—bytery had done which was red and rough handed like Esau the Independant planters owning people to be the first and chief Receivers and Dispensers of all Church-power Both of them agree and resolve having shaken hands for fashion-sake as brethren utterly to leave their aged Father and old stock Episcopacy which they thought like Isaac now blind superannuated doting and quite spent having no more blessing for them These as young and lusty striplings for a while socially apply to shift for themselves without interfering each with other the one as eldest hoped to live by Hunting by using arms and force to compell people to bring them provision the other as yet of a milder nature gently applies in a more furtive way to gather Churches like little flocks of sheep from any Fold whence they listed to stray to feed them by their own will and to rule them according to their own pleasure because by their own power and popular commission making the flock to be above the Shepherd and the ruled above the Rulers in an absolute complete and supreme power under Christ being immediately authorized from him to chuse and to depose to make and to reject to reprove and to remove their Officers to Presbyters Elders Pastors or Bishops as their menial servants and Christs Messengers as their dependent and manual Ministers elected and ordained as well as nourished and maintained by them The body of the people thus congregated or congregating themselves being the measure of all Church-power to it self and to all its members great and small neither appealing to others nor requiring others appeales to them neither ambitious to Rule over others nor enduring to be Ruled by others but wrapping up it self in smal volumes every Church carries like a snaile its shell and all it hath with it not troubling poor people with tedious and long journies with vexatious citations and appeales from one Classis or Court to another which were they say the burthens attending both Episcopacy and Presbytery which last mended as they truly tell the world them atter very little in point of peoples Ease Quiet and Liberty after it had so quarrelled with Episcopacy and with many sleights as well as
wife mans censure yet even for these chiefly it is that some subtil and silly people do most bitterly inveigh against them and in them against this whole Church and Nation which must either be guilty with the Clergie or the Clergie must be free and unblameable with the Parlaments and whole people of the land who chose and by law imposed such orders upon themselves and their Ministers Secondly for the Clergies private failings and personal infirmities either immorall or indiscreet to which as frail men they may be subject in these they desire to be the first accusers and severest censurers of themselves which ingenuity is sufficient to silence the malice of the worst to satisfie the justice of the best and to merit the pity as well as pardon of all charitable Christians who are not strangers to their own excess or defects Thirdly Beyond these which are but personal and occasional so venial failings the Clergie of England do defie and challenge their severest adversaries to charge and convince any considerable number of them either in private parties and conventions or in more publick Synods and Convocations of having at any time conspired to broach or abet any Heresy or false Doctrine any gross Errour Schisme or Apostasy any Immorality or Exorbitancy contrary to Truth Faith and good manners That liberty which some of the Clergie conceived might honestly be indulged to such people as were tired and exhausted with hard labour in the six dayes for their civil and sober recreation on the Lords day or Christian Sabbath thereby to counterpoise those Jewish severities which they saw some men began to urge and obtrude upon Christians both as to the change and rest of that day which quarrell is not yet dead in England this I am prone in charity to believe neither arose from any root of immorality in the advisers nor intended any fruits of impiety in the publishers who were not ignorant how far in such a Toleration they did conform to the judgement and practise too of some forreign reformed Churches and to the chief instruments of their Reformation who neither did nor do even in Geneva abhor avoid or forbid modest honest and seasonable recreations to servants and labouring people on the Lords day Although for my part I confess I approve rather according to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Homily of the time and place of prayer that holy strict observance generally used by the most cautious Christians in England which yet doth allow such ingenuous relaxations of mind and motions on that day as are neither impious nor scanlous being at once far removed from Judaick rigours and from Heathenish riots which medium was the sense and practise too of the best and most of the Clergie in England as to that one point of the Christian Sabbath or Lords day which Justin Martyr calls Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so sharply objected against some of them So then as to any reall enormities of opinions or scandalous practises in Religion the Clergie of England taken in their polity and integrality neither are nor ever were guilty since the Reformation either in Doctrine Worship Discipline or Manners which justification is as clear as the noon-day's light if not our selves nor our home-bred enemies but the Reformed Churches abroad or the ancient and Primitive Churches might be our Judges None but Papists and Separatists or Anabaptists and Schismaticks have ever condemned or suspected the Church or Clergie of England of any corruption in Doctrine of any flaw in the Foundation of any fraud in holy Institutions of any allowed licentiousnesse in our Conversations of any undecency in our Devotions of any superstition in our religious Administrations in all which according to the directions of Gods Word by the assistance of Gods holy Spirit through faith in the merits and mediation of the Son of God our onely Saviour Jesus Christ we worshipped the onely true God who is blessed for ever As to the point of Church-Discipline wherein some men were so clamorous and importune as if there had been no health in this Church because it did not take their physick which it needed not as the laws had not enjoyned all those ancient severities and strictnesses of penances because neither the temper of the times nor mens spirits would bear them so the wise Bishops and discreet Ministers under them did so manage this point of Church-discipline for many years by their care and vigilancy their good doctrine and exemplary lives their fatherly monitions and charitable corrections as far as the laws gave them leave that they happily attained to the reall use and best end of all Church-discipline which is the Churches peace and preservation in purity and honour in sincerity and conspicuity of true Religion whose interests might possibly have been carried higher as to the point of Discipline if the Clergie of England had been furnished with such a latitude of power as Primitive Bishops and Presbyters both enjoyed and exercised which the softness and delicacy of this Age would hardly endure especially when once the passions novelties ambitions of men were carried on under the pretexts of Reformation and new Discipline in which some men resolved never to be satisfied till all things fell under the tuition and gubernation of their own factions unless all Church-power be in some mens hands no Church-government is worth a button Not but that the remissness of some Church-governours and the rigours of others according to their private tempers judgements and passions might sometime by their excesses or defects possibly displease more calm and moderate men as warping too much on either hand from that medium and rectitude of charity discretion legality and constancy which the Canons of the Church intended Its constitution health and peace required especially in the peevishness and touchiness of those times when many Philistins and Dalilahs lay in wait to betray and destroy the Church of England Yet amidst these seeming exorbitances of some Church-men it may with truth be affirmed and is by all experience confirmed that the state of Christian and Reformed Religion for doctrine manners and government for piety charity and proficiency was far better both in England and in Wales than it now is or is ever like to be under those sad effects to which some mens fury faction and confusion seek to reduce this Church So then the male-administrations truly charged upon some Church-governours heretofore had not so bad an influence upon this Church and the Reformed Religion as the later want of able and fit Governours after the ancient way of Church-government hath now produced every where For the defects and inordinacies of some private Ministers which can be no wonder where there were above ten thousand of them I neither approve nor patronize them in the least kind onely I plead in behalf of the whole order and function as it stood in this Churches constitution that a few Ministers faults ought not in
Bishops and Presbyters of the Catholick Church the East and West the old and new the Greeks and Latines the Roman and Reformed that all these have conspired to erre so great so universall so constant an errour themselves and to mis-guide you me and all the Christian world in such wayes of receiving and conferring Ecclesiastick order Evangelicall Ministry Church-government as were unchristian yea Antichristian diverse from Christs mind yea contrary to it offensive to the godly odious to God himself as some men have lewdly declamed whose tongues I judge to be no slander since they appear persons of so little conscience and less forehead either grosly ignorant of the practise and platform of Antiquity or most uncharitably impudent in branding so many thousands of godly Bishops and other gracious Ministers both in England and all other places who were justly famous in their generations for their learning and piety as if they were either so many blind guides or so many bold intruders meer usurpers juglers impostors hypocrites as if to gratifie their own private ambitions they had from the very beginning in the sight and in despite of S. John and other Apostolick Pastors perverted the way of Christ as to that Ministeriall power Church-order which he had appointed setting up of their own heads a paternall presidency or Episcopall eminency instead of these newly discovered wayes of either a Presbyterian parity or a popular Independency by which Presbyters and people in common challenge to themselves the sole possession dispensation and managery of all Ecclesiasticall office power and authority inventions so pragmatick so turbulent so contrariant to one another as well as to the ancient orders of the Church that we in England were happily unacquainted with them till of late years as were all other Churches in the world till this last century who cannot be thought in all former ages to have wanted such Pastors and Teachers such Rulers and Governours as were after Gods own heart to carry on his great work of saving souls in the preserving and propagating of his Church by the Ministers of it If the great cloud of ancient and Catholick witnesses who ever owned all Ecclesiastick power to be magisterially indeed and primarily in Christ but ministerially and secondarily in the Apostles and their successors as to all Church-ministration ordination and jurisdiction which power resided chiefly in Bishops and from them was regularly derived to Presbyters if these I say can fall under your hard censure as either deceived or deceivers yet truly their errour in this point may be the more veniall because the case was not so much as once doubted or disputed for three hundred years in those best and first ages of the Church It will be more charity in their censurers to suspect they wanted ability to see the light of Christs mind and the Apostles examples than honesty to follow them But for my self and other Ministers my Fathers and Brethren of the Church of England who after so high contests about the Ministry of the Church both as to ordination and jurisdiction in which we have examined all Scriptures and rifled all Antiquity if we do still bona fide humbly honestly and conscientiously chuse to follow what seems to us Christian Catholick and uniform antiquity rather than any partiall and divided wayes of novelty I hope we are excusable to you if not commendable how ignorant or obstinate soever we seem to others who think we ought to be confounded if we will not be converted or rather perverted by them But if you do indeed judge that after so clear demonstrations and potent convictions from Scripture and Antiquity which either Geneva or Edenburgh or Amsterdam or New-England have alledged we do still persist in our Primitive opinions and Catholick Errours touching the office power and derivation of the Evangelicall Ministry and Authority such as was established in this Church of England meerly out of either passion pertinacy and obstinacy or for private interests sinister ends and secular policies if you can think us so base and false such sots and beasts so unworthy of the names of Ministers Christians Englishmen or men if this be your sense of us truly you and the whole State shall do but an act of high Justice speedily to cast us all out as well Presbyters as Bishops for unsavoury salt to expose us yet more upon the dunghill of vulgar contempt and worldly poverty which some Satyrick tongues and pens have earnestly importuned and petulantly endeavoured against all the ancient Ministers and orderly Clergie of England under the name of Prelaticks and Episcopall If the bitter and bold invectives of spitefull Papists and fierce Separatists of rash Presbyterians and rude Independents of Erastians and Anabaptists if these have been or can be made good to you against the Ministry and ordination of the Church of England against all its Bishops and Presbyters both in office and exercise as if we had not either before or since the Reformation any due ministeriall office or authority no true ordination or succession little of ministeriall gifts and less of graces no sound doctrine faithfully preached no Sacraments rightly consecrated no holy mysteries lawfully celebrated no Church-discipline dispensed no right government constituted no true Ministry or authoritative Ministers any way deserving either love or honour from you and your posterity If all your and our faith repentance charity and other graces be in vain if your Christian peace and hopes be all but imaginary if neither we are made true Ministers of Christ nor you true Members or Disciples of Christ if all your and your fore-fathers piety devotion charity Christianity hath been onely a fantastick pageantry a mummery and mockery of Religion Christianity and Reformation if hitherto you have onely been deluded and abused in so high concernments of your consciences and souls to eternity truly 't is but high time for you and your new Common-weale to offer up the wretched remnant of those Bishops and Presbyters who have yet survived the calamities and contempts of these times and who yet retain their former judgement ministeriall office and holy orders conformably to the Church of England to be an acceptable Sacrifice a welcome Holocaust or much longed-for Burnt-offering to the malice of their adversaries and persecutors both Gog and Magog first to the more secret but implacable despite of Papists who have infinitely longed and no less rejoyce to see poverty obscurity silence scorn division confusion extirpation to be the portion of the English Clergie whom they heretofore either envied or dreaded beyond the Ministry of any Christian or Reformed Church in all the world next you shall in so doing highly gratifie the bitter and bolder enmity the fouler-mouth'd fury of all other sharp-tongu'd brazen-fac'd and heavy-handed Schismaticks who have a long time grudged at the Clergie of England envying both Bishops and Presbyters their honours liberties livelihoods and lives prompted hereto partly by their own
Foxes and wild Boars of Romish Power and Policy to enter in and not onely secretly but openly as occasion shall serve to destroy all the remaining stock of the true Protestants and Professors of the Reformed Religion who at first soberly protesting against Popish Errours and Deformities afterwards praying in-vain for a joynt and just Reformation did at last reform themselves after the rule of Gods Word interpreted by the Catholick Practise of purest Antiquity What without a miracle can hinder the Papall prevalency in England when once sound Doctrine is shaken corrupted despised when Scriptures are wrested by every private interpreter when the ancient Creeds and Symbols the Lords Prayer and Ten Commandements all wholsome forms of sound Doctrine and Devotion the Articles and Liturgy of such a Church together with the first famous Councils all are slighted vilified despised and abhorred by such English-men as pretend to be great Reformers when neither pristine Respect nor Support Credit nor Countenance Maintenance nor Reverence shall be left either to the Reformed Religion or the Ministry of it without which they will hardly be carried on beyond the fate of Pharaohs Chariots when their wheeles were taken off which is to be overwhelmed and drowned in the Romish red Sea which will certainly overflow all when once England is become not onely a dunghill and Tophet of Hereticall filth and Schismaticall fire but an Aceldama or field of blood by mutuall Animosities and civil Dissentions arising from the variations and confusions of Religions All which as the Roman Eagle now foresees and so followes the camp of Sectaries as Vultures and Birds of prey are wont to doe Armies so no man not blinded with private passions and present interest is so simple as not to know that it will in time terribly seize upon the blind dying or dead carkase of this Church and Nation whose expiration will be very visible when the Purity Order and Unity of Religion the Respect Support and Authority of the Ministry is vanished and banished out of England by the neglect of some the Malice Madnesse and Ingratitude of others your most unhappy Countrey-men Then shall the Israel of England return to the Egypt of Rome then shall the beauty of our Sion be captive to the bondage of Babylons either Superstition or Persecution from both which I beseech God to deliver us As an Omen of the future fate how many persons of fair Estates others of good parts and hopefull Learning are already shrewdly warped and inclined to the Church of Rome and either actually reconciled or in a great readinesse to embrace that Communion which excommunicates all Greek and Latine Churches Eastern Western and African Christians which will not submit to its Dominion and Superstition chiefly moved hereto because they know not what to make of or expect from the Religion and Reformation of the Church of England which they see so many zealous to reproch and ruine so few concerned to relieve restore or pity As for the return of you my noble Countrey-men and your Posterity to the Roman Subjection and Superstition I doubt not but many of you most of you all of you that are persons of judicious and consciencious Piety doe heartily deprecate it and would seriously avoid it to the best of your skill and power as indeed you have great cause both in Prudence and Conscience in Piety and Policy yet I believe none of you can flatter your selves that the next Century shall defend the Reformed Religion in England from Romish Pretensions Perswasions and Prevalencies as the last hath done while the Dignity Order and Authority of the Ministry the Government of excellent Bishops the Majesty and Unity of this reformed Church and its Religion were all maintained by the unanimous vote consent and power of all Estates Nay the Dilemma and distressed choice of Religion is now reduced to this that many peaceable and well-minded Christians having been so long harrassed bitten and worried with novell Factions and pretended Reformations would rather chuse that their Posterity if they may but have the excuse of ignorance in the main controversies to plead for Gods mercy in their joining to that Communion which hath so strong a relish of Egyptian Leeks and Onions of Idolatry and Superstition besides unchristian Arrogancy and intolerable Ambition that their Posterity I say should return to the Roman party which hath something among them setled orderly and uniform becoming Religion than to have them ever turning and tortured upon Ixions wheel catching in vain at fancifull Reformations as Tantalus at the deceitfull waters rolling with infinite paines and hazard the Reformed Religion like Sisyphus his stone sometime asserting it by Law and Power otherwhile exposing it to popular Liberty and Loosenesse than to have them tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine with the Fedities Blasphemies Animosities Anarchies Dangers and Confusions attending fanatick Fancies quotidian Reformations which like botches or boiles from surfeited and unwholsome bodies do daily break out among those Christians who have no rule of Religion but their own humours and no bounds of their Reformations but their own Interests the first makes them ridiculous the second pernicious to all sober Christians Whereas the Roman Church however tainted with rank Errours and dangerous Corruptions in Doctrine and Manners which forbid us under our present convictions to have in those things any visible sacred communion with them though we have a great charity and pity for them Charity in what they still retain good Pity in what they have erred from the Rule and Example of Christ and his Catholick Church yet it cannot be denied without a brutish blindnesse and injurious slander which onely serves to gratifie the grosse Antipathies of the gaping vulgar that the Church of Rome among its Tares and Cockle its Weeds and Thornes hath many wholsome Herbs and holy Plants growing much more of Reason and Religion of good Learning and sober Industry of Order and Polity of Morality and Constancy of Christian Candor and Civility of common Honesty and Humanity becoming grave men and Christians by which to invite after-Ages and your Posterity to adhere to it and them rather then to be everlastingly exposed to the profane bablings endless janglings miserable manglings childing confusions Atheisticall indifferencies and sacrilegious furies of some later spirits which are equally greedy and giddy making both a play and a prey of Religion who have nothing in them comparable to the Papall party to deserve your or your Posterities admiration or imitation but rather their greatest caution and prevention for you will finde what not I onely but sad experience of others may tell you that the sithes and pitch-forks of these petty Sects and plebeian Factions will be as sharp and heavy as the Papists Swords and Faggots heretofore were both to your religious and civil Happinesse CHAP. XXIX FOr however the feeblenesse and paucity of lesser Sects and Factions in Religion in some places their mutuall
infinite detriment and damage as of our selves and our neighbours at present so of posterity to after-ages Who will with astonishment and horror read the Histories of our times so desperately ingaged to reforme Religion that they well-nigh ruined it so pertinacious to retaine their Christian and Reformed profession that they almost made a shift to lose both as hunters do that game which they onely scare from them while they eagerly but indiscreetly pursue it Secondly besides conscience to the Glory of God the honor of our Saviour and the good of Soules all civill prudence and true policy not onely invites but necessitates sober and worthy men to study and endeavour the restitution and establishment of true Religion in this or any Nation to its true proportions and just fixation as Christian and Reformed Now although nothing can in true Oratory be among Christians added after the weighty considerations of Gods glory Christs honor the hazard of our own and others souls to eternall darknesse ignorance confusion and misery all motives being as the dust of the balance compared to these yet because I must levell the force of my perswasions as arrowes to the proportions of most mens principles and designes in point of temporall interests as well as draw them home to the head and height of Spirituall and Eternall concernments give me leave to represent and inculcate that consideration as to Religions necessary setling which of all other makes the quickest and deepest impression on mens minds the neglect of which will certainly forfeit all that reputation of wise Men great Statists and good Polititians even after the worlds calculation of wisdome which Magistrates and Gentlemen are ambitious to obtain and leave to the honor of their Names and Memories It is this There is no hindge upon which the civil Peace and Secular welfare of you and your posterity doth so much depend and move as this of True Religion which is at no hand to be left to a plebean Liberty and vulgar latitude but to be confined and setled upon its own weight and basis to its Verity Certainty Sanctity Solemnity true Ministery and due Authority In vaine shall you hope to enjoy the Peace of men in worldly affaires if you want the peace of God if you have nothing but wars and jarrs distances and defiances as to Religion both with God your Ministers your selves and with one another Which Sacred Fires will infallibly kindle horrid conflagrations not onely from those hot disputes and attritions which concerne the principall Articles and more solid parts of Religion which are held necessary to salvation but even from the lightest and smallest materialls which seem but as the chips and parings the bark and leaves of Religion even these like tinder and touch-wood are prone to strike and entertaine such sparks in small and vulgar minds as will set all on a light fire at last Which is most evident in our late Holy Warrs where few men of any modesty or honesty did at first stickle so much about the weighty points of Religion in Doctrine or manners tending to true Faith or practicall Holinesse objects too deep and weighty for the weak and shallow braines of most Novellers and Vastators few I say or none of any worth did or do contend about true Grace or reall Virtue who shall be most Holy Penitent Humble Faithfull Pure Patient Just Charitable Meek Devout Sincere inoffensive to God and Man No the Lord knowes a little touch or dash and colour of these serves the turne with most men that are most eager for any side and party of Religion in their rude disputes and uncharitable janglings The greatest strifes the sharpest emulations and most unfeigned feudes of Religion arise from principles of Envy Revenge and Ambition in mens Spirits when once they are divided upon any spark or pretext of Religion their ambitious Zeal like fire presently ascends and lifts them upward The grand interest of their Godlinesse is like the Sons of Zebedee who shall be chief what person what party shall prevaile and rule over others who shall sit on the right hand of Christ judging the rest not as brethren but as subjects and vassals For all pregnant factions in Religion are not onely solicitous to preserve themselves in some honest liberty and modest tranquillity as a candle whose confined flame keeps within its own socket and compasse but they presently meditate the extinguishing of all others They aime indeed at Conquest and Soveraignty every ones fingers itch at the Scepter of Jesus Christ that is at such power and authority as may governe the soules and bodies too the consciences and carkases of other men both in Church and State that they may in Christs Name have Dominion over the opinions and judgements the minds and spirits of all men subduing them if not at first by disputation and arguments yet at length by Fightings and Armes by silencings and imprisonings by plunderings and undoings For which purpose each party the better to justifie its insolency and cruelty against all others holds forth some Ensigne and Flag as of difference so of defiance either as to some lesser matter of Opinion and Doctrine or rather than faile of some meer outward Form and Discipline yea of some sorry Ceremonie and Custome no way essentiall to true Religion Yet from hence the eager but weaker Zelots on all sides Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent have and do foment those miserable flames which have not onely scorched but almost consumed this Church of England For these petty contests readily fall under vulgar capacities as more obvious and sensible these fit the humors of the minue people and petty Preachers too who are naturally as proud and imperious as masterly and surly as the greatest Clerks or Scholars whose learned abilities may better excuse their pertinacies ambitions and other insolencies Who is so blind as not to see that from the first differences which were spawned at Frankfort and hatched at Geneva about non-Conformity and Church Discipline the Presbyterian and popular Spirit hath alwaies grumbled and mutined at that eminency and government which Episcopacy for the maine hath enjoyed from the beginning not of Reformation onely but of Christian Religion From whence some other mens Spirits too high perhaps and Prelaticall out of jealousie have on the other side sought to engrosse and exercise more of a sole arbitrary and absolute power not onely above but apart from all Presbyters and people than was ever challenged or used in the Primitive Constitution in the first and best practises of Episcopacy which seems to have had more of Aristocracy by the joynt Counsell and assistance of select and Grave Presbyters than of absolute Monarchy or soveraigne and sole authority further than an eminency of Office Order Place and Presidencie might keep an united and regular power in their more ample and combined Churches which consisted of many Christian congregations and Presbyters But as the Duke of York first professed with
peevish and jealous against those that have more if we have much we easily grow proud high-conceited dictatorian Some of us are very rusticall morose and refractory others of us very imperious supercilious and magisteriall few of us of so wise calme and safe tempers as to be left to our selves in things of publick Office and Order lest we grow heady and extravagant Nor are we of so humble and meek Spirits as to be willingly led by others If left free we grow insolent popular and factious if under any Government or restraint we grow touchy refractory and petulant not easily kept within our own or others bounds untill by pregnant reason and prevalent power meeting together in wise and resolute magistrates we are at once convinced and commanded perswaded and over-awed to keep those honest bounds of order and subjection which do not onely best become us but ought to be least arbitrary because most necessary both for our own and the publick good most of us will be good subjects even to Church-Government as well as State when we see we must be so and few of us will be either quiet or content when we find that we may be what we or the vulgar will by loose Tolerations and indiscreet indulgences which betray Ministers no lesse than other men to many dangerous extravagancies To cure therefore the distempers of Religion and to restore some Health Beauty Order and Unity to this sick deformed disordered and divided Church of England the first applications as I humbly conceive must by wisdome and power be made to those that professe to be Ministers of the Gospel who must have as broken or started and dislocated bones whose flesh and muscles are highly swoln and enflamed not onely wholesome diet and Physick given them but such splinters and ligatures as may be at once gentle yet strong not bound so hard as may occasion paine or mortifying nor yet so loose as may suffer any constant dislocation or new flying out To such ruptures and inordinacies the many notions and raptures that Scholars and Preachers get by reading and conversing besides the pregnancy of their wits and ambition of their own Spirits are prone to tempt them no preacher is so meane but he would faine appeare some body if he despaire of his own merits as to publick notice and preferment then he applies to popular arts and lesser engines Discontent and ambition are observed both in old times and of later to have been the great perturbers of the Churches peace which some have written even of Mr. Cartwright himself a man of excellent Learning yet unsatisfied when he had not the good fortune to be so much favoured and preferred by Queen Elizabeth as others were who bare a part with him in publick Acts at Cambridge before that popular yet politick Princesse Who had no greater art in her Government than this to give not onely shrewd guesses at mens tempers and geniusses but exactly to calculate the proportions of their spirits and parts and accordingly either to refuse them or imploy them in Church or State Nor could she easily have kept this Church of England from flying in pieces in her dayes when many notable Ministers wits did work like new beere or bottled Ale to blow up the Government of the Church unlesse she had besides the Canons agreed in Synods and the good Lawes passed in Parliament applyed such wise able and resolute Governours to the Helme of the Church as were Parker Grindall Whitgift Sands Matthewes and others whom the stormes yet safety of the Church in those times shewed to be excellent Pilots and excellent Prelates no lesse than excellent Preachers Whose names and autority had then been made as odious and unpopular as now all Bishops and Episcopall Clergy have been if under God the resolute power and ponderous authority of the Princesse had not preserved them besides the Gravity Piety and prudence of their own carriage which abundantly stopped the mouthes of their clamorous enemies then and further justified them to all posterity to have been as the true Sons of wisdome so deservedly the venerable Bishops and Fathers of this then famous and flourishing Church I well know that Ministers in England above all sorts of men do stand bound in conscience and prudence to use all faire meanes for the speedy setling and happy restitution of the State of Religion in this Church because however many of them professe to be great patrons of piety and sticklers for Reformations either old or new yet most if not all our Church-deformities and miseries have been and still are imputed chiefly to their immoderations passions or indiscretions when too much left to themselves Some driving so furiously to conformity that they went beyond it not onely over-shooting themselves but the good Lawes Canons and Customes of this Church hereby putting the common people into high jealousies of superstition by their too great heats and surfeits of ceremonious innovations and affected formalities Other Ministers were so jealous and impatient of what they fancied rather than felt to be burthens in Religion that they not onely cast off some superfluous loades of new ceremonies but the very comely Garment Girdle and Government of this Church yea some of them at last flung off all their clothes and tare off as Hercules in his fiery shirt much of their own skins by a frantick kind of excesse severely revenging even other mens reall or imputed faults upon themselves and upon the whole Church committing greater injuries than ever they did or indeed could suffer while they possessed their soules in patience and peace whereas now they have left themselves and this whole Church as the Tortoise did that was weary of its shell and put it off almost nothing for safety comelinesse or honour but are nakedly exposed to all those dangers and deformities which attend any Church Religion and Ministry which being once ungirt as to order unity and Government will soon be unblest as to all holy improvements either in Piety Verity or Charity Hence hence it is that such a crowd of importune and insolent mischiefes have as the Sodomites upon the Angels and Lot at his doore not onely rudely pressed but notoriously prevailed too farre upon all Ministers and the State of the Reformed Religion chiefly the jealousies feuds factions animosities immoderations indiscretions divisions and dissociations among Ministers who can never expect to see common people return from their madnesse and giddinesse to sober senses untill they see their Preachers to recover their wits and their pastors to become patternes as of piety and zeal so of humility and order of charity and unity of gravity and constancy of meeknesse and wisdome and not to be like mad dogs so daily snarling and snapping at one another so biting and infecting their own and others flocks with their poysonous foam and teeth that at last they disorder the whole frame of the Church and endanger the civil peace of the Nation whence some
the Master of the harvest the blessed God tolerates as to mans Discipline those to grow in the same field of his visible Church in this world who differ as much in point of true grace as wheat and tares do in their nature and worth So that as the curiosity and confidence of Episcopall Divines is far lesse than that of those other preachers so their candor modesty and charity is much more becoming wise grave and sober Ministers whose care must be humbly to do that work which God hath required of them and to leave his own operations discoveries and judgements to his all-seeing eye and Almighty power as St. Cyprian expresseth the sense and practise of Christian Bishops and Presbyters in his time as to Church-scrutiny and examination The strictnesse of worthy Episcopall Divines is such in things that are rationall grave wise and truly religious that no man exceeds their desires designes endeavours and principles in soundnesse and diligence of preaching in the warmth and discretion of praying in the sanctity and solemnity of celebrating Christian mysteries in the serious dispensation of Ministeriall power and the usefull execution of Church-censures or Discipline even to fasting prayers teares penitentiall mortifications in themselves and due restitutions to others in cases of injury so for reconciliation and some speciall works of bounty and charity which may testifie a self-revenge and most satisfaction to others They are ambitious to excell in nothing more than in well-doing and patient suffering in all the waies and offices of Piety Humility Obedience Peace and Charity yea such is their moderation concession and recession from their wonted practise and indulged priviledges or power by mans law that they not onely approve but desire the joynt counsell and concurrence of grave and worthy Presbyters in all things of Ecclesiastick Ministry and publick concernment yea they allow Christian people their sober Liberty as of presence and conscience so of objection and approbation in all proceedings where they are interessed that they may either fairely testifie their full satisfaction or else produce the grounds of their dissatisfaction in all things that concern their advantages in Religion All which the glorious Primate of Armagh testifies in his late printed Treatise of reconciling Episcopall and Synodicall power in the Church-Government If the earnest pleaders for Presbytery and the sticklers for Independency which are the professed extirpators of Episcopacy had the same equanimity and calmnesse in them as the moderate Episcopall men have I do not see what could hinder them from giving the right hand of fellowship to each other certainly it cannot be the reall concernments of Christs glory and the good of Christian soules but particular factions oblique biasses and some partiall popular respects which continue such mis-understandings distances and animosities between the Episcopall Divines the Presbyterian Preachers and the Independent Teachers who thus severed from each other lose all the great advantages and blessings which they and the whole Church might enjoy if they could wisely humbly and meekly close in one subordination and harmonious order as did all Christian Bishops Presbyters Deacons and People in Primitive times of which St. Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian St. Cyprian St. Ambrose St. Austin St. Jerom with many other writers give us a thousand clear instances and happy experiences The inordinate heates of the chief patrons and ring-leaders as to any of these new waies and parties would soon allay and coole if their petty policies secular interests self-seekings and popular complacencies were wholly laid aside if these wedges were once pulled out of mens hearts their hands would soon close together Momentary advantages would soon give way and vanish if all Ministers were possessed with that great and good Spirit which directs all believers to things that are eternall chiefly looking at Gods glory Christs honor the Churches peace and the salvation of all mens souls Petty spirits opinions and projects are the pests of the Church and of Christian Religion these betray it to the enemies of it such as seek to abase it to divide it and to destroy it CHAP. XI And here because I suspect and see that the designe of the new Associating parties seems chiefly to unite Presbyterian and Independent principles and interests together that Presbyters and people as Teaching and Ruling Elders might fully possesse themselves of all Church-Power though to their own confusion and this Churches desolation excluding all Ministers of Episcopall principles pleas and perswasions further than they list humbly to submit to truckle under and comply with those Ministers who resolve to ordain to censure and suspend to excommunicate and anathematize to dictate and regulate all things in Religion without owning any authority in or making any ingenuous offer or addresse to the venerable Bishops yet surviving in Engl. or to those Divines who are still conform to the Church of England but all the claimes and interests of Episcopacy must be either smothered or slubbered over or shuffled into the meteor of a moderator and the phantasme of a Prolocutor as if there never had been nor yet were any thing considerable either in the persons of these Bishops and Ministers or in those many strong pleas and cleare allegations of Scripture-pattern and divine prescription of Apostolick practise and imjunction of Catholick imitation and perswasion in all the consent of ancient Councils Fathers and Historians yea in the judgment of all the best Christians Presbyters and people of old nay nor in the confessions votes and desires of the most learned pious Reformers both at home and abroad that either enjoy Episcopacy or feel their want of it and heartily wish for it but all must be slighted as childish or popish as obsolete or ridiculous which is brought and believed by so many excellent persons in behalf of Episcopall eminency and authority Yea as if all the losses sorrowes and sufferings of so many pious learned reverend and most excellent Bishops in England together with the miseryes of many orderly and worthy Clergy men that were subject to them and the laws were so just that they were never to be pittied nor any way relieved as if all the insolencies of many Presbyters and the petulancies of many people were highly to be commended as great helps and furtherances to a new Reformation of Religion as if there were nothing of uncharitableness oppression revenge sacriledg and exorbitancy so much as to be thought on or repented by any one of them no lesse than complained of by their Episcopal brethren who are become their enemies because they have told them the truth and charge them with inconstancy immoderation popularity schisme faction sedition and the like so stiffe and unrelenting are some Antiepiscopall men to this day who after all these representations of truth wipe their mouthes and harden their hearts as if there were no error evill or transport in their hands or hearts alwaies aggravating by a vile and vulgar oratory the rigors
Last of all I appeal to all sober Ministers whether they do not think that Episcopacy as now it is stripped and devested of all secular greatnesse and reduced to Primitive poverty might be as safely restored as any of their crude and new Associations in their severall stations and formations with their mutable moderators and temporary Presidents either in greater or lesser Circles which are but the thin parings small shreds and weaker shivers of Episcopacy whether they do not in their consciences think that some righteous and just compensation ought to be done to good Bishops and to the case of true Episcopacy which have suffered so hard measure a long time now in England that so we might not in this nation beyond any place in the Christian world cast eternall and indeleble reproches not onely upon this Church since its first plantation but upon the Catholick Church of Christ in all ages and places as if wilfully for ignorantly they could not they had from the beginning swerved from the Apostles prescript and example in the Order and Government Discipline and Authority which was to be in the Church of Christ I will not suspect any honest-hearted or worthy Minister of having been so base and sacrilegious in his Spirit as therefore to cry down Episcopacy root and branch new and old good and bad out of secret hopes of filthy lucre and secular glory expecting some benefit by plundring the personall estates of Bishops or by sequestring the revenues of their Churches or gaging to buy at last some good peniworths of them These temptations were so black and base so sordid and Plutonian that they may not be suspected of any Ministers or other men but those whose notorious actions have put them beyond all suspicion Presuming therefore in charity that those precipitant alterations in Church-Government which have produced so sad consequences and calamities in this Church were from principles of honesty and purposes of integrity in the best Ministers on all sides at first and finding now that the itch of former novelties is past and the pleasure of Ministers scratching one another is now very little because of the rawnesse and sorenesse of all their common conditions besides the distractions and confusions of ordinary people and foreseeing that this painfull posture is not onely very grievous to all honest Protestants but dangerous to this Church and Nation if they be not speedily healed Give me further leave to ask of the greatest Zelots and sticklers against all Episcopacy and the admirers of either Presbytery or Independency whether after they reflect upon the rough meanes used and the sad events which have followed the design of extirpating Episcopacy and introducing any other waies they do still believe was pretended that either the God of order or the Saviour of his Church who is the Bishop of our soules and the exemplary Institutor of Episcopall eminency in his chief Apostles for Power and Authority over all parts of his Church who accordingly transmitted their ordinary power and superintendency to others as Bishops or successive or minor Apostles in all Churches whether I say they do in earnest believe that God or Christ or the Apostles ever were or are such enemies to all Episcopall order and presidentiall eminency as hath been vulgarly clamored and passionately pretended so that now after 1600. yeares prescription and succession of Episcopacy in all Churches God is not to be pleased unlesse Episcopacy be extirpated and Presbytery or Independency as waies of parity and popularity be brought in Can they sufficiently wonder at the patience of God and our Saviour Christ that for 1500. yeares bare with Episcopacy yea continued it in the peaceable possession of Church-Government as to the Primacy and priority of it both in Order and Authority without any notable check from any Martyr or holy man T is strange that Aarons Rod should never bud before nor Presbytery challenge its Divine right in all that time nor Christ ever enjoy the freedome of his Kingdom and Scepter till these last and worst times Do they in earnest think that no Scripture no word of God old or new no precepts and paternes of the Apostles no Primitive practise no true testimonies of Fathers Councils and credible historians do any way favour a right Episcopacy further than they were misunderstood warped and wrested by all antiquity from the mind of God the will of Christ and the way of the Apostles onely to gratifie the ambition of some few Bishops and Clergy-men who made way for Popes and Antichrists T is strange all should conspire thus to eject Christ from his Kingdom and Government or to abuse the whole Christian world from holy Polycarp Polycrates and Ignatius his daies all Primitive Bishops yea from St. Johns dayes and yet none detect or decry the fraud none persevere in the first way if it were as is now pretended Independent or Presbyterian in the many shepherds or many sheep without any prime pastors and Governours among them as Bishops Yea further I demand whether their divisions at least into such a Dichotomy as they now are in be not a just jealousie to sober men that both of these novelties may be in the wrong since both of them cannot be in the right whether regular Episcopacy may not yet be as the virtue or medium between these vicious extremes which are made up either of parity popularity or of Tyrannick and Papall Episcopacy whether they now find that either of thse new waies have any thihg so much to plead out of Scripture for themselves as Episcopacy hath or the thousandth part so much out of any good Antiquity whether they be not pure novelties of later invention and unprosperous use hardly yet formed and never well setled in this or any other famous or Reformed Church that enjoyed its just freedom without the oppression of either sacrilegious Princes or heady and mutinous people Can any learned and sober Minister either Presbyterian or Independent now flatter himselfe that there is no light or shadow no shew of Reason or Religion of Scripture or Antiquity for Episcopacy Can they any longer wonder without ignorance or impudence that learned and moderate Episcopall Divines are so firme to their first principles and perswasions which are not easily answered or with any reason overthrown by any ancient example at least Episcopall men are very excusable in adhering to their ancient and Primitive way till they find these novell opposites to Episcopacy and rivals to each other so well reconciled by a firme Associating together as may wholly supply the Office Power and place of Episcopacy which yet they have not done as to the Order Polity Peace and Unity of the Church or to the satisfaction of the most learned and godly men at home and abroad Where I beseech you O my good and gracious brethren of Presbyterian and Independent principles where do you think were the Eyes the Learning the Wits the Hearts the Honesty the Conscience
of all holy men in all Churches before your time Can you prefer the factious fancies of one Aerius or Acolythus or Ischyras of old before all the famous Bishops Presbyters and Councils Can you honestly plead St. Jerom for your Presbytery till you reconcile him with himself who is plaine and punctuall for Episcopall eminency and onely pleads at most for the joynt Counsel and assistance of Presbyters in which rank himself was which I and all sober men do earnestly desire as best and safest for the Church yea and for Bishops too Shall one David Blondel or Walo Messalinus that is Salmasius men indeed of excellent Learning yet obliged as Pet. Moulin confesseth of himself in his Epistolary dispute with the most Learned Bishop Andrewes to plead what might be for the enforced stations and necessitated conditions of those Presbyterian Churches with which they were then in actuall fellowship and Church-Communion shall I say these two men which are the greatest props for Presbytery who yet are allowers of Episcopacy though not as absolutely necessary yet as best for the Polity and Government of the Church where they may be had be put into the balance against all the ancient and modern assertors of Episcopacy or shall the votes of the late Assembly be a just counterpoise against all the chief Reformed Divines at home and abroad as Calvin Peter Martyr Bucer Zanchy Chemnitius Gerard and many others who are all well known to be for Episcopacy and Bishops if they will be Fathers and Fautors of the true Christian and Reformed Religion as Bishops in Engl. were Did not Deodate from Geneva Salmasius from Leiden write hortatory though concealed letters to the chief sticklers of late for Presbytery in England advising them to acquiesce in and blesse God for such a regulated Episcopacy as had obtained and might best be retained in England Have not others abroad much deplored their want of such Episcopacy and such Bishops as England happily enjoyed since the reformation and ever before Can the late Scotized Assembly modestly pretend to better light clearer spectacles more discerning eyes or more honest hearts for Religion and due Reformation for Christs honor and this Churches happinesse than all the ancient Councils or the modern Convocations and Nationall Synods of Engl. Or can it now at last seem either an unreasonable expectation in Episcopall Ministers or an unconscientious condescention in those of the Presbyterian and Independent parties to turne their Extemporary Presidents or Momentary Moderators into fixed and deserving Bishops can it be an hard matter for them to conforme to uniforme Antiquity who have so long gratified various novelty What great matter were it for them so far to satisfie the consciences of Episcopall men yea and the interests of all sober Ministers as not to suffer any further Innovation or longer abscission or total interruption or final abruption to befal the Catholick Order and Authority of Episcopacy in this Church the restoring of which would no way injure their own true interests as Presbyters or patrons for the people who might both have and enjoy all those ingenuous Liberties and Priviledges which they justly claim short of an absolute sole and soveraigne power in Church-Government which is never to be trusted either in common peoples or common Presbyters hands I ask these Acephalists who will indure no head but that on their own shoulders whether the City of London is worse governed because it hath a Lord Maior among and above the Aldermen and Common Councel whether the Colledges in the Universities or the Companies and Fraternities in Cities are lesse happily ordered because they have Presidents or Masters and Wardens in them and over them whether they think it were better for an Army to have no Colonels or Commanders in chief but all military Counsels and transactions should be managed in war and peace by a meer Democratick or popular way as every souldier fancied his own valour and ability I doubt not but in all these parts and proportions of good Government sober men stand convinced that they are then best when Counsel and Order make up the Majesty and completenesse of Authority by subordination of all and the suffrages of many joyned to the eminency of one worthy person in their severall precincts stations and jurisdictions Nor can I think that chief Governors can be hereticall irrationall irreligious or Antichristian onely in the point of Church-Goverment as if this polity and fraternity beyond any other were exclusive or incapable of that order and eminency which is the Crown and completion of Government which is used in all other Societies and ever was so in the Churches of Christ In order therefore to draw the designed plat-forme of Ecclesiasticall Communion from the novelty partiality and popular policies of Associations to its just proportions and due dimensions my last quaere or proposall to my brethren the Ministers is whether all things considered in cool thoughts and consciencious tempers it were not worthy of all Learned Godly and sober Ministers first to unite themselves in their judgements counsells and desires with all singlenesse of hearts and mutual brotherly kindness and then humbly to crave leave of the civill powers to permit them to cast themselves into such prudent and orderly combinations for Church-Government as might best suite as with the peace and prosperity of this Church so with the Primitive and Catholick way of Christs Church thereby satisfying all honest desires and pious interests of all considerable parties That neither Bishops should be wholly ejected as superfluous nor yet Presbyters despised as meer ciphers nor Christian people any way oppressed as slaves or beasts who having each of them their severall honest interests and just uses wil better attaine their desires in an happy conjuncture than in any separations which first weaken them apart then destroy them all Nor may this model of Church-union and Government be thought a meer Idea or Utopian fancy experience of all times and the best times for Religion as Christian and reformed that ever England or any Nation enjoyed assures us that it is not onely feisable but every way most commendable as most agreeable to every honest interest and indeed every way completest for the glory of God the honor of Christ the good of this Church and the Communion with all other either Christian or Reformed For by this meanes the scandall and shame of late Schismes would be removed the ancient Ecclesiacall succession continued the grand power of Ordination will be neither various nor defective neither innovated not altered the Ministeriall Office and Authority will be most authentick and undoubted the minds of all Learned and sober men will be satisfied their heads hearts tongues and hands united Christian charity and brotherly Communion best restored the reverence and Majesty of Religion also the honor and dignity of the Ministry as Christian and Reformed would be mightily recovered the Peace and Unity of this famous and well-reformed Church
corners and dissolved the face of any visible Church on earth if after the severall sad dispersions and vastations of them the chief Pastors and Bishops of the Church succeeding to the ordinary power of Apostles had not either in Oecumenick Councills or in their particular Diocess Provinces taken care with their brethren to call together and settle in Holy Communion of faith and manners the remaines of their dispersed Presbyters and disordered people To which good work of calling Councils and Synods for the rectifying and restoring of Religion all good Christian Emperours besides the Bishops did cheerfully contribute both their favour and Treasure as the most noble way in the world to employ them Shall the Counsels and powers the tributes and revenues of Christian Magistrates and people be onely laid out in making war at home and abroad onely to recover or keep up their civill peace or to build their own houses and is nothing to be laid out to maintain the Faith of Christ to keep the fort of Sion and to build the Towers and Temple of Jerusalem to restore and preserve the Purity and Peace the Sanctity and Solemnity the Order and Authority of Christian yea Reformed Religion Must that be left like Pauls to impaire or repaire it self as well as it can or onely be committed to the care of such men as are commonly better at pulling down than building up Churches who neither know how to begin nor how to end any Church-work having neither heads nor hands materialls nor skill line nor rule fit for such businesse And when they have done all they can in bungling and new waies neither the Clergy or Ministers under their power nor the Laity or people under their command will much more regard as to conscience what is so done by only Lay-mens magisterial decrees and imperial appointments than they now do consider the Covenant and Holy League or the Directory and Engagement new models for Religion cut out not so much by nationall Synods and Councils as by swords and pistols and accordingly both esteemed and used by all men that are of sound and judicious minds not corrupted with partiality credulity popularity and novelty For how can those bind the conscience of the Nation in the most indifferent things of Religion who never had the choice counsell or consent of all Estates in the nation either to advise or determine or enjoyne any such things which require to make them valid and conscientiously obligatory the Soveraignes call the Clergies counsell and the Parlaments sanction CHAP. XVI I Well know how hard a work it is for the best and wisest of men to stop the leakes of Religion to repaire a broken Church or to buoy up a sunk and lapsed Clergy when once they are either overwhelmed with the corrupt Doctrines and licentious manners of Preachers and Professors or split with intestine Schismes and Divisions or debased with vulgar usurpations and presumptions or oppressed with the secular policies and sacrilegious injuries of violent and unreasonable men who are alwaies afraid lest the renewed light and restored vigor of true Religion with the due Authority of its Ministry in the Church should give any stop or check to their extravagant lusts and enormous actions To which purpose such pragmaticks will be sure either utterly to hinder all good meanes that may effectually recover the true interests of Religion and its Ministry or else they labour impertinently to apply such onely as they know will render them more uncurable and set them next doore to an impossibility Which will be the State of the Church of England if the Recovery of Religion as to its visible Beauty Order Unity and Polity be either managed by Lay-mens Counsels and activities onely excluding all Ministers from all publick equall and impartiall consultations or if on the other side Church-affaires be wholly left to the various heads divided hands and partiall designes of such as are now called Preachers and pretend to be Ministers among whom commonly the weakest heads have the most pragmatick hands and men of least abilities are greatest sticklers though it be but more to puzzle confound and destroy themselves and others On the other side such Clergy-men as have most of solid Learning sober Piety sacred Authority and real Sufficiencies for such a work will be either afraid or ashamed to act or assist in it if they have not some publick Commission with equall and impartiall incouragement from those in power For certaine meer mechanick and illiterate preachers such as some people now most affect will never be able if willing to do any good in so great and good a work no more than wasps are like to make honey Ignorance and disorder faction and confusion being for their interest as muddy places are best for Eeles Other Ministers though never so willing and able yet as tooles that are blunt and have no edge set on them can never carry on such a work handsomely unlesse their late rust and dis-spiriting their poverty and depression be taken off unlesse their mutuall contempts distances and jealousies be fairly removed unlesse they be restored to such Charity Comfort and Courage as becomes Learned and Godly Ministers Such a constitution as was heretofore most eminently to be seen in the Ecclesiasticall Synods and Convocations of the English Clergy while they enjoyed by the favours of munificent Princes and the assistance of unanimous Parlaments those many noble priviledges both of Honor and Estate together with their undoubted Ecclesiasticall Authority which were by ancient and moderne Lawes setled upon them which kept up the Learning and Religion the Credit and Comfort of the Clergy of this Nation to so great an height both of Love and Reputation that neither the petulancy of people nor the arrogancy of any parasitick preachers either dared or were able thus to divide and wound them and the Church through the pretences of such Liberties and Reformations as knew no bounds of modesty or common honesty so far were they from any true grounds of piety or Christianity Nor will the divided and depressed State of Religion in this Church ever recover its pristine vigor its due authority its holy influence or its honorable esteem unlesse you O my noble and honored Countrymen who are persons of most publick eminence and influence be pleased to make it one of the chiefest objects of your Counsells Prayers and endeavours to revive the drooping Spirits to raise the dejected estate and to re-compose the shattered posture of the Clergy or Ministry of England in whose ruine the Reformed Religion will be ruined and in whose recovery true Christian Religion will be recovered to its just harmony stability and honor for it is impossible that Religion as Christian and Reformed should enjoy either unity reverence or authority while the chief Pastors Preachers and Professors of it are in so dubious debased and divided a condition Since then the Religious happinesse of this Church and Nation chiefly depends
not but be an excellent meanes to advance the Majesty Purity Power and Profession of Christian and Reformed Religion as otherwhere so chiefly in England whose happinesse and honor in this point might as I humbly conceive be easily recovered by some such expediency in Church-Government whose excellent temper should answer all the honest desires and reall interests of all Godly people of modest Presbyters of wise Bishops and of just Princes whose wisdom and authority might easily by the advise of all Estates both Civill and Ecclesiastick so restore Unity Tranquillity and Authority to the Church of England that no worthy Christians of any perswasion Episcopall Presbyterian or Independent should have any cause to complain of either neglect or oppression which cannot befall any party in respect of their just pretensions and equable desires if regard be had to the Primitive pattern of Episcopacy which included the priviledges and satisfactions of all degrees both of Ministers and people The complaints of oppression arise from the later innovations or invasions made by one party against the reall or pretended rights and immunities of the other which my designe is on all hands to unite and mutually preserve by a regular prudent complete moderate and yet authoritative way of Church-Government which is no where to be found but in a well-constituted Episcopacy In a designe wholly for reconciliation and atonement between moderate and pious men of all sides I know the way is not partially to over-value or passionately to undervalue any thing that is alledged by sober men on any side conducing to the common good Therefore I do not I cannot in prudence or conscience so prefer the eminency of Episcopacy as to neglect or oppresse the just rights of worthy Presbyters or the ingenuous satisfactions of Christian people neither of which are to be despised or rejected but cherished and preserved no lesse than the Authority of Bishops which at the highest must be as of one that serveth the Lord Christ and the Church not insulteth against either the Grave and Elder sort of Ministers ought to be treated by the Bishop as brethren the younger sort as Sons The reall interests of all are in my judgement best preserved when they are least scattered or divided but bound up in the same peaceable Polity or holy Harmony which I call the Primitive and complete Episcopacy ever esteemed by the Catholick Church for its excellent wisdom order and usefulness to have been at least of Apostolicall Edition both preceptive and exemplary in its Primitive impression the errata's which by long decurrence of time through many mens hands have befaln it are easily corrected and amended by men of Apostolick Spirits and Primitive tempers For my part I heartily desire humby endeavour and unfeinedly advise for such a blessed accommodation as may satisfie the just designes and honest interests of all good men I am infinitely grieved to see them threaten one another with eternall distances and this Church with everlasting differences and distractions of which I am the more jealous and sensible by what I observe either of rigor or reservednesse in some men of Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent principles who had rather lose the whole game of the Reformed Religion and this Churches Recovery than abate one ace of their high fancies and demands Where Episcopall Divines do remit much of modern advantages and condescend to the most innocent models of Primitive Episcopacy yet still they find many Presbyterians and Independents so died in graine as to their particular parties principles and adherencies that they will not yet endure any thing that hath the least colour or tincture name or title of Episcopacy Some viler sort of men study nothing more than to render the venerable Names of Bishops and Episcopacy odious and the more there is pleaded for their innocency or excellency as Pilate did for Jesus when he found no fault in him the more they clamor with the Jewes Crucifie crucifie And all this lest forsooth some Godly Ministers of the new stamps and models should lose any thing of that popular glosse and lustre whereby they fancy themselves to shine and glister like money new-minted among some people in their private spheares hence some of them grow so cruelly cunning that neither in Charity nor Policy they will endure any closure or treaty with Episcopacy under any notion notwithstanding that they pretend to twist their Associations with the three-fold cords of all moderate men differing still in some principles yet concurring in one grand end for the publick peace as they tell us when yet nothing can intreate them to wish to speak or think well of Episcopacy in any state or constitution Some fervent or fierce men profess such a jealousy of Antichrist in Episcopasy that they cast away all that is of Christ in it They fear an Apostacy if they should returne to the Apostolick Polity which is Episcopacy There are that urge it best for the Piety Peace and Honor of this Nation to have no united Church no Ecclesiasticall Unity which should be Nationall no uniforme or setled Religion but to let every one invent adhere to and advance that party and opinion which they like best so immoveable are they by any experiences of our mischiefes or any remonstrances of Piety Prudence and Charity for a publick composure in Religion From the restive temper of these men I can expect nothing more than that equanimity which will bear at least with Episcopacy in such as can bear with Presbytery or Independency in them If they find it so blessed a Liberty to serve the Lord as they list in those new Church-waies whereof they so much boast and glory why should they envy or how can they in conscience grudge to allow the Godly and honest Episcopall Clergy and other Christians who are in no virtue grace or gift inferior to them to partake of and use the like freedom as is either granted to or used and presumed by Presbytery and Independency Why should they so spitefully obstruct and hinder that concession to Episcopacy which is indulged or challenged to all sorts of novelties and varieties Possibly God in time would decide which is the best way if Episcopacy as Eliah might bring its offering to the Altar as well as others do It may be in a few yeares Providence would shew which way pleaseth him most by his enclining the hearts of good Christians to embrace and follow what hath most of Gods Order and Wisdome of Christs Institution of Apostolick imitation of Catholick Tradition or Custome and of the Churches union all which meet onely in Primitive Episcopacy But this way as it may be dilatory and tedious so it may be dangerous and pernicious as to the welfare of both Church and State for there can be no division in Religion without emulation no emulation without opposition no opposition without ambition no ambition without animosity no animosity without offence no offence without anger and studies
all others to prefer it and so the Bishops of all other Cities made no scruple to yield the precedency of honor and order to the Bishops of Rome which was as lawfull as it was orderly But when the Papall arrogancy lifted up it self above its brethren by a Luciferian height through the subtilty and importunity of Pope Boniface as Platina in his life tels us he afterward sought to exalt himself above all that is called God the Papall ambition very cunningly invading not onely the Rights of Kings and civill powers but of the Ecclesiastick Rulers also for the Roman policy saw that unlesse it got above all Bishops it could not easily get above all Christian Princes and Magistrates which supported the honor and freedome of each other Then Monastick and Jesuitick flattery following pride the Bishops of Rome must be not onely the chief Bishop but the Father the Fountaine the Lord the Prince of all Bishops and all Episcopacy indeed the onely Bishop of Divine and Apostolick Authority all other Bishops must be as his off-sets his Suffragans or his Chaplaines nothing without him and able to do nothing as Bishops but by a power derived from the Pope forgetting the Primitive equality of all Bishops as to their Episcopall Rights Power and Office which followed the parity of the Apostles as to their Apostleship which all Antiquity with St. Cyprian St. Jerom Gregory the Great and others owned as Unicus in solidum Episcopatus but one Tree or source of Ecclesiasticall Authority first rooted in Christ afterward derived to the chief Apostles and from each of them to their successors in all the Christian world This once laid aside and buried in the darknesse and insolency of warlike and superstitious times the degenerated Bishops of Rome by degrees gained their processe and designe which was to have no civill or Ecclesistick power in the world but such as might derive from and depend upon them all Princes and Prelates must be his vassalls or they must have no Principality no Episcopacy This axe was the first and a very heavy sharp one that was laid to the root of Episcopacy by the Papall arrogancy after whose copy all those may be suspected to write who first blot out Episcopacy that they may blot and out-bolt set up and pull down Magistracy upon such principles and pretentions of Religion as they list to set up and fancy for the advancing of Christs cause the Gospel Religion and Reformation words never more used by any than the Popes of Rome since they used the style of Holinesse and Servant of Servants but intended Highnesse and exercised Soveraignty over all according to that Mystery of Iniquity which was by some of them carried on and is not to this day laid aside though more tenderly and warily managed being on all hands either despised or disliked by all Christian Princes that are not forced by dependance or fear to be parasites to the Pope I know in this point other novel Antiepiscopal parties on all hands have sought with all artifices to captate Magistratick favour as well as plebeian applauses representing themselves so submissive and complyant to Princes and Parlaments to all States and civill Polities that they fancy to favour their side as if they onely studied to bear the crosse of Christ and not to weare any Crown of soveraignty But how modest some of them have been in seeking to set up Jesus Christ and themselves not onely without but against the expresse will and consent of the lawfull Princes and chief Magistrates no lesse than against the Lawes in force yea and against the far major part of the community of all sorts I leave it to others yea to themselves to judge who have any just ingenuous or blushing principle in them I am sure the Anabaptists at Munster first pretended to abhor all wars and weapons of blood while their party was small weake and frozen but afterward they could find hands as well as feet As for Presbytery and Independency truly they have given not only terrible alarmes and assaults to both Monarchy and Episcopacy which were both of them their lawfull superiours but they have even now sharpe rigours and ambitious rivalries against each other which of them shall have most power and most hands as well as most favour or indulgence Neither of them are looked upon as making any great scruple to bring in the prevalency of their parties by force of armes when once they presume of numbers sufficient neither of them seem to make any great conscience to set up their new Scepters by absolute power where petition and agitation will not serve their turne because both of them pretend to have Jesus Christ sure on their side who is indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords yet I do not find that he hath any where made them his Lieutenants to Rule for him upon the score and Title of any Church-power notwithstanding that they intitle their designes with his cause and inscribe their banners with his name as Pontius Pilate did that Crosse whereon he Crucified Jesus Christ. Many of them I find do hold all Men all Christians all Ministers all Magistrates all Princes Kings and Emperours enemies to Jesus Christ that are not declaredly for them and will not be subject to their Discipline or Government Many Grave and Learned men heretofore and of later times have set them forth not onely in their occasional zelotries and transports but in their meditated principles and declared designes to be such strikers and sticklers that they seem to be born with hornes and hoofes at least with teeth and swords in their mouths preaching as in Gods and Christs Name that if Christian Princes will not Peers and inferiour Magistrates may if these will not the common people may and ought to Reforme any Church or Religion after such a Form as their leaders list to fancy and prescribe Nor is this to be done with gloves and mittens with petitions and prayers but with gantlets and speares with clubs and swords if need be and if they can get power into their hands which they say is to be counted Gods power or a providentiall dispensation to his people thus to carry on his glory his word and his cause as to Religion though against his expresse Word against all Rules of justice against all Lawes and bounds of civill order and obedience yea against common honesty even to the violating of just oathes and superinducing of perjurious superfetations yea even to excommunication and deprivation of the chief Magistrate or Prince of their place and power in case they be refractory Thus do many men tell us they have found the Disciplinarian pulse of Presbytery at least if not of Independency to beat almost ever since they were born so that they have and ever will give no small terror jealousie and trouble to all soveraigne and Magistratick powers where ever they can by popular arts get footing both of them bearing
themselves high upon the confidence of Christs Scepter Call and Kingdome which they say admits no stop delay or obstruction whenever Providence opens a door not to the Gospel which is already professed but to such a Form and way as they like to have it in as to Discipline Government and Church-Order and this if not to be had by Princes favour and consent yet by the suffrages and assistance of common people where they may be had who in such cases are not to regard their obedience to any worldly Princes or powers who stand in opposition to or competition with Jesus Christ or any thing that some godly men shall fancy to be an ordinance of his though never heretofore owned or used as such in his Church What is there so fond so fanatick so foolish so mad which such presumptuous fury will not bring into Church or State that is not of their mind That these have been the principles and in many places the endeavours or practises of many for I dare not impute them to all is not to be doubted being evident by their writings and the Histories of those who have truly told the world what their sense agencies and aimes are Nor is there any great cause to expect that other petty parties or novel sects which are generally the spawne of Presbytery should deny themselves that Gospel-Power and Liberty as they call it since every one sees it hath been affected and acted though with no very great or glorious success by their grand-fire Presbytery which both in Scotl. and in England besides other places hath not been sparing to proclaime to all the world what zeal they have for their and Christs cause for his that is their Discipline even to the consuming of their foes their friends and themselves as Penry Udal Hacket and others did in Queen Elizabeths daies of which Mr. Cambden and others give us sufficient account as Sleidan and others do of the like agitations in Germany by such as were first Schismaticks from the Church and then Rebels to their lawfull Magistrates But the true Episcopall principles are wholly Evangelical they neither preach nor practise other than what they have learned from Christ and his Apostles in the Scripture they know no voyce of Providence ever calling them to act contrary to those Rules of civil obedience and good conscience which are signall expresse and emphatick in Gods word to be subject to every Ordinance or Law of man for the Lords sake to obey Kings as supreme and all under them for conscience sake if in any thing they cannot freely and cheerfully act there they must and will patiently suffer what penalties or pressures are laid upon them Thus did all Bishops and all Presbyters of old both pray and preach obey and suffer as Tertullian tells us at large in his Apology whose example and Doctrine all good Christians followed in their constant subjection and submission to civill though persecuting powers even then when Christians wanted not power and numbers to have invited them to have asserted themselves against both persecuting people and Princes Yet still godly Bishops with all Presbyters and people subordinate to them in Religious respects followed exactly the precepts of the two great Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul yea and of their great Master and Saviour Jesus Christ rather suffering by many persecutions than breaking out to any one act or thought of sedition or rebellion No injuries ever made good Bishops forget their Duty and Loyalty to Soveraigne powers though they might have had Legions to have sided with them yet as Christ they chose the Crosse as the best refuge of Christian subjects Thus all holy Bishops both held and did in Primitive times Yea and since the later spring of Reformation in England I am confident there is not one instance of any one Bishop or Episcopall Divine that either wrote or instigated any Christian Subjects to act upon any religious pretentions contrary to the Rules of civil subjection to that Prince or State under which they lived no not to bring in or restore Episcopacy it self which hath far more pleas for it from Catholick Antiquity and Universall prescription from actuall possession in all times and places from the pattern of Christ and the practise of the Apostles from the imitation and uninterrupted succession of after-Ages besides the proportions of Gods wisdome and mans prudence in all setled polities and good Government together with its own Ancient Catholick and Nationall Rights which aggravate its injuries and exasperate mens spirits yet these are not enough to animate or heighten Episcopacy so far as to make or restore its way into any Nation Church State or Kingdom by armed power or tumultuary violence against the will of the chief Magistrate or the Lawes in force it humbly attends Gods time and the Soveraignes pleasure for its reception or restitution So false and foul are the odious aspersions of Fellonies Treasons Seditions and Rebellions which the loosenesse and choler of a Presbyterian Gentlemans Pen then more passionate and popular then now it seems hath cast upon all the Bishops of England as such in that rude immodest and uncharitable pamphlet which he then set forth by a preposterous zeal when having surfeited of an immoderate revenge against one Bishop he aymed so to disguise venerable Episcopacy and to degrade all the most excellent Bishops of Engl. with their Clergy as to expose them all to be the more cruelly baited and worried even to death by the enraged beasts of the people even then when they were to be diverted from considering the actuall combustions which then were raised by and for his Presbytery Such Declamatory and partiall papers were certainly very unbecoming a man of Learning Religion or Ingenuity especially toward such Bishops in his own Country which were men most-what his equals in all things and in many things much his betters and superiours being Peeres of the Kingdome and chief Fathers of that Church with which he held Communion vested in their Authority by our Laws as well as conforme to all Ecclesiastick ancient Constitutions being persons famous most of them for their worth every way answerable to the Piety and Learning of their best Predecessors who were great Preachers wise Governours learned Writers and valiant Martyrs as well as venerable Bishops I confesse this one instance makes me see with horror what a dreadfull tyrant and temptation passion and faction revenge ambition popularity and discontent are when once they transport men of parts beyond the true bounds of Reason and Religion of Charity Patience and Civility which is as apparent in that virulent charging of all Bishops for seditious Traytors as if one should condemn all Lawyers for corrupt and covetous for bribery and oppression as if all were Trissilians Empsons and Dudleys which were a reproch most unjust and false there having been and still are many of them men of great justice and integrity I well know it is
not worthy to be their Rulers in the least kind This submission cannot be expected unless Englishmen are now to be subdued by fine words and made obedient by the formal and supercilious looks of some men who affect in their Churches and Parishes to govern all and are not fit alone to govern any unless they had been more able and willing to govern themselves and to have kept within that compasse of Ecclesiastical Order and subjection to their Bishops and betters which the example of all Churches and all worthy Presbyters and true Christians in all Ages commended to them besides the particular Laws and constitutions of this Church and State These considerations of the unproportionableness of any other Church-government than a right Episcopacy to the temper of England moved the supercilious yet very learned Salmasius in his advice to the Prince Elector then in England and to some other of the long Parlament and of the Scotized Assembly who desired his judgement upon the then hot and perboyling yea passionate and over-boyling debates touching Episcopacy to tell them That as the Episcopal Government rightly constituted and executed is very agreeable to the Word of God and most conform to all Antiquity so it was of all other most suitable to the English spirit and constitution The want of which he already foresaw was and would ever be the cause of much disorder and distraction of infinite Factions Heresies Schismes and Confusions Thus the great Dictator of Learning as he esteemed himself was pleased in this passage and other-where graciously to express his judgement and pleasure according to the humour he was in or to the Interest which he was pleased to adopt Sometimes he is Walo Messalinus and ashamed to own his Name against Episcopacy he was in that disguise to gratifie the pretentions of Presbytery and the adherence or dependence which he had to the French and Dutch Churches otherwhile he puts off the vizard and with open face owns the eminency authority antiquity and universality of Episcopacy yea the incomparable utility of it when joyned with a grave and orderly Presbytery besides a particular aptitude in it to the English Genius For he well saw that all Government and Church-Government as much as any is a beame of Divine Majesty and requires not onely something of a Diviner sufficiency as to inward abilities and endowments but also of a Diviner conspicuity and lustre for Authority civil eminency and ornament We read that God besides his choice of Aaron and his Sons to be complete persons to make them chief Priests according to his Command and Commission gave also strict order for their garments to have them made with such comelinesse cost and curiosity as should be for glory and beauty even before the eyes of the people over whom they were placed And we further read that God forbad to his people the Jewes all birds that did creep and yet fly they were uncleane and abominable to be eaten An Emblem that nothing is lesse comely in Gods Church than to see those men ambitiously affect to fly high in governing others whose condition is low and creeping on the ground Indeed no Government can be carried on in Church or State especially in Engl. but either by the absolute terror of the sword and secular power commanding or by such legal injunctions and religious perswasions as bind good men in conscience to submit first to God and for his sake to those whom he as Lord of all is pleased to set over us Then is government in Church or State most complete and constant when it hath first that rational Empire and religious prevalency over mens hearts which ariseth from the perswasion that people have of the worth abilities right and authority which Governours have by their laws as from God in the State so from Christ in the Church Which perswasion as it brought all Christian people Presbyters and Bishops to be so wholy subject to their civil Magistrates and Soveraigns so it made all Christian Presbyters and Professors to be filially submiss to their Bishops as to Fathers given them by Christ even then when Bishops were rich in graces and gifts of the Spirit but low as to worldly greatness and under much persecution yet then did the Majesty of Episcopal authority prevail on which the lively Characters and pregnant Memorials of the Apostolical pattern designation and succession were still fresh and most remarkable then did it draw all true Believers and good Christians to venerate their Bishops or chief Pastors for Conscience sake by so much the more by how much Presbyters and People had more of the power of Godlinesse in them whereas now it is made a new mark of Godliness and Saintship with many to cast off to hate abhor despise and destroy all Bishops and all eminent Episcopacy Sure either primitive purity or modern dreggs must be very much out of the right way and which of them erres I leave to all sober men to judge As for other Christians of looser Consciences and Conversation which were prone in all Ages to be as weeds in the garden of the Church especially in times of Peace Plenty and Prosperity the piety and wisdom of Christian Princes and other godly people ever took care to keep them in the more awe and reverence toward their Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governours by investing these in such outward and visible enjoyments for estate and honour which might adde some outward respect and authority to them and that no small one before those that had most need to be so restrained overawed and dazled Hence the piety and policy of Constantine the Great not onely gave liberal supports to the Bishops of the Church but gave them places and honors equal to the Patricii the Senators in order and degree which were the Roman chief Nobility It is not onely an imprudent but an impious presumption and a tempting of God to needless miracles for any people to invest those men in any Government as in State so in Church who are as St. Paul saith little esteemed because deserving little who have neither personal abilities for the Office nor any clear and undoubted commission to authorize them in it from God or Man from Christ and his Church which I conceive can hardly if ever be found in any wayes of Church-government which are suspected for Novelty or tainted with Parity and Popularity contemners of Catholick Custom Primitive Antiquity and Apostolical Succession in an holy Uniformity From all which depravations as venerable Episcopacy is sufficiently known to be farthest removed of any so it cannot but seem to all impartial Christians to be as every way best in it self so fittest for the native temper of England where mens spirits are more accurate and acute more inquisitive and searching into the rights foundations and grounds of all authority over them then in other Countries where meannesse and easinesse servility and credulity of common people makes them venerate
who are all consenting to the Law and concerned that justice be duely executed on some evil Members for the good of the whole So that the several degrees and subordinations in the ancient Church of Christ even long before the first Nicene Council as there is expressed among Churchmen and Bishops against which some have made so loud and ridiculous clamors were chiefly for this end as Mr. Calvin and others have as ingenuously as truely observed that the holy correspondency of all Christians and all Churches in one Faith and Truth in one Spirit and Power might not onely be most evident to the world but most aptly carried on and preserved against all Factions Variations and Divisions that they might by these means be known to be of one heart and mind in the Lord that they might all speak the same things and walk in the same steps that what one condemned all might in the same spirit condemn what one forgave all might forgive that none might upon any private passions either excommunicate others by injurious abscission or themselves by voluntary separation or make new confederacies and associations with those who are either deserters of the Catholick Communion or justly excommunicated from it which distempers of Ignorance and Impatience and Imprudence among Christians have brought as we see this great power of the Keyes and this exercise of Christian Discipline so far into contempt that no man almost regards it from any hand every one daring to make what retortions they please and to excommunicate any one or more yea and whole Churches that do excommunicate them for any the most notorious errors and insolencies Thus as the Popes of Rome heretofore so the people now in many places challenge to themselves this power against their Neighbours and Brethren yea against their Preachers and Bishops against the Fathers that begat them and the Mother Church which did bear them So that I confesse there is not so much cause of terror as of pitty in most Excommunications as they are now managed by private and unauthoritative spirits O what sorrow what shame is it to see so Sacred so Solemn so Divine so Dreadfull an Institution vilified and nullified which was designed for the health and welfare of the Church of Christ by just and necessary severiâ—ies when it was as it ought to be soberly applyed by wise holy and impartiall Governours of the Church in the name of Christ in the Catholick Spirit or consent of all Orthodox Bishops Presbyters and people which was able to shake Heaven and Hel to open and shut the Everlasting doores of Salvation or Damnation according as the penitency or impenitency of offenders did appeare To see this flaming sword which was put by Christ into the Cherubims hand those that were the Angels of his Church to keep the way of the tree of life to see this made the scare-crow and scorne of vile men the sport of petulant and peevish Spirits who neither fear to inflict Excommunication upon whom they list as much as lies in their impotent malice nor yet to suffer it from the most Just Impartiall and Authoritative hands in the world from whom being once proudly separated they fancy they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the reach and danger of this just terror and the others true Authority as lawfull Bishops or Governours of the Church whose heavy sentence if I should incurre so far that any one true Bishop with his Clergy should passe it against me upon just grounds of my scandalous and obstinate sinning against God and his Church according to the ancient rightfull and lawfull way of such proceedings in the Name and Spirit of Jesus Christ to which all true Christians in this Church and in all the world do submit and assent I confess I should much more fear living and dying to lye under such a censure and sentence than to be condemned in my Estate Liberty or Life by any Court of humane Justice which reacheth not to the Souls eternal estate as Excommunication rightly managed doth it being a most undoubted Oracle of our Lord Jesus Christ that whose sins the Apostles and their lawful successors as Rulers of the Church do bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven Who their lawful and authoritative successors have been are and ought to be in all Ages and places of the Church is evident to all that have any fear of God or reverence of his Catholick Churches Testimony This is certain as Excommunication carries with it the joynt spirit and suffrage of the whole Church and every true Member of it either explicitly or implicitly so the regular and authoritative managing of it was ever from the respective Bishops Authority and Order as chief Pastors in every Church to whose fatherly care and Inspection with the counsel of their Presbyters the Flock of Christ is committed especially as to the discreet use of such Discipline as highly concerns the salvation or damnation the hopes or despair the binding or loosing the abscission or restauration of any part which ought not to be judged determined and executed by every private spirit of Minister or people but by such venerable Bishops and their Presbyters as have the authentick transmission of the Apostles ordinary governing power delivered to them as from Christ being in this like the Judges in commission for Life and Death though the Sentence be the Laws and the power the chief Magistrates and the transaction or publication in the Face of the County to which all the Bench of Justices the Jury and other honest Men do tacitly give their votes and assent yet is the Cognizance and Examination of the merits of the Cause and the judicial solemn Declaration of the Sentence committed specially to the Judge both in respect of his learned Abilities and known Integrity also for the Honor and Order which are necessary to be observed in proceedings of so great concernment to Mankind as are matters of Life and Death Such is the power such ought to be the procedure of all due Excommunication such they were in the purest and primitive times when all Christians all Congregations all Presbyters all Bishops all particular Churches were so united that as many Spokes make but one Wheel and many Stones one Building and many Members one Body so these made but one Church in the same Faith the same Baptism the same Ministry the same Spirit the same Order the same Power the same Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ From which Blessed Harmony and Spirituall Communion if any Christian or any particular Congregation or any part of the Church as those of the Donatistick party and the Novatians in Africa with others either proudly passionately and peevishly did separate themselves or were deservedly separated by the just censure of any part of the true Church and thenceforth falling to mangling of all by mutuall Excommunications so as to fly in the faces of their lawfull Bishops and Pastors or else turne their backs on them
22.22 Grand motives to a publick restitution and fixation of the Reformed Religion 1. Reason from the glory of our God and Saviour Lib. 2. c. 4 5. 2. Reason from prudence and civil policy Euseb l. 8. hist cap. 1. Sense of true Honour calls for the establishment of Religion Sense of gratitude invites to restore and establish Religion The hopefull possibility of restoring true Religion to unity and settlednesse in England Of meanes to recompose the differences of Religion in England 1. From Ministers or the Clergy Anno 1527. Revel 3.2 Jude 3. 2 From Magistrates and Lay-men Mr. Fullers History of the Brit. Church History of the Church of Scotland by Sâ—otswood Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Of the late Associations projected by some Ministers Acts 27.17 Concil Chalcedon Can. 29. Of civill assistance from Lay-men to restore this Church and Religion Act. 16.9 Euseb in Vita Const Tit. 3.10 A scrutiny of what is good or bad in all parties 1. The best and worst of Episcopacy 2. Triall of Presbytery 3. The Triall of Independency The reconciling of the reall interests of Episcopacy Presbytery and Independency Of Sacramentall scrutinies to be used Cypr ep 10. 26. Prosanâ sacilitate Sanctum Christi corpus prosanare 1 Cor. 2.10 1 Joh. 4.2 13. Rom. 10. 9 10. Acts 8.13 1 Sam. 6.7 Facies singuloruÌ„ videmus corda scâ—utari non possumus dâ— his judicat occuliotum scrutator câ— to venturus de arcanis cordis jud catuâ—us Cyp. ep 53. True Episcopacy stated and represented to its Antagonists Phil. 4.5 * PostquaÌ„ comperisset Presbyterialem statum citra Episcopalem in iis ecclesiis coâ—sistere non posse c. Vide Salmâ—siii vitam p. 50. Consulebat Episcopos non omnino tollendos c. Objections against Episcopacy discussed 1. Object From the samenesse of their Names Bishop and Presbyter signifying but one office and power 1 Cor. 10. Obj. Secondly that Presbyters did chuse and impower their Bishops of old Ans Obj. 3d. That Presbyters are as able and willing to ordain as any Bishops Ans 2 Tim. 2.2 Obj. 4. That Episcopacy was the root of the Papacy Ans Obj. 5. That Bishops are prone to be severe and tyrannick Ans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. Concil Carth. 4 can â—3 Consessus honorem cum Episcopo habent Presbyteri Cyp. ep 46. 55. saepealibi Communi Presbyterorum consilio regebantur Ecclesiae â—en Epist ad Euag. Obj. 6. The jealousie lest Bishops should recover their lands Ans Earnestly exhorting Ministers of all sides to an happy composure and union 1 Cor. 3.3 4. Sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oâ—ulis deligatur dignus atque idoneus omnium publico judicio ac testimonie comprobetur Cyp. Ep. 68. Tertul. de praes c. 43. Ubi metus in Deum ibi gravitas modesta diligentia attonita cura solicita communicatio deliberata promotio emerita subjectio religiosa ecclesia unita Dei omnia Hier. ep 36. Amb. de poen .1 c. 16. Sulcarunt lacrim's genas vultum fletibus exarabant mortis speciem in spiranti corpore praeferebant Num. 16.3 Humbly exhorting Magistrates to assist in so good a work Isa 40.2 Zech 3.3 4. Jer. 38. Sueton. in vita Aug. Councâ—ls or Synods the proper means to restore lapsed Religion Euseb vit Const Of Ecclesiastick Councils called by Christian Princes Deut. 17.8 to v. 14 Numb 16.48 1 Sam. 6.7 c. Mark 15.16 17. Luke 23.11 Mat. 2.9 Act. 15.22 ver 28. The great use of Nationall and frequent Synods The method of restoring a setled Church and united Ministry The essentials of a true Ministry 1. The Subject matter of the Ministry must be able and apt men 2 Cor. 2.16 2 Cor. 4.7 Secondly The essential Form of a true Minister right Ordination Ordinatos suisse Presbyteros à solis Presbyteris nullo exemplo nulla authoritate probari potest Sarav Cont. Bez. de grad Min. c. 22. Heb. 6.2 Eph. 4. Mr. Mason Preface to his Defence c. Tertul. l. de Praes adv Haer. l. 32 34. Cont. Marci l. 4. c. 5. Euseb hist l. 5 6 7. Irenaeus l. 4. c. 6. lib. 5. c. 20. Cyp. ep 52. passim Which authorities are afterward at large cited in this Book Veritatis praedicatorem unius diei spatio velut è luto statuam fingunt Nazian Of the well-being of the Clergy or Ministry 1. In point of maintenance and support 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Cor. 9.6 Act. 4.34 35. Gen. 14.18 Num. 18.20 21. Deut. 10 9. 1 Cor. 9.14 Gal. 6.6 Heb. 7.9 Mat. 10.42 Eccl. 9.15 Theod. hist l. 4. c. 4. Of meet order Government and subordination among the Clergy 1 Cor. 11.16 Episcopatus aemulatio sâ—hâ—smatum mater Tert. de Bap. c. 17. Reperiemus veteres episcopos non aliam regendae ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ— quam verbo suo Deus praescripsit Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 4. Sect. 4. Act. 6. 1 Tim. 3.8 Deacons Presbyters Bishops Act 1.20 1 Ep. to Tim. cap. 3. 5. and Ep. to Tâ—tus cap. 1. Episcopi quos Apostoli successores relinquebant ipsis suum magisterii locâ—m tradentes Irenae l. 3. c. 9. Habemus enumerare eos qui ab Apostolis constituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis successores corum usque ad nos Irenae l. 4. c. 6. lib. 5. c. â—0 Ordo Episcoporum ad originem recensus in Johannem stabit Authorem Tertul. adv Marc. l. 4. c. 5. Sicut Smyâ—naeorum ecclesia Polycarpum à Johanne colloâ—atum refert sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro ordinatum edit perinde utique caeterae exhibent ecclesiae quos ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constitutâ—s Apostolici seminis traduces hubent Tertul. lib. de praesc adv Haer. c. 32. 34. De Johanne Apost Clâ—mâ—ns Alexandrinus narrat post mortem Domiâ—â—anâ— reditum suum à Patmo in Ephesum in vicinas gentes abiit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Episcopos constituens Ecclesias in ordinem digerens Lib. de Div. Sal. Origeni falsò ascripto ex judicio cl Usserii Armachani Jampridem per omnes provincias urbes ordinati sunt Episcopi c. Cyp. ep 52. Successiones Episcoporum qui Apostolos sequuâ—i sunt 7. libris descripsimus Euseb l. 4. hist cap. 1. So. Theod. hist l. 5. c. 27. * Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 4. Sect. 4. (a) Apud nos Apostolorum locit tenent Episcopi Hier. ep 54. Ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento quod Aaron filii ejus Levitae in Templo erant hoc sibi in ecclesiis vindicent Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi Hieron ad Euag. (b) Episcopus ecclesiis regendis unicus praepositus est qui pluâ—ibus unius ecclesiae presbyteris praeesser Bono fine hoc institutum esse nemo negat quum optima ratio fuerit ita instituendi Salmas Walo Messal pag. 413. (c) Neque enim Hieronymus quum diceret ecclesias initio fuisse communi presbyterorum consilio
pruning fencing and preserving this goodly Tree in its several Branches which have spread forth to several parts of the world but were never quite parted or separated from either Christ or one another but grounded in Christ they have alwayes grown up in him to such an holy Harmony without any Schismatical slipping breaking off or moral dividing from one another every small twigg every bigger branch every mainer arme of it either for private Christians or publick Congregations or Episcopal Combinations still holding that mutual Communion which became them both to Christ and his Church in general also to each other in particular according to the several Places Duties Stations and Proportions wherein the God of Order and Peace had set them under the Authority Power and Episcopacy of his Son Jesus Christ as Lord of all the King Priest and Prophet the chief Bishop and great Shepherd the principal Teacher Pastor and Ruler of his Church From our Lord Jesus Christ whose love to Mankind intended to enlarge the branches of his Church beyond the Jews even to all Nations under Heaven this small and tender Plant was afterward as a fruitful Vine and flourishing Tree carefully husbanded and orderly extended by such workmen as the Lord was pleased to chuse and appoint for this holy care and culture whom he endued with the spirit of power both for Authority when he solemnly breathed on them and for Ability when he powerfully sent the Spirit upon them enabling them not onely with such ordinary gifts as were necessary for all true Ministers and such ordinary authority as was fit to governe the Churches they gathered but also with such extraordinary and miraculous endowments as were meet for the Apostles to carry on the first plantations of the Gospel to all the world without any Interpreter beyond all contradiction the doctrine they taught of Jesus Christ being confirmed to be the Will and Wisdome of God by the concurrence of his Omnipotency in infallible signes and wonders By these twelve Apostles when their number was completed and the Apostasie of Judas made up by the choise of Matthias to succeed and supply his Episcopal charge and Office for the teaching and ruling of the Church to whom as a supernumerary help and great additional St. Paul was afterward joyned by these I say as by so many chief Pastors or Oecumenical Bishops who had the general care and joynt oversight or Episcopacy of the Catholick Church both Jews and Gentiles was this Tree mightily advanced in a few years both in bigness and bredth in strength and extention so that the Gospel according to Christs command was preached more or less to every Nation under Heaven and as the beams of the Sun are seen so the Evangelical sound of the Apostles was heard in all Lands so loud and audibly that every Nation might have applied themselves to listen and seek after the Lord and have heard and found him in the voice of his glorious Gospel if they would have followed that news which they heard of according to the curiosity after novelties which is in the nature of man The news of which so good and so great was every where reported to be as foretold by so many Prophets long before so attested and confirmed by so many Eye witnesses who not onely spake to every Nation in their several tongues but also wrought great miracles in every place where they came according to those several lots or portions which they had taken by the Lords appointment or by mutual consent as their particular Bishopricks or Dioceses for the more orderly carrying on of the work some staying at Jerusalem as St. James the Elder and the other James surnamed the Just where they were slain others dispersed themselves as St. Peter who went to Antioch Alexandria and Rome there planting eminent Churches appointing Bishops over them as Euodius at Antioch Mark at Alexandria Clemens and Linus at Rome one for the Circumcision the other for the Uncircumcision which Churches ever after even before the Nicene Council had the eminence of Patriarchal seats as afterward Jerusalem and Constantinople had The Histories of the Church either Sacred or Ecclesiastical are not punctual or exact in setting forth the several Countries to which the Apostles divided themselves or where they most resided and at last ended their days nor is it material it being sufficiently clear that as they did not at first so confine themselves to one place or Country as to exclude any other Apostles from coming thither so they went some one or more of them to all chief parts to Syria Arabia Persia India Ethiopia Armenia Scythia Asia the Less and Greater all Greece Illyricum Italy Spain France Germany Cyprus Britanny Africa and all the rest of the grand parts of the then-known World Continents and Islands where at last they either fixed in their old age as St. John did at Ephesus or were martyred leaving besides the Monuments of their preaching and miracles their Apostolical Seats supplied by an orderly Subordination and authoritative Succession of such Bishops and Presbyters Pastors and Teachers able and faithful men as they had Commission to ordain and did authorize for their successors in that holy Ministry spirit and power of Christ which was to continue to the end of the World for the further planting propagating and preserving the Church of Christ by such Doctrine Government and Discipline as they for the main rules and ends clearly by word and practise delivered to them which was then as their Faith Baptism and Hope but one among all Churches in the all world single Christians private Families of them small Congregations little Villages greater Cities ample Territories large Provinces great and small Churches as to their several distributions for conveniency of actual converse and communicating in holy Mysteries had still but one and the same Polity Order Discipline Ministry Government and Communion no Variety no Difformity no Deformity in Doctrine or Discipline among any Orthodox Christians but every one observed that Place Office Duty and Proportion wherein God by the Apostles and their successors had set him or them in relation to the whole Church as well as to that particular part or Congregation of it to which he was more locally and personally joyned yet mentally spiritually charitably cordially and consentiently he still adhered to the Catholick Conformity and Unity according to that holy Polity and Oeconomy which the Spirit of Christ in the Apostles first and for ever established so far as the nature of times and Gods providence would permit that as there was but one God and one Lord Jesus Christ so there might be but one Church one chast Virgin as the Spouse of Christ in all places For these holy Husbandmen and chief Labourers in Christs Vineyard the twelve or thirteen Apostles did not think it sufficient to teach to catechize to convert to baptize to confirm to communicate to admonish
by learned and godly men Bishops and other Ministers were notably discovered and by some Christian Princes or States happily amended with great order and by due authority as in other places so no where with more Wisdom Justice and Moderation than in England Where as in most of the Churches protesting against the Roman deformities especially those of the Lutheran denomination the ancient Orders and Authority both of Bishops and Presbyters were preserved as is evident in the Augustane confession which finds no fault with but highly approves the Government of the Church by Bishops under Episcopacy provided Bishops would joyn in a just Reformation of those gross abuses which were the Churches intolerable grievances as well as the dishonour of Christian Religion and Christian Bishops whose deserved Honours Estates and Eminencies in Authority they saw no cause to envie grudge or diminish So far were these first Reformers from hewing down Episcopacy as if it cumbred the ground that they onely digged about it and mended it that it might bring forth good fruit as it did in England and elsewhere While the Western Churches Reformation was yet but crude and in motion by Luthers means there arose Mr. John Calvin about the Year 1541. a man of good Learning acute Wit copious Eloquence great Industry quick Passions sharp Pen of reputed Piety and of no less Policy Him the people of Geneva thought the fittest man in the world to settle their distracted Church and State after they had with the wonted arts of tumultuating and discontented people forced Eustace their Bishop and Prince to flye from his Palace and City his Bishoprick and his Seigniorie because he would not presently gratifie them with such a Reformation as they imperiously demanded rather than modestly desired Mr. Calvin as Mr. R. Hooker hath excellently set it forth undertook with much difficulty and after many indignities worthy of popular levity fury and petulancy put upon him to settle their Church-affairs together with the civil State in such order as he thought not most Scriptural primitive and Catholick but most prudential plausible and probable in humane reason and honest policy to take and hold the tumultuating inconstancy of that people so to bring them to something of civil and religious order acting herein not upon any Wiclefian or the after Presbyterian and Antiepiscopal Principles as imagining either Episcopacy to be unlawful or sole Presbytery to be necessary as of Divine Institution neither of which were his judgement as is sufficiently and vehemently declared by his passionate approbation of reformed Bishops and his esteeming so honourably of regular Episcopacy that he passeth all Anathemas or curses on those that are against them so far was Calvin from laying the Axe to the root of this Tree which with Christianity had ever as he confessed born Episcopacy But he rather went upon Erastian principles and politick grounds looking it seems upon the Government of the Church as he did upon the Lords-day which is not elder nor more authentick or Catholick as to the Churches use and observation than Episcopacy to be in their nature mutable as of Ecclesiastick yet Divine prescription according as Times Occasions and Minds of men might fall out He well knew being a learned man and oft confesseth in his Writings the primitive blessing and universal authority of presidential Episcopacy in all Churches yet he neither thought it nor any forme of Government any more than clothes to be essential to the substance and body or any Church or of the Christian Religion but variable to several forms and polities as prudence might invite or necessity require so that he never set up any soveraign and unepiscopal Presbytery as an Idol or Moloch to which not onely the children but the Fathers of the Churches even very godly and reformed Bishops were all sacrificed He thought it did not misbecome his policy and prudence to serve the times and humors of the Citizens so far as to seem to vary the outward mode of their and all other Churches ancient government provided he served the Lord and that people in setling such a government as might preserve the Christian Reformed Religion among them in true Doctrine and good Manners which was the main work which Calvin seemed to mind most To have reconciled the City and their former Bishop was a matter impossible unless he or they had changed their minds in Religion to have perswaded them to elect a new Prince and Bishop of their own profession and opinion had been very imprudent considering either the fair offers they made to himself of being not titularly indeed but virtually and really both the Prince and Prelate or remembring that strong fancy of Liberty which had now so filled and intoxicated all sorts of Citizens In the last place to have set up himself in the pomp and formalities of a Bishop and a Prince had been an act of too much Impudence and Envy for a person of his Ingenuity Policy and Dexterity in publick managements it sufficed his design so far to gratifie both the Populacy with seeming Liberty and the Optimacy with some civil and Magistratick Authority all of them with such reformed purity in Religion as most pleased them and yet to keep up himself and his collegues of the Ministry to such an height of Ecclesiastical Influence and church-Church-power as made them far from being either slaves to the Vulgar or cyphers to the Government for all cases civil and criminal as well as religious were one way or other reducible and so responsible either by way of comprimising or upon scandal or repentance or satisfaction to the cognizance and consistory of him and his collegues himself being as the Caesar they as his Bibuli In effect his Wisdom Reputation Eloquence and Courage set him up in Geneva and other places to so high an eminency of respect and authority as he equalled yea exceeded most Bishops however his pomp train and pension were but small after the usual bounty expectable from any State or City that list to make their Reformations of Religion compleat by robbing the Church and Clergy of their ancient Lands and Revenues which doubtless in that City had been so great and princely as upon the confiscation of them to their Town-box or Exchequer they might well have allowed Mr. Calvin their great Reformer and chief Pastor and his Associates a Salary much beyond an hundred pounds per ann with a little provision of Corn. But he wisely dissembled this Indignity finding that as Riches Pomp and Luxury had undone former Bishops so a voluntary kind of Poverty and Austerity would now best conciliate to him and his collegues a greater Reverence and Authority nor was it considerable to have a gay or rich scabbard provided they had sharp and well metall'd swords their Ambition was rather to intend Gods work in reforming Religion of its Leprosie with Elisha than in taking mans rewards with Gehazi In this Presbyterian Prelacy or Prelatick Presbytery
a steddy judgement and unpopular spirit who pressed upon his Unepiscopal much more against his Antiepiscopal Presbytery so strongly that he forced his Antagonist to stoop and subscribe to Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy yea and to acknowledge Bishops even from the Apostles dayes to have been the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ◠Presidents or chief Rulers among Presbyters in all Churches Mr. Beza's Essayes not so much to have undermined Episcopacy as to have fixed or earthed his Presbytery better being thus notably countermined yet upon his very breaking the earth and promising at least pretending to spring some rich Mine of Scripture and Antiquity to prove if not the sole yet at least the concurrent Divine right of Presbytery on both sides of it both as to its preaching ruling Elders as stamped with the mark of Christ and his Apostles besides his and others terrifying the world as if Popery had begun with Prelacy and Antichrist had sucked the breasts of Episcopacy it is not imaginable what industrious Pioneers and Souldiers followed these charms this alarme for Presbytery against Episcopacy who sifting every name of Bishop Presbyter Elder Evangelist Messenger Apostle Prophet Pastor Teacher Ruler Governments Helps c. in Scripture and Antiquity found or fancied upon all of them something that made very much if not onely for Presbytery and very much if not wholly against Episcopacy so far that they would not allow so much as the twelve or thirteen prime Apostles any Episcopal Presidency Eminency or Authority above the seventy Disciples or any Presbyters whom they ordained much less any Bishop after them above the youngest meanest and pettiest Presbyter rather suspecting yea aspersing all Antiquity even in the primitive and purest times for Ignorance and Error or Falsity and Ambition in following the Catholick custom of Episcopacy after the great Apostolical pattern which was in them given to all Churches by the Spirit of Christ and after continued by the Apostles own appointment than any way admitting any Innovation Flaw or Defect to be in their new-formed Presbytery Heats unhappily growing great and Eruptions many from the Etna or Vesuvius of mens passions the sulphur and ashes at last came from Geneva Franckfort and Edenborough over to England where at first they onley fell upon the square Caps and Rochets of our excellent reformed and reforming Bishops but at last they flew in their very Faces and Eyes without any respect to their Age Learning Piety Sanctity and Martyrly Constancy besides the honourable places they still held both in Church and State according to our Laws For the Undertakers for the Cause as they called it of Jesus Christ first picking at the outworks of Ceremonies next at the spiriritual Courts or Jurisdictions of Bishops after that at the excellent Liturgy at last they laid amain at the whole Body as well as the Branches of Episcopacy going much further than ever their first Founders of Presbytery abroad or the modester Non-conformists at home ever designed or desired Thus a bolder Generation of men stopping their ears against all the charms of Scripture Antiquity Universality Prudence personal Merits publick Blessings and all proportions of Government and Polity only urging a peremptory necessity and a self-inforcing novelty perfected that in a dreadful War which was neither begun nor promoted nor desired by the chief Magistrate nor by his chief Council in its pristine fulness and freedom nor ever before was acted in any reformed Church whatsoever against their reformed Bishops After much bustling and blood-shed in perilous times this crooked and low shrub of Presbytery which having never much thriven or grown handsomly in Scotland or in any other Kingdom where it had been happily and handsomly grafted by King James with a renewed and well-reformed Episcopacy this bitten mangled and mis-shapen was brought over on the swords point and wrapped up in the cover of a Covenant as Plants in Mats to be set in this good soyl of England after sweating Smectymnuus and the industrious Assembly with many Heads Hands Tongues and Pens had digged and prepared the ground for it by gaining the minds of some wel-affected Members in the two Houses and others in other places About the Year 1649. the Fasces Imperiales and the Sacrae Secures the Holy Rods and Imperial Axes of Presbytery were displayed to England in their Ruling and Teaching Elders in their High and Mighty Consistories Parochial Classical Provincial National Oecumenical for the Presbyterian power was in all the world to prevail against Episcopacy as Daniels He-goat did against the Ram casting him to the ground and stamping upon him Every Presbyter young and old ripe and raw was to have not onely a sword in his mouth but a switch of correption in his hand which lest he should use too rashly and sharply he was to be pinioned and surrounded with certain Lay-Elders each of them furnished also with a Rod of Disciplinarian or ruling power equal to the Minister All this dreadful dispensation of Presbyterian discipline was pontifically and punctually set out by many discourses to the no small wonder of all wise men who knew the disproportions to all Government generally which were both in younger Ministers and in most Lay-men of plain parts and plebeian breeding such as in most places these herds of ruling Elders must be into whom the spirit of Government must presently enter And no less terrible was this paradox and parado of Presbyterian Discipline and Severity even to Common-people yea and to the most of the ablest Gentry and Nobility except some few whose itch and ambition of a Lay-elderships place had possibly biassed them to smile upon their persons and their now Presbytery to which they were invited solemnly to be Gossips Thus armed and marshalled in its Ranks and Regiments Presbytery began to hasten its March in its might furiously enough setting up its Conventions Ordinations Jurisdictions trying the metal and temper of its Censures by Ebaptizations Correptions Abstentions Excommunications and new Examinations even of ancient Christians old and eminent Disciples to whom they had formerly given the Sacrament twenty times some of which they sought to win by fair speeches some people they perswaded others they menaced and scared to submit to their new Scepter Daily Intelligences and brotherly Correspondencies were zealously kept every where very quick and warm among the Presbyterian Fraternity Bishops never so aged learned unblameable venerable and meritorious for their Labours and good Examples were as Underlings and conquered Vassals not so much as pittied but despised and trampled under foot exautorated and vilified by every young stripling that had got the switch of Presbytery in his hand which he saw now was beyond the Bishops Keyes or Crosier Presbytery thus driving at Jehu's rate for some time some of its wheels or pins like Pharaohs began to drop off which forced it to drive more heavily than its natural genius can well bear being spirited like Ezekiel's wheels with so
popular Conventicles where either Piety or Prudence or Learning or Gravity besides authentick and due authority yea Civility and all good manners many times are prone to be very much wanting or if they be there in some few yet a thousand to one but they are quite over-born routed silenced over-voted and cryed down by the plebeian confidences of those many whose ignorance and rudenesse delights in nothing more than either to smother and crowd to death by numbers or to assassinate by downright clamours and brutish violence any thing that looks like sober Reason holy Order just Restraint and due Authority all which the vulgar esteem as their implacable enemies and intolerable burdens So little do those men seem masters of true Reason pious Policy Christian Prudence or sociable Charity who advise endeavour or encourage to divide and consequently to destroy Episcopall Metropoliticall and Nationall Churches by dissolving the noble frames the ancient and harmonious junctures of them onely to make up small Independent bodies or Presbyterian Classes Parochiall Consistories as the sole and supreme Tribunals or ultimate Judicatories beyond any remedy or appeal in Church-affairs which is much like the digging down of Mount Lebanon with a design to make it into many fine mole-hills In which a few poor yet pragmatick Christians like so many ants may busie themselves solely and absolutely about themselves as arrogating to themselves though but two or three or seven at most the perfect name complete nature entire power and highest emphasis of a Church of Christ to all uses ends and purposes without any regard to any other higher authority or to any greater and completer Society further than they list to advise or associate with them for a time as occasion serves and till some new invention offers it self Mean time they are not ashamed or concerned as to that rude and ingratefull violation of those duties which they owe and those relations which they ought to beare as Christians by the right of an holy propagation spirituall descent and ecclesiasticall derivation of their baptisme faith and religion to that Church which was their Mother and to those chief Pastors or Shepherds which were their spirituall Fathers by an Apostolick title designation and succession both in place order and power Which spirituall relation certainly imports no lesse duty love thanks reverence and submission than those of naturall and civill relations doe since the blessing is at least equall if not far beyond to those that value their souls or their Saviour who will not easily abdicate their ghostly parents or renounce their spirituall Fathers though they should see many infirmities and some frowardnesse in them I shall not need to instance in the many defects inconveniences disorders and mischiefs incident to these Ecclesiolae and Congregatiunculae little Churchlets and scattered Conventicles which cannot but be as S. Jerome observes the Seminaries of Schisme Nurseries of Faction strife and emulation since the Sire of them seems to be Ignorance and Weaknesse or pride and arrogancy as the Dam of them usually is faction private ends and popularity Nor will their Issue faile to multiply and swarm in a few years with grosse ignorance and rudenesse with all manner of errors and heresies accompanied with vulgar petulancie atheisme irreligion anarchy confusion and barbarity which like vermine will devoure both themselves and those completer Churches from whose communion order light strength discipline integrity and safety they have withdrawn themselves by needlesse divisions to the weakning shaking subverting and endangering of the faith charity and salvation of many thousands of poore soules the strength beauty honour safety and comfort of particular congregations as of private Christians and families consisting in that orderly conjuncture as parts with the whole body politick which may best preserve both It and themselves there being not onely more virtue in the whole than in any part but more vigour in each part while it is continuous to the whole than when it is divided Which as all Reason and Religion so most sad experience in the Church of England sufficiently assures us For however private Christians have indeed some power as to counsell admonish reprove comfort pray for and by charitable offices to help and edifie one another also private congregations have yet more advantages being many in their number to joyn in publique duties to comprobate and execute Ecclesiasticall censures further each single Minister or lawfull Presbyter hath yet greater authority in his place and office to administer holy things by preaching baptizing consecrating binding loosing exhorting rebuking likewise every Bishop hath still an higher order and authority regularly to ordaine to confirme to examine to censure to rebuke to suspend to absolve to excommunicate any private Presbyter or other Christians under his inspection Yet where the Bishop is assisted with the desires consent and approbation of many Christian congregations also with the joynt assistance of many learned and godly Presbyters yea and with the united suffrages and authority of many Bishops as in cases of great and generall concernment in matters of doctrine censure and discipline is requisite O how ponderous how solemn how celebrious how powerfull how Apostolick how divine must the majesty and authority of such transactions be in any Church thus combined established and fortified against both secret contagions and violent incursions of any mischiefs which easily grow too hard for private Christians and petty Congregations yea many times for particular Presbyters and single Bishops Nor can the remedy expectable from these in their solitary capacities and small proportions either cure or encounter the pregnancy and potency of those maladies which many times infest the flock of Christ as was evident in those Epidemick pests of Arianisme Nestorianisme Donatisme Pelagianisme and others which malignities required not onely the influence and authority of a few private Presbyters with their Congregations or of particular Bishops and their Churches but of Provinciall Synods and Nationall Churches yea of the Catholick Church as much as could be united in those General Councils which were as grand Ecclesiasticall Parlaments by their majority deputation inspection and authority representing all Churches in all the World that so the salve might still be wisely commensurate to the sore The danger of a divided Church being no lesse than that of of a divided State or Kingdome which our Saviour tells us cannot stand it must not be imagined that Christ hath left his Church destitute of defence and help in such cases of distraction These grand combinations of Christian people Presbyters and Bishops convening as occasion required not onely to serve God in the piety of his daily worship but for the right ordering and guiding of themselves and others in such publick concernments as Christian polity and gubernative prudence required these made Christian primitive Churches appear in their Synodicall Provinciall Nationall and Oecumenicall Assemblies as the fairest sides and goodliest prospects
and Reformation Notwithstanding the shew of all these I abhorred Her as a Synagogue of Satan a den of Thieves a cage of unclean birds a very Babylon worse than that Church was from which Peter wrote his first Epistle I called Her sacred things execrable I counted her Ministers no better than the Magicians of Egypt and Baals Priests Her ministrations as Magick enchantments Her Sacraments insignificant neither sanctified nor sanctifying So far am I from being a poor and sneaking Schismatick which like a viper secretly gnawes the bowels where it is bred and lodged That out of an higher spirit of Zeal and Reformation I have like Saturn or Time quite devoured the old and wholly begat a new Church notwithstanding that I saw heretofore many seeming notes of a true and reformed Church in England many specious fruits of Christs holy Spirit in many formall good words and works of his seemingly gracious servants in Doctrine Faith and Manners by which temptations I sometimes had been a great Zelot and eager Professor having an high esteem both of the Ministers and Ministrations of the Church of England But afterward a new light breaking in upon me I first began to scruple some things in the Church of England after to suspect more at last I was jealous of all things but my own heart From jealousie I soon fell to enmity from enmity to a divorce from being divorced to prostitute the name honour peace and patrimony of that Church to the most insolent spoilers profaners and persecutors from cavilling I fell to calumniating then to condemning at last to contemning all its professed Christianity and noised Reformation as meer nullities uncapable to invest any man in the priviledges honour and happinesse of a true Christian Church or holy Society Thus bogling cruelly at the too great authority and revenues of Bishops scared also with some ceremoniall shadows and no lesse frighted with the late Presbyterian rigour and severity I was so driven by I know not what impulse but I am prone to believe well of it because I have got well by it that I at last fled from the very substance shew and name of the Church of England chusing rather to be a rank Separate a meer Quaker an arrant Seeker or nothing at all of an old-fashioned Christian than to continue in any visible communion with so corrupt so false so lewd so no Church by which high-flown resolution all this while I thank God I am become no Schismatick because neither being nor owning and therefore not being because not owning my self as any member of that Church from which I rather chose boldly to separate than poorly to schismatise in it Having a while wandered alone as Lot when he fled out of Sodom and standing by my self as holier than others finding none meet to joyn with me in Church-fellowship but growing weary and a little ashamed of my solitude neither hearing nor praying nor receiving with any Christians for many moneths nay yeares at last I had an impulse to preach and prophecy that so I might erect and create a pure and perfect Church after my own heart and call it after my own name In which though I began but with a little handful whom I gleaned most-what out of the Presbyterian late harvest which proved too big for their barns and so was never yet well inned yet we two or three met together in Christs name though upon our own heads and by our own authority expecting yea challenging his promise to be in the midst of us with all that plenitude of his spirit with those clear illuminations and assurances with that divine power and supreme Church-authority which next and immediately under Christ we judge to be in and among us as the first subject capable of it and is by us to be dispensed to what Pastors Members and Officers we list to chuse Being thus happily agreed as men we further covenanted as Saints to live together in this Church-fellowship we organized our body with all Church-Officers some of us ordained our selves to be Ministers of the Gospel others of us begat our Fathers and formed our Pastors we equally exercised Church-discipline upon one another so long as we could hold together some indeed went out from us because they were not of us the remaining faithfull Members of Christs little flock still cemented themselves and kept together as a Church where was prophecying and dipping and breaking of bread and excommunicating and all manner of censuring and discipline to far better uses and effects than ever were in that spurious as well as spacious and over-grown Church of England All this I have ordered and done by a power of Christian liberty with my Church or Body without any check or controll from any above us in a way indeed new and strange to the world but more pure free and perfect than ever was used or known in this of England or any other pretended Reformed Church which were all grosly deformed yea we are gone beyond any of those famous Primitive Churches which were by some called pure but I find them leavened with the mysterie of iniquity universally governed by Bishops our bitter enemies and Presbyters our not very fast friends The Lands of Bishops are now happily sold and some of us have bought a good part of them the Livings Tithes and Places of Presbyters we now gape for and crowd into yet are we neither guilty of sacriledge nor schisme the two Prelatick scare-crows or Episcopall bug-beares because nothing could be sacred which was never consecrated or devoted to the true God in a right way as nothing could be which was given to maintain Episcopacy with and Presbytery a meer Idol which we and so God no doubt perfectly abhors however it got footing so early in all Churches and immediately perked up in the place of the Apostles This seems to be the summarie sense of that pious Apology lately offered in behalf of all through-pac'd Separates and perfect Apostates from the order and constitution of the Church of England where either these men extremely dissemble or they first learned Christ and became Christians at least in profession many yeares being baptized and instructed confirmed and communicated in this Church from which being now totally divided they thus most ingeniously seek to wipe off the shame ingratitude levity sin suspicion of Schism by their owning no true Church at all in England and declaring plenary Separation or Independency fancying that he is lesse blameable who quite burns up his neighbours coat than he that onely singeth it and he that flayeth off ones skin is lesse insolent and injurious than he that onely scratcheth it as if every Schisme were not a partiall Separation and every Separation a plenary Schisme How justifiable the ground of such a plea is I leave to wiser men to their own more coole and impartiall spirits and to the great judge of all hearts whose Word hath much deceived his Church in
honour merited by the Emperours Diocletian Galerius for their extirpating Christian superstition restoring the worship of the Gods No pen saith Eusebius could equall the atrocity of those times against the Church of Christ Yet even then the gracious spirit of sincere Christians as the Ark in the deluge rose highest toward heaven then godly Bishops and Presbyters were as another Historian writes more ambitious of Martyrdome than now Presbyters are of being all made Bishops then were Christians more then conquerours and true Christianity most triumphant when it seemed most depressed despised and almost destroyed as Sulpitius Severus writes of the same times in his short but elegant History Thus Eusebius and others describe that horrid storm and black night which was relieved by the blessed day-star of Constantine the Great appearing In which dismall times learned men do not quarrell at the profession and state of Religion but at the irreligion and scandall of Christians lives the fault and provocation was not from the Faith Doctrine Liturgy Order and Government then established in the Churches of Christ but from the degenerous depraved and ungoverned passions of men as they all blamed these last whenever they appeared so they constantly asserted the other as was evident in the Synod of Antioch in which a little before Diocletians time the heresie of Paulus Samâ—satenus denying the Divinity of Christ was condemned by all being confuted by Malchion a learned man an accurate Disputant The Author or Heresiarch was excommunicated not onely from the Church of Antioch but also from the Catholick Church and separated from all Christian communion throughout the world by a just and unanimous severity Holy men then rightly judged that the meritorious cause of all those sore calamities arose not from the frame of Christian Churches which was holy uniform and Apostolick as yet but from the wantonness and wickedness of Christian professors neglecting so great means of salvation and abusing such Halcyon dayes as had been sometime afforded them Which censure I may without rashnesse or uncharitablenesse pass as to the present distresses incumbent upon the Church of England whose holy wise honourable and happy Reformation must ever be vindicated as much as in me lies against all such gain-sayers as make no scruple to condemne as all the generations of Gods children in former ages so those especially who worthily setled and valiantly maintained the Christian reformed Religion in the Church of England as against all Heathenish and Hereticall profaneness so against the more puissant and superstitious Papists also against the more peevish but then more feeble Schismaticks CHAP. X. IT were as impertinent a work for me in these times to insist upon every particular in the frame of the Church of England or to cry up every small lineament in Her for most rare and incomparable as it is unreasonable and spitefull in those that deny Her to have had any one handsome feature in Her or any thing grave comely Christian-like or Church-like in her main constitution and complexion Mr. Richard Hooker one of the ablest Pens and best Spirits that ever England employed or enjoyed hath besides many other worthy men abundantly examined every feature and dress of the Church of England asserting it by calm clear and unanswerable demonstrations of Reason and Scripture to have been very far from having any thing unchristian or uncomely deformed or intolerable which her then enemies declaimed and now have proclaimed whose wrathfull menaces the meekness and wisdome of that good man foresaw and in his Epistle foretold would be very fierce and cruell if once they got power answerable to their prejudices superstitions and passions against the Church of England which he fully proved to differ no more from the Primitive temper and prudence than was either lawfull convenient or necessary in the variation of times and occasions The excellent endeavours of that rarely-learned and godly Divine so full of the spirit and wisdome of Christ one would have thought might have been sufficient for ever to have kept up the peace order and honour of the Church of England also to have silenced the pratings and petulancies of her adversaries But alas few of those plebeian spirits and weaker capacities to whose errour anger and activity the Church of England now chiefly owes her miseries tears and fears were ever able to understand or bear away the weight strength and profoundnesse of that most ample mans reasonings and his eloquent writings Others of them that were more able were so cunning and partiall for the interest of their cause and faction as commonly to decry for obscure or to suspect as dangerous because prejudiciall to their interest or to bury in silence as their enemy that rare piece of Mr. Hookers Ecclesiasticall Polity which many of them had seldome either the courage or the honesty to read none of them the power ever to reply or the hardiness so much as to endeavour a just confutation of his mighty demonstrations Yea I have been credibly informed that some of the then-dissenters from the Church of England had the good or rather evil fortune utterly to suppress those now defective but by him promised and performed books touching the vindication of the Church of England in its Ordination Jurisdiction and Government by the way of Ancient Catholick Primitive and Apostolick Episcopacy Which one word Episcopacy hath of late years cost more blood and treasure in Scotland and England than all the enemies of Bishops and of this Church had in their veins or were worth 20. years ago whose importune clamours of old and endeavours of late to extirpate Primitive Catholick and Apostolicall Episcopacy out of this Church and to introduce by head and shoulders the exotick novelties and vanities of humane invention have brought themselves and this whole Church to so various and divided a posture as makes no setled or uniform Church-government at all by a popular precipitancy ruining an ancient and goodly Fabrick whose temporary decayes or defects might easily and wisely have been amended before they had agreed of a new model or seriously considered either their skill or their authority to erect a new one if they could find out a better which hitherto they have not done nor will they I believe ever be able to do as destitute in this point of any just commission direction power or precedent either from God or man I am sure the Supreme power of regulating all Ecclesiasticall affairs was under God by the laws of England invested in the Chief Magistrate and Governours of this Church without and against whose judgements consents and consciences no innovations were to be carried on nor indeed begun in this Church whose events or successes hitherto have been only worthy of such tumultuary beginnings the effects of them being full of dissolution confusion to all of injurious afflictions to many worthy men besides penall and perpetuall divisions among the Innovators themselves who
These good and warm men to whose martyrly courage much might be indulged while yet Reformation was an Embryo in the formation and birth were in time much worn out men afterward began more coolely to consider the nature of the things no less than their own fears or other mens prejudices especially after they saw those things three times solemnly determined and setled by the publick wisdome and authority both of this Church and State The few remains of the old stock of pious dissenters which in my time I have known were grown so calm and moderate as to the Ceremonies of the Church of England that I never found they perswaded others against them As for Liturgie and Episcopacy I am sure they justly asserted them as to the main as wishing onely some small sweetning of the first as to a few darker expressions and the softening of the other as to some more equable regulations which were as far from extirpation of either of them as wiping the eyes is from pulling them out and washing the hands from cutting them off Yea I know by long experience that when the graver and more learned sort of Non-conformists perceived how mightily the Reformed Religion grew and prospered in England amidst the Liturgie Bishops and Ceremonies against which some fiercer spirits had so excessively inveighed when they saw what buds and leaves blossoms and ripe fruit Aarons rod brought forth what eminent gifts and graces God was pleased to dispense by Bishops and Presbyters that were piously conformable to the Church of England they wholly laid aside their former heats and youthfull eagernesses which sometimes fed high and were kept warm by the hopes and flatteries of those who expected that party should long agone have prevailed yea many of them now aged both repented of and recanted their more juvenile and indiscreet fervours advising others now beginners to conform to the good orders and to study the peace of the Church of England which they saw so blessed of God as none in the world exceeded Her Nor did I ever hear of any sober Christian or truly godly Minister who being in other things prudent unblameable and sincere did ever suffer any penitentiall strokes or checks of conscience either upon his death-bed or before meerly upon the account of their having been conformable to and keeping communion with the Church of England nor did they ever find or complain of Ceremonies Liturgie or Episcopacy as any damps to their reall graces or to their holy communion with Gods blessed Spirit At last both good Ministers and people generally submitted themselves in all peaceableness for many years to the order and uniformity of the Church of England untill the late Northern Earth-quake scared many by a Panick fear from their former stedfastness in practises and judgements which had been taken up by many Ministers not suddenly and easily but after serious and mature deliberations against which nothing new hath as yet been alledged to alter their minds onely old rusty arguments have been wrapped up in new furbished arms the strongest sword it seems makes the best proofs and impressions on some mens consciences even in matters of Religion Which vertigo excusable giddiness in the vulgar but shamefull inconstancy in some men of parts and learning is no news to wise men since as the most renowned Isaac Casaubon observes the native mutability of mens minds is such That they precipitantly run by sholes and troops upon changes which are for the worst but scarce one man of a thousand is to be won by the sense of his own and other mens miseries or by the most importune and strongest reasons in the world to retract his popular transports or to revert to the better by holy and happy Apostasies Changes to the worse like sicknesses are easie and sudden recoveries to the better like health are slow and difficult Irregular zeal and popular tumults like storms and tempests easily drive men from their anchors into dangerous seas but they seldom bring them back into safe harbors The first is the work of the many but not the wise the second of the wise who are but few and who during the paroxysme or first impression of vulgar violence must a little yield themselves either to be carried away or oppressed by the rage and precipitancy of such mutations which divers sober men no doubt have rather suffered of late years than approved here in England who humbly pray to recover that happy port or station wherein the Reformed Religion was once like a well-built well-ballasted and richly laden ship safely anchored in the Church of England where the ceremonies were but as the wast clothes flags and streamers no part indeed of its precious lading but yet not uncomely ornaments much less such dangerous burthens or blemishes as merited the utter sinking and over-setting of so fair a vessel which seems to have been the delight of some men though I do not think it was or is according to the desire of the most sober modest Non-conformists no more than it was or is agreeable to the mind of the chief Magistrate nor of the best Nobility the wisest Gentry the learnedst Clergie or the better sort of Commons if they were left to their free votes and untumultuated suffrages Certainly all pious and prudent persons who ever owned the Church of England having now more leisure and clearer light to discern things than when the clouds and storms first began cannot but continually deplore their own credulity some mens cruelty and most mens inconstancy in religion which have left this Church in so broken and calamitous a condition while some oppose Her many forsake Her and few assert Her Especially when they finde as they do every where by experience that those eager agitators against the Church of England upon the old account of Ceremonies Liturgie and Episcopacy doe yet as grand Masters and most authentick Dictators take to themselves and their respective parties a most plenipotentiary power to teach ordain rule over-see guide correct and excommunicate such as they can get into their severalls divided or new-erected Churches whose divine authority power and jurisdiction in things Ecclesiastick they cry up for absolute Supreme Divine Thus they make or at least fancy themselves mutually Kings and Priests in the majesty and soveraignty of all Ecclesiastick jurisdiction amidst their small conventicles who wholly deny any such authority to the Grandeur number magnificence of the Church of England that is the joynt consent united influence and combined interest of all good Christians in this Nation who publickly agreed with one mind and in one manner to serve the Lord. Yet in the manner of their Communion ministrations or worship who sees not that every one of these new Masters affects to be author of his own Liturgie perswading people to pray to and praise God to consecrate and celebrate holy mysteries rather after such a form as they shall either suddenly conceive or more soberly provide
so eloquent no pen so pathetick as to be able sufficiently to express eye no so melting as to weep enough no heart so soft and diffusive of its sorrows as worthily to lament when they consider that wantonness of wickedness that petulant importunity that superfluity of malice that unsatisfied cruelty of some men who have endeavoured to cast whole cart-loads of injust reproches vulgar injuries and shameful indignities upon the whole Church of England seeking to bury with the burial of an Asse either in the dunghill of Papall pride and tyranny or popular contempt and Anarchy all its former renown and glory its very name and being together with the office order authority distinction and succession of its Ancient Apostolick and Evangelical ministery which hath been the savour of life unto life the mighty power of God to the conversion and salvation of many thousand souls in the Church of England Whose sore Calamities and just Complaints having thus far presented to Your consideration and compassion it is now time for me to enquire after the causes and occasions of its troubles miseries confusions and feared vastations in order to find out the best methods and medicines for Her timely cure and happy recovery if God and man have yet any favour or compassion for Her The end of the first Book BOOK II. SEARCHING THE CAUSES AND OCCASIONS OF THE Church of England's decayes CHAP. I. BUt it is now time most honoured and worthy Countrey-men after so large and just so sore and true a complaint in behalf of the Church of England and the Reformed Religion heretofore wisely established unanimously professed in this Nation to look after the rise and originall the Causes and Occasions of our Decayes and Distempers of our Maladies and Miseries which by way of prevention or negation I have in the former Book demonstrated to be no way imputable to the former frame state or constitution of the Church of England but they must receive their source from some other fountain The search and discovery of which is necessary in order to a serious cure for rash and conjecturall applications to sick patients are prone as learned Physitians observe to commute their maladies or to run them out of one disease into another but not to cure any turning Dropsies into Jaundise and Feavers into Consumptions The greatest commendation of Physitians next their skill to discerne is to use such freedome in their discoveries and such fidelity in their applyings as may least flatter or conceal the disease In this disquisition or inquiry after the Causes and Occasions of our Ecclesiastick distempers I will not by an unwelcome scrutiny or uncharitable curiosity search into those more secret springs and hidden impulsives which proceed as our Blessed Saviour tells us out of mens hearts into their lives and actions such as are wrathfull revenges unchristian envies sacrilegious covetings impotent ambitions hypocriticall policies censorious vanities pragmatick impatiencies an itch after novelties mens over-valuing of themselves and undervaluing of others a secret delight in mean and vulgar spirits to see their betters levelled exauctorated impoverished abased contemned a general want of wisdome meekness humility and charity a plebeian petulancy and wanton satiety even as to holy things arising from peace plenty and constancy of enjoying them These spiritual wickednesses which are usually predominant in the high places of mens souls being Arcana Diaboli the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stratagemata Satanae the secret engines depths and stratagems used by the Devil to undermine the hearts of Christians to loosen the foundations of Churches and to overthrow the best setled Religion being least visible and discoverable for they are commonly covered as mines with the smooth surfaces and turfs of zeale sanctity reformation scrupulosity conscience c. these I must leave to that great day which will try mens works and hearts too when men shall be approved and rewarded not according to their Pharisaick boastings popular complyings and specious pretensions but according to their righteous actions and honest intentions Onely this I may without presumption or uncharitableness judge as to the distempers of our times and the ruinous state of the Church of England that many men who have been very busie in new brewing and embroyling all things of Religion would never have so bestirred themselves to divide dissipate and destroy the peace and polity of this Church if they had not been formerly offended and exasperated either by want of their desired preferment which S. Austin observes of Aerius the great and onely stickler of old against Bishops or by some Animadversion which they called persecution although it were no more than an exacting of legal conformity and either sworn or promised subjection as to Canonicall obedience Many men would have been quiet if they had not hoped to gain by rifling their Mother and robbing their Fathers Some at the first motions might perhaps have good meanings and desires as Eve had to grow wiser but they were soon corrupted by eating the forbidden fruit by the unlawfulness of those means and extravagancy of those methods they used to accomplish them But God and mens own consciences will in due time judge between these men and the Church of England whether they did either intend or act wisely or worthily justly or charitably gratefully or ingenuously This I am sure if they have the comfort of sincerity as to their intent they have the horrour of unsuccessfulness to humble them as to the sad events which have followed preposterous piety CHAP. II. THe chiefest apparent cause and most pregnant outward occasion of our Ecclesiastick mischiefs and miseries as I humbly conceive ariseth from that inordinate liberty and immodest freedome which of later years all sorts of people have challenged to themselves in matters of Religion presuming on such a Toleration and Indulgence as incourageth them to chuse and adhere to what doctrine opinion party perswasion fancy or faction they list under the name of their Religion their Church fellowship and communion nor are people to be blanked or scared from any thing which they list to call their Religion unless it have upon it the mark of Popery Prelacy or Blasphemy of which terrible names I think the common people are very incompetent judges nor do they well know what is meant by them as the onely forbidden fruit every party in England being prone to charge each other with something which they call Blasphemy and to suspect mutually either the affecting of Prelacy or the inclining to Popery in wayes that seem arrogant and imperious in themselves also insolent and injurious to others each aspiring so to set up their particular way as to give law to others not onely proposing but prescribing such Doctrine Discipline Worship Government and Ministry as they list to set up according to what they gather or guess out of Scripture whereof every private man and woman too as S. Jerom tells of the
conveniency When Religion is thus setled by publick counsel consent and sanction it ought in all reason and conscience to be preserved in wayes of honour peace and safety more carefully than those banks are which by keeping out the seas inundations preserve our pastures and cattel from drowning else every Polity and Nation pretending to be Christian proclaim to all the world that they think Religion to be no better than matters of Scepticall dispute and variable opinion having nothing in it clear or certain as to any divine truth or infallible Revelation Of which since their ignorance and weakness or passion and partiality to which every private man is subject makes them less capable either to search or judge to dispute or determine the wisdome of God hath alwayes either established or exemplarily directed his Church to use and enjoy some such constant Conservators of Religion besides the occasionall Reformers and restorers of it which were of old the Prophets extraordinarily sent besides those that were ordinarily brought up in the schooles of the Prophets which were the nurseries of those learned and wise men who made up the Sanhedrim or grand Council among the Jews consisting of seventy men who were for piety parts and place chief Fathers Doctors and Rabbies in the Church of the Jews and the great Conservators of their Law and Religion Answerably we read in the Primitive Churches and times this care and power was by the wisdome of Christ fixed and by all good Christians owned in the Apostles and Elders to whom in case of any dispute or difference in Religion address was made not onely to hear their counsel and judgement but to submit to their decisions and decrees which bound every man to preach no other doctrine different from much less contrary to what that venerable consistory both taught and summarily delivered to the Churches of Christ viz. wholsome formes and short summaries of sound doctrine as well as in their more diffused writings occasionally sent to particular Churches and divinely delivered to the use care and custody of the Catholick Church Agreeable to these holy precedents every Christian Church in after-ages had within their several distributions or dioceses distinguished by their Cities or Provinces their Synods or Ecclesiasticall Councils for all those emergencies or concernments of Religion which arose within their limits and combinations proportionably they had more extensive Conventions and generall Councils in cases of grand concernment for the comprimising of all differences in Religion and conservation of the Churches both purity and peace These methods of prudent piety and pious prudence as they were of divine Institution so they ought to be perpetuall in the Church of Christ as being the onely means left for the conservation and reformation of Religion 'T is true in the dimness of after-ages when the decay of Primitive zeal love sanctity and sincerity had too much prevailed over these Western Churches the Bishops of Rome taking the advantage of the higher ground whereon the fame of that City was raised not onely for being the Metropolis of the Roman Empire but for being a prime Church of Apostolicall plantation and high renown for the Faith and martyrly constancy of its first Bishops these with no great difficulty as with great art and policy contrary to the judgement and practise of Antiquity for the first 600. years sought to fix the Standard of Religion in the Popes chair and to make his breast the great Conservator of Religion certainly a very easie compendious and happy way to keep up the peace and honour of Christian Religion and Churches if the Bishop of Rome could in the noon-day-light of these times either convince the world of his speciall gift of Infallibility or make good his claim of being sole and supreme Judge of all controversies in Religion above any other Pastors and Bishops yea and above a generall Council This late prodigious pillar or huge Colosse of the Popes infallible sole and supreme power hath as of old so of late years not onely been much weakned by many Churches Greek and Latine dissenting but by some it hath been quite overthrown demolished and broken in pieces as an arrogant abuse and intolerable tyranny contrary to all rules of Scripture and reason never challenged by the first famous and holy Bishops of that Church nor owned in after-ages when Popes began to usurp upon other Bishops and Churches by the most learned and godly men of those times This justice being done to the honour and liberty of the Churches of Christ and their respective Bishops or Pastors against the Papall obtrusion of his sole judicature yet no Reformed Church of any repute hath been so transported by just indignation against the Papall usurpations as to expose themselves and their Religion to the various breach and giddy brains of the vulgar but every one hath both confined and setled their profession by some publick profession as the standard of Religion also they have some such Conservators of Religion either ordinary or extraordinary as do take care that the established Religion suffer no injury or detriment This authority or power seems now much wanting in England though it be very necessary in my judgement which should so preserve the publick stability of true Religion as not to invade any good mans private liberty which ought not to be too severely curbed yet not so indulged as to injure the common welfare contrary to all rules of reason justice and charity These Conservators of Religion should not exact of private Christians any explicite conformity or subscription under penalty of any mulct or prison much less with the terrour of fire and faggot which was the zealotry of Papal tyranny onely they should take care that people be duly taught that Religion which is setled that none be a publick Preacher that is a declared dissenter or opposer of it that no man do broach any novelty without their approbation that no man do petulantly blaspheme oppose scorn or perturb that constitution of Religion which is publickly setled as supposed to be the best that no man abuse the name of Christian liberty to the publick injury All sober and wise Christians do see and feel by late sad experience that liberty in the vulgar sense and notion is but a golden Calf which licentious minds set up to themselves under that specious name as the Israelites did their abominable Idoll under the popular title and acclamation of These are thy Gods O Israel If common people be indulged in what freedome they will challenge to themselves wise men will soon find that their Christian liberty is no better than an Image of jealousie a Teraphim a Tamuz or Adonis offensive to the God of reason order law and government destructive to humane society dishonourable to the name of Christ and that holy profession which was so renowned of old as Christian that is the most regular meek harmlesse strict peaceable and charitable Religion in
sacred office charge and ministration how infinitely ought you to be ashamed and regretted to see them usurped many times by the dogs of your flocks by your hinds and foot-men your grooms and serving-men by threshers weavers and coblers by taylors tinkers and tapsters any mean and mechanick people whose parts and spirits are onely fit for those trades to which their breeding and necessities have confined them Not that I despise or reproch these honest though mean employments but I highly blame their insolence and other mens patience to see these usurp upon the dignity of the Ministry Certainly such proud poor wretches may to some men possibly seem fittest Ministers in a disordered State and decaying Church as factors for Satan and Antichrist setters for Ignorance and Superstition turning Faith into Faction but they will never prove after that fashion of preparing and admitting either able or faithfull or fruitfull Ministers of Christ or his Church seeming themselves and making others despisers of Christ with the blasphemous Jews while they so look upon him and treat him as under the notion of the Carpenters son as their equall or inferiour in some handicraft forgetting his divine glory and majesty as the onely-begotten son of God to whom all power is given in heaven and earth who hath executed this power most visibly in sending forth his Ministers to teach and baptize all nations out of which to gather and govern his Church in his name They rudely slight Christs ministerial authority in such as are truly excellent and duly ordained Ministers that they may proudly challenge it to themselves without any reason or Scripture law or order command or example either from Christ or his Church These men who say they are Apostles Prophets and Preachers and are not will be in the end and already are found liars against God and their own souls deceitfull workers false Apostles Mock-ministers Pseudo-pastors disorderly walkers authors of infinite scandall and confusion of scorn and contempt to Christian and Reformed Religion both here and elsewhere many of them serving their bellies and gratifying their carnall lusts and momentary wants much more than designing to advance the glory of God the Kingdome of Christ or the eternall good of mens souls which are not to be carried on save in Gods way that is by fit abilities and with due authority both are required as necessary for a true Minister the first though reall is not sufficient without the second For as the meer outward materiall action cannot be a divine sacramentall or ministerial transaction more than every killing of an Ox was a sacrificing so nor are meer naturall or personall abilities sufficient to acquire any office or authority much less this of the Ministry which is divine or none any more than every able Butcher was presently enabled to be a Priest Any mans ability fully to understand or handsomely to relate the mind of his Prince makes him not presently an Embassador or Minister of State unless there be a commission or letters of credence to authorize the person The blessed Apostle S. Paul who was extraordinarily converted called and sent of God as a Christian a Minister or Apostle yet we see did not take upon him the exercise or office till first Ananias had by Gods speciall command laid his hands on him and he became endowed with the ministerial gift or power of the holy Ghost which were afterward in like sort solemnly confirmed and increased by the express command of God when Paul and Barnabas were separated and sent upon special service with fasting prayer and laying on of the hands of some Prophets and Teachers in Antioch where the Apostle had formerly preached in the Church a whole year among much people This same Apostle oft blames and bids Christians beware of false Apostles not onely false in their doctrine but in their ordination and mission as the Prophets of the Lord did of old the false Prophets whom God had not sent yet they ran The Spirit of Christ commends the Angel of the Church of Ephesus where as Irenaeus and others tell us S. John lived long and left the most pregnant examples of Ecclesiasticall order Episcopall power and Ministeriall succession for trying those that said they were Apostles and were not for finding esteeming and declaring them as liars no way listning and adhering to or communicating with them as being Falsaries and Impostors enemies at once to the truth order and peace of Christs Church For 't is seldome that a bastardly generation of Preachers doth not bring forth some false and base doctrines for it is observable in this as in civil Histories that Bastards in nature and so in office are commonly most daring and adventurous spirits Certainly the late illegitimate Ministers or spurious Preachers of new and strange originals in England have in less than fifteen years brought more monsters of opinions and factions in Religion than have arose in so many hundred years before in any one Church I know some Christians are prone to gratifie their curiosity as those do who sometime go to see monsters in making some triall and essay of these pretended Preachers that once knowing their ignorance and insolence they may upon juster grounds ever after abhor them If this be tolerable for some persons of able and sober judgements yet it is no better than a snare and dangerous temptation for others that are weak and unstable nor may the venture be oft made by the more steddy Christians lest they seem thereby to countenance and encourage so great a confusion innovation usurpation and scandal in the Church of Christ besides the abetting of that high profanation of holy duties and mysteries which ought not to be transacted but in the name power and authority of our God and Saviour Certainly good Christians ought not at any hand to communicate with such usurping intruders in any sacramentall action nor ought they to own any thing more of a Minister of Jesus Christ in them than they would of a King or Magistrate in a Stage-player Doubtless as no good Christian so least of all those that profess to be Ministers of Christ ought to live as sons of Belial disorderly refractory unruly after the arbitrary rude and presumptuous dictates of their own wills The spirit of true Ministers and Prophets will be subject as it ought to that rule order and custome which in all ages hath been the canon measure and commission of all Evangelical Ministers and Pastors of Christs Church As naturall and morall endowments are no plea to invest any man into any office military or civil much less into any power and authority Ecclesiastical The pretenses of new and extraordinary calls of missions immediate from God are not in any reason expectable nor in Christian Religion credible where the ordinary power and commission was continued and might duly be had as it was and yet is in the Church of England
of living waters which they digged not that they might dig to themselves broken Cisterns which can hold little or no water And this they delight to do not onely against those daily instances which miserable and manifest experience gives them of the sad and decayed condition of the Christian and Reformed Religion in this Ch. of Engl. since these new Ministers have intruded and divided but contrary also to all those pregnant testimonies undeniable demonstrations which both our pious fore-fathers in Engl. and all other Christian Churches in all ages have afforded us in the practises and writings of the Fathers testimonies of all Church-historians who with one mouth every where unanimously tell us what was the Apostolick ancient true and onely beginning of the Ministeriall order what the holy and happy way of its descent derivation and succession by duly consecrated Bishops and ordained Presbyters Contrary to all which plain and perpetual remonstrances for nothing is in them dubious or dark I am amazed I confess to see not the giddy and heady vulgar ungratefully engaged who are alwaies like tinder ready to take fire at any sparks of innovations diminutions and extirpations especially of their laws and governours but I find some men of worth yea and Ministers of good learning and seeming ingenuity either so over-awed by the vulgar or over-biassed by their own private interests inclinations and passions that after so much light of Scripture and antiquity shining both in the divine Originals and the Ecclesiastick copies of Ministeriall order and succession after their own former solemn approbations and subscriptions after their late experience of the sad consequences already too much felt in this Church as fruits of those innovations and usurpations made upon that unity power and authority of the Evangelicall Ministry yet I grieve and am ashamed to see that such men should still pitifully comply with consent to yea and promote those dangerous alterations and desperate extirpations which are designed by the enemies of this Church whose aim is to baffle and deprive this Reformed Church in so main a point and hinge of Religion as the ancient sacred orders the constant Ecclesiasticall methods of the Evangelicall Ministry must needs be which what they ever have been in this and all Catholick Churches no man of moderate learning humble piety and honest principles can be ignorant of CHAP. XI THose new unwonted and exotick fashions which some men have studied of late to introduce or incourage in England as to this point of Ministeriall office and power besides that they are all of them new some of them monstrous to this and all ancient Churches they plainly savour more of humane faction than of Christian faith else they would not they could not in any conscience or charity be so mischievously bent and malapertly spitefull against those worthy Bishops and other excellent Ministers who still adhere to the Ancient and Catholick order of the Church of England nor yet could they be so mis-shapen multiform and many-headed in themselves changing every day almost as Proteus by an innate principle of mutability which follows the fancies and interests of new and present projectors but not the judgement and grave example of our ancient and impartial predecessors And however some of these new ways not of successive procreating but new creating Ministers may seem first brewed by domestick discontents next broached by a forreign sword at length fostered by a partiall and over-awed Assembly at last fomented for a season by scattered and divided houses Parlaments in very broken touchy and bloody times when every new thing was made triall of which might as toyes and bables best please the peevish and petulant parties of people in England however others have further challenged to themselves a particular liberty and arbitrary authority such as best likes them in this point of the Ministry which no man of any wisdome piety or gravity can allow under any pretensions of gifts or graces ministeriall in any man Yet all these novell inventions whatever title they pretend from God or man from policy or necessity may not in any reason or Religion in any honour or conscience in any piety or prudence be put into the balance with much less be thought fit to out-vie that clear primitive pattern that Catholick constant succession that Apostolick and divine prescription which do all preponderate for the Ministry of the Church of England in the true scale of regular and authentick ordination of Ministers who are never so completely and indisputably invested with that power as when by the imposition of hands solemnly done by Episcopall Presidents and Presbyterian Assistants who after due examination and serious monition and fervent supplication do in prescript words commit that ministeriall power spirit and authority of Christ which ought to be rightly imparted to those that undertake Evangelical ministrations in Christs name to any part of his Church if they desire to avoid the sin and scandall of being intruders traitours usurpers and counterfeiters of Christs ministeriall dignity and authority Secular or civil powers which are but the products of the sword and managed chiefly by the policy and arm of flesh may indeed confer what honour office and authority they please on any man in civil things yea they may and ought in conscience to take care of and regulate the exercise of Ecclesiastical power in reference to Gods glory and the publick good both of Church and State but they cannot as from themselves by any naturall morall or civil capacity confer holy orders or bestow Ministerial authority on any man much less may they or as Christian Magistrates will they make a new broad Seal of Christianity or commence any new way of ministeriall authority nor may they in conscience cancel or abrogate the good old way no nor yet alter in any materiall part the Catholick way of its right derivation and succession which was by the hands of those who had first received that holy deposition which certainly is of as much higher nature orb and sphere beyond any naturall moral or secular power as the celestial light of sun and stars is above that which is from candles or that holy fire on Gods altar was above that which is but culinary All good Christians agree that its originall is in Christ its commission from Christ its first delegation to the twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples from the Apostles we read its transmission to others in the Apostolicall Acts and Epistles How it was afterward continued and by what means derived to an uninterrupted Catholick succession in all Churches for 1500 years is not indeed to be learned so not decided by Scripture whose records except the Apocalyps extend not above 28 or 30 years after Christs ascension but being a thing now of late so hotly disputed in this and some other Churches there is no rationall satisfaction to be had as to matter of fact but by the after-histories of the Church
pride covetousness and other discontented lusts and partly by Jesuitick arts and Papall policies whose joynt aims are at this day to extirpate the whole race root and branch of the Reformed Catholick Christian Church and Ministry in England They conspire nothing more than that they may serve both the Bishops and Presbyters of England as Elias and Jehu did Baals Priests for this is the sense some men have of us and this is the sentence they have passed and seek to execute upon us as upon so many Cretians not Christians as if we were onely liars evil beasts and slow-bellies either imperious masters or unprofitable servants to the Church that so these new Masters may on all sides freely enjoy those superstitious and fanatick liberties which they have designed for their divided parties who despaired to prevail in England untill they had brought the English Clergie to undergo all manner of indignities and injuries CHAP. XII ALl which Tragedies that the people of England might behold and bear with the greater patience and stupidity they must by popular orators be perswaded 1. That all Bishops or presidentiall Fathers and Over-seers among the Clergie such as the Apostles and their immediate Successors first were are Antichristian truly so are Fathers in families Magistrates in cities and Chieftains in armies 2. That the ordaining of Presbyters by Bishops is meerly Popish so is the celebrating of Baptisme or the Lords Supper or the Lords day 3. That Christs Ministry appropriated to one order of men is a monopoly or a taking too much upon mens selves when others of the congregation may be as holy and able so is all order office and authority civil and military a meer monopoly when others may be as able and wise as the best Magistrates and Commanders 4. That all humane Learning is not onely superfluous but pernicious in the Ministers of the Gospel so is all skill industry and ability in all other workmen 5. That Ministers maintenance by Tithes Glebe-lands and other oblations is Jewish so is all justice and gratitude in paying labourers their wages 6. That the distinction of Clergie and Laity is arrogant and supercilious so are the titles of Master and Scholar Teacher and Disciple Priest and People Minister and ministred 7. That it was proud and insolent for any Clergie-men to be invested with honour to be stiled and respected as Lords Truly if it be no dishonour to any temporall Lord to become a Minister or Christs glorious Gospel nor doth he thereby lose his civil Lordship and dignity no more is it misbecoming learned grave and venerable Ministers of the Gospel the chief Fathers and governours of the Church to be adorned with honours and to enjoy as the favours of Christian Princes and States both the Titles and Revenues of their temporall Baronies and Lordships which they might for ought I could ever see as well deserve and use as any other Lords who had their Lordships by birth by purchase or by favour nor did Honour less become Ecclesiastick Rulers than it doth those military Commanders who I see can endure themselves to be called treated as Lords I confess under favour I do not understand how Church-government should be less capable of degrees and distinction in Governours than those which are civil or military since order and subordination must be in them all nor do I more understand how such chief Governours of the Church-militant as Bishops were and ought to be might not as well both merit and manage such honours and estates as any men who by far less abilities or pains do get to be Major-generals or Colonels and chief Commanders in an Army over poor Souldiers Sure the saving of souls is every way as hard and honourable a work as the killing of mens bodies which is the worst of a souldiers work or as the saving of mens temporall lives and estates which is the best of that employment nor is it less of true valour vigilance and resolution in learned and good Scholars to fight with and overcome the ignorance errours and barbarity of mankind than it is fortitude in good souldiers to suppress the rapines and injustice of mens extravagant actions But these and such like are the envious cobwebs the thin and ridiculous sophistries formerly used by some men of evil eyes and worse hearts out of principles full of ignorance or envy or covetousness or licentiousness or Atheism whereby to perswade silly people to follow these novell easie and more thrifty methods of saving souls which some swelling Libertines propound who have the confidence earnestly to invite this noble Nation to commit the whole managery of Christian Religion and of their souls eternall salvation to such new cheap and bold undertakers who adventure to minister in Christs name without any such character commission or conscience of divine authority which as Irenaeus and all the Ancients tell us were ever in a solemn visible and orderly manner derived by the hands of Bishops to the Presbyters or lawful Ministers of the Church as from Christ and the Apostles in an undoubted and uninterrupted succession of which Tertullian gives so excellent an account in his Book of prescription against Hereticks Their ostentations of naturall liberty of civil indulgence of rationall abilities of speciall gifts and undiscernable graces or which is most incredible of extraordinary calls from God All or any of these if they were really true yet will not be allowed as a justifiable ground for any mans usurpation or intrusion into any office military or civil without a visible commission derived from the supreme power in both much less are they sufficient pleas for any man to officiate in the Ministry Ecclesiasticall whose Supreme Authority is confessedly in Christ and the derivation or deduction of it in all ages is so visible constant and uniform that no man honestly learned can be ignorant where it resided or how it was derived Certainly it never was dispensed by the hands or power of Emperours Kings Protectors Princes or any civil Magistrates whose duty I conceive if they will act as Christians is not to alter or innovate this sacred authority and method used by Christ the Apostles and the Catholick Church but to preserve it as sacred and inviolable much less was it left to the spontaneous confidence the passionate suffrages and confused petulancies of common people who are the great and infallible prostrators of all Religion vertue honour order peace civility and humanity if left to themselves but it was divinely setled by Christ in the Apostles and by the Apostles in their successors the ordained Bishops and Presbyters of the Catholick Church in its severall branches and combinations who ever have been and ought to be under Christ the great Conservators the onely complete and regular Distributers of this holy ministeriall power as they have been to this day in this and all other orderly Churches of Christ without any controversie or contradiction without dispute or doubt
very vigilant and active doth then move most potently upon the face of our English waters when there is to be seen nothing but a sea of confusion a meer Chaos of the Christian and Reformed Religion Which feared deluge and by wise men foreseen devastation of the Reformed Religion once wisely established honourably maintained and mightily prospered in the Church of England is already much spread and prevalent among many people under the plea and colour of I know not what liberty to own any or no Minister any or no Religion any none or many Churches in England The visible decayes and debasings of the true and Reformed Religion in England as to piety equity unity and charity as to the authority of its Ministry and solemnity of its Ministrations are so palpable both in the outward peace and profession also in the inward warmth and perswasion that it is high time for all sober and wise men that love God Religion and their Countrey mightily to importune the mercies of God that breathing upon us with a spirit of meeknesse and wisdome truth and love humility and honesty he would at length asswage that deluge of contempt and confusion the troubled and bitter waters of wrath and contention which have over-whelmed the highest mountains of this Church over-topping by their salt waves and aspersions the gravest wisest most learned and religious both Preachers and professors of the Reformed Religion in this Church and Nation Which licentious insolencies have made all sober Christians so sick weary and ashamed of them that they cannot but be infinitely grieved to see and foresee the low ebbe to which the Reformed Religion in its purity and power must in time fall in England while the pristine dignity and authority of the Evangelicall Ministry is so invaded baffled and despised while the authentick derivation and Catholick succession of that holy power is so interrupted innovated divided destroyed while the reverence of primitive customes and examples is so slighted abated by fanatick innovators while the cords of Christian harmony and Church-polity are so loosened and ravelled on every side while the just honour and encouragements of learning and learned men are so much damped and exhausted while the Ecclesiastick Glory of this Nation which was its chiefest in being and owning it self as a true and Reformed Church of Christ is so much eclipsed to the great reproch of this present age and the infinite hazard of posterity which will hardly ever recover the honour order beauty and unity of Christian and Reformed Religion formerly enjoyed in this Church and Nation when once the Jewels of it the learned ordained orderly and authoritative Ministers of the Gospel with all their Ministry and Ministrations come to be either trampled under feet by Schismaticall fury or invaded and usurped by vulgar insolency which in time will rake them all up and bury them in the dunghill of Romish superstitions and Papal usurpations CHAP. XIX HOw far in humane policy or reason of State this popular liberty or rather insolency usurpation and anarchy in Religion is to be indulged I know not as not pretending to any of those depths of secular wisdome which will be found shallow at last if Gods glory and the good of mens souls be not in the bottom of them But thus far I conceive I may after so many years sad experience which all sober Christians have had of the retrogradations of the Reformed Religion in England appeal as to you who are the most generous and judicious persons in this Nation so to all prudent and well-advised persons of all sizes and conditions who are capable to weigh the true interests and future concernments of their Countrey and Posterity both as to Piety and Peace Honour and Happiness by way of an humble and earnest expostulation Hath not I beseech you this English world Prince and peasant Pastors and people great and small had enough both in cities and in villages of these late Hashshes Olives and Queckshoes of Religion in the mixture and dressing of which every foul hand must have a finger Do you not perceive a different face of Christian and Reformed Religion from what was heretofore in England when it had less experience of vulgar licentiousness but more true Christian liberty when in my memory most of yours Engl. was so full and flourishing with excellent Christians of all sorts young and old plain and polite learned and illiterate noble and ignoble in the Nobility Gentry Yeomanry and Peasantry whose setled judicious piety was the fruit of the labours cares counsels and inspection of those learned grave and godly Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters with whom you were blessed Have not all of you had enough and too much of these new flashes these fluttering squibs these erratick Planets these wandering Stars these pretenders to rarities novelties superfluities super-reformings raptures revelations and Enthusiasmes in Religion To all which you may easily see that a fancifull invention a melancholy pride a popular itching a profane spirit a loose temper and a glib tongue are very prone to betray men being as sufficient to furnish them in those trades as a little stock will go far to make up a pedlars pack yet have they so great confidence of themselves as if they exceeded not onely all former Christians all Ministers all Councils all Churches but even all holy Scriptures themselves whose darkness or incompleteness must as some men say be cleared and supplied by their speciall illuminations an old artifice of the Devil most used by those men and in those times which being most destitute of true reason good learning and Religion did most vapour of their visions and revelations their traditions and superstitions witness those Cimmerian Centuries or blinder ages of these Western Churches in which there were as many visions revelations and miracles daily obtruded on the credulous vulgar as there were Monasteries and Nunneries which in stead of Seminaries and Nurseries became dark dungeons wherein Christian Religion and Devotion were for many ages sadly confined and almost smothered with superstition idleness and luxury Have we not had enough too much of vulgar playings with piety of triflings with Christian and Reformed Religion of baffling abusing and abasing the Christian Ministry of buffetings of Christ of mockings of God by impudent pratings and insolent intrudings by confused rhapsodies and shuffling sanctities by endless janglings and refined blasphemies vented in some mens writings preachings prayings practisings so far from the light weight and height the sobriety sanctity and majesty of true Religion that they are most-what void of ordinary reason and common sense of equity and modesty of humanity and civility being little else but the froth of futile and fanatick spirits who blind poor people to enlighten them captivate them to make them free and ruine them under pretense of building them after new wayes and models of Religion sanctity salvation Have we not had enough of passionate transports popular
son Henry the eighth into Gods vineyard for the work office and honour of a Church-man Now a Gentleman of the first head disdaines it a Yeoman disputes it If the Fathers piety can digest to make the meanest of his sons a Minister the Mothers tenderness dreads it if the good Mothers zeal devotes the poor youth to that perpetuall servitude yet the Fathers prudence and policy rather chuseth for him a life of more activity ease peace pleasure and honour if it be but to make him as the last refuge a common trouper or a foot-souldier who may in time over-awe the best Bishop and Minister in a County yea a whole Diocese and association of them if Ministers shrink the next ten years as they have done of late Nor may any wise men that wish well to their Countrey and the Church of England ever flatter themselves that one man of a thousand who hath good abilities of mind or any competent estate sufficient to redeem himself from the servilities of poverty and popularity will ever condemne himself in a monastick or melancholy humour to be a Minister The old stocks already are dwarft in great part or hewn down and generally they will be but shrubs on which the Ministry hereafter will be grafted in a foile and age that growes so barren stingy ungenerous unbenigne to them Possibly there may be now and then an heroick resolution in a Gentleman of worth for family parts and estate to assert the honour of his Saviour and the declining dignity of his blessed Ministry by undertaking holy orders but these are rare birds and will be Phoenixes in after-ages not more admirable than commendable indeed when they come in at the right doore of Catholick ordination and Apostolick succession which are the visible seales of Divine Authority and Commission conferred of old even from the first age by none that ever I read without Episcopall power and precedency which immediately succeeded the Apostles in that ordinative and gubernative eminency which I believe was to be ordinary and constant in the Churches Oeconomy both to preserve an orderly polity and to confer holy orders with due that is Divine authority in an uninterrupted succession But where a childs portion must be wholly raised by a mans own industry and Gods blessing upon his employment in the Ministry O how cruell will those parents seem to their sons at years of discretion when once they come to tast and drink deep of that cup of gall and vinegar tenuity and contempt which some mens charity designes to mix for Ministers How will such poor and despised Preachers all their tedious and necessitous lives condemn and in the bitterness of their souls sometime be ready to curse as Job and Jeremiah did the dayes of their birth that preposterous zeal and pitiless piety which bred them up with no small care cost and pains onely to condemn them to the pulpits as to the gallies of plebeian slavery and necessity when they shall by wofull experience find that all their costly learning and education their ingenious parts and excellent abilities have made them like the sacrifices of old adorned with ribbands and garlands that they may with the greater pomp and solemnity be slain by popular insolency when parents devoting their hopefull sons to the service of the Church is to prefer them to labour and sorrow to pains and poverty to scorn and shame to vulgar contempt and contradiction Which very unpleasing and horrid apparitions of all manner of discouragements have of later years so evidently damped and discouraged many worthy men that not onely very hopefull scholars have diverted their studies to any other design than that of Divinity and the Ministry but few parents who can find any other way to dispose of their sons are so unnaturall as to expose them to that sad fate which they see attends every Minister that dares own the right way of acquiring and exercising the sacred authority of that function Certainly Origens juvenile impatience not to be a Martyr was not many degrees above the resolution of those young men who will now adventure to be Ministers in England upon a good and Catholick account which equally abhors plebeian petulancy popular dependency and uncatholick novelty And to hope that common people will in time grow better-natur'd toward Ministers by enjoying whatever liberties they list to arrogate or indulge to themselves in Religion is so high a presumption as is next door to despair unless it can be imagined that mankind naturally enemies to God and all grace will of themselves learn to value their souls and their eternall interests which are so remote from their senses as much as they do their bodies and estates or that they will look upon Divines and Ministers as no less necessary for their good than Lawyers and Physicians are whose fees and entertainments tell the world that men willingly or necessarily bestow many pounds in order to secure their bodily health and wealth when they miserably and basely grudge at three half-pence spent upon their Ministers and their souls on which to bring men to set a due value hath been in all ages the chief end of true Religion the great work of all the Prophets Apostles holy Bishops and godly Ministers yea the main design next the divine glory of God himself and our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Men are miserably betrayed to themselves when they are suffered to live at that liberty or looseness which will certainly debase despise and damn their souls Which sad events being chiefly imputable to common peoples own folly and madness yet will those men be highly responsible for them in whose power it was either to teach them better or to restrain them from those profligate humours by which prodigal and poor wretches are prone to destroy as well as to despise both their Ministers and themselves whom to perswade to a true value and reverence of themselves is an high point of Philanthropy and Theologie of charity and piety of humanity and Divinity which foundation once well laid would soon recover the decayed and desolating condition of Ministers who will never be valued loved or rewarded proportionably to their worth labours and dignity untill men think they have infinite need of them yea more need than of the most learned and honest Lawyers or the most faithfull Physicians who have so great an influence yea empire upon mankind because men sensibly feel and find the want of them which they do not of their able Ministers every prating intruder being enough to serve their turn But I have done with the causes and occasions the instances and evidences of the decayes and deformities of Religion in the Church of England which chiefly rising from the licentiousness of people and the inordinateness of Ministers have been the main subject of this second Book BOOK III. SETTING FORTH THE EVIL CONSEQUENCES Felt or feared from the Distractions of RELIGION in ENGLAND CHAP. I. HAving in the FIRST BOOK
which can by no persons of any right understanding be thought to be the temper of any thing that is worthy to bear the name inscription of the true God or the Christian and Reformed Religion This is not the pulse of piety nor can be the influence of Gods holy wise and peaceable spirit No Christian can be so uncatechised as not to know that these wounds and scarres which are upon the face of Religion and made by Christians of the same countrey and communion are not the marks of Christs sheep nor the characters of his Disciples who have been in all ages most eminent for all graces and vertues for all things true comely orderly just generous benigne charitable none exceeded or equalled them for mutuall love while they were neer or far off insomuch that primitive Assemblies of Bishops Presbyters and people were most lively resemblances of that Angelick Order Quire and Harmony which is in Heaven before the Throne of God and of the Lamb. This union and subordination kept up the reverence of Religion and the dignity of the Evangelicall Ministry among Christians even then when persecution most raged against them when the persons of holy Bishops and Presbyters were imprisoned banished mangled and massacred by Heathenish and Jewish persecutors yet then was the authority of Ministers looked upon as sacred and divine not from the earth but heaven not from Kings and Princes not from Parlaments and civil Senates not from Protectors and Major-Generals or new Triers much lesse from any principle or power which is now challenged by popular arrogancy and vulgar usurpation but from Christ Jesus and so from the blessed God who sent his Son and He his Apostles and other Ministers as his Father sent him for the same end and work in those measures and proportions of his Spirit which were necessary for the calling converting continuing and perfecting the Church as the Body of Christ While these continued in an holy and uninterrupted succession of undoubted Authority as Apostles Bishops Pastors and Teachers of one mind and mission of one ordination and succession they easily preserved the doctrine of Christian Religion uncorrupted the Mysteries unprophaned the Ministry unviolated the reverence of Religion unabased but these once divided against each other in opinions and factions their ranks and order broken their succession interrupted their commission counterfeited or varied their office invaded their authority doubted denied and destroyed who knowes not what spring-tides what whole seas of faction and fury of negligence and irreverence of Atheisme and irreligion must necessarily flow in upon the face of any Church when the truest and compleatest Ministers shall be questioned or scorned the dubious defective or false ones magnified by secular policy or popular levity when Lay-men shall either think there are no Ministers invested with any due authority or themselves as good as the best set up after some novell and arbitrary modes of their own invention which must not onely vye with the true ancient and Catholick ordination of 1500 years standing but justle it quite out of the Church like the bastard Abimelech who slew all the legitimate issue of Gideon his Father Who can heare with trembling or pray with devotion or receive with reverence or be reproved with patience or be comforted with peace or be terrified with judgement or mortified to any lust or moderated to any passion or confined to new obedience or won to true repentance or moved in conscience or raised in hope when he applies to any or all these duties out of faction novelty curiosity levity custome affectation or hypocrisie when he thinks the Minister that officiates hath no more power than himself or his groom and footman when he looks upon his Minister as a poor man confined to his teddar staked to his petty living dependant upon mens charity exposed to plebeian contempt at best but an almesman of the State a publick pensioner or an Evangelicall Trooper whose commission is ad placitum hominum after the will of man having no divine power or authority to his office and work no legall right or title as to certainty or perpetuity in any thing he enjoyes as his wages further than the arbitrary favours or frowns of men are dispensed to him a very trembling and precarious orator whose pulpit is like the Ara Lugdunensis soon made his scene his coffin and his sepulchre especially if either fervently praying or faithfully preaching or justly yet wisely reproving he displease any captious and peevish Auditor who hath confidence enough to make him an offender for a word and influence enough to sequester to silence yea to starve him and his family if he use an honest and innocent parrhesy or freedome of speaking such as becomes the Messenger of heaven the Minister of Christ and the Ambassadour of God When the mouths of Gods oxen are thus easily muzled when his Prophets are so cheaply despised when his neerest servants are thus despitefully used no wonder if irreverence Atheisme and profanenesse in all sorts of people attend all religious exercises as necessarily as shadows doe those grosse bodies which intervene between the sight and light which is the first sad and bad consequence following and flowing from the inconstancie and unsetlednesse of Religion CHAP. V. BEsides the decayes of Piety and Charity in mens hearts both as to the principles power and practice becoming Christians which like a Lethargick numbnesse and stupor is come upon the old stock of Christians in England together with that unsetlednesse irreverence contempt Atheisme and profanenesse which grows upon the younger sort of people who have been bred amidst these our divisions distractions and extravagancies of Religion to very much of irreligion the lusts and vanities of their minds being not any way so curbed and repressed by the incumbent majesty and authority of any such setled and uniform Religion as is necessary either to perswade men to be good or to over-awe and restrain them from being so bad as they would be Besides these mischiefes which I have already set forth to you my Honoured Countrymen there is a second sad and bad consequence which like a Gangrene or spreading Canker daily frets the spirits and as it were eats up the very substance and vitals of Religion in this Nation by reason of those endlesse and vexatious disputes which agitate the spirits and exasperate the minds of all sorts of Christians and of none so much as Ministers who are looked upon as those that expose and offer themselves to be the chief heads or Champions of Religion in their severall parties who are to undertake the combates and challenges of all opposers which truly were no very hard province if either Ministers were unanimous and mutually assisted by concurrent judgement among themselves or if they were protected by the shield of this Churches declared Doctrine and uniform profession of Religion Which heretofore was justly esteemed as sacred inviolable and invulnerable having
any Church-men in England had by their misdemeanour legally forfeited their use and enjoyments of such holy things as they had in Gods name and as the Churches servants yet certainly the whole Church and Nation had not lost their right in them Posterity could not consent to be deprived of those advantages of Learning and Religion and I am sure Gods title to them can never fall under any forfeiture or escheat whose speciall patrociny those Demesnes were In the Goods and Lands belonging to the Ministry and Church of Christ for the Service of God for the Education and Maintenance of his Ministers for the well-ordering and Government of the Church and Relief of the Poor who ever presumes to impropriate them by meer Power or purchase them to his private Estate had need have either a very good penniworth of them for they will destroy more than they bring or a better title than Ananias had to what was once his own or than God himself hath to them when once devoted and given to him yea they need more power to preserve such Estates to their use and their Posterities than God hath to blesse or curse both them and theirs I have read it as an observation made out of many Authors that the holy vessels of the Temple which were taken from Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian and tossed up and down to many Countreys and Cities in Europe Asia and Africa did as the Ark among the Philistins carry alwayes a storm and calamity with them with such a sacred horrour that no man durst melt them or divert them to secular uses or private benefit untill they were at last brought out of Africa from Carthage as I remember to Constantinople and there dedicated by a Christian Emperour to the service and honour of Christ in the goodly Church of Sancta Sophia which Constantine the Great built and endowed with many goodly both Vessels and Revenues as Eusebius tells us yea and commanded all goods taken from Christian Churches in former times to be restored Sacriledge what fair face soever it carries hath the taile and sting of a Serpent nor can any man die with peace or hope for the prosperity of his Family after him who knowingly is guilty of that Sin Modest and Honest Christians will not no not in their extremities take from God and his Church so much as a shooe-latchet to make them rich David would have been famished I believe rather than by force have taken the Shew-bread or Priests portion from them which was a work onely fit for Doeg who durst take away their lives CHAP. XXIII I Know it will be pleaded by some that are more politick than pious Religionis trapezitae 1. That civil Polities have the absolute supreme power over all things of civil Rights and secular Enjoyments to dispose of them as seems most for the publick Safety Profit and Honour 2. That whatever is acted passed and possessed by such Authority seems valid and unquestionable 3. that those Lands and Revenues which nourished Bishops Deans and Prebends were superfluous if not superstitious as to the point of Christian and Reformed Religion 4. That if there be any fault in any mens first invading and alienating things sacred yet private possessors either by gift or purchase of them are afterward in no fault as having the highest civil Right to what they so enjoy 5. Besides divers Princes and States have disposed as they pleased of Church-Revenues To all these pretensions every mans own reason and conscience will first and best give answer if it be not partiall and bribed by its own private gain but to open the eyes of such as are willingly blind I must tell them in words of sobernesse and truth with all due respect to whatever powers are ordained of God as supreme among men 1. No man as to his own private civil Estate to which he hath a good right in Law would think it just without any fault done by him or proved against him to be deprived of it and turned out of all by any reason of State How then can he think it just as to any Church-mens Ecclesiastick Estates that they should be outed of their Estates to which they have both a civil and religious Title both Gods Right and Mans Donation No Christians should offer that measure to Christ and his Ministers which they would not have offered unto themselves 2. Though civil polities mâ—y have the supreme power over particular mens Estates among men yet 't is a power sub graviore regno subordinate to Gods Soveraignty and ought to be subject to those rules of Reason Justice and Religion which he hath given mankind and especially Christians the greater any mens Power is the more strict the Piety and Equity of it should be for they are subject to erre and to sin no lesse than private men and are no lesse punishable by Divine Vengeance both singly and socially whole Nations may rob God and be accursed of him 3. Civil polities in their due conjunctures are indeed justly counted supreme upon earth being as they ought to be free and full when all Estates called convened and concerned in publick Counsels and Transactions have liberty to plead and vote deny and grant to hear and argue to judge and determine according to the conscience of all and not according to the prevalency and bias of any one party nor exclusive of any mens consent which ought to be had in such cases either as to the right of Enjoyment or as to the joynt legislative and supreme power which onely can make a legall alienation of any civil rights 'T is evident that the most united and excellent Parlaments in England for Piety and Peace did abhor and avoid Sacriledge as a sin against God his Church and all good men The Kings of England were bound by Oath to preserve the State and Rights of the Church nor were Peers and People lesse bound in duty and gratitude to God and man than if they had been sworn 4. It doth not appear by any Law of God or Man in Reason or Religion that any humane or civil power hath any authority or jurisdiction to the prejudice of Gods Rights and Interest whose the Estate and Revenues of the Church are in Fee as chief Lord being dedicated to his Service Worship and Glory and are indeed in no mans property however in Church-mens use as Gods Tenants The acts of power and will may prevaile among men and hold good in Westminster-Hall in foro soli humano but they cannot give a right in foro coeli conscientiae before Gods Tribunall or in a mans own Conscience which regard not actuall and arbitrary Power but internall Right and Equity which forbids any injury to be done to any man and specially to those that are the Ministers or Servants of Christ and his Church whose injuries redound to God himself Good Christians must consider not quid factum valet among
the liberty honour and purity of the Church of England For they well knew that the secular interests and Ecclesiastick designes of the Church and Court of Rome ever have been and still are carried on with a mighty tide and strong current not onely of Papal authority and popular credulity as of old but of Learning Eloquence Riches Honor Power Pomp Policy yea with great plausibilities of Piety Sanctity Unity and Charity of later Ages All which popular and potent biasses will easily and unavoidably over-beaer in time as to the generality of people all those feeble resistances or oppositions that can be made by such an equivocall generation and dubious succession of poor despised and dispirited Ministers whatever they are whether of Episcopall Presbyterian or Independent characters who in great part naked and unarmed unfed and unstudied reduced to a sneaking and starveling habitude both of Body and Mind of Honour and Estate will prove pitifull Champions for the true Reformed Religion when they shall neither have just Ability nor justifiable Authority to assert the true and just measures of Religion and true Reformation Who is there that in after-Ages will adventure his Soul his Religion with those men Ministers that can have neither Learning nor Livelihood capable to bear up with their spirits and parties or the Authority and Honour of their calling especially when they are to encounter with such sons of Anak such Zanzummims and Goliahs who will ever appear on the Papall side to defie all Reformation that seems to reproch their deformities Alas will not the predicant or rather mendicant Patrons of so divided Religion and deformed parts of Reformation seem in their own eyes unlesse they be strangely swelled with the puffe and breath of Popularity but as Zanies and Dwarfs as Grasse-hoppers before them with their thred-bare Coats hungry Bellies and servile Spirits How will these that never had means or leisure to advance their studies of Divinity or practise of preaching beyond a modern Synopsis and an English Concordance being raw and infants in dogmatick Truths perfect strangers to Polemick Historick and Scholastick Divinity to Councils Fathers and Languages how will they be affrighted to read or hear of the great names of Baronius Bellarmine Possevine Perron Petavius Sirmundus and many other Grandees of the Roman side great Clerks great Church-men and great Statesmen too who are able to carry with them Troops of Auxiliaries Legions of Assistants being as rich as learned very wise and weighty to use and improve all the strength and advantages they have of Estate and Honour Studies and Parts for the advance of their side in their Errours and Superstitions which of late years their followers have done with unhappy successe and great encrease of their faction against the Reformed Religion of the divided Church of England whose scattered Remains in a short time will be like a flock of silly and helpless Sheep that have neither safe folds nor any skilfull and valiant Shepherds to defend and rescue them CHAP. XXVIII NOr do these wilely Romanists exercise their malice against this Reformed Church onely with their own strength and dexterity but they have other oblique Policies and sinister Practises by which they set on work the hot heads and pragmatick hands of all other Sects who pretend the greatest Antipathies to Popery and yet most promote its interests by their Factions and fanatick Practises by their heedlesse and headlesse their boundlesse and endlesse Agitations which blast all true Reformation and bring in nothing but Division and Confusion For among these there are a sort of people who affect Supremacy in Church and State too a spirituall and temporall Dominion no less than doth the Pope of Rome there are among them many petty Popes who would fain be the great and onely Dictators of Religion whose opinionative pride and projects are as yet of a lesser volume blinder print but they every day meditate agitate new Editions of their power and larger additions to their parties and designes being as infallible in their own conceits as imperious in their spirits and as magisteriall in their censures as the proudest Popes of Rome not doubting to condemn and excommunicate any private Christians and Ministers yea whole Christian Churches yea and the best Reformed in the world such as England was if they be not just of their form and fashion or if they will not patiently submit to their multiform and deformed Reformations by which they daily wire-draw true Reformation to such a small thread that losing its strength and integrity it must needs snap in pieces and become uselesse the strange fires of blind popular preposterous and sacrilegious Zeal so overboyling true Religion and sober Reformation till they are utterly confounded and quenched with such sordid and shamefull deformities as must needs follow their Divisions Distractions and Despiciencies as to all Church-order Christian unity and Ministeriall authority Thus many heady and giddy Professors have been so eager to come out of Babylon that they are almost run out of their wits and far beyond the bounds of good consciences so jealous of Superstition that they are Panders for Confusion so scared with the name of Rome that they are afraid of all right Reason and sober Religion so fearfull of being over-righteous by following vain traditions of men that they fear not to be over-wicked by overthrowing the good foundations of Order Honour Peace and Charity which Christ and his Apostles have laid in his Church fierce enemies indeed against the Idolatry of Antichrist but fast friends to Belial and Mammon to Schisme and Sacriledge which having no fellowship with God and Christ must needs belong to the party of Antichrist which contains a circle of Errours while Christ is the centre of Truth and we know that parts diametrally opposite to each other may yet make up the same circumference and be at equal distance from the centre so may Practises and Opinions which seem most crosse against each other yet as Herod and Pilate alike conspire against Christ and true Religion like vicious extremes which are contrary to each other and yet uncorrespondent with that vertue from which they are divided They are children in understanding who do not already discern and deplore what wise and godly men have long ago foreseen and foretold that by these two Papall policy and fanatick fury the superstitions of the Romanists and the confusions of Schismaticks the happy state of the reformed Church of England was alwayes in danger to be mocked stripped wounded and crucified some men already fancy that they see it weeping and bleeding crying and dying using in its sad expirings the last words of its Saviour first to her God Why hast thou forsaken me next for her Enemies and Destroyers Father forgive them they know not what they do While the Papists on the one side rob God of his glory giving religious worship to Creatures the Sacrilegists on the other side
oath that he aimed at no more than his Duchy yet afterward aspired gained the Kingdom of England by the name of King Edward the fourth so some Presbyters at first pretended onely to claime a coordinate exercise of Counsell and assistance with Bishops in some things consisting with a modest and orderly subordination to them as chief Fathers of their Ecclesiasticall Tribes and Families yea I knew some chief Rabbies of them have professed that they cryed down and covenanted onely against the Tyrannick Government of Prelates and the over-grown train of their Officialls shewing some reason to regulate Episcopacy by reducing it to the modesty of Primitive patternes Yet this motion was no sooner begun among us but we see it increased to such a violence as kindled the ambition of some people and Presbyters so hot against all Bishops that the best of them and many of them were incomparable men excellent Christians and most admirable Bishops were counted Refractory Popish and Antichristian with all their abetters because they would not tamely contribute to their own utter destruction and presently consent to the reproch of this and all ancient Churches where Bishops I think were as well known and as long used as the Sacraments or the Scriptures Yea at last the contention grew so sharp that it not onely whetted many tongues and pens but it came to swords ending if it be ended in much blood Presbyters challenging to have not only a meet share and concurrent influence as was ancient in Ignatius and St. Cyprians and St. Austins times and which might be very fitting and usefull in Church-Government but they will have all or none and this upon Christs title Bishops as usurpers for 1600. years must have no faire quarter nay none at all but persons and power must be wholly exautorated extirpated impoverished contemned abased undone Though they had done nothing but what either the Lawes commanded or the Prince in whom by law was the chief Ecclesiasticall as well as civill power indulged yea and required them to do yet no medium no moderation can be expected between Caesar and Pompey Sylla and Marius Antonius and Augustus when mens Spirits are heightned by jealousies and emulations to seek each others destruction After all this the peremptory reign of Presbytery which cost this Church and Nation so deare was not long-liv'd nor could be well established though at first it looked so big and grasped on the sudden even at three Kingdomes For before it was warme in its nest or well seated in its Throne we see Independency got hold on one end of its Scepter or quarter-staffe rather threatning in the right of Christ Jesus and in the behalf of all Christian common people to wrest it quite out of the hands of Presbytery either by legerdemaine or maine force unlesse it might go at least halfe with it in the spoiles of Episcopacy and that share of Church-Government which they pleaded was due not onely to a few Preaching Parsons and ruling Elders but to the whole congregation as being holy the Lords people the body of Christ in particular This check made Presbytery much more tame and tractable than it was wont to be when it first whetted its tushes so sharply and brisled so fiercely against all Episcopacy root and branch hoofes and hornes no regulation no remission no moderation no merit of so many Godly Learned Moderate yea Martyrly Bishops heretofore and even then in England would serve the turn After all this trouble the more grave and sober sort even of those Presbyterian and Independent Ministers are brought as we see into no small straits and reduced to this great Dilemma of policy whether they should choose to put their heads again under the Bishops hands or under the common peoples feet whether it be more for the honor of their Ministry to be subordinate to grave and worthy Bishops as Learned Moderators Presidentiall Fathers and elder Brothers or to be thus everlastingly haunted with evill and unclean Spirits to be thus hampered with the giddy and ungratefull vulgar who are very petulant and saucy companions very soure and insolent masters Nor is this Triumvirate of Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent Antagonists and rivals the boundary of mens religious Ambition and contentions in England There are other Names and Titles and daily will be more and more new Sects and Factions which will have their Godly agonies and pretentions no lesse than those three have had Yea the least and most unsuspected the feeblest and silliest of them will serve either to kindle new or to continue successive fires of jealousies troubles seditions and wars in this Nation Take them all together and leave them equally to their severall principles and contrary operations they will be like the complication of many diseases in one body as the Quartanes Dropsies Scurvys Hectick Feavers and Consumptions of this State and Church not onely shaking oft and daily dispiriting but in time quite destroying the Beauty Health Strength Peace Safety and Honor of this Nation whatever it be Common-wealth or Kingdom Aristocracy Democracy or Monarchy For while mens Spirits are sharpned by daily contentions in Religion to anger emulations and ambitions who shall be greatest in popular esteem in prevalency of parties in number of Sectators in novelties of opinions and in presumptuous practises they not onely sowr to secret animosities but break out to open enmities from the least differences For the true life and power of Religion which consists in a Knowing Humble and Charitable Zeal for Gods glory and each others good this is taken off and extremely dulled as the edge of sharp knives by cutting of cork while mens head and hearts are wholly busied in whitling and hewing those small points and softer parts of Religion which consider at first it may be onely the ritualls externals and polities of it yet in time these continuall droppings undermine and overthrow the very fundamentals which consist in the Unity of the Faith the Sanctity of Manners and the Sincerity of Christians Charity to each other which held better in Unity Health Beauty and Strength amidst heathenish persecutions than they ever did or can do amidst Christians contentions needlesse and endlesse janglings of Preachers and Professors among themselves For these rising most-what not from the holy and humble warmth but the wantonnesse and luxuriancy of mens Spirits especially after long peace and setling upon their Lees do naturally break out to such boyles and tumors of Factions as swell every Opinionist and his party to the hope of having a turne or share at least in rule and Empire wherein the present prevalent party is ever jealous and impatient of having any equall or rivall either to affront or disturb them and the depressed parties still conceive they are injured and oft complaine of being persecuted Nay they are filled with Whisperings and Murmurings with Envies and Animosities though they be let alone and connived at by way of Toleration when they see the publick
most clearly his good pleasure and liking to this Church of England its Religion Reformation and Ministry namely by those eminent gifts and undeniable graces of his Spirit which in great and various measures he hath plentifully poured forth upon the Godly Bishops and other good Ministers of this Church who were subject to them to the edification of his faithfull people among you in all spirituall blessings even to the admiration of our neighbours the joy of our friends and regret of our enemies If the excellently Learned and Godly Bishops whose names and memories are blessed assisted by other able orderly and painefull Ministers of this Church who being duly sent and ordained by them were humbly obedient to them as to spirituall Fathers if they have carefully and happily steered for many yeares the sometimes faire and rich Ship of the Church of England in which so many thousand precious soules have been imbarked for heaven and eternity between these two dangerous gulphs the Scylla and Charybdis of Papall Superstitions and uncharitable Separations steering it by the compasse of Gods word with such Christian prudence order and decency as is therein commanded or allowed in which happy conduct they and their successors were still very able willing and worthy to have proceeded if the wrath of God highly offended for the wantonness wickednesse and unthankfulnesse of the generality of people under so great meanes and mercies had not justly suffered so rude stormes of both religious factions and civil dissensions to arise which having torne the tackling rent the sailes loosened the junctures unhinged the rudder broke the maine mast cast the chiefest Pilots and skilfullest Marriners over-board quite defaced the lesser card or compasse of Ecclesiasticall Canons and civill lawes have at last driven her within the reach and danger of both these dreadfull extremes which she most declined leaving this poor weather beaten Church after infinite tossings like a founder'd ship in a troubled Sea of confusion attending one of these two sad fates either a Schismaticall dissolution or a Papall absorption either to be utterly shattered in pieces by endlesse factions or to be swallowed up at last in the greater gulph of Romane power and Policy which cannot but have alwaies a very vigilant and intentive eye what becomes of the Church of England If the Ministry of the Church of England whilest it was yet flourishing and entire as a City united in it self as an orderly family or holy corporation consisting of Fathers and Brethren of Bishops and Presbyters might justly challenge before God and all good men this merit and acknowledgement from you and your fore-fathers that for Learning and Eloquence both in preaching and writing for acutenesse and dexterity in disputing for solidity and plainnesse in teaching for prudent and pathetick fervency in praying for just terror in moving hard hearts to softnesse and feared consciences to repentance for judicious tendernesse in comforting the afflicted and healing the wounded Spirit lastly for exemplary living in all holy and good waies in all which particulars becoming a Christian Church neither you nor they have had any cause to envy the most Christian and best Reformed Churches in the world as to that honour and happinesse which consists in the excellent abilities honest industry due authority regular order of Ministers also in the decency usefulnesse and power of holy Ministrations all which blessings experience sufficiently tells you were formerly enjoyed by many gracious and judicious Christians farre beyond what hath been or ever can be hoped under these moderne divisions deformities distractions and dissolutions which do indeed threaten in time utter desolation to this Church and the true Reformed Religion if Gods mercy and wise mens care do not prevent If nothing but ignorance or malice blindnesse or uncharitablenesse barrennesse or bitternesse of Spirit in any men can deny this great truth this honest humble just and modest boasting to which the injuries indignities and ingratitudes of these last and worst times have compelled sober Ministers as they did St. Paul who ought to have been better valued and commended by them If you O Noblemen Gentlemen and Yeomen of England are so knowing that you cannot be ignorant of this truth and so ingenuous that you cannot but acknowledge it in behalfe of the Church of England and its worthy Clergy while you and they enjoyed Piety Peace and Prosperity if beyond all cavill or contradiction this right ought to be done to Gods glory this Churches honour the ancient Clergies merit and your own with your fore-fathers renowne that after-ages may not suspect them for Hereticks or Schismaticks nor you for Separates or Apostates as forsaking that good way in which they were reformed and established in the purity power and polity of true Religion If all these suppositions be true as I know you think they are how I beseech you can it be in the sight of your most just God and mercifull Saviour who so abundantly blest this Church and his servants the Ministers of it in teaching comforting and guiding you and your pious predecessors soules to heaven to change and cast off such a Ministry and such Ministers Yea how can it be in the censure of pious and impartiall men other than a most degenerous negligence a Mechanick meannesse a most unholy unthankfulness for you or any Christians to passe by with silence and senselesnesse with carelesnesse and indifferency all those sad spectacles of Church-divisions and distractions of Church-mens diminutions debasements and discouragements lately befaln them by a divine fatality and justice partly through the imprudence of some Clergy-men severely revenged by the malice or mistake of some Lay-men whose heavy and immoderate pressures have faln chiefly upon those Ecclesiasticks who were Christs principall Vicegerents Messengers Ministers and Embassadors his faithfull Stewards his diligent Overseers his vigilant watchmen his wife dispensers of heavenly Mysteries to your Soules From whom so many Apostasies have been commenced and carried on by infinite calumnies indignities and injuries against them and their orderly authority and function as if you and your Children had lately found more grace and virtue better Ministeriall sufficiencies and proficiencies in some Tradesmen Troopers in Mechanick ignorance illiterate impudence in the glib tongues the giddy heads empty hearts of such fellowes as are scarce fit to be your servants in the meanest civill offices as if these were now fit to be your Pastors and Teachers your Spirituall inspectors and rulers of your Soules beyond any of those Reverend Bishops and Learned Doctors and other Grave Divines who heretofore through the grace of God dispensed to you by their incomparable gifts and reall abilities those inestimable treasures of all sound knowledge and saving wisdome of grace and truth which were carried on with comely order and bound up with Christian unity Doubtlesse the forgetting of those Josephs who have been so wise storerâ—s and so liberall distributers of the food of eternall life to our hungry soules
polity and prudence but was further commended and confirmed by the ancient patternes of Gods own appointment among the Jewes by Christs Doctrine and example together with his Apostles practise and appointment evident in their writings and in the imitation of all Churches from the beginning The want and waste of which Primitive and Catholick Government as I do unfeignedly deplore in the Church of Engl. so I am glad to see any of my brethren so sensible of it as to make what handsome shift they can for a while to unite and defend themselves til the mercy of God and the wisdome of Governours shall restore such ancient order unity and authority to us as may be most happy for us on all hands And although I think these Associatings to be as incomplete as they seem partiall yet they are so far considerable and commendable as they seem to invite and draw Ministers to some Ecclesiastick union and fraternall society which may be in time much for their own Honour Safety and Happiness as well as the peoples peace especially if such closures arise not from a continued confederacy of factious Spirits against true Episcopacy but rather as preparations for it so farre as times may bear or bring on the due restitution of it not to its pristine pomp and splendor which is not expectable but to its Primitive Order Power and Spirituall Authority in the Church which without doubt is the Conservative the Crown the Consummation the Centre of all Churches Government Short of which what ever popular and plausible prefacings these projects of Associating may make to endeare some Ministers by the parity of their Oligarchies in Presbytery or to draw in common people by their specious Democracies in Independency yet I confesse I expect no great or durable good from either of their partialities First because they are but private mens projects not the results of the publick counsell and united wisdome of this Church and Nation Secondly they are in their constitution defective as to the true proportions of good Government and Polity which must have ability order intirenesse and authority which are not to be found in the parity or plebs either of Ministers or people Thirdly they are as new so precarious and arbitrary therefore unauthoritative and unauthentick easily baffled and despised by any that list to be recusant and refractory Fourthly as they are divided no lesse than Oligarchie and Democracy so they may be dangerous to the Authors abetters and executors of them when ever those that aâ—e or shall be in civill power list to bring them to the triall of a Prâ—munire which statute binds up the hands of all Pragmatick Presbyters and people from acting of their own heads in Church-affaires without Law This I am sure the policies of States-men are easily jealous of Church-men nor can the Clergy discreetly act any thing by way of publick influence in things Ecclesiasticall for which they have not the publick Counsel and consent Possibly these Associations if friendly and ingenuous may be some seeming shelter to some poor Ministers from the urgent stormes of popular contempt and insolency like the undergirding of that crazy and weather-beaten ship in which St. Paul was imbarqued and ready to perish untill the tossed vessell of this Church may be brought into a more commodious haven and fully repaired But if the aime of Associatings be no more than a cunning complicating of Presbyterian and Independent principles and interests together that they may rule in their Duumviracy exclusive of all primitive Presidency and slighting all pleas for Episcopacy which hath the onely Catholick and Classicall precedents for authentick ordination and full authority in the Church all will be no more than daubing with untempered morter by which they may foule their own fingers and other mens faces but they will never erect any stately and durable structure capable to supply the roome of that Primitive Apostolick and Catholick Government in comparison of which these precarious and poor Associatings of Ministers are but a setting up a stanty hedge instead of a good quick-set or a brick-wall for the sense of Christs vineyard Presbytery hath been already so baffled in England and Indepency hath so little place or credit both are such exotick novelties and so incompetent for Church-Government that neither single nor sociall ravelled nor twisted they will ever have any considerable power nor be able to give any protection to either Ministers or people much lesse will they promote the Reformed state of Religion or the peace of the Nation The community of Ministers and people though never so much Associated in such levelling factions will still appeare both to their enemies and friends but as so many silly sheep who fearing to be further worried by wolves and dogs do flock together indeed with great eagernesse and crowding but they are not thereby much the safer if they have neither fixed folds nor able valiant and watchfull shepheards to oversee and defend them with such eminent power and lawfull Authority as becomes the masters of such Assemblies and the chief Fathers of those Families which make up the most complete Churches of Christ As it is hard to draw a true circle unlesse the centre be fixed or to build a firm arch without the binding and centre-stone be added to the rest so I firmely believe that neither the interests of people by Independency nor of Presbyters by Presbytery will ever be advantaged to any honourable happy or durable condition by these Associations if they arrogantly and factiously usurp the rights and power of Primitive Episcopacy which hath been alwaies as usefull as venerable in the Church of Christ either used or approved or desired by all learned and sober men and asserted by infinite pregnant and unanswerable testimonies both ancient and late Nor will I hope the Antiquity Sanctity and Majesty of Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy ever want such Princes Peers such Presbyters and people as both in true polity and in good conscience will so approve it as to preferre it no lesse before all modern models than the first temple was preferrable before the second or either of them before the Tabernacle If these Associations do onely intend as some of them pretend to take in all interests with reservation of latitudes and freedomes both of different principles and practises to all sorts of Ministers will they not prove at last Dissociatings and amount to no higher edifying of this Church than the laying of brick and sand without lime which will never make a durable and strong building For they will soon divide and dissolve who are held together by no other bond than their own will and pleasure Possibly thus farre they may be of use as means somewhat to discover more the rubbish and ruines of our late distractions which have made Ministers so much strangers that they are enemies to each other yea possibly they may by drawing them to some amicable conventions and Christian
which is holy high and honourable in Gods esteem as his Embassage venerable before the good Angels in Heaven and terrible to the very Devils in Hell Let not the preaching of the Word be slighted mocked and laughed at by the unautoritative insolency and unsufficiency of unordained and impudent praters who will never make powerfull Preachers Let not the solemnity of publick prayers and Sacraments be made ridiculous vaine and void by the simplicity and barrennesse the non-sense and flatnesse the slovenly rudenesse and confusion of those undertakers to officiate whom no man in Christs name hath duly authorised or sent according to any Primitive pattern or Catholick custome in this and other Churches When the Authority of Ministers is doubted denyed divided despised on all sides it is impossible there should be any unity or charity among either Ministers themselves or those to whom they thus brokenly Minister holy things nor can there be any reverent and sacred esteem of those things which they so administer with so much variety dubiousness and inconformity Civill respect to Ministers of the Gospel will follow where there is a religious regard to their Ministry as sacred and Divine indeed as Christs for so it is or it is none upon any religious account Therefore I forbear to urge you with any importunities in order to restore the Pristine honors and dignities the many priviledges and great plenty which the Clergy enjoyed in England I know those are unseasonable motions in an iron age amidst so many sacrilegious Spirits as envy even those pittances that yet remaine of oyle in the cruses or meale in the barrels of poor Ministers who are generally in a low depressed squeesed and almost exhausted condition not onely publick exactions but private sharkings of people in many if not most places have reduced heretofore convenient livings to pittifull tenuities Ministers affect indeed to wear longer haire than they were wont but their condition is now so much shorne and shaved since the Scots rasor was first applyed that most of them are very bare and quite bald to the great joy of Papists the viler sort of licentious people who want but one vote more to perfect their desired Reformation That is to take away all tithes and glebes rather giving them to Moloch or Beelzebub than to Christ his Church and his Ministery to whom these are paid by many men so grudgingly sharkingly and superciliously that few Scholars of any generous minds and parts will apply themselves now to be Ministers and many grave men heretofore devoted to that calling are content to be silent rather than to preach to ungratefull and gain-saying people yea some Ministers think it better to starve with honor than to be fed with scorn preferring any calling before that which must first work then beg or contest for its wages But as the poverty and tenuity of Ministers the popular contempt of their persons and calling the neglect and irreverence of holy ministrations the intrusions and usurpations of petulant people upon their function as all these could not have grown upon them had they not been scattered and divided among themselves for by these cracks and leakes those bitter waters have prevailed thus far to sink and depresse them So the reducing of Ministers to some unity in their judgments to uniformity in their Ministrations to an identity or samenesse for their Ministeriall power and ordination also to a decent subordination and government among themselves these methods would be most effectuall beyond any thing I can think of to remedy all those great inconveniences and mischiefes under which they now labour and grone From Ministers mutuall separations affrontings reprochings oppressings and despisings of one another common people have learned the language and carriage of clownery and contempt For how can people see any thing worthy their civill much lesse consciencious respect and love toward any Ministers when they see hear and read how they depreciate and scorn envy and maligne shun and abominate one another on all sides each invalidating or disparaging the others authority to officiate and almost annulling all they do in holy duties as Ministers Be they never so able and fit as to their gifts knowledge utterance holy lives and good report in all things yet still they are thought by some side or other either to enjoy more than they merit or to arrogate more than is their due or wholly to usurp that which is no way their due Certainly it is not a more pious and Christian than heroick and prudent work to reconcile the discrepancies and feuds that are grown among Ministers of severall formes and names as to their ordination or admission to their Ministry And since there are on all sides men of very good abilities commendable lives and usefull parts in this publick service as Ministers of the Church it is infinite pitty that Christians should be by any prejudices deprived of the common benefit to be had by them or by factious and frivolous discriminations if their Ministeriall Authority be frustrated of those many blessings which all good Christians might happily enjoy both publickly and privately by a firm union and uniformity among all true Ministers both in the origination of their power also in the manner of the derivation and dispensation of it Which harmony as without doubt it would highly contribute to the honor of the reformed Religion so it would much obstruct the advantages which Popery gets by the scandall of Ministers discriminations and divisions in this point For what sober-minded man will not rather adhere to what seems uniform though an error than to what seems divided though a truth Men will rather turne Seekers Quakers and Enthusiasts than weary themselves in dancing after every Ministers pipe and the new tunes they set to both their Ministry and holy Ministration For my part I should rather choose to live in a solitude as a private Christian or retire to any corner of the land as a Minister than to correspond with such societies of Preachers as are either evidently Schismaticall in their principles or onely formally and partially Associating in their politick practises which do but declare their spirits to be at as great distance from their duties both to their betters and their equalls as ever they were I prefer a cottage in a smooth and peaceable wildernesse before such palaces as are built among briars and thornes I am sorry and ashamed to see those Ministers who are able and worthy to use the trowell for edification should be so eagerly imployed at the swords for mutuall destruction Since they generally agree to preach and live Christ Crucified since they do for the maine correspond in doctrinalls of faith and morality yea in holy Mysteries and Ministrations what a misery is it they should not all endure the same imposition of hands or the same holy and Catholick ordination yea what pitty is it they should not all dare to say publickly and Ministerially the same Creed
the Lords prayer and the ten Commandements to all which I suppose they all are ready privately to say Amen How sad a prospect is it to see those men who professe such zeal for Church Government and good Discipline to be so little governed or correspondent in any wise communion and discreet subordination among themselves And all this while every plausible preacher is ambitious rather to ordain and governe others after his own fancy than to be ordained and governed as a Minister after the Apostolicall pattern and that one ancient forme which was universally owned and uniformly used in Christs Church both for the ordination and subordination of Ministers CHAP. IX IN order therefore to invite all able Orthodox and honest Ministers to some Christian correspondency and fraternall accord it will not be amisse for me to present both to your equanimous wisdome O worthy Gentlemen and to your piety what I humbly conceive the best Medium to be used in so great and good a work which must be tenderly and impartially carried on by a serious discovery and discerning First what is really good usefull and commendable in any party that this may be allowed and preserved agreed to and embraced by all Secondly what either is or seems defective or superfluous evill or inconvenient scandalous or dangerous on any side that this may be either pared off and removed since it may be well spared or else in reason and Religion in piety and charity so qualified and moderated as may comply with what is truely good and usefull for the publick on all sides First then to begin with Episcopacy not as it enjoyes or loseth the benefits of secular favour in estate honour or jurisdiction which are not essentiall to it any more than cloths are to the man but as it appeares in its Apostolick primacy of Order in its Catholick centre of Unity in its chief power for Ordination and Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction which it ever enjoyed among good Christians though it were never so poore and abased by civill powers as it was in Primitive times of persecution for 300. yeares The reall good of true Episcopacy which undoubtedly hath the clearest best and most ancient title to ordination Church-Government according to the custome and prescription of all Ages for 1500. years is Decency Order Unity Authority Stability Paternall Presidency Grave Government with subordination of younger to the elder and inferiours to superiours agreeable to the rules of right reason and the measures of the best polities military civill and religious Here are the aptest remedies and conservatives against Schismes the fittest mediums for Catholick Councils for correspondencies conventions and Communion of Churches not in popular rabbles and heady multitudes but in their chief Presidents and representatives In this is best kept up as an Uniformity of particular Churches so a Catholick Conformity to the Church universall when Primitive purest and most persecuted which without any peradventure did follow the Apostolick prescription and pattern in all things of so universall use and reception Upon the head of Episcopacy as upon the hill of Hermon hath the dew of heaven the blessings of God as in temporall enjoyments so in all spirituall gifts and graces most plentifully faln and from that to all the lower valleys and inferiour parts of the Church To this it is that all the most learned moderate and wise men in all the Christian world of what ever party or side they are in other things whether Latine or Greek Lutheran or Calvinian Protestant or Papist all agree in this that Episcopacy is the ancientest and aptest the wisest and noblest the onely Apostolick and Catholick consequently the best and compleatest of Governments in the Church containing in its right constitution and use all the pretended excellencies of all other Governments and something more than any of them as the crown and perfection of all The evills defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy and rising not from the function or imployment but from the persons of Bishops are pride ambition secular height and idle pomp a supercilious despiciency and Lordly tyrannizing over other Ministers and the flocks of Christ under their inspection arrogating a power to do all things imperiously arbitrarily and alone without any due regard either to that charitable satisfaction which was anciently given to Christian people or to that fraternall counsell and concurrence which might and ought in reason to be had from learned and grave Presbyters or such Consistoryes of choise Ministers who possibly may for wisdome piety and ability be equall to the Bishop however they are inferiour in order and authority As the complete good of presidentiall and paternall Episcopacy deserves above all other formes to be esteemed desired and used in the Church so it may easily and happily be enjoyed if the personall faults and failings of Bishops be prevented and avoided which is no hard matter where Bishops are chosen as anciently they were by the suffrages of the Presbyters or Ministers of the Diocese either personally present or to avoid noise and tumult incident to many by their proxyes and representees chosen and sent from their severall distributions The Bishop thus chosen is easily kept within bounds of moderation if he do nothing of publick concerne validly and conclusively without the presence counsell and concurrence of his appointed Presbyters being further responsible for any misgovernment to such conventions of the Clergy as are meet to be his judges and are by the Laws appointed so to be Certainly these limits supports and ornaments of Episcopacy would easily restore it to and keep it in the compasse of its Primitive beauty honor and usefulnesse to the Church The good of Presbytery especially in conjunction with Episcopacy is grave and impartiall counsell serious discussion and well-advised deliberation arising from many learned and Godly men which is as the joynt and concurrent assistance of all the Clergy whose publick suffrages may carry all things Ecclesiastick as with lesse partiality so with more authority most satisfactorily to Ministers and people too yea and with lesse odium or envy upon any one man as Bishop or President in cases that seem lesse popular or in censures that are more heavy Beyond all this some men cry up Presbytery in its Aristocratick influence as the great Choak-peare of Antichrist as the best receipt in the world to make the Pope burst in pieces like the pitch and haire which Daniel mixed to split Bel and Dagon This this they say is the strongest sense against all tyranny usurpation and ambition in Church-men the great conservative not of an absolute parity but of those ancient priviledges which are due to all Ministers also of those liberties and indulgences which are the peoples darling while they see all Church-matters managed not by private and partiall monopolies but by publick and generall complacencies of all sober and good men at least the major part of them The evils of Presbytery in a parity or
fed in their cage or restraint than by wandring from them to be starved The best Bishops were wisely severe and most venerable when least remisse the most rigid of them were not more imperious or intolerable than some Presbyters have been to all Bishops The last but greatest terror to some men is that if any thing like a true Primitive Bishop should revive and authoritatively act again in England especially fortified and assisted with such a strength of wise and grave Presbyters orderly combined with their Bishops there might be great danger of the Clergies recovering the Lands and Revenues which once belonged to Bishops and other Church-men in England Thus the jealous hearts and mis-giving consciences of many men do beat within them who have bought Bishop◠〈◊〉 other Church-lands which do make them as vigilant over the Bishops Sepulchers as the Jewes and Souldiers were over Christs lest the second error of losing Bishops Lands should be worse than the first of taking them away not onely from very worthy Bishops then in lawfull and unforfeited possession but from the whole Clergy yea from the service of the whole Church and of Christ and of God who had a sacred interest in them By what right they were alienated and are now possessed let them see who first did seize upon them and upon that title have either sold or bought them For my part I can look upon Episcopacy in its Primitive poverty and present barenesse with as much respect and reverence as in its greatest pomp and superfluity I value it and desire it not for state but conscience not for secular ambition but spirituall satisfaction Let them keep the lands that have justly got them or paid a valuable consideration for them provided they will but help to restore Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy without which Ecclesiasticall authority yea and Ministeriall power seemes to me and to many wiser men if not wholly dead and void or null yet very defective dubious and infirme as one that is lame and maimed yet is still a man having an esse or being as a true man but yet esse defectivum a being short of that fulness firmness and perfection which might be were he so complete as he ought to be according to the pattern of God and nature The Herculean work of resuming Church-Lands and restoring either Revenues or civill Honors to Episcopacy is not to be expected without a miracle such as shall shake heaven and earth despising all humane opposition and making the unjust keepers to be like dead men for no thunderbolts of divine vengeance are more penetrant and irresistible than those which fall upon the head of sacriledge as both Humane and Divine Histories tell us True I think it were an act worthy of this Nations pristine piety and renowned munificence to add something comely for Hospitality and Charity besides civill respect to Bishops if they will have any Nor were it as I conceive a work lesse becoming the Honor and Devotion of England to repurchase and restore those ancient Church-Lands or patrimony to the Church than it was to take them away and sell them to lay-hands But in this I am not so solicitous the honor of all Bishops and so of Presbyters will be diligently and wisely to do the work of God which its probable will never want the respect love and liberality of all good Christians as was seen in Primitive times where Bishops were never poore if Christian people were in plenty peace and unity As Mephibosheth said to David so do I to all my Countrymen and brethren Let Ziba take all as to Bishops Lands so as those Bishops may returne in peace which are after the Lords mind and the Scripture-rule the Apostles pattern the Primitive judgement and Catholick practise in the Church of Christ The lesse there may be of riches and secular honors added to Episcopacy the more it must provoke both Bishops and Presbyters to holy industry and eminent virtues which are the best foundations of true honor CHAP. XIII MY chief ambition is not to procure civill honors or estates to Bishops but so to reconcile all sober Ministers and others to true Episcopacy as may promote that Christian union between all Ministers that are worthy of that name and office and all sober Christian people in England which may most remedy and avoid those miserable factions and sad divisions which we see are the pests of true religion the moths of all Reformation the advantages of superstition and nurses of profaneness against which St. Paul in his Epistles and St. Clemens in his to the Corinthians so much inveighs as carnall and not spirituall methods of Religion I should heartily rejoyce to see before I die the dry land to appeare this deluge of factious confusion not onely to abate but to be quite spent by which Christian Religion and true Reformation hath lost together with Episcopacy in one score of yeares very much of that publick Majesty and Authority that Power and Improvement that Love and Honor that Sanctity and Solemnity that Charity and Unity which they formerly had and held in England for above a hundred yeares highly to the glory of God to the happinesse of this Church and to the Honor as well as Peace of the Nation It is great pitty that any man who bears the name of a Minister of Christ should appeare to the world other then an able wise humble holy peaceable and orderly person that we may not cease to be sociable and reasonable creatures so soon as we undertake to be Preachers as if we presently turn'd Tragedians when we grew Theologians Divines in profession but Devils in our dissentions that none of us may be so far bereaved of our wits as to fancy that we Ministers or Clergy-men beyond all men may not enjoy nor endure that comely and holy subordination which is lawfull and most necessary in all other societies and fraternities of men and no less among those that are Presbyters or Preachers where we see God and nature age and gifts learning and prudence distinguish even these men so far as makes some one or few very fit to govern and the other though many more onely fit to be governed There is much folly rashness juvenility indiscretion presumption and vulgarity to be seen even among the community of Ministers as well as other common people who can never be safe or happy unless they be setled in some comely Government Ecclesiasticall as well as civill yea and governed by some men that are much wiser than themselves Certainly Religion cannot prosper or be glorious in the eyes of the world as Christian or Reformed if it be not uniforme as to the main both in its source and course its origination and dispensation For every notable difference especially in the same Church and State seemes to the severall parties and divided sides as a great deformity in their adversaries Religion will never be uniforme if the Ministers or
dispensers of it be not wisely united not onely in their doctrine but in the derivation and reception as well as dispensation of that holy Authority by which they officiate for otherwise one Minister is prone to magnifie himself against all others of any other make mold to disparage all that is done by others as sacred to draw disciples from one side to another perswading people according to the feuds which were between the Samaritan Jewes and Priests of that Temple against those of Jerusalem that what is done in holy duties by such as are not of his stamp form is unauthoritative presumptuous invalid meer nullities and profanations of holy mysteries without Spirit Life Power or Efficacy an histrionick pageantry of Preaching Praying Baptising Consecrating Celebrating Censuring Binding Absolving Terrifying Comforting as in the name of Christ when indeed there is either no power or authority but a new one that must needs be a false one either usurped or obtruded or pretended by those that have nothing to shew for their Commission Order and Derivation of such spirituall power either from the Scripture or the constant practise or the Catholick Custome of the Church of Christ Thus everlasting feuds distances and defiances will follow among people and Pastors where an harmony is not in this maine point of ordination or Ministeriall Authority which certainly were no hard matter to effect if Ministers would so far agree by an Episcopall subordination in an uniformity of ordination and all other Ecclesiastical Ministrations as no Ministers or peoples just claime and interest should be either neglected excluded or oppressed 1. First the rights of people should be so far satisfied that no man should be ordained a Minister but in the most publick and solemn convention of the Diocese after publick notice given of his name and demand what any could say against his being ordained in like manner no Minister should be obtruded upon any people by patron or Bishop without hearing what they had to object against him and rationall satisfaction given to them which was required in St. Cyprians time 2. Next the rights of Presbyters should be so far satisfied that none should be ordained a Presbyter untill he had passed the orderly triall as of the Bishop so of any Minister that list to examine his sufficiency or his manners and life after which done Presbyters should not onely be present at the solemnity of preaching and praying but such as could conveniently of the eldest and gravest Ministers might lay their hands with the Bishops or Presidents upon the ordained both in their own and others behalfe as a testimony of a joynt consent on all sides to his ordination 3. Last of all the rights and claime of Episcopacy or Bishops would easily be satisfied and very compliant with the other of Presbyters and people if no ordination might passe without either the presence of the Bishop as President or of such a Presbyter as in the Bishops necessary absence should be his suffragane or Vicegerent nominated by him and allowed by that Presbytery over whom the Bishop presideth This method and moderation would as I humbly conceive both complete and settle in all sober mens judgements the ordination of Ministers and giving satisfaction to all just demands or ingenuous pretensions it would powerfully and happily unite both Bishops Presbyters and people as answering all the claimes and expectations considerable of Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent parties as to the maine point of unanimous and uniform Ministry Among whom a like correspondency would easily if wisely and meekly be carried on in all other Ecclesiasticall affaires of publick concernment for Doctrine Worship Discipline Censures Appeales Admission Abstention Excommunication Absolution Synodal conventions and the like It is not imaginable how great an harmony honor and happiness would hence arise to the infinite content and comfort of all good Christians to the great advantage of the Reformed Religion to the peace of this Church to the happiness of the Nation to the Glory of God and to the unspeakable quiet of many thousands of poor soules who are now agitated with infinite Scruples Feares Anger 's Jealousies and Despites in Religion according as they are ingaged and exasperated in their first entrance or beginnings all these would peaceably and comfortably apply by Gods help and Ministers harmony to the improvement of their soules in faith and repentance in truth and love to lead holy and orderly lives to hear with diligence and reverence to receive with frequency and charity to pray with understanding and fervency to do all things with meekness and wisdome lastly to die with earnest desire and blessed hope of further enjoying that Christian and sweet Communion with God with Christ Jesus and his holy Servants Saints and Angels in an other life of which he hath had so blessed experience and pleasing a fore-taste even in this world where the onely heaven a good Christian can have consists in the happy Communion he hath with God and good Christians without which all society is but solitude or worse an harmony no better than what may be found in hell which is a conspiracy in sin and conjunction in misery This holy Communion is so much the more divine and joyfull even in this world by how much it enlargeth it self to greater numbers and extentions true Christian love being loth to be confined to a narrower compasse than the Christian and Catholick faith is but coveting as light and heate most ample dilatations and Catholick diffusions seeking if possible and as much as in it lies to live peaceably with all men and chearfully with all that are of Christs family or the houshold of faith who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity By these and such like peacefull methods of prudence and love of moderation and mutuall condescension among Ministers without further disputing or urging any of their former principles upon which they seemed to differ much lesse casting any further reproaches upon each other I do not see but by the blessing of God upon them they might all meet in an happy union and accord in Church-Government according to those principles of right Reason and Religion of Piety and Polity of Scripture-Canons and Catholick Customes in which all sober Ministers must necessarily agree as the best rules of Christian prudence the surest methods of holy order and the firmest bonds of Christian Communion To which maine ends as all good Christians should chiefly bend all their Counsels Prayers and endeavours so I do not conceive they are so strictly confined and limited by any precise rules or formes of any externe Polity and Order but they may as occasion requires for the peace of the Church and edification of Christians in love use such a liberty in their mutuall condescendings and compliances as shall no way offend the blessed God of Truth Order and Peace nor violate any of their own consciences while they bear such a tender regard to other mens as they
are higher courts and abler judges appointed to heare and determine matters according to law with more honor and lesse partiality than Ministers can expect from such men as are very sorry Magistrates and worse Ministers This is a certaine maxime the cheapnesse and despicablenesse of Ministers ariseth chiefly from their mutuall divisions and dissociations Their union and harmony will be their Honor Safety and Happinesse I pray God shew us all and guide us in the waies of his and our own peace And in earnest it is high time for us as Ministers of Christ and as sober men to give over our popular Projects and pragmatick activities our secular policies and state agitations by which we have all gained far lesse than if we had onely intended the Crosse of Christ and imitated the patience as of our great Master so of the best of our predecessors not to concerne our selves so much in Crownes and Soveraignties in Kingdomes and Commonweales in Parlaments and Armies in Killing and Slaying our brethren upon Christs score as in saving our own and others souls What was of old falsely and odiously objected hath of late been too much verified in many of us You take too much upon you O you Sons of Levi both in sacred and civill affaires Let us learne to rule our own passions to obey actively in all lawfull and honest things our superiours and passively in others Leave it to God to rule this as all States and Kingdomes by what hands heads and hearts he pleaseth Let us in all times do all things rather in a Ministeriall then military fashion Honestly Humbly Meekly Charitably Unanimously and the God of peace will be with us in this private and publick posture we shall better beare the frownes or favours either of Princes or people who will never be our friends if we be our own enemies CHAP. XIV HAving done my duty to those that are of my own profession as Ministers how ever they differ at present in the derivation of their orders and exercise of their Ministeriall Authority my next addresse must be to those persons whose influence sociall or solitary personall or Parlamentary either is or may be most effectuall by their Counsels or Commands by their proposals or power to recover the Purity Order Unity and Stability of Religion in this Nation It is not fit for me to presume to suggest to persons so much above me in prudence and experience as well as power and reputation any thing that lookes like counsel or advise I know Superiours are prone to take those suggestions for affronts from inferiours as if they thought themselves wiser than those that rule them But yet our humble petitions have acceptance with Godâ— himself not as suggestions to his wisdome but submissions to his will and supplications of his goodnesse No Christian Empire was ever so imperious as to disdaine the prayers of any that craved their favour and assistance in just and faire waies And since I find few Ministers of any party will begin or joyne with me in such a request to those that are our Superiours better I presume to supplicate alone than that no man of any calling should importune the Soveraignty Nobility and Gentry of this Nation in a businesse of so great and publick concern before the mischief spread too farre and the cure be desperate which will then be when there shall be few sound minds honest hearts and whole parts left in the Land all or most being infected with Ignorance Irreligion Atheisme Profanenesse Popery or indifferency the inevitable effects that will follow the divisions distractions and debasings of the Clergy both among themselves and the common people To you therefore that are the highest and greatest the honorablest and richest the wisest and strongest the most noble and generous the most knowing and ingenuous persons do I with all humble importunity recommend this reall Cause of God and of Christ our Saviour the cause of the Christian and Reformed Religion the cause of this Church and Nation the cause of your own and your posterities welfare Is it not high time after so many tossings and Tragedies in which this Church and its Ministers have had so great a share at last to speak comfortably to Sion to tell her that her warfare is accomplished to take off the filthy garments wherewith her Ministers of all sorts have been clothed to cover their shame to bury their mutuall reproaches to restore the honor and authority of their calling to encourage and improve in waies of publick conspicuity and harmony those excellent abilities which are in many of them which divided and at distance from each other are either quite lost or perverted to maintaine popular parties and factions against each other Many Ministers have been and are silenced being thereby driven to extreme poverty most are dispersed and despised not onely by vulgar insolencies but by mutuall animosities jealousies distances and defiances Few of us have that Christian courage and constancy by which the Primitive Bishops and Presbyters as an united Clergy were still preserved entire among themselves when most persecuted by enemies we are so divided that we are justly dejected and easily destroyed Many of us have by our follies forfeited the honor of our function some of us by our secular policies and compliances have prostituted the sanctity of it to the fedities and insolencies of Lay-men We have digged those pits into which we are faln and filled those dungeons with mire in which we now stick It is a memoriall of everlasting honor to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian that he helped with great tendernesse and humanity to draw the Prophet Jeremy out of the dungeon where he was ready to perish England hath now for many yeares had many Prophets in dungeons of disgrace and darknesse yea all are sunk into the dirt and mire of obloquy and contempt on one side or other I beseech you be not tediously or anxiously inquisitive how we came there but apply of your goodnesse and noblenesse fit meanes to draw us out Let not the Christian and Reformed Ministry of this Church which was the most renowned in all the world without any doubt offence or envy I speak it let not this be like Elisha the scorne of fooles the mocking-stock of children the May-game of Papists the laughter of Atheists the object of fanatick petulancy and vulgar insolency the wonder and gaze of all forrainers the grief and astonishment of all sober men at home and abroad who for some yeares have beheld the factious and divided the disputed and despised state of Ministers the poor and pittiful shifts they have made to keep their heads above the waters not to be quite overwhelmed with Poverty Anarchy and Contempt while alone and solitary they signifie not much and joyntly or socially they are now nothing at all having no publick harmony or fraternall correspondency no concurrent counsel no Synodicall convention or Ecclesiasticall Authority being never summoned by
Authority to meet or consult together never so farre countenanced as to have any thing of publick concernment to advise or execute in order to the generall good of Religion their names their persons their calling their ordination their preaching their praying their consecrating and dispensing of holy Mysteries their censures and reproofes or whatever discipline any of them affect or dare to exercise according to their own fancy and private Authority all they do with the greatest Gravity Solemnity and Sanctity is vilified slighted abhorred and as it were spit and spewed upon by some bold foreheads and foule mouthes on one side or other without any other remedy or redresse than what their private discretion or their patience either willingly or perforce supplies them These these O noble Gentlemen and worthy Christians are now your Divine Teachers these are your ghostly Fathers these the best and brightest of your Clergy at present generally esteemed and treated as the filth and off-scouring of all things by vulgar minds yea many of your modern intruders into the Ministry are no better than the very scum and refuse of all Trades and Occupations if necessity pincheth them or pride provoketh them or shame banisheth them from their first stations and mechanick imployments presently they dare to preach when they can do nothing well The most illiterate and plebeian spirits who are fitter to serve swine than the soules of Christians ad haras magis quà m anas apti men that want all things befitting preachers of the Gospel except onely Lungs and Tongues such as are quite broken and despairing as to any other way of living these aspire to be your preachers how enabled how examined how ordained by what authority they are sent I know not but I am sure they run amaine striving by all popular acts to out-run yea and over-run the Ancient Grave and Sober sort of Ministers in England whom they look upon as their sore enemies eagerly persecuting them till they run themselves out of breath Then being tired in one place they ramble to some other till use and confidence hath so completed them in boldnesse that they dare own themselves in all companies but such as are grave good and learned to be Ministers of the Gospel after any new mode and fashion that they list to take up Nothing can be a work of more Christian piety prudence and compassion to this Nation than to redeeme the Ministry of it from that pittifull posture and sad condition whereto it is at present condemned by that divided despised and on all sides either doubted or denyed authority which Preachers challenge to themselves All are represented by some or other to the people as Falsarii Cheates Impostors Seducers Certainly it were worthy of the Wisdome and Honor of this Nation to remove as all others so in the first place this great grievance scandall and stumbling-block out of the way of all Christians to take away this reproach of our Reformed Religion whose God and Saviour and Spirit being but one its Faith Gospel and Sacraments the same its Ministeriall power and Authority can be but one in the true Authority and Authentick Commission both as to its Originall and Derivation There is no speedier way nor easier to sow up the rents of Christs garment to clense and close the wounds of his body in this Church than to poure the Wine of healing and the Oyle of Union upon the Ministers of the Gospel by perswading yea commanding and conjuring them to be of one heart and one mind in the Lord. Nothing is more worthy that Wisdome and Power that Piety and Honor to which you as Gentlemen and Christians and Reformed do pretend than to advance by your counsel industry and authority so Christian a work as the setling of Religious Order and Unity an harmonious Government and Uniforme Authority among the Ministers of the Gospell I know all the Gates of Hell will be against the designe and oppose it with what ever power and policy can be found among the Devills But the work like that of building the second Temple is Gods Honest endeavours will be their own rewards how much more the desired effect if attained which is so good and great that no minds truly great and good but earnestly desire to see that day when they may behold the uniforme face of a Nationall Church among us such a Reformation as is without any remarkable defect or deformity specially so black and fundamentall as these are the Divisions Distractions Confusions among the Clergy the vilifying and nullifying of all Ministeriall Order and Ecclesiasticall Authority that such an Honor and Respect may be restored to your Ministers as may exempt them and all religious Ministrations from profanenesse scurrility contempt that your Ministers may be such men of Learning and Worth of Wisdome and Meeknesse of Fraternall Love and Kindnesse that they may both deserve and rightly use the just favour supports and respects given them the benefit of all which will most redound to your honor and the happinesse of your posterity when they shall behold such Religion such Reformation and such Ministers as they shall see cause to reverence love and value in conscience Religion is nothing if it be not esteemed as sacred sacred it cannot be if it be once ridiculous and ridiculous it will be if once it appeare either to have or make many strange and antick faces before the people who have all this in-bred principle in them that as true Religion can be but one so it ought to be Uniform and its Teachers Unanimous both in their Divinity and their Authority for variety in Ministers breeds incertainty inconstancy in holy duties inconstancy breeds indifferency indifferency breeds levity levity futility futility folly folly presumption presumption atheisme and licenciousness among people who from many Religions grow to any and from any Religion to none at all common people having neither capacity ability or leisure to disintangle Religion when it is offered them all snarled with the factions disputes and janglings of their Ministers They cannot wind up any great bottom of piety who all their lives are untying the knots and undoing the snarles of the scaine of Religion which ought by the wisdome of Christian Magistrates be presented to them in the most easie comely orderly authoritative and well-composed forme that can be and all little enough If the Christian and Reformed Religion which hath been so famous and flourishing in England be left to the coldnesse and indifferency of some the loosenesse and rudenesse of others also to the inordinate fervors and contentions of a third sort which are the predatorious flames and Gangrenes daily mortifying the native heate and moisture of Religion which consist in truth and love If all things of solemne Mysteries sacred order and Divine Ministry be still left to dissolve first into plebeian ignorance and insolency next into open profanenesse and atheisme and at last to shift for shame into Popish Superstition and
facility as children make little babies of clouts or statues of clay as Nazianzen alludes For what I pray you will these new propagators with all their progeny of new-ordained new-fashioned new-coyned and new-commissioned Preachers signifie to the more sober sort of mankind or indeed to the very plebs and vulgar especially among people so curious so querulous so proud so pragmatick so petulant so insolent as are in England Will sober Christians ever much care for any Ministers unlesse they be commended to them as meet to be such not onely by the highest wisdome and civill orderings of this Nation but also as set over them in the Lords Name and Christs Authority by an holy and solemn Ordination such of which they have the least and indeed no cause to have any doubting or slighting thoughts which is the case onely of Episcopall Ordination English Christians of any estate worth weight or wisdome will never be contented to be taught and reproved to have their children baptized at the Font or themselves communicated at the Lords Table by such Ministers as shall have onely the petty tickets of an humane act or State ordinance No they will and justly ought to require the grand Charter of Divine Authority conferred in the way of Catholick and true Ordination That so Ministers may be able to justifie their function and actions not onely in Law but in conscience not as Emissaries from men but as Embassadors from God Commissionated by Christ and his Deputies imployed in his work and armed with his power There goes much more to make a Minister of Jesus Christ than to make a Constable in an Hundred or a Parish or to make a Captaine in a Troop or a Justice on a Bench who yet cannot expect to be owned as such unlesse they can evidence their Commission and Authority to be rightly derived from the soveraigne originall of civill power no more may Ministers unlesse they can shew the right source and course of their sacred Authority While Ministers preach and practise Baptize and Consecrate with divided tongues distracted hands and distorted heads as to this point of their Ordination they are likely to produce no better successes either to this Church or Nation than those morter-men did whose work deserved the nick-name of Babel or Confusion The essentiall forme and difference the whole life and operation the proper virtue and efficacy of a Christian Ministry and Minister depending as I have shewed upon the truth sanctity and validity of that Authority with which he is invested and by that enabled to do the work and office of a Minister without which no man hath any more to do than his meanest groom or foot-man with the acts properly Ministeriall Military or Magisteriall whatever abilities or call he fancie himself to have So that if once your Wisdome and Piety O worthy Gentlemen could find a way to put the Clergy or Ministry of this Church as formerly we were into an uniform way of sacred complete and undoubted Authority as to their Ordination then and not before will they appeare like the Angels of God ascending and descending in their orderly courses then will they be enabled and esteemed powerfully to pray to God for you powerfully to preach from God to you powerfully to consecrate and exhibit holy mysteries to you Then will they be like the Lamps of the Temple or the shafts of the Golden Candlestick which were all of the same make and fashion and supplied with holy oyle from the same source shining with a lustre more than humane in your severall congregations how much more will they appeare like Angelick and Celestiall Quires in their Ecclestastick Convocations and Synodall Conventions Whereas now Ministers are in all Places Cities and Countries wretchedly divided monstrously deformed and miserably disabled mutually accusing and clamoring against each other alwaies barking or biting or howling either tormenting or tormented as the Devils in Hell One superciliously abhorrs what another devoutly adores One vilifies what another venerates One Minister with his party pulls down what another builds up One execrates what another consecrates One nullifies what another magnifies One formally officiates who is counted no Minister and really is none another is thought to be but halfe a Minister or a kind of mungrell a third is reputed for more than an ordinary Minister as having his Commission by inspiration or conspiration One is thought superfluous yea superstitious in his Ordination because he had a Bishop with Presbyters to ordaine him another is judged defective and dwarfish for want of a Bishop a third hath neither Bishop nor true Presbyters to ordaine him but either begets a body to himself as an head or is chosen by a popular body to be their head This makes both Preachers and people at such distances and defiances in Religion that one counts that sacriledge which another boasts of as sacred One is called a mocker of God an usurper in holy offices and a contemner of the Churches Primitive and Catholick Custome another is derided as a doting Antiquary a superstitious Priest or proud Prelate who can relish no bread but what is old and moldy nor any drink but what is out of a Gibeonitish bottle Thus are all holy mysteries and duties which any Ministers performe made either very disputable or despicable to the people while all their authority on all sides as dispensers of them is so much questioned doubted divided and denyed in the great point of their mission and Ordination which is most essentiall to a Minister and most fundamentall to any Churches Peace and Polity requiring next the maine Articles of Faith to be setled in the clearest and most unquestionable way with most uniform Authority most conforme to all pious Antiquity whose ancient and Catholick patterne as to Episcopall that is Apostolicall Ordination is no more with prudence to be changed either into Presbyterian or Independent new formes than the Church hath cause to exchange Davids Psalmes for any such godly Balads or moderne Hymns as we see some Ministers with more piety I hope than good poetry have sometime commended to the harsh and unharmonious voyces of ill-tuned and ill-stringed Congregations Adde to all these not onely the inconveniencies but mischiefes which are not more uncomfortable than pernicious to the interest of the true and Reformed Religion For from the divisions of Ministers as to their rise and descent or Ordination follow not onely strangeness but strifes and emulations evil eyes and secret feudes against one another each being either jealous of or contemptuous toward another But furthermore from this difference in their Ordination they are tempted to affect to broach and to preach different Doctrines For those peeled rods which alwaies lye before their eyes as to their Orders or Characters their Ministeriall Admissions and Stations do occasion their conceiving and bringing forth a ring straked and spotted kind of Religion even as to Doctrine that by the discriminations of their opinions either in
pitty being tenderly severe and most compassionately cruell when it is compelled to exert the sharpest authority doing all things according to the word example and Spirit of Christ Jesus in Meeknesse of Wisdome not to the destruction but edification of the Church in truth and faith in charity and unity To these Presbyters Bishops and Christian people are Deacons subordinate and servient in all things necessary for decency conveniency charity and carrying on of the Churches Autority both in private congregations and more ample conventions part of whole office we see time and custome had devolved upon our Church-Wardens and Overseers for the poor These ends and meanes this order and proportion this constitution and execution of Churchâ—Government by Episcopacy as far as it is conform to Catholick Antiquity and setled by the consent of any Christian Church and Nation by its Synods and Parlaments I do in no sort conceive to be arbitrary precarious or mutable as to the maine however it may be reduced and reformed in its deviations except in cases of invincible necessity which may dispense with Sabbaths Sacraments and all publick externall duties of Polity yea of Piety so far am I from judging it any part of prudent Piety or true Reformation for men rudely to baffle and despise wholly to abrogate and extirpate it because I cannot but look upon it as Scriptuall and Apostolick sacred and binding Christians consciences to due approbation obedience and subjection to it for the Lords sake who undoubtedly intended the right constitution and constant regulation of his Church with Order and Honor no lesse than that of States and Common-weales for whose peaceable Polity the Gospel hath set so many bounds and bonds of subjection Sure neither Church nor State can be honestly or handsomely governed in any way of parity or popularity where every one thinks himself fit to command and so disdains to obey according to those innate passions which are in all men and oft in good men and in good Ministers too who being many are as prone to run into many distempers and dangerous exorbitances if they be left to themselves As Mariners are without a Pilot or sheep without a shepherd or souldiers without a Commander or people without a Prince even so are Christians without ordained Ministers and Ministers without Authoritative Bishops exposed to all manner of Schisms Disorders Factions and Insolencies Which must necessarily follow where the Clergy is either not at all governed by any Grave and Worthy Ecclesiasticall persons or by such Ministers as have none but a popular and precarious Authority or where Ministers are onely curbed and crushed by the imperiousnesse and impertinency of meer Lay-men yea and of such as are not fit to be Judges or Rulers in the least civill affaires much lesse over Learned men whose Place Office and Concerns are properly religious as they stand related to God and his Church Nor can the Clergy be in much better case when they are by a Democratick or Levelling spirit cast into such spontaneous Associations and Confederacies as give to no Minister that orderly and eminent power respect and due authority which is fitting for the Government of the Churches nor yet teach common people that modesty and submission which are necessary for such as desire to be well and worthily governed When all is said and tried that can be in point of Church-Government I doubt not but it will be found true as Beza expresseth it in the happy State of England that Episcopacy is singularis Dei beneficientia Gods singular bounty and blessing to this and any Church which he prayes it might alwaies enjoy where it may be rightly enjoyed and religiously used which the Augustane Confession and all Reformed Churches with their most eminent Professors did desire to submit unto as a most speciall meanes to preserve the Honor Unity and Authority of the Church and its Discipline which as a great River growes weak and shallow when it is drawn into many small channels and rivulets How suitable and almost necessary a right and Primitive Episcopacy is for the temper of England I shall afterward more fully expresse at present it may suffice to shew how easie the restauration of it would be if all sides would sincerely look to the Primitive pattern of Church-Government First if the Diocese committed to the presidential inspection of one worthy Bishop were of so moderate an extent as might fall under one mans care and visitation and be most convenient both for the private addresses and dispatches also for the generall meetings of the Clergy in some principall place of it it would much remedy the great grievance of long journies tedious expectation and many tims frustraneous attendance at Westminister to which all Ministers are now compelled to their great charge and trouble many times for a small Living and sometime for a meer repulse Such Counties as Norfolk Suffolk Essex Kent Middlesex with London may seem proportionable to make each of them one Episcopal distribution greater Counties may be divided and lesser united Secondly if the generality of the Clergy or the whole Ministry of each Diocese might choose some few prime men of their Company to be the constant Electors chief Counsellors Correspondents and Assistants with the Bishop to avoid multitudinous tedious and confused managings of elections Ordinations and other publick affaires Thirdly if in case of Episcopall vacancy the generality of the Clergy meeting together might present the names of three or four or more prime men out of which number the Electors should choose one whose election should stand if approved by the Prince or chief Magistrate if not they should choose some other of the nominated Fourthly the person thus chosen and approved on all sides should be solemnly and publickly consecrated by other Bishops in the presence of the Ministers and people of the Diocese By these meanes as there will be no crowd or enterfering among the Clergy so there will be great satisfaction to Prince and people without any clashing between the Civill and Spirituall power which must be avoided considering that not onely the exercise of all Church-power must depend on the leave of the Prince in his dominions but also the honorary setled maintenance of the Bishops as of all the Clergy is but Eleemosynary in the originall from the pious concession and munificence of the Prince or State who as they will not in conscience or honor deny competent allowances to all worthy Ministers of the Gospel so no doubt they will not grudge to adde such Honorary supports to every Bishop or President as may decently maintaine that Authority Charity and Hospitality which becomes his Place Worth and Merit for certainly no men can do more good or deserve better of their Nation and Country than excellent Bishops may do as by their Doctrine and example so by their wise and holy way of governing the Church with such Honor and Authority as became them which could
City and Territory after the Apostle St. Pauls death or they were still under some surviving Apostles generall care and inspection as St. John who yet lived in Domitians time when Clemens wrote this Epistle to those Corinthian Presbyters who possibly for want of some chief Bishop or President chosen and placed among them thus fell into emulations and factions which afterward were remedied by Episcopall eminency in that Church as St. Jerom tels us This is certaine as no Primitive Church had more early factions and more carnall divisions or more needed Episcopall Presidency that is Apostolicall Authority to represse the turbulent and contentious humors among both people and Presbyters so none had more eminent Bishops among whom one was that famous Dionysius whom Eusebius and all Antiquity so commend for a Bishop of most Primitive and Apostolick temper full of Majesty and Humility of Authority and Charity To conclude I find no disadvantage brought against Primitive Episcopacy but much for it by either of these most Ancient Writers to which all others after them do so unanimously and clearly agree for asserting the Venerable Authority and Catholick Antiquity of Bishops above Presbyters that for any man of parts to listen to the partiall novel and pittifull allegations which some Presbyters have made against Episcopacy and all Presidentiall Bishops contrary to those ancient Authors who were most of them yea almost all of them of that Episcopall order in the Church is certainly as senselesse a superstition and as vaine a divination as that was for which Hannibal reproched Prusias King of Bithynia when being advised by Hannibal to fight with the Pergamenians he refused because the entrailes of the calfe then sacrificed seemed not propitious Sure Sir sayes he to the King you cannot be well advised in your warres who rather regard the entrailes of a young calf than the Counsels of an old souldier and veterane Commander Nor is it lesse impertinent for any sober Christian to credit the pittifull Rhapsodies or scraps forced out of the Scriptures or Fathers and corraded by a few Neotericks to wrest them against Episcopacy and themselves too who were actually Bishops rather than to believe that uniform concurrence which makes wholly for it out of all Antiquity as in perswasion so in practise so far that not one person or Author Father or Historian Synod or Councill of any Name or Note Worth or Eminency can be excepted No not St. Jerom himself whose judgement and practise is cleare in many places for Episcopall Eminency and Authority however as a Presbyter he challenged an interest as in the Election so in the Counsell and assistance of Presbyters to be joyned with Bishops which is as prudent as ancient and not denyed by any sober man who adheres to Primitive Episcopacy For which St. Jerom himself gives so pregnant and ancient a Testimony as none clearer can be desired in the person of St. Mark the Evangelist who first planted and setled a Christian Church at Alexandria where he died and was buried After whom by his advise and direction no doubt the Presbyters of Alexandria chose Anianus as their Bishop a man endeared to God and man of admirable Piety and Charity who in celsiori gradu collocatus placed and owned in a higher degree than any Presbyters did govern that Church twenty two yeares as Bishop whose succession continued as St. Jerom saith to his daies in Dionysius and Heraclas Bishops of Alexandria One such testimony for a ruling and unepiscopall that is an unruly Presbytery or Independency without any Bishop would be worth considering but is not to be found in all Antiquity CHAP. XX. MY second argument or plea by which to reconcile sober men to Apostolick Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy is from that Evangelicall temper and true Christian spirit which is in it and was ever both owned and used by it as to the peaceable principles and obedientiall practises of all worthy Bishops and all Mininisters of that subordination in all Ages and places toward Civill Powers and Magistrates who both in first planting and after in reforming of any Church wherein they had a chief influence never applyed any popular rude and violent meanes to set up their opinions or parties any Church-way or power any Order Discipline or Authority nothing pragmatick mutinous or seditious was prayed preached or practised by them contenting themselves with sober sermons and devout prayers with doing well cheerfully and suffering evill patiently They never used any sinister policy or power no fraud or force nor any methods or engines to introduce Episcopacy other than such as were necessary to bring in Christianity in the true faith and holy mysteries of it which have ever been embarqued with steered by and either persecuted or prospered together with Episcopacy whose diligence and devotion peaceablenesse and patience both in their Dioceses and in their Synods or Councils assisted by Presbyters of the same adherence and Communion hath planted preserved propagated and best restored true Religion to all Nations by such demonstrations of meeknesse and wisdome as were loyall just pure peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated They never did any thing menacingly and boysterously against their Superiours with threatnings or tumults with sedition or hostility with faction or partiality They did not presently let fly bitter arrowes at the faces hands heads and hearts of all that refused their offers and motions but onely shook off the dust of their feet and quietly departed if need were as Christ commanded his Apostles and Disciples This was and is the temper of Primitive and true Episcopacy as to civill peace and subjection It is an observation not so strange as too true that all Spirits which are Antiepiscopall are in some respects antimagistraticall and most-what antimonarchicall enemies to Bishops are easily enemies to all Magistrates that are not of their own straine and way The first and great instance of which truth was and is in the Papacy since the Bishops of Rome forsook the first humble holy and martyrly principles of their predecessors and challenged in Christs Name a Soveraignty Monarchy and Tyranny above all Bishops not content with a primacy of order civility and precedency which was anciently allowed as to other Metropolitanes Primates and Patriarks so principally to the Bishops of Rome not for the honor of their first founders St. Peter and St. Paul nor for the renowne and orthodoxy of the Romane Churches faith for these might be and were as remarkable in other Cities as Jerusalem where Christ in person had been so in Antioch c. but it was consented and yielded to for the secular honor and glory of that mighty City which was as it were the confluence summary and center of all worldly greatnesse as the Queen of all Nations whence all Lawes and soveraignty flowed to the civilized world and terror to the other parts that were barbarous or enemies The Imperiall power and Majesty of that City induced
for their Gods any Calf or Idol which their Superiours please to set up in the Church to serve or secure the civil Interests But in England where people have much light and dare to use it such policies and projects would now be not onely preposterous but vaine and ridiculous There is no putting among us Eagles wings or Feathers upon the bodies of Jack-dawes Rookes or Crowes which rather incumber them than inable them for any orderly motion much lesse do they make them Imperiall birds fit to rule or over-aw the other winged inhabitants of the world which will be ready to scorne and despise them And what indeed for instance hath more abased the condition and abated the common honor of Ministers in England of later yeares than some of their unseasonable and unreasonable affectations to govern in common as beyond their due proportion for Age Gifts Parts Ornaments so before they had complete Commission to empower them either from God or any man in Soveraign power Even such Presbyters as most affected like Icarus to fly above their Fathers my self and the English world have seen to have so melted their own artificiall wings that they have miserably faln into a Sea a black and a red Sea of confusion contempt and contention both among their own people and all the Nation Out of which Abysse they will never be able to wade or swim in my judgement unlesse they can with such Unity Humility and Charity as St. Austin adviseth some Donatists revoke their exotick errors retract their Schismes and transports returning from their pertinacious novelties to the true proportions of Ancient Church-Government which I think are in no degree to be found either in Presbytery Independency or any way apart from Episcopacy both which new waies have so grievously blasted and singed themselves by the exorbitancy of those terrible flames which they kindled utterly to consume Episcopacy that there is little likelihood either of these novelties should ever appeare to be entertained with any publick beauty honor esteem or approbation in England where nothing is lesse tolerable than Governours that are contemptible for want of Ability Authority and Dignity as to Estate and Honor. Amidst all which immoderate and mercilesse fires destinated to consume all the pristine beauty and honor of Catholick Episcopacy both root and branch in one day yet to shew not more the wonder of Gods mercy than the true temper of the English people behold not onely Primitive Episcopacy but Primitive Bishops that is persons of Learning Piety and Vertue becoming that sacred Office Dignity have retained all this while and will do while they live yea and when they are dead so much of reall honor and true respect due to their worth that no Assemblies no Armies no Votes no Ordinances no Terrors no Calumnies of inordinate Presbyters no insolencies of licentious people nothing can ever deprive them of or degrade them from an high respect and esteem in the hearts and desires in the loves and compassions of all unbiassed learned sober and wise men throughout the Nation Who are not yet grown so dull and degenerous as not to preferre the Primitive Catholick and Venerable Authority of Episcopacy as to order and Ordination so to Government and jurisdiction as much before the novel inventions and ostentations of any Presbyterian and Independent models as one would value the English Roses before the Scotch Thistles freely to handle or feed upon which is no such precious Christian Liberty as any wise men Ministers or others have either cause to envy in others or to congratulate in themselves since their former subjection to Episcopacy was far more to their Safety Order Plenty and Honor than what they now enjoy in their petty Signiories The lowest parts of that Mountaine of God Episcopacy on which the Church of Christ for many Ages stood and flourished were higher than the top of these new mole-hils the skirts of Bishops clothing were more venerable than the very Crownes of these Ministers heads the unanointed corners of whose haire and beards are now so deformedly shorne or shaven by a sharp and popular rasor The renowne and value of Episcopacy is much risen since English-men have seen added to the other excellencies of our English Bishops the miracle and magnanimity of their Christian patience who after their hard and long studies attended with many meritorious and usefull vertues after they had lawfully obtained and many yeares peaceably enjoyed such Honors and Estates as adorned Episcopacy in England after they had no way and by no law forfeited these or misused them yet in the decline of their lifes in the colder and darker winter of their Age these grave and gallant men can beare with Christian patience and heroick composednesse of mind the losse of all and that from their own Country-men Professors of the same Christian yea and Reformed Religion and this without any respect had either to their present and future support or their pristine dignity A fate so sad and Tragicall as is scarce to be parallell'd in any Age or History yet have none of them been heard to charge God foolishly They say and write either nothing or onely the words of Sobernesse Truth and Charity they still possesse their soules in silence and patience when dispossessed of all things whereever they live their lustre shines through their greatest obscurity and tenuity as the bright Sun through small crevises far beyond the most sparkling Presbyters or glittering Independents whose new popular projects for Church-Government compared to Primitive and old Episcopacy are like Comets or blazing Starres compared to the Sun and Moon The Gravity the Constancy the Contentednesse the Meekness the Humility of these Venerable yet afflicted Bishops now reduced God knowes to a great paucity as well as tenuity yet still keeps up their price and commands from all wise and worthy men a veneration both of their persons and of that comely Authority which they heretofore enjoyed and worthily exercised in this Church Who almost of any considerable people in England that are not either ignorant fanatick or sacrilegious but either openly or secretly wish the happy restauration of Venerable Episcopacy to this Church and Nation who that hath sense of honor justice or ingenuity doth not deplore and is not discountenanced to consider the Crowds and Loades of indignities cast upon such excellent persons as for the most part the Bishops of England were even then when they were to be sacrificed by I know not what strange fire as a peace-offering to the discontented Presbyters of Scotland and their ambitious Symbolizers in England I know some of those Lords and Commons who in the huddle helped to destroy Bishops and their Order now not onely pitty the undeserved sufferings of such brave men but repent of their own compliance and so do many Ministers The usefulness worth and necessity of excellent Bishops and of true Episcopacy were never so well understood in England as since the
time prove extreamly pernicious to the peace piety honour and welfare of this Nation not onely in respect of the Reformed Religion whose authoritative Ministry and maintenance they will ever seek to devour and utterly destroy but even in respect of secular interests and civill peace For the first The integrity and true interests of the Reformed Religion who that hath read what I have already not more passionately then impartially written can be so blind as not to see That the pride petulancy and despite the ignorance licentiousnesse and covetousness of some of these men hath been and still is such that they have not onely sought to wast and deforme to reproach and defame all that outward order visible beauty polity support and unity which became so famous a Church and Nation but they have further studied to weaken and destroy the most solid and essentiall parts of Religion by many grosse errours damnable Doctrines bold blasphemies high Atheismes and rude immoralities all which do naturally boile up in the corrupt hearts and violent lusts of mankinde when they have any fire of temptation or encouragement What is then so immodest so impudent against the glory of God against the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ against the written word of God against the reputation of the Catholick or any well-reformed Church against the Lawes of nature civill societies and common justice against the good of men and Christians their temporall and eternall welfare which some of these Abaddons these Apollyons will not adventure to broach and abet to act own and applaud when they see their raveries are apt not onely to amuse the vulgar people but to mend their own fortunes which are the first and neerest designes they aime at as the chief ends of the agents But the end or effect following their actions though possibly not some of their intentions will be this to prepare by these various windings confused circulations and distorted wrestings of the Reformed Religion the way for Roman factors Papall interests and Jesuitick designes whose learned abilities orderly industry and indefatigable activity is such that by that time the old stock of Reverend orderly and authoritative Bishops and Presbyters the truest and most unquestionable Ministers of the Church of Christ are worn out in England and the reformed Religion is reduced with its titular and extenuated Ministers to a meer medly or popular Chaos of confusions the most of sober people being either sick or ashamed or weary of their home-bred disorders and unremedied diseases in Religion by this time I say the Romish agitators will not onely devoure all these petty parties and feeble factions of Reformers with as much ease as the Stork did the Froggs but they will in time utterly destroy the remaines of the defamed Doctrine and deformed Religion which your fore-fathers owned and to the death professed as most true and well reformed with great Honour Holinesse and Happiness which yet the ignorance and insolence the Illiterateness and Rusticity the Barrennesse and Barbarity of novel Sects have already rendred poor and despicable much to be pitied and deplored both at home and abroad I must ever so far own my reason as to professe that I look upon the Defamers Dividers and Destroyers of the Church of England whatever they are or seem to be no other than the perdues or forelorn hope of Popery which by lighter skirmishes open advantages to the Popes maine Battaglio the Vancourriers or Harbingers sent and excited in great part from the Pragmatick Policies of Rome whose grand interest since the Reformation hath been not more to advance the House of Austria and preserve the Papacy than to regain the Church of England to the Romish slavery In whose present calamities may easily be discerned a far greater reach and deeper Spirit than is usuall to be found in ordinary Sectaries and Schismaticks who are commonly of low and mean parts short-sighted and short-spirited of very shallow wits and extemporary designes rarely aiming at any thing that is of a publick concern of a grand notable and durable proportion but rather gratifying their sudden passions and occasionall fancies or correptions which are pitifully poor and plebeian seldome reaching higher than the pleasure of scratching their own or other mens itching ears with some novel fancies and opinions or setting up themselves by a sorry ambition to be Heads and Leaders the Pastors and Teachers of some credulous company which makes it self into some new mode and very superciliously calls it self The Church not in charity and communion with but in contempt and defiance of all other Churches Parochiall Provinciall Nationall or Catholick owning none of the Primitive Grand and Apostolicall Combinations or their Successions to be truly constituted Churches By such little arts some of them feed their bellies and cloth their backs better than heretofore when they made no such cakes for their Queens of Heaven nor Shrines for their severall Diana's but were confined to their lesse gainfull trades some of them feed meerly upon popular breath which as the wind will never last long in one point or corner lastly some of them keep up their vulgar Pride and sad Ambitions by nothing else but by the fame of their Antagonists the glory they have to contest with the Church of England and her ablest Ministers who are in earnest so much superiour to these sorry Rivals and Ruiners of them in all Learning Religion Vertue Wisdome Honesty and Modesty as the Stars in the firmament are beyond the glittering of rotten chips in the dark or the shining of Glow-wormes in a ditch Certainly these petty parties who scarce know what they drive at and are full of varieties in their Fancies Forms and Factions these cannot produce so constant a current and so strong a tide as is alwaies urging against the Church of Engl. and the honour of the Reformed Religion but they are driven on by a subtill and secret yet potent impulse as waves of the sea not onely dashing and breaking upon each other but all of them battering the Honour and Stability of the Church of England as the great rampart or bank which stands in the way of the Sea of Rome mightily opposing and hindering heretofore both fanatick Confusions Papal Usurpations and Romish Superstitions whose advantages now are evidently prepared and carried on by those that under the name of Reformation will most effectually at last overthrow it For after these petty spirits who have been and are the great Dividers Despisers and Destroyers of the reformed Church of England have a few years longer played their mad pranks in this sometime so flourishing and fruitfull vineyard of the Lord pulling up the hedge of Ecclesiasticall Canons and Civil Sanctions throwing down the wall of Ancient Discipline and Catholick Government breaking in pieces the wine-press of holy Ordination and Ministeriall Authority and Succession pulling up both root and branch of holy Plants and regular Planters what I beseech you can hinder these subtill
they lose him who is best to be found in the Evangelicall and still voyce to which the Priests and Prophets of the Jewish also the Apostles with their successors the Godly Bishops of the Christian Churches have alwaies listned and generally obeyed judging nothing more diametrally distant from and opposite to true Religion than Rebellion that is the usurping of that power which is by Right and Law anothers upon any religious pretence whatsoever Certainly the Jewel of Loyalty neither was nor ever will be safer kept than in the Cabinet of Primitive Episcopacy as Aarons Râ—d and the Tables of the Law were best preserved in the Ark of the Testimony and in the most holy place which were laid up with the pot of Manna Emblems most lively setting forth the happy State of any Christian Church and Nation while it maintaines the Lawes of God and man while it subjects all men to the Rod or Scepter of just Government both in Church and State supporting as the Princes so the chief Pastors Bishops and Guides of the Church with an honorable plenty and all other Ministers both in Church and State with competent and ingenuous alimony As Christian Kings and Queenes have ever been according to Gods promise the most indulgent liberall and tender nurses of the Church of Christ in all Countries every where retaining and reverencing Episcopacy as most agreeable with their Soveraignty and Monarchy so have all true Christian Bishops in all Ages and places ever been the most Learned Assertors of and the humble submitters to Soveraigne and Monarchical Authority of Princes and no lesse to that of Aristocracy in Common-weales or Republiques such as Florence was and Venice still is who never yet saw any reason of State to move them to change the ancient and honorable Government of Catholick Episcopacy for any other which hath as more of parity popularity and poverty so lesse of honest policy firm peace and religious loyalty Certainly a Christian Prince or State that designes stability to their power and peace will need these two swords of Soveraignty and Episcopacy to keep himself his people and his Church safe A wise Governour cannot but see and say of Episcopacy compared to all other formes as David said of Goliahs sword there is none like that in respect of its principles operations and influences as to religious loyalty and publick tranquillity The loyalty and civil subjection of all novellers seemes to be with so many salvo's and reserves of godlinesse and grace of Religion Christs Discipline or true Church-waies of Princes not being tyrants or persecutors in their subjects sense that there is little certainty much lubricity and as many dangers as evasions But the Loyalty of Episcopacy is positive and plenary resolute and absolute according to those cleare Evangelical precepts and patternes either to act or suffer with good conscience owning no pensations as from God or Man Pope or Presbyter or People which some Antiepiscopall Preachers and Professors seem to have found out as the Gnosticks of old did being loth to be Carbonated or Crucified Christians if they can help it pleading that Right followes Might especially in Cases and Engagements of Religion excusing the Primitive Martyrs softness and easinesse to suffer as Bellarmine and others do the Popes pristine submission to the Emperours by reason of their Minority being then in their bibs and hanging-sleeves CHAP. XXI MY third Plea to recommend Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy to my wise and honoured Countrymen is taken from the consideration of the Genius or temper of the English Nation in which the Spirits of people are generally so heady and giddy so high and stout that they cannot long bear any way of Government or any Governours which seem levelling popular plebeian and prostrate however they may for a fit of novelty or discontent be pleased with such Pageants yet these are not the Mansion-houses that English people will dwell in They are too stiff-necked and stubborn a people ever to reverence or submit to such Magistrates in State or such Discipliners in Church as are but their Peers and Equals at best and many times their Inferiours as in estate and learning so in all those things Divine Civil and Humane which are proper to conciliate respect and command submission upon the account of some eminency of merit or worth set off with some conspicuity of riches honour or power The late Presbyterian design and defeat in England as to inducing their Checker-work of Lay-elders to be Joynt-rulers and Partners with Preachers in Ecclesiastical autority placing as they must needs even silly Mechanicks in many places in a parallel jurisdiction with the ablest Scholars and Ministers as to Church-government and Discipline yea and above them in their numbers and suffrages the speedy baffling I say and discountenancing of this pitiful project with all its long train baggage and ammunition by a general dislike difuse and neglect of it sufficiently shews that either Common people in England have more modesty yet left in them than to think themselves fit judges and rulers in the State or Church with their Magistrates and Ministers or else that they utterly disdain to be Catechized and controlled by such as are their plain country-neighbours and trivial Comrades of the same forme for rusticity and simplicity and many times as much below them in prudence as in estate in civility as in solid piety to which a factious and pragmatick ambition in any man adds very little The speedy confutation of this incongruous polity and stratagem which to please the people sought to besiege my selfe and all Ministers both in City and Country with four or five or more Lay-elders made up of Farmers Shop-keepers Clothiers and Handicrafts-men to be our Assessors and Assistants as Censors and Supervisors of all the Parish and our selves too not only with us but in some things above us Ministers both in number and popular influence this hath really wrought such an abhorrence and disdain in most people of all such Lay-ruling-elders and such a despiciency of all such Disciplining-plots as are neither prudent nor pertinent for the English temper that even those Ministers who were at first most zealous to set up in stead of the fair Temples and Cathedrals those small Synagogues and low Consistories of Lay-partners in Church-government even these Ministers find they have lost much of that pristine respect and influence they had among their own and all other people so that upon the point neither great nor small will now be further than they list governed by such methods of imprudent men who have reproched their own mother-Church diminished themselves and their Order blasted their Ministerial Ordination soiled that fountain whence they sprang disgraced those venerable Bishops who were lawfully and worthily their Fathers and Rulers despised as much as in them lyes the very Catholick and honourable name of Episcopacy abolished its ancient honour and autority which were ever established and preserved till now by the
reformationem Ecclesiae Anglicanae post Deum reges deberi praecipuè Episcoporum Doctrinae industriae Pet. du Moulin ep 3. ad episc Wint. Nehem. 4.17 John 13.34 1 Cor. 1.10 Eph. 4.3 Coloss 3.13 Iren. l. 3. c. 15. Col. 2.5 2 Cor. 8.5 Acts 4.34 Matth. 20.15 1 Tim. 5.17 Phil. 2.16 Luke 9.54 Job 1.19 Mat. 3.7 2 Tim. 3.2 1 Pet. 2.2 2 Cor. 2.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hip. Non sanant sed mutanâ— morbos Fernel Mat. 15.19 2 Tim 4.3 1 Tim. 6.4 5. Ephes 6.12 Revel 2.24 Revel 2.23 Doluisse fertur Aâ—rius quod quum â—sset Presbyter Episcopus non potuit ordinari Aug. de Hae. es Inordinate liberty in religious affaires the chief cause of mâ—series in the Church of Engl. Jude 2. Tametsi illorum temporum Episcopi multos Canones ediderunt quibus plus videntur exprimere quam sacris literis expressum sit eâ tamen cautione totam suam oeconomiaÌ„ composuerunt ad unicam illam verbi divini normam ut facile videas nihil ferè habuisse hac in parte à verbo Dei alienum Cal. Inst l. 4. c. 4. sect 1. Schismaticos semper inter initia fervere incrementa vero capere non posse nec augere quod illicite coeperint sed statim cum prava sua aemulatione deficere Cypr. ep 52. Judges 21.25 What Christian liberty is desirable and tolerable among people Euseb in vita Const M. Rom. 14.3 2 Thes 3.15 Acts 20.30 Ubi metus in Deum ibi gravitas modesta diligentia attonita cura solicita adlectio explorata communicatio deliberata promotio emerita subjectio religiosa apparitio devota processio modesta ecclesia unita Dei omnia Tert. de praes c. 43. 2 Tim. 3.7 Ephes 4.14 Acts 15. 1 Tim. 1.3 2 Tim. 1.13 Rom. 1.8 Exod. 32 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. T it 3.11 Luke 20.16 Mat. 10.14 Of Plebeian rudeness and licentiousness in Religion if left to themselves Non rationibus convincuntur quia non intelligunt nec autoritatibus corriguntur quia non recipiunt nec flectuntur suasionibus quia subversi sunt Bern. in Can. s 66. Imperiti animosi propter inopiaÌ„ consilâ—i iracuâ—di Fermil ap Cyp. Nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil râ—ctum existimant Aug. ep ad Janua Heb. 13.17 2 Chr. 11.15 1 King 13.33 2 Chron 19 9. Theophylact in 2 Tim. 4.3 Heaping up teachers c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Mich. 2.11 Job 22.13 Psal 2.3 Mat. 8.29 Acts 19.28 Instances of abused Liberty in the vulgar neglect of reading the Scriptures Acts 7 38. 2 Tim. 3.16 1 Tim. 2.13 Gal. 1.8 Coâ— 3.16 2 Tim. 4.3 Nehem. 8.3 8. Just M. Apo. 2. Psal 19.7 8. Mal. 2.7 Vulgar neglect and scorn of ancient formes of wholesome words in the Decalogue Creed and Lords Prayer Rom. 6.17 2 Tim 1.13 Totius Evangelii breviariâ—m Tert. de Orat. Dom. So Cypâ— Coelestis doctrinae compendium fidelium harmonia in toto orbe celebratum Amen And Ruffin in Symb. Iren. l. 2. c. 9. l. 3. c. 3. It is called Apostolorum traditio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amphiloch Hieron ep 16. Chrys in Symb. Heb. 6.1 Gal. 2.14 Matth. 6.9 Luke 11.2 Quanto facilius audiamur dum prece quam filius docuit apud patrem loquimur Quanto officacius â—mpetramus quod petimus in Christi nomine si petamus ipsius oratione Cyp. de Orat. Dom. Quantum substringitur verbis tantum diffunditur sensibus Tert. in Orat. Dom. The innovations usurpations and vastations made by some upon the order office and authority of the Evangelicall Ministry Joh. 15.21 22. 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Pet. 2.3 Heb. 6.4 5. Job 40 41. 2 Pet. 2.18 Col. 2.18 1 Tim. 4 2. James 1.27 1 Cor. 14.9 De praes ad Har. a Dandi baptismi jus habet summus sacerdos qui est Episcopus dehinc Presbyteri Diaconi Tert. de bap c. 17. Tert. exh ad Cast c. 7. Differentiam inter ordinem plebem constituit ecclesiae autoritas honor per ordinis consessum sanctificatus à Deo ubi ecclesiastâ—ci ordinis est consessus offert tinguit sacerdos qui est ibi solus Eucharistiae Sacramentum non de aliorum manu quam praesidentium sumimus Tert. coro mil. c. 3. Cyp. ep 35. in illa verba Quemadmodum misit me pater c. John 20.21 unde intelligimus non nisi in ecclesia praepositis ac in Evangelica lege Dominica ordinatione fundatis licere baptisare aut remissionem peccatorum dare b Tertul. de praes ad Haer. cap. 41. c Epiphan Haeres 89. Aug. de Haer. c. 27. Facinus multis mortis generibus multanduÌ„ Socr. hist l. 1. c. 20. Niceph. l. 8. c. 49. Athanasius Ischyram vel Ischyâ—ionem sacris mysticis operantem facto flagrante deprehendens mensam sacram evertit calicem confregit impiam temâ—raâ—ii hominis audaciam inhibuit Aetas nostra multos vidit Ischyras Athanasia nullum Langius in Niceph. locum The pretensions of Intruders to excuse their wants Apostolos in perversum aemulantur Tert. de praes l. 30. 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15 16. Si constat id verius quod prius id prius quod ab initio id ab initio quod ab Apostolis pariter utique constabit id esse ab Apostolis traditum quod apud Ecclesâ—as Apostolorum fuerit sacrosanctum Tertull. adv Marci l. 4. c. 5. 2 Cor 5. â—0 Tota in Apostolos potestas Dominici transfertuâ— Hilar. in Mat. c. 10. Mat. 28.20 Verse 19. Chrys in Joh. 20.21 Heb. 13.17 Quia Christus visibili praesentia inter nos non habitat hominum ministerium adhibeâ— quasi vicaâ—iam operam non ad eos jus suum transferendo sed ut per manus ipsoruÌ„ suum ipse opus â—gâ—t Cal. Inst l. 4. c. 3. sect 1. Rom. 12.1 Heb. 13.10 1 Pet. 2.5 Heb. 13.15 Acts 14.23 1 Tim. 3. 5.22 Ti. 1.5 Act. 20.28 2 Cor. 6.1 2 Cor. 4.7 1 Cor. 2 3. 1 John 5.7 8. 1 Tim. 3.13 Ephes 4.11 Of Ministerial sufficiencies reall or pretended 2 Cor. 2.16 Psal 74 6. It was Constantine the Great 's saying to the Nicene Bishops Vos intra ecclesiam ego extra ecclesiam à Deo episcopus constitutus sum Euseb vit Const l. 4. c. 24. Exod. 28.1 Heb. 4.4 5 Mat. 3.14 1 Tim. 3.1 1 Cor. 3.6 1 Cor. 12.4 5. Plane Episcopi non de Dei voluntate fiunt qui contra dispositionem Domini traditionem ecclesiae fiunt Cyp. ep 55. Pag. 1164. 2 Tim. 3.4 John 10.1 Act. 20.29 Acts 20.28 What caution Christians ought to use as to those Ministers with whom they intrust the care of their souls Mat. 13.55 John 1.14 Mat. 28.18 Revelat. 2.2 2 Cor. 11.13 Rom. 16.18 Acts. 9.17 Acts 11.26 2 Cor. 11.13 Jer. 23.21 Rev. 2.2 1 Cor. 14 32. Mat. 21.23 Mat. 7.29 He taught them as one having authority 1 Cor. 4.19 Not the
speech but the power Jâ—de 3. Mâ—s iste semper in ecclesiâ— viguâ—â— ut quâ— quisque sâ—â—â—â— religiâ—siâ—r ò promptâ—us novellis adinventionibus contraireâ— Vin. Liâ— adv haer c. 9. * Gal. 1.8 Mat. 13.30 2 Chron 29.5 Sanctifie the house of the Lord and carry foâ—th the filthiness out of the holy place Surculi propagines Apostolorum fidei traduces Tert. de praes c. 32. Jer. 2.13 Of late new models for making Ministers of the Gospel Christiani veteres recentes ab Apostolorum Apostolicorum virorum disciplina â—orum praescripta intelligebant melius pâ—rfectius â—molebant Grot. de jur bel pac l. 4. c. 4. sect 5. Mr. R. Hookers pâ—ef to his Ec. pol. pag. 16. Venerable Bede Hist Eccl. The Primate of Armagh his De primordiâ—s eccl Bâ—tan Sir H. Spelman B. Godwin others 2 Kings 10.22 The false and foolish pretensions urged against the Ministry of Engl. Pâ—esbâ—tâ—â—is qâ—i sâ—nt in Eâ—clâ—sia obau liâ—e opâ—â—tâ—t qui successionâ—m habent ab Apostolis cum successioâ—â— charisma veritatis Iren. l. 3. c 40. l. 4. c. 43. Vid. Tâ—rt de praes adv Haer. c. 20. 32. c. Vid. Auberti Miraei NotitiaÌ„ Episc politiae Ecclesiasticae per omnes Ecclesias An impartial balancing of the old and new Minister 2 Cor. 11.4 2 Tim 3 6. 2 Pet 3.16 Jude 13. Rev. 3.1 A charitable plea for the ancient Clergie of the Ch. of England against the ingratitude and indifferency of some men Ordo Episcoporum ita per successiones ab initio decurrens ut primus in qualibet Ecclesia Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis aut Apostolocis viâ—is habuit autorem antecessorem Tert. de praes adv Haer. c. 32. * Joh. 5.35 Object Answ Phil. 1.16 18. 1 Tim. 1.11 The best of the new Teachers compared with the Ministers of England Tert. de praes c. 41. 42. Quis catechumenus quis fidelis incertum â—st pariter audiunt pariter orant c. job 38.2 2 Pet. 2.18 Rom. 8.16 Maxima gratia est minime sui ostentatrix Bern. Psal 25.14 Prov. 3.32 Cant. 1.2 * Incidi in homines superbe delirantes carnales nimis sequaces in quorum ore laquei Diaboli viscum confectum commistione syllabarum nominis tui i. e. Dei Jesu Christi paracleâ—i Spiritus Sancti haec enim nomina non recedebant de ore eorum sed sono tenus strepitu linguarum caecerum cor inane veri Dicebant veritas veritas mihi sed nusquam erat in iis qui falsò loquebantur Aug. conf l. 3. c. 6. de Manicheis a 2 Pet. 1.4 b Phil. 2. 2 Cor. 4.6 1 Cor. 6.19 2 Cor. 3.18 A farther sifting of these new Teachers Dogmatum tormâ—nta terriculamenta verborum Hier. Matth. 3. Nobis post Christum curiositate opus non est nec revelatione post Evangelium De praes Hoc prius credimus ultra scripturas nâ—hil esse quod credamus Id. Rom. 1â— 3 Lascivienti ingenio nihil periculosius aut bonis moribus aut sanae religioni Eras Ut cadavera sic haereticorum dogmata quò magis puâ—ida eò magis inflata suaque tabe tum scunt Tolerabilius est Deo quempiam cum ignorantia in humilitate jacere quà m cum elatione alta sapere Greg. Moral 2 Tim. 2.20 Col. 2.18 2 Cor. 11.10 2 Cor. 11.3 The modesty gravity sanctity and solidity of true Ministers c. Sanctam inscientiam doctaÌ„ ignorantiam Praestat per Deum nescire quia non revelaverit quam per hominem scire quia ipse praesumpserit Tert. de An. cap. 1. * Deut. 29.29 Si propter â—os solos Christus mortuus est qui certa intelligentia possunt ista sublimia discernere penè frustra in â—cclesiae laboramus Aug. ep 102. * Rom. 11.33 Neque qui valde potens est in dicendo ex ecclesiae praeectis alia ab his dicet neque qui debilis est in dicendo hanc traditioneÌ„ imminuet Iren. l. 1. cap. 3. de Symbol The designs ends of fanatick Libertines fatall to the Reformed Religion An humble earnest expostulation in the behalf of the people and Church of England Ep. Joh. 3.10 Exod. 23.28 Post Nicenam Synodum nihil aliud quà m fidem scribimus dum in verbis pugna est dum de novitatibus quaestio est dum de ambiguis querela est dum alter alteri Anathema esse coepâ—t propè jam nemo est Christi Eò processuÌ„ est ut nihil sanctuÌ„ nihil inviolabile perseveret invicem mordentes penè absumpti sumus Hilar. vita * Annuas atque menstruas de Deo fides decernimus Hilar. Insanas sacrilegas fabulas suas Christiani nominis pallio velare contendunt Aug. cont Fau. l. 22. c. 15. * A Serpent who with his immoderat ambition poysoned infidelity together with all the horrible examples of cruelty luxury and monstrous covetousness had infected the world Guicciardâ—n l. 6. p. 308. Contra hoc concilium nostrum rebellatur omnis sacerdotalis autoritas factiosis conspirationibus destruitur Cyp. ep 40. ad pleb Malac. 3.8 2 Cor. 11.7 The rudeness irreverence expressed by some in religious duties as a part of their Liberty * 2 King â— 24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quaest Resp. ad Orthod in ep Just Mar. Res 80. The sad exchange people make of their old Religion for new Raptures Vid. Aug. de Haeres Manich. Mat 5.16 1 Cor. 2.11 Rev. 2.17 John 5.30 The soul mistakes abuses of Christian liberty in vulgar spirits Acts 19 3â— Titus 1.11 Heb. 13.7 17. 1 Thes 5.13 Mat. 18.6 Sacrilegium schismatis omnia scilera supergreditur l. 1. c. 4. cont ep Parmen Vid. Cyp. lib. ad Novatian Haeret. ep ad Magn. 76. Quis non trepidat Christi Ecclesia derelicta ratione caeca apud temerarios illosschi smatum Duces dissensionis autores convertiâ— Cyp. ad Nov. a Numb 16. Cypr. ep ad Rogat l. 3. ep 9. ep ad FeliceÌ„ ep 78. Haeres 18. 2 Tim. 3.9 1 Cor. 5 5. 1 Tim. 5.20 Summum futuri judicii praejudicium Tert. Apol. c. 39. A further discovery of mischiefs from abused liberty in Religion Exod. 16.20 1 Cor. 3.4 Heb. 2.13 2 Cor. 12.20 Jam. 3.16 The contagion of abused or mistaken Liberty spread among Ministers to the dividing debasing and destroying of them Mat. 10.16 2 Chro. 28.22 Qui jam alios quieta consilia sequi persuadebit quando vos sacerdotes Dei tam hostiliter arma sumitis inter vos depugnatis Niceph. l. 8. c. 16. orat Const m. ad Epis Unavoidable contentions among Ministers of different ordinations 1 Kings 8.38 Mar. 3.24 The folly and factions of Ministers evidently seen and punished in their common calamities 1 Cor. 13.4 The great diminutions of all sorts of Ministers in Engl. as to all civil respects Phil. 4 12. Jer. 26.23 Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 14. 1 King â—3