are to receive the Communion viz. Almighty God and heavenly Father c. have mercy upon you pardon you and deliver you from all your Sins c. Or else the first clause in the form of Absolution used at the Visitation of the Sick would have served the turn viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left Power to his Church to absolve all Sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And there could be no reason at all imaginable why the next clause should be superadded to this prayer viz. And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins c. if the Priest did not forgive Sins Authoritativè by such a delegated and commissionated power as before we spake of After all which tedious Charge of the Doctor 's against the Lord Primate which I have been forced to transcribe to let the impartial Reader see I shall not answer him by halves I doubt not but to prove that first the Doctor hath dealt very disingenuously with the Lord Primat's Book by him there cited out of which he hath culled some passages here and there on purpose to cavil and find fault For I shall shew you 1. that the Lord Primat doth there assert that whatsoever the Priest or Minister contributes in this great Work of Cleansing the Souls of Men they do it as God's Ministers and receiving a power from God so to do and that tho perhaps he does not make use of the Doctor 's distinction of authoritativè yet he speaks the same sence 2. That admit the Priest does absolve authoritativè Yet that this Absolution can only operate declarativè or optativè and not absolutely And 3dly That the Church of England in none of the three forms of Absolution above mentioned no not in the last which he so much insists upon does pretend to give any larger power to the Priest or Minister than this amounts to As for the first Head I have laid down I shall prove it from the Lord Primat's own words in the same Treatise before cited by the Doctor who agrees with the Lord Primat that the supream power of forgiving Sins is in God alone Next that the power given to the Priest is but a delegated power from God himself Now that the Lord Primat owns the Priest or Minister to be endowed with such a power I shall put down his own words in the said Book viz. Having thus reserved unto God his Prerogative Royal in Cleansing the Soul we give unto his under Officers their due when we account of them as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Not as Lords that have power to dispose of Spiritual Graces as they please but as Servants that are tied to follow their Master's prescriptions therein and in following thereof do but bring their external Ministry for which it self also they are beholden to God's Mercy and Goodness God conferring the inward Blessing of his Spirit thereupon when and where he will Who then is Paul saith St. Paul himself and who is Apollos but Ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every Man Therefore saith Optatus in all the Servants there is no Dominion but a Ministery Cui creditur ipse dat quod creditur non per quem creditur It is he who is believed that giveth the thing that is believed not he by whom we do believe Whereas our Saviour then saith unto his Apostles Joh. 20. Receive the holy Ghost Whose Sins ye forgive shall be forgiven St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Chrysostom and St. Cyril make this Observation thereupon that this is not their work properly but the work of the holy Ghost who remitteth by them and therein performeth the works of the true God To forgive Sins therefore being thus proper to God only and to his Christ his Ministers must not be held to have this power communicated unto them but in an improper sence namely because God forgiveth by them and hath appointed them both to apply those means by which he useth to forgive Sins and to give notice unto Repentant Sinners of that Forgiveness For who can forgive Sins but God alone yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom he hath given power to forgive saith St. Ambrose And tho it be the proper work of God to remit Sins saith Ferus yet are the Apostles and their Successors said to remit also not simply but because they apply those means whereby God doth remit Sins After the Lord Primat had shewed in the pages before-going that the power of binding and loosing consists in exercising the Discipline of the Church in debarring or admitting Penitents from or to the Communion he proceeds thus That this Authority of loosing remaineth still in the Church we constantly maintain against the Heresie of the Montanists and Novations c. And after having confuted the uncharitableness of those Hereticks who denied that Penitents who had committed heinous Sins ought to be received into the Communion of the Church goes on thus That speech of his viz. St. Paul's is specially noted and pressed against the Hereticks by St. Ambrose To whom ye forgive any thing I forgive also for if I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the Person of Christ. For as in the Name and by the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ such a one was delivered to Satan for God having given unto him Repentance to recover himself out of the snare of the Devil in the same Name and in the same Power was he to be restored again the Ministers of Reconciliation standing in Christ's stead and Christ himself being in the midst of them that are thus gathered together in his Name will bind or loose in Heaven whatsoever they according to his Commission shall bind or loose on Earth Then after he has shewn that the power of the Priest or Ministers of the Gospel is only ministerial and declarative like that of the Priests under the Law of Moses Where the Laws are set down that concern the Leprosie which was a type of the pollution of Sin we meet often with these speeches The Priest shall cleanse him and The Priest shall pollute him and in vers 44. of the same chapter The Priest with pollution shall pollute him as it is in the Original Not saith St. Hierom that he is the author of the pollution but that he declareth him to be polluted who before did seem unto many to have been clean Whereupon the Master of the Sentences following herein St. Hierom and being afterwards therein followed himself by many others observeth that in remitting or retaining Sins the Priests of the Gospel have that Right and Office which the Legal Priests had of old under the Law in curing of the Lepers These therefore saith he forgive Sins or retain them whiles they shew and declare that they are forgiven or
of Christ are inabled to govern well to speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority to loose such as are Penitent to commit others unto the Lord's Prison until their amendment or to bind them over unto the Judgment of the Great Day if they shall persist in their wilfulness and obstinacy By the other Princes have an imperious power assigned by God unto them for the defence of such as do well and executing revenge and wrath upon such as do evil whether by death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment according to the quality of the offence When St. Peter that had the Keys committed unto him made bold to draw the Sword he was commanded to put it up as a weapon that he had no authority to meddle withal And on the other side when Uzziah the King would venture upon the execution of the Priest's Office it was said unto him It pertaineth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the Sons of Aaron that are Consecrated to burn incense Let this therefore be our second Conclusion That the power of the Sword and of the Keys are two distinct Ordinances of God and that the Prince hath no more Authority to enter upon the execution of any part of the Priest's Function than the Priest hath to intrude upon any part of the Office of the Prince In the third place we are to observe That the power of the Civil Sword the supreme managing whereof belongeth to the King alone is not to be restrained unto Temporal Causes only but is by Gods Ordinance to be extended likewise unto all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes That as the spiritual Rulers of the Church do exercise their kind of Government in bringing men unto obedience not of the duties of the first Table alone which concerneth Piety and the Religious Service which man is bound to perform unto his Creator but also of the second which respecteth moral honesty and the Offices that man doth owe unto man so the Civil Magistrate is to use his Authority also in redressing the abuses committed against the first Table as well as against the second that is to say as well in punishing of an Heretick or an Idolater or a Blasphemer as of a Thief or a Murtherer or a Traytor and in providing by all good means that such as live under his Government may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and honesty And howsoever by this means we make both Prince and Priest to be in their several places Custodes utriusque Tabulae Keepers of both God's Tables yet do we not hereby any way confound both of their Offices together For though the matter wherein their Government is exercised may be the same yet is the form and manner of governing therein always different the one reaching to the outward man only the other to the inward the one binding or loosing the Soul the other laying hold on the Body and the things belonging thereunto the one having special reference to the Judgment of the World to come the other respecting the present retaining or losing of some of the comforts of this life That there is such a Civil Government as this in Causes Spiritual or Ecclesiastical no man of judgment can deny For must not Heresie for example be acknowledged to be a cause meerly Spiritual or Ecclesiastical And yet by what power is an Heretick put to death The Officers of the Church have no Authority to take away the life of any man it must be done therefore per brachium saeculare and consequently it must be yielded without contradiction that the temporal Magistrate doth exercise therein a part of his Civil Government in punishing a Crime that is of its own nature Spiritual or Ecclesiastical But here it will be said the words of the Oath being general That the King is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness's Dominions and Countries How may it appear that the power of the Civil Sword only is meant by that Government and that the power of the Keys is not comprehended therein I answer First That where a Civil Magistrate is affirmed to be the Governor of his own Dominions and Countries by common intendment this must needs be understood of a Civil Government and may in no reason be extended to that which is meerly of another kind Secondly I say That where an ambiguity is conceived to be in any part of an Oath it ought to be taken according to the understanding of him for whose satisfaction the Oath was ministred Now in this case it hath been sufficiently declared by publick Authority That no other thing is meant by the Government here mentioned but that of the Civil Sword only For in the Book of Articles agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. thus we read Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injuctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers If it be here objected that the Authority of the Convocation is not a sufficient ground for the exposition of that which was enacted in Parliament I answer That these Articles stand confirmed not only by the Royal assent of the Prince for the establishing of whose Supremacy the Oath was framed but also by a special Act of Parliament which is to be found among the Statutes in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth chap. 12. Seeing therefore the makers of the Law have full Authority to expound the Law and they have sufficiently manifested That by the supreme Government given to the Prince they understand that kind of Government only which is exercised with the Civil Sword I conclude that nothing can be more plain than this That without all scruple of Conscience the King's Majesty may be acknowledged in this sense to be the only Supreme Governor of all his Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And so have I cleared the first main branch of the Oath I come now unto the Second which is propounded Negatively That no foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm The foreigner that challengeth this Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction over us
have shewed themselves more forward than wise in preaching publickly against this kind of Toleration I hope the great charge laid upon them by your selves in the Parliament wherein that Statute was inacted will plead their excuse For there the Lords Temporal and all the Commons do in God's name earnestly require and charge all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the utmost of their knowledge that the due and true execution of this Statute may be had throughout their Diocesses and charged as they will answer it before God for such Evils and Plagues as Almighty God might justly punish his People for neglecting these good and wholesome Laws So that if in this case they had holden their Tongues they might have been censured little better than Atheists and made themselves accessary to the drawing down of God's heavy vengeance upon the People But if for these and such like Causes the former project will not be admitted we must not therefore think our selves discharged from taking farther care to provide for our safeties Other consultations must be had and other courses thought upon which need not be liable to the like exceptions Where the burden is born in common and the aid required to be given to the Prince by his Subjects that are of different judgments in Religion it stands not with the ground of common reason that such a Condition should be annexed unto the Gift as must of necessity deter the one Party from giving at all upon such terms as are repugnant to their Consciences As therefore on the one side if we desire that the Recusants should joyn with us in granting a common aid we should not put in the Condition of executing the Statute which we are sure they would not yield unto so on the other side if they will have us to joyn with them in the like Contribution they should not require the Condition of suspending the Statute to be added which we in Conscience cannot yield unto The way will be then freely to grant unto his Majesty what we give without all manner of Condition that may seem unequal unto any side and to refer unto his own Sacred Breast how far he will be pleased to extend or abridge his favours of whose Lenity in forbearing the executing of the Statute our Recusants have found such experience that they cannot expect a greater liberty by giving any thing that is demanded than now already they do freely enjoy As for the fear that this voluntary Contribution may in time be made a matter of necessity and imposed as a perpetual charge upon Posterity it may easily be holpen with such a clause as we find added in the Grant of an aid made by the Pope's Council Anno 11 Hen. 3. out of the Ecclesiastical profits of this Land Quod non debet trahi in consuetudinem of which kinds of Grants many other Examples of later memory might be produced And as for the proportion of the Sum which you thought to be so great in the former Proposition it is my Lord's desire that you should signifie unto him what you think you are well able to bear and what your selves will be content voluntarily to proffer To alledge as you have done that you are not able to bear so great a charge as was demanded may stand with some reason but to plead an unability to give any thing at all is neither agreeable to Reason or Duty You say you are ready to serve the King as your Ancestors did heretofore with your Bodies and Lives as if the supply of the King's wants with monies were a thing unknown to our Fore-fathers But if you will search the Pipe-Rolls you shall find the names of those who contributed to King Henry the Third for a matter that did less concern the Subjects of this Kingdom than the help that is now demanded namely for the marrying of his Sister to the Emperour In the Records of the same King kept in England we find his Letters Patents directed hither into Ireland for levying of Money to help to pay his Debts unto Lewis the Son of the King of France In the Rolls of Gascony we find the like Letter directed by King Edward the Second unto the Gentlemen and Merchants of Ireland of whose names there is a List there set down to give him aid in his Expedition into Aquitaine and for defence of his Land which is now the thing in question We find an Ordinance likewise made in the time of Edward the Third for the personal Taxing of them that lived in England and hold Lands and Tenements in Ireland Nay in this case you must give me leave as a Divine to tell you plainly that to supply the King means for the necessary defence of your Country is not a thing left to your own discretion either to do or not to do but a matter of Duty which in Conscience you stand bound to perform The Apostle Rom. 13. having affirmed That we must be subject to the higher powers not only for wrath but for Conscience sake adds this as a reason to confirm it For for this cause you pay tribute also as if the denying such payment could not stand with a conscionable subjection thereupon he infers this conclusion Render therefore to all their due Tribute to whom Tribute Custom to whom Custom is due agreeable to that known Lesson which he had learned of our Saviour Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's where you may observe as to with-hold from God the things which are God's man is said to be a robber of God whereof he himself thus complaineth in the case of substracting of Tythes and Oblations So to deny a supply to Caesar of such means as are necessary for the support of his Kingdom can be accounted no less than a robbing of him of that which is his due which I wish you seriously to ponder and to think better of yielding something to this present necessity that we may not return from you an undutiful answer which may be justly displeasing to his Majesty This Speech though it had not its desired effect yet may sufficiently declare the Lord Primate's abilities in matters of Government when ever he would give his mind to them and how well he understood the present state of that Kingdom And it had been well for Ireland if his advice had been then hearken'd to since those standing Forces then moved for being to have been all Protestants would in all probability have prevented that Rebellion that some years after broke out in that Kingdom but a Copy of this Speech being desired by the Lord Deputy was transmitted to his Majesty who very well approved of it as much conducing to his Service and the publick safety It cannot now be expected in times so peaceable and quiet as these seem'd to be and in which my Lord Primate proceeded in one constant course with little
of the People to War Moses and so successively the Supreme Governor had the power of the Trumpet for that purpose Nu. 10. 2. 9. and accordingly the Duty and Oath of Allegiance binds every Subject to come in to the defence of his Sovereign against what Power soever The danger of Poverty and ruine of Estate must give way to publick respects Nor must it be provided against but in a just way in the prosecution of which Life and Goods and every thing else must be committed to the Providence of God To the Second FOr the discerning of the justness of the Cause We must not look only at the Ends pretended which though never so fair and specious do not justifie a bad Cause or unlawful Means nor at the Wickedness or Evil carriage of Instruments imployed in the prosecution which doth not conclude the Cause to be bad and unjust But we must look at the means used for such Ends and then consider the Ends whether intended by those that do pretend them By these we shall see the Cause of the adverse Party to the King is unjust For First The means they use is War maintained against their Sovereign the End pretended is the defence of Religion Laws Liberties But War made by Subjects though really intending such an End is Unjust I. It has no Warrant in Scripture but is disallowed Prov. 30. 31. No rising up against a King 1 Sam. 8. 18. No remedy left them against the Oppressions of their King but crying to the Lord. The Prophets also which bitterly reproved the Idolatrous and unjust Kings of Israel and Judah never called upon the Elders of the People by Arms to secure the Worship of God or the just Government of the Kingdom In the 13th to the Romans and the 1 Ep. 2 Cap. of Peter the same Doctrine of Passive Obedience is taught and accordingly was the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Christians II. Arms taken up by Subjects do invade the Power and Rights of the Sovereign For it takes from him the Sword which he is said to bear Rom. 13. 4. and so doth every Supreme Magistrate The Supreme Power being signified by bearing the Sword as the best Interpreters do affirm And as our Laws and the Oath of Supremacy do acknowlege our King the only Supreme Governor and to be vested with the Power of Arms. Now what saith the Scripture He that takes the Sword shall perish by the Sword that is He that takes and uses it without Warrant without and against his consent that bears the Sword that is Supreme Also War undertaken by Subjects invades the Rights of the Sovereign his Revenue Customs c. will not give to Caesar what is Caesar ' s. But the Scripture is very express in preserving Rights and Power entire even to the worst Princes Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's said our Saviour when Caesar was bad enough And St. Paul bids us Render them their Due Tribute Customs Honour when the Emperours were at the worst And our Laws determine Insurrection or Levying of War to be Treason not against a Religious and just Prince only but indefinitely against any Secondly Their Pretences are taken away if we consider That the continuance of the Established Religion and Government together with a just Reformation of all Abuses and Grievances has been offered promised protested for by his Majesty But the Religion and Government of Church and State as by Law Established will not content the adverse Party however they pretend to fight for Religion and Laws I mean those of the Party which are the main contrivers of the Enterprise and those also upon whose number the main strength of the Faction rests being of such Sects for the most part as are by the Law to abjure the Land because not to be held within the bounds of any setled Government There are no question many which follow them and do really intend the advancement of Religion going after them as many did after Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts expecting a speedier course of Justice and redress of Grievances which they suffered by some evil Officers under David 2 Sam. 15. 4. 11. But for the other to whom we owe this War and who will rule and dispose all if they do prevail their end intended and driven at is the abolishing of the Publick Service and Liturgy which is Established by Law the utter taking away of Episcopal Government which has always been And for their greater security they will have the Power which by Law is his Majesty's and because these are not granted Arms are taken up by Subjects to the invading of his Majesty's Rights and Power and for the maintaining of them the Right and Liberty of Subjects are destroyed To the Third HEnce will appear what is to be Answered to the Third Query That there is Precept and Example for Passive Obedience but none for taking Arms to divert apparent Innovations The Example commonly abused to this purpose is that of the Israelites preparing to go out to War against their Brethren the 〈◊〉 and Gadâ—es for raising an Altar Jos. 22. 13. But it is altogether impertinent for those Arms are taken up and that War prepared by those that had the Supreme Power To the Fourth THe right being discovered it would tend much to the ending of this War and the restoring of our peace if the King's Subjects would rise as one Man to maintain the Right Every particular Man is bound to do it upon the Summons of his Sovereign commanding his assistance The danger and loss of Estate in discharge of Duty is but an outward Consideration and to be left to the Providence of God as was said in the first Resolution To the other part of this fourth Query Answer That necessary maintenance is due to him that lawfully bears Arms For who goeth a Warfare any time as the Apostle saith at his own charges And if the Army cannot be maintained but by free Quarter it is Lawful to receive maintenance that way though at the cost of others whose private interests must give way to the publick Indeed the abuse of free Quarter may make a Souldier guilty of the Sins here mentioned but then it is by his own wilful Transgression To the Fifth HE must in the prosecution of his Military Duty so behave himself as to observe John Baptist's rule Do violence to no man that is unjust violence for he forbids not to use force against them of the adverse Party who are in Arms ready to offer force For sparing Friends and Kindred he must be guided by Christian prudence so to do it as thereby not to endanger any present design or at large to hinder the publick Service As for the King 's Person it cannot be every where so that he must not limit his Duty and Service to the immediate defence of it but know That to serve any where in the defence of his Majesty's just Cause is to defend Him To the Sixth
did not send it which by the next Ship if your Lordship please God willing I will send you But I pray understand that by the Syriack Tongue they mean here the Caldean And every Man tells me it is all one the Syrians and Caldeans being one and the same People but questionless the same Language Therefore if your Lordship mean and desire to have the Old Testament in Caldean I beseech you to write me by the first over Land that I may provide it by the next Ship Also I beseech you to take knowledge that I dare not promise you to send it according to the Hebrew for neither my self nor any other Man here can determine it only I must be forc'd to take his word that sells it me who is a Minister of the Sect of the Marranites and by birth a Caldean but no Scholar neither is there any to be found in these parts but if your Lordship will have me send it at adventures though it cost dear as it will cost 10 l. I will do my best endeavour to send it by the first Conveyance but shall do nothing herein until such time I have further order from your Lordship to effect business of this nature in these parts requires time Travel being very tedious in these Countries I have inquired of divers both Christians and Jews of the overflowing of Jordan but can learn no certainty Some say it never rises but after great Rain but I met with a learned Jew at least so reputed who told me that Jordan begins to flow the 13th of July and continues flowing 29 days and is some 18 or 20 days increasing but I dare not believe him his Relation not agreeing with the Text for Harvest is near ended with them by that time and unless you will understand by Harvest the time of gathering Grapes it cannot agree I have also sent to Damascus concerning this and trust ere long to satisfy your Lordship in this Particular and in the Calendar of the Samaritans A French Frier who lived at Jerusalem told me that it never overflowed except occasiond by Rain whereupon I shewed him the words in Joshua 3. 15. that Jordan overfloweth his Banks at the time of Harvest which words are written with a Parenthesis and therefore said he are no part of the Text which I know is his ignorance I could have shewed him the thing plainly proved by that which he holds Canonical Scripture Ecclus. 24. 26. If I have done your Lordship any Service herein I shall greatly rejoyce and shall ever be ready and willing to do the best Service I can to further the Manifestation of God's Truth yea I should think my self happy that I were able to bring a little Goats Hair or a few Badgers Skins to the building of God's Tabernacle I acknowledg your Lordship's Favour towards me who have not neither could deserve at your hands the least Kindness conceivable yet the Graciousness of your sweet Disposition emboldens me to entreat the continuance of the same and also the benefit of your faithful Prayers so shall I pass the better amongst these Infidel Enemies to God and his Christ. And so I pray God to encrease and multiply his Favours and Graces both upon your Soul and Body making you happy in what ever you possess here and hereafter to grant you Glory with Christ into whose hands I recommend your Lordship and humbly take leave ever resting Your Lordship 's in all bounden duty to command Thomas Davies Aleppo Aug. 29. 1624. LETTER LXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Pickering to the R. R. James Usher Bishop of Meath at Wicken-Hall Right Reverend and my very good Lord I Was not unmindful according to my Promise to send to Dr. Crakenthorp for Polybius and Diodorus Siculus immediatly after I was with your Lordship But he attending the Visitations at Colchester and Maldon came not home till yesterday At which time sending my Man for the Books the Doctor returned Answer That your Lordship shall command any Books he hath whensoever you please That he had not Diodorus Siculus but he sent me Polybius and Marianus Scotus which he says Dr. Barkham told him you desired to borrow These two Books your Lordship shall now receive and if it fall out that you be already provided of Marianus Scotus then it may please you to let that come back again because the Doctor tells me that after a while he shall have occasion to see some things for his use in Sigebert and other Writers which are bound in this Volume with Marianus but by all means he desires your turn should be served however I shall be most ready to afford your Lordship any Service that lieth in my power during your aboad in these parts holding my self in common with the Church of God much bound to you for your great and weighty Labours both formerly and presently undertaken in the Cause of our Religion The God of all Wisdom direct your Meditations and Studies and grant you Health and all Conveniences for the Accomplishment of your intended Task And so with remembrance of Dr. Crakenthorp's and my own Love and Service I humbly take leave and shall ever rest Your Lordship 's in my best Devotions and Services to be commanded Tho. Pickering Finchingfield Sept. 9. 1624. LETTER LXXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davies in Aleppo to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend Sir MY bounden Duty remembred c. News here is not any worthy your knowledg the great Rebel Abassa still troubles the State and hinders the going forward of the Army against the Persian Some few days time News came that the Vizier had given Battel to the Rebel and that the Rebel had cut off 12000 Janisaries yet they report the Vizier to have the best of the day which most Men judg to be but report certainly it is that Abassa will give them great trouble pretending only Revenge upon the Janisaries for the Blood of his Master Sultan Osman The greatest Villanies that ever were practised or intended never wanted their Pretences Yet it is thought by many that this Man hath done nothing without leave from the Port otherways it is strange they had not cut him off long since for what can be his Forces against the Grand Signior's Powers The Janisaries refuse to go to War before the Rebel be cut off or Peace made with him whereby you may observe what Power the King hath over his Souldiers the truth is they command and rule all oppressing and eating up the Poor When I consider the Estate of the Christians in these Parts yea the Mahumetans themselves that are not Souldiers then must I say happy yea thrice happy are the Subjects of the King of England who live in peace and enjoy the Fruits of their own Labours and yet have another and a greater Blessing the free passage of the Gospel I pray God we may see and be thankful for so great Favours expressing it by Obedience
names of the Proconsular Asia or Asian Diocess Where having shewn his admirable skill in the Geography of the Ancients and also in the Imperial Laws in order to the right understanding the Ecclesiastical and Civil Histories of those Times out of which he hath fixed and setled the several Provinces of the lesser Asia as Mysia Caria and Lydia under which latter were comprehended the adjoyning Countries of Ionia and Aeolis He then proves That the Asia mentioned in the New Testament and the seven Churches of Asia particularly are contained within the limits of Lydia and that each of these seven Cities was a Metropolis and that according to this division of the Civil Government they were made choice of to be the Seats of the most eminent Churches of all Asia 2. That the Roman Provinces were not always the same but according as reason of State required and for greater ease and security of the Government often varied and admitted alterations the division of the Empire being different in the Times of Augustus from what it was under Constantine under whom the Proconsular Asia was confined to the Lydian Asia only the former great extent of its Jurisdiction being then very much abridged and a distinction made between the Proconsular Asia which was under the Jurisdiction of the Proconsul and the Asian Diocess governed by the Vicarius or Comes Asiae or Dioceseos Asianae As it was also subject in the Times of the succeeding Emperors to variety of Changes and that in this disposition made by Constantine it was ordered That there should be but one Metropolis in each distinct Province whereas before there had been several Though this did not hold always in the Reigns of some of his Successors who permitted sometimes two Metropolitans in one Province to satisfie the ambitious humour of several Bishops who contended for that Title upon the account of the riches and greatness of each of their respective Cities 3. That in regard to this Establishment of Constantine Ephesus where the Deputies of the several Provinces of Asia who Constituted and made up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common-Council had their Assemblies and which had formerly been lookt upon as the chief City became the sole Metropolis of this new Proconsular Asia the Proconsul of which was exempted from the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Praefectus Praetorio And accordingly in the Ecclesiastical Government for the greater honour of this Renowned See the Bishop of Ephesus was not only held the Metropolitan of the Proconsular Asia but as my Lord most judiciously proves the Primate or Enarchus of all the Provinces that were comprehended within the compass of the whole Asian Diocess of which Diocess he discourses at large and that he acted suitably to this Patriarchal Jurisdiction which was in effect conferred upon him Lastly That there was a great harmony between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government and consequently that the Bishops of every Province were subject subordinate to the Metropolitan Bishop the same then with our Arch-Bishop as the Magistrates that Ruled in the other subordinate Cities were to the President or chief Governor of that Province The Arch-Bishop in these years whilst he was now at Oxford published in Greek and Latine the Epistles of the holy Martyrs years 1643 1644 Ignatius and as much of the Epistle of St. Barnabas as the great fire at Oxford which burnt the Copy had spared together with a premunition of the entire design The old Latin Version of Ignatius his Lordship publisht out of two Manuscripts found in England noting in red Letters the interpolation of the former Greek Impressions This work was much illustrated by his Collation of several Greek Copies of the Letters and Martyrdom of Ignatius and Polycarp as also with a most learned dissertation concerning those Epistles as also touching the Canons and Constitutions ascribed to the Apostles and to St. Clement Bishop of Rome About seven years after which his Lordship also set forth at London his Appendix Ignatiana wherein besides other Tracts there are added the seven genuine Epistles of Ignatius commended by Eusebius Caesare and other Fathers according to the Amsterdam Edition publisht by the learned Dr. Is. Vossius from the Greek Manuscript in the Medicean Library which the Lord Primate had some years before given him notice of and also obtained the Great Duke's leave to Copy it The signal use of these Epistles so eminently asserting that perpetual order of which his Grace was so great an Ornament well deserved all that time which himself Dr. Hammond and the learned Lord Bishop of Chester have so usefully imployed therein This year my Lord Primate publisht his Syntagma de Editione LXX Interpretum in which he asserts though with great modesty this particular Opinion That Greek Version of the five Books of Moses under Ptolomeus Philadelphus utterly perishing at the Conflagration of his Library Dositheus the Jew made another Greek Translation of the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament about 177. years before the Birth of Christ viz. in the time of Ptolomey Philometor Collecting so much from a Note at the end of the Greek Esther which latter Version his Lordship conjectures the Greek Fathers and all the Eastern Churches cited and made use of instead of the true Philadelphian Then he learnedly and fully discourses concerning the several Editions of this latter Version found in the Library of Cleopatra the last Egyptian Queen As also touching the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vulgar and that more correct one of Origen those of Eusebius Lucian and Hesychius and lastly of the modern ones as the Complutine Venetian and Roman Hereunto also is added a Specimen of Esther in Greek according to two Ancient Manuscripts in the Arundelian Library as also after the Alexandrian Copy in the King's Library This Syntagma was followed the next year before his death by his Lordships dissertation De Cainane altero or the second Cainan mentioned in the LXX and by St. Luke And that was again followed with a Letter to Ludovicus Capellus wherein the Lord Primate very judiciously moderates in the Controversie between that learned Professor and Ar. Bootius concerning the present Hebrew Bibles Superadding his own conjectures That Dositheus the false Messias was the corrupter of the Samaritan Pentateuch as we now have it And that especially by his Lordships great care and expence But to let you see how he further now imployed his time at Oxford for his Majesties Service I shall give you here his Answers to several Queries made to him from some at London or other Parliament Quarters concerning the Lawfulness of taking up Arms against the King in that unhappy War then newly begun The Queries we have not but you may easily judge what their sense was by the following Answers here inserted To the First NO man is bound to leave his Vocation and turn Souldier unless Summoned and Commanded by his Majesty or those that have Commission from him for the gathering