naturalize or enfranchise them while they were both eagerly conspiring and fiercely strugling against Legal and Catholick Episcopacy they made a shift to strangle each other both pretending to be the eldest son the very Esau the only and primitive Church-Government of Christs Institution his entire Scepter and Discipline neither of them was by wise men believed to be so since both could not be so And to be sure neither the one nor the other was ever known or used in this or any true Church of Christ for fifteen hundred years after Christ unless all the Histories and Examples of the Church have conspired to deceive us and themselves which none but Jews and Turks can imagine The first of these Presbytery had a redder face rougher hands longer nails and a fiercer voice like Esau The second of Independency that is Church-Democracy or common peoples Ecclesiastical Politie first pretending to crown Christ as a King and then really to mock and crucifie him parting his garments among them breaking his bones and nayling him to the cross of popular Dependence as the root of all Ministerial Authority and Maintenance which is indeed but a dry tree and dead trunk This I say was at first smoother skinn'd and softer voiced like Jacob but it soon supplanted by notable disguises and vulgar insinuations its elder brother and its angry rival Presbytery At last Post varios casus post tot discrimina rerum after several risques and hazards run by Church and State the Divine Justice and Mercy to this Church and Kingdom decided the controversie between these dividers and destroyers opening a door for the happy return of ancient Monarchy to its just Supremacy in Church and State also of venerable Episcopacy to its pristine Office and Ecclesiastical Authority loyally subordinate to the Crown of the King according to Law and religiously servient to the Church of Christ according to his holy Gospel In which ancient and excellent Government if any thing be found in the decurrence of time or degeneracy of men and manners inconvenient to the publick welfare either as to its constitution or execution we humbly crave of his Majesties goodness and this Parliaments wisdom that both we and it may be so reformed and regulated in all points not by Tumults and Armies but Parliamentary Counsels as may be most conforme to Scriptural rules primitive ends and uses so far as the present times and manners of men will best bear which concession is sufficient to appease the gripes and wamblings of any who either could take or would keep their Covanant with any shew of good conscience that is guided by Reason Law and Scriptures the speediest and easiest way of reforming Government lying in good Governours For we are not so straight-laced in point of Episcopacy as to think it may not admit prudent regulations and variations yet so as the main spiritual power and Ecclesiastical Order be preserved and improved according to the primitive pattern and Catholick custom of the Church which is sacred and ought to be inviolable unless insuperable impediments give a temporary dispensation rather submitting to providence than changing the principle or subverting the order so divinely constituted so universally established and so highly blessed But if a right Evangelical Episcopacy such as for the main ever hath been in the Church of Christ and now is according to Law re-established in ENGLAND such as we are most ambitious to adorn and exercise if this be found as no doubt it will most consonant to right reason to all rules and grounds of true politie to the just proportions of good Order and measures of Government yea to the ancient models and methods of Church-Government which are set forth by God himself in the Old Testament among the Jewish Priesthood and by our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament among his 12 Apostles with the 70 Disciples and these followed as divine patterns or originals by the Catholick Church ever since the Apostles dayes as all Fathers Councils and Histories of the Church do evidently assure us O let not we beseech you this ancient fruitful goodly and venerable Cedar of Episcopacy be blasted or baffled or blown down by the profane breath of some popular Preachers or by the fury of giddy heady and ignorant people Let not its ample boughs be broken its useful bark be pilled or it s far extended roots be extirpated by the petulancy and rudeness of any unruly and insolent spirits since in its leaves shadow and fruits there hath been and still is so great a blessing for this Church and Kingdom as is evident in these necessary Offices First for holy Ordination or conferring of due and undoubtedly compleat Ministerial power such as is derived from Christ sent by his Father and from the Apostles sent by Christ Secondly for Confirmation or solemn benediction of the Cathecumens who in their Infancy were baptized that when come to years of discretion and well instructed in Christian Principles they may seriously reflect upon personally owne and solemnly assume upon their consciences the keeping of their Baptismal Vow that only sacred Covenant which is sufficient for any honest Christian Thirdly for the due examination detection reprehension and suppression of Errors Hereses and Schisms in the Church of Christ Fourthly for the autoritative reproof and reformation of Immorality Idleness Faction and Disorder among the Clergy and other Christians Fifthly for the encouraging and preserving of truth peace holiness and order among all under their care and inspection All which good works are to be done by such Ecclesiastical Monitions and Censures as are by Christ by the Church and by the Kings Authority committed to them as Bishops or Church-Magistrates furnished with spiritual Ecclesiastical and Legal Power Lastly for the giving more eminent remarkable and autoritative examples in all Christian graces and vertues proportionable to their places estates and dignities for the encouragement of piety and discountenancing of profaneness The weight and emphasis of examples consisting most in the eminency of the person and dignity of his place which make them as Dominical Letters or Capital Figures of greater note name and influence These so peculiar duties proper offices and uses of Bishops as Church-men may very well seem I dare not say below your Lordships eminent dignity since Gods glory and Christs honour are stamped upon the Ministers of the Church but less suitable to your many secular Employments And I am sure they are for the most part much above most Lay-mens abilities as they were ever judged by the Church of Christ above the ordinary capacities of meer Presbyters or inferiour Ministers who have indeed the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministerial or Liturgical power and authority as to doctrine consecration devotion parochial inspection and direction derived to them by and from the respective Bishops But not the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 political ordinative and presidential power in point of the Churches National Politie or more publick
Government which St Jerome requires and ownes as exors necessaria potestas Episcoporum as a principal and eminent power necessary for the Church of Christ and specially residing in Bishops Indeed in the beginning or infancy of Churches as many learned men have observed the powers or offices of Deacon Presbyter Bishop and Apostle might possibly be resident in and exercised by one man where there was but an handful or little flock of two or three gathered together in Christs name But when Beleivers and Congregations and so their Pastors multiplied then there was a necessity of politie order and wisdom to distinguish and rank these offices and Officers into several politick distributions or helps of Government some to be the flocks others to be the Pastors some to be only as Presbyters praying preaching baptizing consecrating and blessing the people others as Presidents or Bishops ruling over the many Presbyters and people too within their inspection others as Deacons servient to Bishops Presbyters and people And all this to keep such an orderly unity as may best avoid Schismatical Confusions in the Church of Christ which ought to be as an Army with Banners where are the Ensigns of Office and Authority the directives of orderly motion the centers of union and the securers of the common safety by wise commands and ready obedience Nor may the sameness of the Names or of Naturals Morals or Religion as to faith gifts and graces nor the community of some Christian Priviledges duties or offices of charity these may not be pleaded against the primitive distinction of Eminent Honour and Authority among the Clergy any more than all priority and superiority may be denyed among men in respect of Civil Magistracy who are of the same Nature Parentage City Trade and Country or among Souldiers of the same Army or Scholars of the same Colledge and University To be sure that over-seeing presidential and gubernative power which shall authoritatively look to the Eutaxie good order and unity of the Church such as was in the prime and secondary Apostles the first as Oeconomical the second as Metropolitical or Diocesan Bishops such as was committed to Timothy and Titus and exercised by them not only as Evangelists or Preachers but as Presidents and Prelates this power cannot be either regularly or prudently or safely in England committed to any hands but to those venerable Clergy-men whom his Majesty and the Laws shall think fit to constitute as Governours over others and from whom they may have an account of all Nor can it be in better or safer hands than those of learned wise grave and godly Bishops assisted by such sober Presbyters or Ministers as his Majesty and the Laws shall either appoint or permit them to call to their counsel and assistance in their Ordinations or in their exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures and Jurisdiction Not by way of a Consistorian negative which is to alter and unhinge the whole Government turning wine into water and making way for all factions to breed even in the Nest of Church-Government but by such publick presence and venerable conspicuity of many learned and wise Counsellors as may best avoid any mistakes or errors and most contribute by their being witnesses of all transactions to that authority which is necessary to convince men of sin and to convert them from the error of their ways when they see themselves condemned by the censure not of one only but of many worthy and impartial men An Help Ornament and Honour in Church-Government which really for our own part we earnestly desire and ambitiously embrace as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Ignatius Cyprian and others so magnifie that Fraternal Consess and Ecclesiastical Council which may not only be witnesses of our publick actions but assistants in all such publick dispatches as are not safely committed to any one man nor can discreetly be managed by him without contracting too much envy anger and odium upon him which sense we believe is common with all our Worthy Brethren Indeed no wise Bishop can affect an arbitrary power or an absolute and sole Dominion Nor are we willing to be thus either exposed to others calumnies or betrayed to our selves because we know our selves to be but men and subject to the same infirmities with other sinful Mortals Nor can we be so happy as when we are both compassed encouraged and supported with our aged learned and reverend Brethren of the Clergy who may be every way as able and deserving as our selves Thus sortified and assisted we may by Gods help be capable without too great burthen to discharge the proper duties and offices of Bishops both in and out of Parliaments which is to see Nè quid detrimenti patiatur Religio Ecclesia vera Reformatio c. That our Religion as Christian as well Reformed and as by Law duly established suffer no detriment diminution or debauchery no Apostacy Schism or Division in Doctrine Discipline or Devotion in Sanctity Solemnity or Uniformity either by profaneness petulancy or faction What his Majesty your Lordships and other Gentlemen of other civil Employments cannot so well observe to be amiss in Church or Church-men we the Bishops as publick Watch-men and Over-seers may best inform you of what we cannot amâ—nd by reason of the luxuriancy or obstinacy of some refractory spirits your eminent authority may command and curb according to Law in which the publick wisdom and power safety and honour do concenter In the last place as to the great merits of the Honourable House of Commons and in them of all the ingenuous Gentry with all the Religious and Loyal People of England towards us the Bishops of this Church We shall chuse rather to dye or to be again degraded by the folly and fury of Schismatical envy and malice than not to make good by our actions their good esteem of us or to forfeit by any fault of ours their ready suffrages for us We shall never think any thing added to us by this great favour and honour shewed us if we do not find in them mighty spurs and goads to provoke us more to our duties of sound preaching sober praying discreet governing and holy living which are the solid honours of all good Bishops and true Ministers As they are the debts also which we indispensibly owe to God to this Church and to the least Member of it What may possibly be wanting in the frequency number and tale of our Sermons by reason of our age and infirmity shall be made up in their weight and when we shall not be able to preach at all we will study to live over the best of our Sermons and to preach by our examples when we cannot by our words God forbid we should suddenly forget those late horrid and long conflagrations out of which the good hand of God by the Kings favour and this Parliaments assistance hath snatched us and this whole Church yea God forbid that we the Bishops and all
below the Objects of your Lordships Envy so we will study to be above that is not to deserve and so not to fear your anger Nor shall you either love virtue or your own souls or your God and Saviour if you either hate or despise us who intend by Gods help to perfect that in our selves and all others as far as our good counsel example and lawful authority will extend which some men have so long so lowdly and so in vain pretended to in point of true Reformation both private and publick Not in fine fancies superficial formalities and popular vaporings but in solidly great and really good actions in which the power of godliness doth consist being offended at no mens sinful deformities and defects either personal or political more than our own What is wanting in any of us as to high blood and extraction as to Civil Grandeur and Estate shall by Gods help be made up in that modest wisdom sober learning hearty loyalty and unfeigned Religion which may most counterpoise your other accomplishments by which we confess your Lordships much overweigh us Indeed nothing can buoy up Episcopacy or recover the true honour of the Church of ENGLAND to a fixation so much as the primitive great and good examples of Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy as the excellently Learned and Pious Doctor Hammond now dying declared his judgment when leaving the world and all his justly deserved preferments on earth he left us a most rare and imitable example of very great abilities set forth with greater industry and most set off with greatest humility If we can but live above those diminutions which set us below our selves our holy calling his Majesties favour and your honourable Society we shall be nothing concerned in those other petty and plebeian objections which the pride or envy of some mechanick spirits are prone to make against our persons or profession since our Originals blessed be God were as honest and unspotted as any mens though not so noble and illustrious Our education hath been studious and ingenious though not so ample and conspicuous Our conversation though more obscure and in the shade yet not vain not vicious nor it may be so sun-burnt and tann'd as others We have from our youth been devoted and trained up to Gods glory to His Majesties and the Churches service by such pious frugal and learned retirements as most redeemed us from those luxuries and superfluities to which others are exposed We humbly and willingly owne contrary to the vapour of that great Orator Omnia nostra incrementa non nobis sed Deo Regi Senatui debemus All our advancements not to our selves as he said but to Gods mercy the Kings bounty your Lordships and our Countries favour Indeed our single persons families relations reputations estates or merits are too small and narrow a Basis or bottom upon which to erect and settle this great Pyramide Pillar or Obelisk of publick or Parliamentary Honour which in all true proportions is to be founded upon his Majesties and your just zeal for Gods glory for the honour of our Saviour for this Churches welfare and for the ancient dignity of Episcopacy As our private comfort can only be fixed so this publick honour must chiefly be ascribed to and placed upon the latitude of his Majesties wisdom and the sanctity of your vertues upon the account of the love you have to true Religion and the esteem you bear to good Learning also upon your care of this Churches flourishing together with this Kingdoms peace To these great and good ends we are willingly made publick Servants to these some of us have sacrificed all our former happy tranquility and sweet retiredness rather than be wanting to that duty which was not calmly required but importunely exacted from us when more than once seriously deprecating the burthen of this employment we were absolutely commanded to obedience rather than seem to withdraw our shoulders from the burthen which no man will envy but he whose ignorant ambition least understands it and is least capable as of the sacred duty so of the necessary policy and reason of Episcopacy in England It is most certain that we cannot be without a King as the Cappadocians pleaded to the Romanes when they offered them their popular liberty in England and not be very miserable which we have lately felt Nor can our Kings want wise Counsellours of State any more than Pilots can their Card or Compass Nor can these well want the counsel and assistance of learned and religious Church-men grave and reverend Bishops any more than the Mariners Compass can be without the Magnetick Needle or Director and this upon a double reason First worthy Bishops are the fittest persons not only to repress the falsity scandal and immorality of Ministers evil doctrines and lives which are as stinking carrion or dead horses in the high way the poyson and abhorrence of all passengers publicae pestes Ecclesiae Reipublicae the most infecting and killing plagues to Church and Countrey But also they serve to restrain and bridle the vulgar petulancy and popular rudeness of some factions Preachers tongues which are sometimes as the hearts and censors of Korah Dathan and Abiram full of strange fire or as Sheba's trumpet founding faction and sedition then most of all when they would seem most zealous in their Sermons and Prayers infusing poyson into wine the better to diffuse the venome of I know not what novell and fanciful Inventions of their own festring those scratches which they first make and then would seem to lick them whole sometimes venoming even sound parts by their very fasting spittle So over clamouring for truth and holiness which all good Bishops and Presbyters desire more soberly than themselves that they are deaf to peace and order to obedience and subjection to law and government which none but fools or knaves will oppose Certainly no men are so sit to encounter the fraud and folly of these deceitful workers and to confute the popular Sophistry of these crafty and crazy Ministers as grave learned wise and godly Bishops who past the froth of juvenile fancies and popular flashes know what best besits solid preaching sober praying holy living and discreet governing Besides this pious and prudent Bishops are of all men living the fittest persons gently to attemper with Christian wisdome meekness and moderation those vehemencies rigors animosities and severities to which the height of mens over-boyling passions and rougher spirits are prone to raise the secular policies counsels and resolutions of those who are most exalted with worldly honours and leavened with opulent Estates Many times great Princes and Persons of Eminent Honours do not more want than welcome those calm counsels and gentle mitigations which Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons seasonably and wisely suggest to them as David did the prudent and humble intercession of Abigail when she gently disarmed him and all his angry Souldiers diverting them from that exorbitant
the Clergy of ENGLAND should not come out of this fiery furnace more purged and prepared for our Masters Service yea God forbid that after such a deluge and deliverance as this we should so forget God or our selves as to be drunk with that wine of Consolation and cup of Salvation which our Merciful God our Gracious King your Noble Lordships and our Loving Country-men the Commons of ENGLAND have now put into our hands We are very sensible how great stimulations are put upon us as Christians Ministers and Bishops to all Piety Industry Prudence Virtue and true honour which we know do not consist in being either so eager for small circumstances and outward Ceremonies of Religion as to be remiss in its necessary Morals and Substantials as if one should put on fine clothes while he starves his body Nor yet in being so zealous for the Essentials only of faith and duties as rudely to neglect those reverential solemnities and decent circumstantials which preserve as the bark or rinde doth the Tree the Churches good order peace and unity We profess to all the world that we owne God alone in his holy Word which we call the Scriptures to be the sole Institutor of his own necessary Worship and indispensable Service who alone knows what will best please him and profit us We think as we are taught by the Church of England that nothing is necessary and essential moral or mysterious as any means to obtain conferre or increase grace or to please God which himself hath not in his Word prescribed either by special mandate or general direction and necessary consequence Yet we believe also as all Learned men at home and abroad do agree That the indulgence of God hath left free to the prudence and authority of every National Church Christian Politie and Community the particular appointing ordering and regulating of all those general and common circumstances which are in nature or civility necessary as time place method manner measure vesture and gesture all which are as unseparable from all publick actions under the Sun as our skins are from our bodies according as shall seem to the supreme wisdom and authority of that Church most for its publick decency and solemnity for good order and edification Of all which in their particular instances and usages every private Christian is Judge and Arbitrator in his closet-worship Also every chief Governour in his family where when how for matter method and manner also for measure of reading praying praising c. when sitting standing or kneeling whether in sordid or decent habits becoming his presence and the sanctity of the duty And no less without all peradventure are they left to every chief Magistrate or Ruler in Church and State within his respective Dominions for the publick peace order decency uniformity and solemnity of Religion of which those are the proper Chusers Determiners and Judges to whom the power is given by God either private or publick That Religion may not enterfeere with the Civil Government but conform to it in these things as it is protected by it in the main Provided always that no such particular rite limited circumstance or Ecclesiastical ceremony thus chosen be otherwise imposed upon mens judgments and consciences either in opinion or use then as indeed it is in its nature and Gods indulgence that is mutable when good occasion or the chief end of things requires a change of them by lawful authority so as to be still free as to the judgment of such as use them and as to the practice of all other Churches who have not assumed the use of them Not that any such external rite or ceremony of humane appointment can in it self be any necessary solid substantial and integral part of divine Worship or as any means instituted for grace to which a precept and promise divine is necessary This efficacy no humane or Ecclesiastical Authority can create or give Nor doth the Church of England pretend to any such power or use in them although it may lawfully regulate all circumstances and discreetly use decent ceremonies as such yea and enjoyn them both as exercises of Sovereign Authority and as experiments of Subjects due obedience not upon any false and superstitious grounds but such as are true and religious consonant to the nature of things and the indulgence of God in them Nor hath the Church of England ever otherwise esteemed or imposed those things of particular circumstances rites and ceremonies which have been so long as chips and shavings the casie fewel of so much flame and contention but hath oft declared its judgment of them to be according to Gods truth its choice and injunction of them to be according to that liberty and authority which God hath given to it as to every National Church within its politie and precinct so to use and impose them on its own members without prejudging other Churches their like liberty Not at all as things pleasing of themselves or displeasing to God He must needs be an infant in understanding who fancies God is scared with white or pleased with black garments in his publick worship that the historick sign of the Cross addes to or diminisheth ought from Baptism or that the Divine Majesty is offended at our kneeling or better pleased with our sitting or standing before him in an act of so holy a celebration and humble veneration as that is of the Lords Supper But all these and the like are allowed as lawful experiments either of Christian prudence and discretion in the choice or of obedience and subjection in the use of them agreeably to the lawful commands of our superiors in Church and State wisely directing and limiting us in them to avoid those factions which easily arise from the least open variety or difference in Religion when once it comes to be affected and is made a badge of parties or sides among the people The duty of Magistrates or Christian Princes as well as Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governours on all hands is in publick solemnities of Religion to take care that all things be so done in uniformity order and decency as is necessary for publick peace and as they think best becomes the sanctity of true Religion the Majesty also of that God whom we ought to worship and serve with all reverence and with the beauty of holiness both outward and inward without any imposing upon the judgment beyond the nature and indifferency of such things or upon the practice farther than the God of order decency and peace hath permitted As we and all this Church have seen and felt upon the account of these things the outragious zeal and precipitancy of some men who first pretending much to boggle at and to be grievously scandalized with a few such things of outward rite individuared circumstance and prescribed ceremony to which conformity was by Law that is by the publick wisdom and authority required in the Church of England have in the pursuit