to preserve Episcopacy and Liturgy to the People whom God had committed to his charge How dear and pretious to all sober and pious Protestants is the memory of those Prelates of our Church who first compyled the Liturgy for its use with what high Honour and Renown did we all along till this last wild and sudden Tempest arose amongst us exalt and magnify their names and memories from one age to another since their Martyrdome who willingly and cheerfully laid down their lives in justification of what they had therein done against their Roman Adversaries And in a Fiery Chariot passed from Earth to Heaven to receive the reward and Crown of Martyrdome for such their pious and eminently usefull and truly profitable Labours for the Church of God how greedily did we catch each word they spake and with what care and diligence were they preserv'd in the grand Record of the Acts and Monuments of the Church a Book I hope no way subject to exception from those to whom this is chiefly intended And what Impressions have they alwayes made in the minds of the sober Readers such as must needs keep out all thoughts from Brests not totally poysoned with malicious prejudice and Suspition of any Popish or Superstitious Tyncture to have its Residence in those persons And if so Shall then the words the last words upon this Subject of a Dying King of Martyrs receive any slight or lose their due effect which as written with the Seraphick Quill of one of those Glorious Attendants upon the highest Divine Majesty for such is its Solidity and Elegancy deserves a Registry with reverence be it spoken in the acts and monuments of the Church Triumphant in Heaven where that glorious Royal Martyr enjoys his due place and hath reached and put on that Ilustrious Immortal and Immarcessible Crown prepared for him there having despised and deposited an earthly one here rather than deprive his people of that benefit which he well knew they could not but receive from the divine Order Degree and Function of Episcopacy And the most excellent discipline and devotion of our refined Liturgy and publique service of Almighty God It being notoriously known that if he would have sacrificed the Church he needed not have been The Churches Sacrifice But let a Retreat be made from these crude lines and a Listen given to those Charming drops from a Royal pen Seraphically enabled whilst on earth and now so transcendently qualified as not to be reached so much as in any imagination which frail humanity is in the least sort capable of Concerning Episcopacy his Royal words are these TOuching the Government of the Church by Bishops the common Jealousy hath been that I am earnest and resolute to maintain it not so much out of piety as policy and reason of State Wherein so far indeed reason of State doth induce me to approve that government above any other as I find it impossible for a Pince to preserve the State in quiet unlesse he hath such an influence upon Church-men and they such a dependence on him as may best restrain the seditious exorbitancies of Ministers tongues Who with the Keys of Heaven have so far the Keys of Peoples hearts as they prevail much with their Oratory to let in or shut out both Peace and Loyalty So that I being as King intrusted by God and the Laws with the good both of Church and State I see no reason I should give up or weaken by any change that power and influence which in right and reason I ought to have over both The moving Bishops out of the House of Peers of which I have elsewhere given an account was sufficient to take off any suspition that I encline to them for any use to be made of their Votes in State-affairs Though indeed I never thought any Bishop worthy to sit in that House who would not Vote according to his Conscience I must now in Charity be thought desirous to preserve that Government in its right constitution as a matter of Religion wherein both my judgment is fully satisfied that it hath of all other the fullest Scripture-grounds and also the constant practice of all Christian Churches till of late years the tumultuariness of People or the factiousness and pride of Presbyters or the covetousnes of some States and Princes gave occasion to some mens wâ—ts to invent new models and propose them under the specious titles of Christs Government Scepter and Kingdome the better to serve their turns to whom the change was beneficial They must give Me leave having none of their temptations to invite Me to alter the Government of Bishops that I may have a title to their Estates not to believe their pretended grounds to any new ways contrary to the full and constant testimony of all Histories sufficiently convincing unbyassed men That as the Primitive Churches were undoubtedly governed by the Apostles and their immediate successors the first and best Bishops so it cannot in reason or charity be supposed that all Churches in the world should either be ignorant of the rule by them prescribed or so soon deviate from their divine and holy pattern That since the first age for 1500. years not one example can be produced of any settled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose jurisdiction and Government they were Whose constant and universal practice agreeing with so large and evident Scripture-directions and examples are set down in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus for the settling of that Government not in the persons only of Timothy and Titus but in the succession The want of Government being that which the Church can no more dispence with in point of well-being than the want of the Word and Sacraments in point of being I wonder how men came to look with so envious an eye upon Bishops power and authority as to over-see both the Ecclesiastical use of them and Apostolical constitution which to me seems no lesse evidently set forth as to the main scope and design of those Epistles for the settling of a peculiar Office Power and Authority in them as President Bishops above others in point of Ordination Censures and other acts of Ecclesiastical Discipline than those shorter Characters of the qualities and duties of Presbyter-Bishops and Deacons are described in some parts of the same Epistles who in the latitude and community of the name were then and may now not improperly be called Bishops as to the over-sight and care of single Congregations committed to them by the Apostles or those Apostolical Bishops who as Timothy and Titus succeeded them in that ordinary power there assigned overlarger divisions in which were many Presbyters The humility of those first Bishops avoyding the eminent title of Apostles as a name in the Churches stile appropriated from its common notion of a Messenger or one sent to that special dignity which had extraordinary call mission gifts and power immediately from
seems they desire nothing more earnestly than to be in the same condition with us which appears by a Declaration made by some Divines of note and esteem in foreign parts and that but few years agoe and since some of our late troubles here amongst us first began which inter alia speaks thus One day when it shall please God to perfect Edit a D. Jobanne Duraeo An. 1638. and confirm Amity in these Churches we may be able by a universal Council and Consent to form a certain Liturgy which may be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord amongst us Some persons 't is true have made it a Malum Discordiae here But we see our neighbours look upon a Liturgy and constant set form of Prayer to be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord to them Nor indeed is there any thing more true than That all the reformed Churches abroad have their certain forms of Prayers for their Publique and Sacred administrations nor is it lesse true That many of the said Churches have Bishops likewise in full order and dignity answerable and correspondent to those of this our Church of England as all those Countries subject to the Crowns of Denmark and Sweden Almost throughout all Germany likewise the Episcopal Order and Degree is kept up and preserved though under another name and Title viz. Super-Intendents and in some places as in Brene the name of Bishops still remains In the large and ample Territories of Bohemia Polonia and Transylvania the Evangelical reformed Churches are Governed by Seniors as they call them who are in the same nature quality and degree and armed with the same power and authority for Church Government as our Bisheps To say nothing of those Churches of Russia Grecia and India and the rest of the world whose Doctrine indeed we lesse know what it is than we do their Discipline it being not unknown that their Church Government there is by Bishops both in quality and Title so that it may well be deemed as a thing very improbable that the Oppugners of Episcopacy and Liturgy here amongst us at home will ever be able to make it appear by all the Art or indeavours that can be used That any approbation countenance or assistance to them in such their design will ever in any way or sort be affoorded to them from abroad especially from any considerable place of the Reformation who are so far from desiring the glory of the English Church heretofore so famous and flourishing in all respects whatsoever and yeelding such protection safety and honour to all their reformed neighbours and allyes in all parts and places should be any way darkened or ecclipsed or its eminency and lustre in any kind diminished or abated That nothing questionlesse hath been is or can be greater matter of Sorrow and Condolement to them than the Ayms Attempts and Desires of some men nor more Joy and Pastime to our Romish Adversaries than to see the Sons and Members of that Church heretofore so terrible and dreadful to them and their Usurpations rending and tearing out their Mothers Bowels and all for controversies of Government Discipline and Ceremony and that without the least shew of ought tending to any need or necessity whatsoever Thus much for a tast only how the Reformed Foreign Palats have and without all doubt still do Rellish that sharpnesse which hath here been used against that Government Order and Discipline which hath so long beautified and rendred glorious that Kings Daughter our Church of England and which had such a beginning continuance and so firm and often repeated an establishment And having made the precedent mention of the great joy and pleasure which our Romish Adversaries no doubt take at these differences here amongst us And since that some persons who perhaps least meant it have indeed which 't is hoped is now become cleer and manifest to them but waged their War and fought their Battails wherein themselves by all their Learning and Policy could never make so great an advance as of late years since our Troubles began Let it be remembred that upon the Reformed Composure of our Liturgy the great quarrel then against it was alwayes made by the Papists which they set on foot under several Modes and Guizes sometimes complaining of that which they called Craft and Subtlety in our Reformers in their seeming complyance with them and how politique they were to order things so as might in shew seem no great departure from them in their publique worship and service of God yet really and indeed they had thereby given them the far more deadly wound and such whereof it would be very difficult for them ever to work out a recovery Sometimes in down right terms they fell upon it being so reformed and reduced to pure Antiquity Insomuch that John Ould in Queen Maries dayes and many others eminent Assertors thereof publiquely wrote against them in Defence of it And Arch-Bishop Cranmer made a Publique Challenge that if he might be permitted to take to him Peter Martyr and 4. or 5. more he would enter the Lists with any Papists living and defend the Book to be perfectly agreable to the word of God and the same in effect which had been used in the Church of God for 1500 yeers And in those fiery dayes of Queen Mary when the use of it was interdicted it was frequently burned as an haeretical peice condemned by Roman Authority in the same Fire with such as suffered Martyrdom for asserting that and other Doctrins and usages of our Church of which there is amongst others this memorable Record in the Acts and monuments of our Church That one Iohn Hullyer fellow of Kings College in Cambridge who being at the stake A book of Comon-Prayer amongst others was thrown into the fire to him and happened to fall between his hands which he received with the greatest joy that could possibly be expressed by him and read in it till the flame and smoak hindred his sight and then he clapt it to his breast closely embracing it and with elevated hands and devout prayers he yeelded up the ghost Arch-Bishop Cranmer before mentioned who amongst other things objected for such asserting the Liturgy c. suffered Martyrdom likewise by the Papists in his letters published by Myles Coverdale laments it as the most cruel and severe piece of persecution and tyranny towards him that they would not suffer him to have the use of the Common-Prayer book in Prison What troubles at Frankfort arose to the Reformers flying thither for refuge and by whose fomentation and incouragement they befell and continued amongst them is manifest enough and how learnedly and unanswerably the English Liturgy and every part thereof was there maintained by them against all Opposers whatsoever is as manifest likewise Nor can it be thought a difficult matter to guesse who privately and obliquely excited and encouraged Hacket Coppinger and Arthington in Q. Eliz. time and many others which might be named
Christ they contented themselves with the ordinary titles of Bishops and Presbyters untill use the great arbitrator of words and master of language finding reason to distinguish by a peculiar name those persons whose power and office were indeed distinct from and above all other in the Church as succeeding the Apostles in the ordinary and constant power of governing the Churches the honour of whose name they moderately yet commendably declined all Christian Churches submitting to that special authority appropriated also the name of Bishop without any suspition or reproach of arrogancy to those who were by Apostolical propagation rightly descended and invested into that highest and largest power of governing even the most pure and Primitive Churches which without all doubt had many such holy Bishops after the pattern of Timothy and Titus whose special power is not more cleerly set down in those Epistles the chief grounds and limits of all Episcopal claim as from divine right than are the Characters of those perilous times and those men that make them such who not enduring sound Doctrine and clear testimonies of all Churches practice are most perverse Disputers and proud Usurpers against true Episcopacy Who if they be not Traytors and Boasters yet they seem to be very covetous heady high-minded inordinate and fierce lovers of themselves having much of the form little of the power of godlinesse Who by popular heaps of weak light and unlearned Teachers seek to over-lay and smoother the pregnancy and authority of that power of Episcopal Government which beyond all equivocation and vulgar fallacy of names is most convincingly set forth both by Scripture and all after Histories of the Church This I write rather like a Divine than a Prince that posterity may see if ever these papers be publick that I had fair grounds both from Scripture-Canons and Ecclesiastical examples whereon my judgment was stated for Episcopal Government Nor was it any policy of State or obstinacy of Will or partiality of Affection either to the Men or their Function which fixed Me who cannot in point of worldly respects be so considerable to Me as to recompence the injuries and losses I and My dearest relations with My Kingdoms have sustained and hazarded chiefly at first upon this quarrell And not only in Religion of which Scripture is the est rule and the Churches Universal practice the best commentary but also in right reason and the true nature of Government it cannot be thought that an orderly Subordination among Prebyters or Ministers should be any more against Christianity than it is in all secular and Civil Governments where parity breeds Confusion and Faction I can no more believe that such order is intonsistent with true Religion than good features are with beauty or numbers with harmony Nor is it likely that God who appointed several orders and a Prelacy in the Government of his Church among the Jewish Priests should abhor or forbid them among Christian Ministers who have as much of the principles of schism and division as other men for preventing and suppressing of which the Apostolical wisdom which was divine after that Christians were multiplyed so many Congregations and Presbyters with them appointed this way of Government which might best preserve order and union with Authority So that I conceive it was not the favor of Princes or ambition of Presbyters but the wisdom and piety of the Apostles that first setled Bishops in the Church which Authority they constantly used and enjoyed in those times which were purest for Religion though sharpest for Persecution Nor that I am against the managing of this Presidency and Authority in one man by the joynt Counsel and consent of many Presbyters I have offered to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errors Corruptions and Partialities which were incident to any one man Also to avoid Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men besides it will be a means to take away that burthen and odium of affairs which may lye too heavy on one mans Shoulders as indeed I think it formerly did on the Bishops here Nor can I see what can be more agreeable both to Reason and Religion than such a frame of Government which is Paternal not Magisterial and wherein not only the necessity of avoiding Faction and Confusion Emulations and Contempts which are prone to arise among equals in power and function but also the differences of some Ministers gifts and aptitudes for government above others doth invite to imploy them in referernce to those abilities wherein they are eminent Neither is this judgement of mine touching Episcopacy any preoccupation of opinion which will not admit any oppositions against it It is well known I have endeavoured to satisfie My self in what the chief patrons for other ways can say against this or for theirs And I find they have as far less of Scripture grounds and of reason so for examples and practice of the Church or testimonies of Histories they are wholly destitute wherein the whole stream runs so for Episcopacy that there is not the least rivulet for any others As for those obtruded examples of some late reformed Churches for many retain Bishops still whom necessity of times and affairs rather excuseth than commendeth for their inconformity to all Antiquity I could never see any reason why Churches orderly reformed and governed by Bishops should be forced to conform to those few rather than to the Catholike example of all Antient Churches which needed no Reformation And to those Churches at this day who governed by Bishops in all the Christian world are many more than Presbyterians or Independents can pretend to be All whom the Churches in my three Kingdoms lately governed by Bishops would equalize I think if not exceed Nor is it any point of wisdom or charity where Christians differ as many do in some points there to widen the differences and at once to give all the Christian world except a handfull of some Protestants so great a scandal in point of Church-Government Whom though you may convince of their errours in some point of Doctrine yet you shall never perswade them that to compleat their Reformation they must necessarily desert and wholly cast off that Government which they and all before them have ever owned as Catholick Primitive and Apostolical So far as never Schismaticks nor Hereticks except those Arrians have strayed from Unity and Conformity of the Church in that point ever having Bishops above Presbyters Besides the late general approbation and submission to this Government of Bishops by the Clergy as well as the Laity of these Kingdoms is a great confirmation of My Judgment and their inconstancy is a great prejudice against their Novelty I cannot in charity so far doubt of their learning or integrity as if they understood not what heretofore they did or that they did conform contrary to their Consciences So that their facility and levity is never to be excused who before ever the point of
Church-Government had any free and impartial debate contrary to their former oathes and practice against their obedience to the Laws in force and against My consent have not only quite cryed down the Government by Bishops but have approved and incouraged the violent and most illegal stripping all the Bishops and many other Church-men of all their due Authority and Revenues even to the selling away and utter alienation of those Church-lands from any Ecclesiastical uses So great a power hath the stream of times and the prevalency of parties over some mens judgments of whose so sudden and so total change little reason can be given besides the Scots Army comming into England But the folly of these men will at lâ—st punish it self and the Desertors of Episcopacy will appear the greatest enemies to and betrayers of their own interest For Presbytery is never so considerable or effectual as when it is joyned to and crowned with Episcopacy All Ministers will find as great a difference in point of thriving between the favour of the People and of Princes as plants do between being watered by hand or by the sweet and liberal dews of Heaven The tenuity and contempt of Clergy-men will soon let them see what a poor carcase they are when parted from the influence of that head to whose supremacy they have been sworn A little moderation might have prevented great mischiefs I am firm to Primitive Episcopacy not to have it extirpated if I can hinder it Discretion without Passion might easily reform whatever the rust of Times or indulgence of Laws or corruption of Manners have brought upon it It being a grosse vulgar errour to impute to or revenge upon the function the faults of times or persons which seditious and popular principle and practice all wise men abhor For those secular additaments and ornaments of Authority Civil honour and Estate which my Predecessors and Christian Princes in all Countries have annexed to Bishops and Church-men I look upon them but as just rewards of their learning and piety whâ— are fit to be in any degree of Church-Government also enablements to works of Charity and Hospitality meet strengthenings of their Authority in point of respect and observance which in peaceful times is hardly payed to any Governours by the measure of their Vertues so much as by that of their Estates Poverty and Meanesse exposing them and their Authority to the contempt of licentious minds and manners which persecuting times much restrained I would have such men Bishops as are most worthy of those incouragements and best able to use them if at any time My Judgement of men failed My good intention made my error venial And some Bishops I am sure I had whose learning gravity and piety no men of any worth or forehead can deny But of all men I would have Church-men especially the Governors to be redeemed from that vulgar neglect which besides an innate principle of vitious opposition which is in all men against those that seem to reprove or restrain them will necessarily follow both the Presbyterian parity which makes all Ministers equal and the Independent inferiority which sets their Pastors below the People This for my judgement touching Episcopacy wherein God knows I do not gratify any design or passion with the least parverting of truth And now I appeal to God above and all the Christian world whether it be just for Subjects or pious for Christians by violence and infinite indignities with servile restraints to seek to force Me their King and Soveraign as some men have indeavoured to do against all these grounds of my Judgement to consent to their weak and divided novelties The greatest Pretender of them desires not more than I do That the Church should be governed as Christ hath appointed in true Reason and in Scripture of which I could never see any probable shew for any other ways who either content themseves with the examples of some Churches in their infancy and solitude when one Presbyter might serve one Congregation in a City or Country or else they deny these most evident Truths that the Apostles were Bishops over those Presbyters they ordained as well as over the Churches they planted and that Government being necessary for the Churches well-being when multiplyed and sociated must also necessarily descend from the Apostles to others after the example of that power and superiority they had above others which could not end with their persons since the use and ends of such Government still continue It is most sure that the purest Primitive and best Churches flourished under Episcopacy and may so still if ignorance superstition avarice revenge and other disorderly and disloyal passions had not so blown up some mens minds against it that what they want of Reasons or Primitive Paterns they supply with violence and oppression wherein some mens zeal for Bishops Lands Houses and Revenues hath set them on work to eat up Episcopacy which however other men esteem to Me is no lesse Sin than Sacrilege or a Robbery of God the giver of all we have of that portion which devout minds have thankfully given again to him in giving it to his Church and Prophets through whose hands be graciously accepts even a cup of cold water as a libation offered to himself Furthermore as to My particular engagement above other men by an Oath agreeable to My Judgement I am solemnly obliged to preserve that Government and the Rights of the Church Were I convinced of the unlawfulnesse of the Function as Antichristian which some men boldly but weakly calumniaâ—e I could soon with Judgement break that Oath which erroniously was taken by Me. But being dayly by the best disquisition of truth more confirmed in the Reason and Religion of that to which I am sworn How can any man that wisheth not My Damnation perswade Me at once to so notorious and combined Sins of Sacrilege and Perjury besides the many personal Injustices I must do to many worthy men who are as legally invested in their estates as any who seek to deprive them and they have by no Law been convicted of those crimes which might forfeit their Estates and Livelyhoods I have often wondred how men pretending to tenderness of Conscience Reformation can at once tell Me that my Coronation-Oath binds Me to consent to whatsoever they shall propound to Me which they urge with such violence though contrary to all that Rational and Religious freedom which every man ought to preserve and of which they seem so tender in their own Votes Yet at the same time these men will needs perswade Me That I must and ought to dispense with and roundly break that part of my Oath which binds me agreeable to the best light of Reason and Religion I have to maintain the Government and legal Rights of the Church 'T is strange My lot should be valid in that part which both My self and all men in their own case esteem injurious unreasonable as being against