passe any severe censure be pleased to Heare these Poore men you call Separatists Know their Tenets and then Judge Their maine Tenets for ought I could ever learne are about some few Points in Discipline in which sure there is lesse danger than in Doctrine of which they dispute not First they would admit none as members of their Assemblies generally to partake with them in all the Ordinances but such which seeme Beleeving Saints and so members of Christs true Church Secondly they conceive every severall Congregation rightly constituted hath within it selfe the power of the keyes committed to it without dependance on other Churches Yet not denying the lawfull association of severall Churches not refusing the advice and counsell of Councells and Synods I shall crave leave to scan the first and see how much it differeth in truth from the received Tenets of the Church of England I doe conceive that England Scotland France all Churches even Rome it selfe will agree in this that a Church is Cetus Fidelium Gathered together in the Name and power of Christ to waite on him in the way of his Ordinances revealed in his Word In this I suppose we all agree where then is that Chasma that great Gulfe of difference which brands so many with the black spot of Separation All the difficulty lies in Stating who are beleeving Faithfull Saints for of these only all agree a true Church consists I beseech you let us call him a Beleever and a Saint whom the Scripture calls so and wee shall soone agree The Pope saith he is a faithfull Saint and a true Member of the Church Who beleeveth as the Church beleeveth The Church of England saith he is a Beleever enough to make a Member of that Church that professeth the truth though in his life he deny it Those men say he is a faithfull Saint who professeth the truth and to all appearance for we cannot see the heart practiseth as he professeth Now all men will agree this last is a Beleeving Saint And these will have none but this to be a Saint and so none but this to be a Member of Christs Church I beseech you Is this such an error to desire Profession and Practise to be conjoyned in one that is to be a Member of the Church of Christ When I desire a good Wife a faithfull Servant a constant Friend a familiar Companion Am I not as desirous to know the Heart as well as the Head the Will as well as Skill Affection as well as Profession And why then may I not doe as much in choosing my Spirituall Friends my constant Companions in the worship and service of God Can any man by right force me to marry such or such a woman to take such a servant to dwell with such a friend to choose such a companion And may any man force me then to bee companion in the neerest and most intimate converse of Spirituall Ordinances with any one or more whom I dare not I cannot I may not trust to be either friends to God or me because what ere their lips professe their life and waies deny God trample on the blood of Christ despise at least profane all his Ordinances I could heartily wish some pitty might bee shewed to these poore mens soules He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his owne Soule And is it not then much better to keepe these men off as they doe in Scotland and other Reformed Churches till they give the Church satisfaction upon good ground of their Repentance and Faith that so they may not hurt themselves by Gods holy Ordinances Sacraments confirme but doe not conferre Grace if they did so the case were altered but now they are like the Paradise of God guarded with the Flaming Sword so that the Tree in the midst of the Garden which is Christ cannot be Touched by prophane hands The other Grand Heresie men so much cry against in Separation is the Independence of their Congregations as it was stated before But why should the Independence of One Assembly to a Province or Nation be more Schismaticall than that of a Province or Nation to the whole World Why may not Geneva be as Independent to France as France may bee to the other parts of Europ's Continent In Geneva why may not one Congregation be as independent to All Geneva besides as Geneva is to all France besides Doth indeed such a Wall or River or Sea so limit and bound the Church within it that it may bee independent on any Church without it and may not one Congregation within this River bee as well independent on all other Assemblies within the same River or Sea Are there not some sparklings of this Truth even amongst us in England Have not we Peculiars some Congregations exempt from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop within whose Diocesse they be And I thinke no Separatist desireth more than this That all Parishes I meane all Congregations should be Independent Peculiars Suppose an East Indi Merchants Ship be cast on some Remote Iland beyond China where there shall be no Inhabitant may not in this Case the men of this Ship gather together choose out some one or more of themselves to Read Preach Administer the Sacraments is not this a true Church and so to bee reputed while they beleeve the Truth and doe what they beleeve Is there any one Essentiall part wanting to this Church so Constituted If it be answered affirmatively that there is yet wanting some Essentiall I rejoyn then it is not a true Church nay so farre from being vera Ecclesia that it is not vere Ecclesia For He is not vere Homâ— that wants something Essentiall to Man nor It vere Ecclesia that wants any thing Essentiall to a Church If it be yeelded that in such a Case there is nothing Essentiall wanting to This Church I will againe suppose that within a yeare or Two another English Ship be cast on the same very Iland and have such another Company or Church I demand now whether it be necessary that Both These Churches must needs joyne together or at least depend One on the Other If it be not necessary I have what I desire If it be necessary Then was not the former Church a Trâ—e Church because it wanted something Essentiall and necessary to a Church to wit Dependance on some other Church If it be said This Church did before depend on the whole Catholike Church I will not gain say it so They meane onely Thus much that This Church was a true member of the True Church or Body of Christ which is but made up of so many particular Congregations as mans Body of its particular members And so This will be no more then to say All the members of the Body are Parts of the Body and conjoyned together but onely subordinate to the Head For I suppose no man will say One of my hands is dependant on the Other but both as all
Iohn did appoint Bishops they have gained nothing for I shall allow that Christ also hath instituted Bishops and that Bishops are Iure divino yea I will allow that they are to feed Christs flock to rule Christs inheritance in Christs sense but I shall never allow of these Bishops which are now the subject of our dispute There are Three sorts of Bishops as Beza saith There are of Gods Institution and they are those who have a power over their proper flock with the rest of the Church and no other There are also of Mans Institution and this ever overfloweth into the Neighbour parish And lastly there is a Demonicall Bishop and this is hee who challengeth the Sword as well as the Keyes This last may well be stiled Demonicall for sure God never erected This order nor Man in his right senses Where it will then fixe is cleere enough Even on him Whose darke Mysteries most of these men have been very well acquainted with The long Robe and the Sword doe not well agree To see a Lawyer tyed to his Sword till hee put off his Gowne is not so comely but to see a paire of Lawne sleeves to stifle a Scepter if it were but on a stage I would cry out Spectatum admissi risum teneatis SECT II. CHAP. II. THus having run through that little Treatise yet with some wonder that a person of his profession piety and known learning should doe That which might in any sense seeme to impose on those whom hee loveth I proceed to some other things which I finde produced from Antiquity by the greatest Patrons of that kinde of Episcopacy which wee now oppose Yet by the way I must note here also That either none seeme to state the Question between us right or else all seem to dissert it Our Question as I have often said is not of the name of Bishop or his power in Ecclesiasticalls only but also and mainly of his Civill power and Temporalls Which all the Patrons of Episcopacy seeme to shun as a dangerous Rock and hovering aloofe off goe about to prove by Antiquity that Bishops had this Name and some power even in the Primitive Church which though I thinke none can force me to beleeve yet I dispute not But demand Whether any Bishops had such power in Ecclesiasticis Civilibus as ours now have in England Yet because they insist so much on Antiquity for Ecclesiasticall Episcopacy I will be content to follow them there also beleeving wee shall finde no one foot-step in true Antiquity of such a Bishop as wee now have established in England though wee should strip him of all Civill power and consider him only in Ecclesiasticis Shall I begin with his Election which indeed is somewhat higher than they use perhaps dare to begin I can produce many Antiquities to prove the Election of all Church Officers was in the People yea and that for divers ages after the Apostles who indeed at first appointed These themselves and good reason why when there were no People to choose their Officers till converted by the Apostles who afterward left This Power to the Whole Church rightly constituted And This continued in the Church for divers ages as appeares by Constantines Epistle to the Church of Nice Athanasius also ad Orthâ—doxos and St. Cyprians sixth Epistle with many instances mâ—re which might bee and daily are produced It is true that after the Apostles and purer times of the Church were gone the Clergy began to lord it over the people and to bereave them of their due priviledge yea oft times agreed among themselves to choose One Superintendant as we may call him whom they called Father and Bishop and in This perhaps they did not amisse if This Bishops power rested only on the Clergy and never reached to the people who else sure by all reason should have had a vote in choosing any Officer much more such a great Commander But let all the Patrons of Episcopacy produce mee one found Antiquity for such Election as is now in use with us Let them from undoubted Antiquity for three hundred yeares after Christ nay much more for I easily see their evasion let them I say shew me but one instance of our Conge d' eslire It is the Thing I speak of not the Word Let them shew me except in the dark times of Popery power given to ten or twelve Men except all the Clergy explicitely consented to choose such a Bishop And yet This is not halfe that which lies in our Elections whcih indeed are not at all made by so much as the Chapiter of any Cathedrall but received only by Those who dare not refuse it but of this I spake before in the first Section I am content to passe their Election which I perceive none of them care much to examine and come to the Execution of their Office In which I might instance in two or three maine points as sole Ordination sole Jurisdiction Delegation c. I meet with none that take upon them to defend this last which as a Great States-man observed many yeares since was a Thing at first view most monstrous and unreasonable For will any man living think it reasonable my Lord Keeper should ad placitum delegate whom hee will to keep the Seale and judge in Chancery without consent of his Majesty and the State that entrusteth him with this Great Office Yet These Men hold it fit to entrust a Vicar-Generall Chancellors Officials Surrogates and yet under Officers to keep the Seale yea weâ—d the Scepter of Christ and all the Church which yet they say is entrusted with them But with whom have they left the sheep in the Wildernes Were there nothing else but This I cannot but hold our Episcopacy an intolerable Tyranny sâ—eing a Bishops Dog I am not much amisse lording it over the People Ministers Gentry Nobility All while his Master is perhaps Revelling Dicing or doing Worse for worse they doe Nor is this any way to be helped ' while to one Lord Bishop is granted so vast a Territory Which yet he commandeth as absolutely under that most significant term of Diocesan Primate or Metropolitan as any Temporall Prince can doe by the name of Earl Duke King Emperor or any other I oft remember the dry Oxe-hide that was brought to represent Alexanders great Dominions But I see them so farre from standing on the middle to keep down all that indeed they oft touch is not at all but are acting the Lord Temporall I might say more remote enough from their own Diocesse Which yet of it selfe is oft so large that no one man living could sufficiently Visit and Over-see it except he could get the Pope to Transubstantiate him also and so get a Vbiquitarian Body To supply which hee is oft forc'd to puffe up his wide sleeves and look very big And yet much yea most of all his Office must bee done by Delegates who are oft yea usually the lowest dregs
twenty severall times in the New Testament And you shall find the Apostles honouring This Name so much that one of them stiles himselfe an Elder but none calls himselfe a Bishop Indeed Iudas is so called Who as it were Prophetically behaved himselfe so that his Arch-Bishoprick was given to another I doubt not but the Spirit fore-saw this Word would bee quickly mounted high enough so that it brands Iudas first with This stile Of much more â—ajesty is the Word Presbyter which signifies Senior Under the Law Youth was bound to pay Tribute to Gray haires and Senatus of old was so stiled à Senioribus Whereas Episcopus signifies nothing but an Overseer And such indeed Bishops have beene for many yeares Perhaps the Name of Bishop is sometimes though rarely used that the wilfully blinde might stumble But the Name Presbyter very frequent that Those who love Truth and Light might still see such a Glympse that might Enlighten them in the midst of Egyptian darknesse from which I doubt not but God will deliver all Christendom in due time I can finde as little also for the Office of a Bishop as for his Name in Scripture yea much lesse I can finde our Saviour rebuking his Disciples striving for precedency saying Hee that will bee first shall bee last I can finde St. Peter saying Lord it not over the flock of Christ And St. Iohn branding Diotrephes with seeking the Preheminence But where shall wee finde the usurped Office of our Bishops in all the Scripture Can they finde it by a multiplying glasse where ever they see the Name of Bishop though but in a Postscript of St. Pauls Epistles Whither I see many of them fly for their owne Name I must confesse I have found some Praescripts of Davids Psalmes and other Texts to bee now part of Scripture but never yet found any Postscript of such Authority I dare not therefore give it unto These Which first were never that I could learn received by the Church for Authentick Scripture nor ever fully joyned to the Scripture but by some distinctive note till our Bishops times Yea some Antient Copies have them not at all as one very old Greek Copy in Oxford Library if I be not mis-informed Againe These Postscripts have many Improbabilities and some repugnancies as many Learned men observe As That of the first to Timothy From Laodicea the cheifest City of Phrygia Pacatiana Which sure was never so subscribed by St. Paul who would not have spoken of a First Epistle when as yet there was no Second nor appearance of any Againe the Epithet Pacatiana came from Pacatianus a Roman Deputy 300. yeares after St. Paul wrote The Epistle to Titus is thus subscribed or rather superscribed To Titus ordained the first Bishop of Creet from Nicapolis of Macedonia but it should have beene added Whither St. Paul meant to come after the Epistle but was not there at his writing as appeares very probably from the third of the same Epistle verse 12. But what meanes that Phrase Bishop of the Church in Creet was there but one Church in all Creet This sounds not like the Scripture stile which alwayes expresseth Nationall Congregations by Churches in the Plurall But it may very well be Titus was Bishop or Pastor but of one Church in Creet so that wee shall not need to contend about This. Our Adversaries themselves yeeld there cannot bee much urged from these Subscriptions Baronius Serrarius and the Rhemists will ingenuously confesse so much and Bishop Whitgift also against Mr. Cartwright â—he Postscripts failing where will they shew either Name or Office of a Bishop as now it is used I know their strong Fort Tit. 1.5 For this cause I left thee in Creet that thou shouldest set in Order the things that are Wanting and Ordain Elders in every City c. Here they think the Power of a Bishop is set forth at large But what if so Will they bee content to bee limited to This Power if so wee shall the sooner agree I think no man ever thought Good Titus had a Commission heere to draw the Civill Sword or so much as to strike with his Church Keyes Let us a little examine This Commission Which seemâ— but a Briefe of a large Patent which Saint Paul had given him before If we first examine the Date of This Commission wee shall finde it before any Church Government was setled and so an Extraordinary Case not fit perhaps not lawfull to be produced as a constant president Extraordinary Cases of Necessity breake through the Ceremoniall yea Morall Law too The Shew Bread may refresh fainting David Cain and Abel may marry their owne sisters to propagate the World Samuel may be a Priest though not of Aarons House as was shewed before And why then may not an Extraordinary way be taken in the first setling of Church Government where there is yet none setled Any man might now in the conversion of the Americans or Chinois give direction how to admit Members elect Pastors exercise the keyes c. This Titus did and no more But secondly in what manner his Commission was I know not and nothing can be proved from hence till that be agreed upon It is as probable he did it but instructivè exhortativè and not imperativè Timothy received his gift by imposition of Presbyteriall hands If an extraordinary gift was conveyed in an ordinary way Why might not an ordinary calling and affaires of an ordinary nature be managed by an extraordinary man be carried forth in an extraordinary way The contrary is not proved and so This must till then be Ineffectuall to them But thirdly and lastly I beseech you consider by what power he did it by the power of an Evangelist There are two sorts of them 1. Who write 2. Who proclaime the Gospell in an extraordinary way as coadjuters and messengers to the Apostles in this great worke Of this last sort certainly he was A Bishop he was not for our adversaries doe all agree that it is the duty of a Bishop curae sue incumbere to watch over his charge now this he did not for if Creet was his Charge which in no way neither by Scripture nor Antiquity is proved he did not attend it for we finde him continually journeying up and downe he leaveth Creet and commeth to Ephesus from thence he is sent to Corâ—nth after that into Macedonia from Macedonia he is returned to the Corinthians Neither is it to be found in History that he ever returned to Creet Thus if I mistake not the Text is lesse advantageous than the Postscript Some thinke to finde Episcopacy established in that example of Saint Iohn writing to the Angels of the seven Churches But this is Argumentum longè petitum Because Paul endorseth the Letter of a Corporation or an Assembly to the most eminent man in the Congregation Therefore He shall have sole Jurisdiction therefore the Maior shall have sole power without the Aldermen est par ratio
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE A DISCOVRSE OPENING THE NATVRE OF THAT EPISCOPACIE WHICH IS EXERCISED IN ENGLAND Wherein With all Humility are represented some Considerations tending to the much-desired Peace and long expected Reformation of This our Mother Church By the Right Honourable ROBERT LORD BROOKE LONDON Printed by R. C for Samuel Cartwright and are to be sold at the signe of the Hand and Bible in Ducke-Lane 1641. TO THE MOST NOBLE LORDS WITH THE HONORABLE KNIGHTS CITIZENS AND BURGESSES Now assembled in PARLIAMENT IN Epistles Dedicatory sometimes men render an account to the world by what Principles they were Led to such a worke Sometimes they maintaine and strengthen what they have done by New Arguments Sometimes ad captandam Benevolentiam they present their whole Designe in a briefe Epitomy that so they may invite the Reader But I shall doe None of These The first I need not For if the Ten Kings must hate the Whore Eate her flesh and Burne her with her fire Will not every good Christian offer himselfe a ready Servant to This Worke a Willing Souldier under this Standard The Second I cannot without questioning my owne Diligence or which is worse my Readers Gentlenesse Either of which every Writer carefully shunneth The third I will not left I be injurious to my selfe For Humane Nature is ever Novorum avida and the Soule of vast comprehension the Booke therefore would seeme but Crambe bis cocta to All that read the Epistle and but create a nausea to Those that had already gathered all by viewing the Breviate If it be the Glory of a King's Daughter to be clothed in Needle-worke surely This poore Birth will need more then Fig-leaves to make it Beautifull When it is Cloathed with its Best Robes It will not be worthy to appeare in so Great a Presence How much lesse then when presented only in a bare and naked Sceleton The Worke then of These Lines is to lay prostrate at Your Feet most Noble Lords and Gentlemen the Retirements of Your Humble Servant in the Last Recesse If you shall aske mee how I dare take the boldnesse to interrupt Your more serious Thoughts with These Things of Little Worth All I shall plead for my selfe is but This the bow must be sometimes unbent and if then This Pamphlet may be called for it is all I aspire to For Your Protection and Your Patronage not Your Trouble is My Request Of which being no whit Doubtfull with all Humility commending This to Your Noble Favour Your selves and Counsels to the Almighty I crave leâ—ve for ever to remaine Your most obliged and devoted Servant ROBERT BROOKE The CONTENTS of the Sections and Chapters in the following Discourse SECT I. CHAP. I. THe Subject Stated Not a Bishops Name but Office Opposed nor Office in generall but Such Such a Bishop repugâ—nt to State-Policie Antiquity Scripture The Method proâ—unded for the first Section containing Arguments drawne â—â—om State-Policie fol. 1. Chap. II. Of Our Bishops Birth how unsuitable to his Office how Hurtfull to Himselfe and Others How incongruous â— State-Policie 3 III. A Bishops Breeding not fit for his Calling against Rules of Policie Some Objections answered 5 IV. Of Our Bishops Election whether suitable to State-Policie Of his Office Principles or Maximes by which hee governeth and Practice according to Those Principles 11 V. Of the Nature of Indifference what it is and in what iâ— hâ—th place whether in Re or onely in Appearance to our Understandings 19 VI. Where the Power of Indifferent Things seemes to be fixed whether in the Church or not or if in the Church How farre Of the Churches Deciding Commanding Power Of Doubts and how we must deport our selves under Doubts 30 VII Of the Consequents to a Bishops Office His Relations Vpward and Dependances Of his Vote in Parliament Relations Downward How repugnant to State Policie 35 VIII What Good our Bishops can do to the State is examined whether they have beene or can be friends to Monarchy or Civill Government 42 IX How suitable such Episcopacie can be to Monarchy is farther considered Whether the Best forme of Church Government be Monarchicall Whether other Formes may not well stand with Civill Monarchy How Church and State Goverment differ and agree 48 X. Who it is that opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God Who is properly a Papist and what is Popery Why the Pope is most properly Antichrist How such Episcopacy differs or agrees with Popery 53 SECTION II. Considereth how Consonant such Episcopacy is either to sound Antiquity or Scripture Chap. I. Some Antiquities produced by a late most Learned and Reverend Patron of Episcopacie are discussed 65 II. Our Bishops Election Delegation c. Examined by Antiquity 69 III. Of Ordination whether proper onely to Bishops or equally committed to all Presbyters discussed by Ancient Authorities 72 IV. Of the Name and Office of a Bishop in Scripture How little or how much the Scripture makes for or against Bishops Diverse Texts are discussed 75 V. What forme of Church Government seemes most consonant to Scripture Whether Monarchicall Aristocraticall or Democraticall 81 VI. Of the consequemts that may possibly follow the change of Church Government Of the great danger of Schismes Sects and Heresies Of One new Sect to come in the Last Dayes Whether Bishops can keepe the Church from Schismes Sects c. What is or who are the Cause of most Schismes among us 86 VII The danger of Schismes and Sects more fully discuss'd the Nature and Danger of Anabaptisme Separatisme and Unlicensed Preaching The conclusion with an affectionate desire of peace and union 98 ERRATA PAge 4. line 24. Affection for Affectation p. 19. l. 2. Indifferent for indifference p. 26. l. 35. at one any time for at any one time p. 5. l. â—0 Ioy for Ivy. p. 56. l. 11. may be the more for may be more p. 88. l. 2. of all Civill c. for of all Civill c. p. 94. l. 32. Orders for Orders from Rome p. 98. l. 7. dele now A DISCOVRSE OPENING THE NATVRE OF THAT EPISCOPACY WHICH IS EXERCISED IN ENGLAND Wherein with all humility are represented some Considerations tending to the much-desired Peace and long expected Reformation of this our Mother Church CHAP. I. IAyme not at Words but Things not loving to fight with Shadowes It is not the Looke much lesse the Name of a Bishop that I feare or quarrell with it is his Nature his Office that displeaseth me Nor yet his Nature or Office in Generall but Such and so cloathed or rather veyled with such and such adjuncts For to me the Word Bishop-signifies either one that is to Preach Administer the Sacraments Exhort Reprove Convince Excommunicate c. not only in some one distinct Congregation his owne Parish but in many severall Congregations crowded up together in one strange and for long unknowne word a Diocesse Or one who hath to all this added not onely the
at large and of late Cloppenburge in his Excellent Schoole of Sacrifice Now Hoseah may by speciall License take a wife of Adulteries Abraham Sacrifice his childe the Jewes borrow Jewels of the Aegyptians and Phineas doe justice by an extraordinary command or instinct but we may not follow these presidents Some say that inferiour Levites did intermeddle in secular affaires But I answere there were Levites of two sorts out of one sort Priests were chosen out of Aarons Line the others were like the Seculars among the Iesuites And these last did as the Seculars doâ— performe the Civill part of those Religious Services and nothing else that I can finde in Scripture or Story Lastly for the High Priests after the Jewish Government was broken in pieces I hope no body will bring them for a president there being then no Vision for spirituall things from God no more Government for Civill things according to the Rule of God Of those times Iosâ—phus complaineth that the Ghasmonei had taken upon them the Uniting of Priest-hood and Secular power in one person which could not bee done but in extraordinary cases by Gods speciall command And thus I suppose they will get but little from Gods injunctions among the Jewes But some still will say that one of these Studies may fit for another All truthes Polemicke positive whether Politique Philosophicall or Theologicall are of neere consanguinity and he that is a Gnostique in one cannot be a meere Tyrunculus in the other I confesse did they improve their Studies to the ripening of Reason and inlarging of their understanding This might in some sense be true But they spend their time in Criticall Cabalisticall Scepticall Scholasticall Learning which fills the head with empty aeriall notions but gives no sound food to the Reasonable part of man Yea their study is mainely layd out upon bookes which they prize and sleight as they please while they want Cotem Scientiae ingenii a Reall Adversary that by contradiction might raise their Parts and much inlarge their judgements Their learning is in Termes it is but Nominall and waters cannot rise higher than their Fountaine But allow that they improve their studies to the best yet this is not enough For State Policy is the Daughter of Converse Observation Industry Experience Practice and Bookes will never Teach That but They are but ill Leaders of the Blinde and what will be the issue in that Case judge you CHAP. IIII. WEE have seene our Bishops Birth and Breeding with all his Studies and preparations to his Office to which we have now brought him onely that his Election and Ordination Interpose Of which I might speake much but because This is the common Theame of all complaints I shall passe it here the rather because it may perhaps be better examined by Scripture and Antiquity than State Policy in which I now am Yet by the way I cannot but propose it as worthy of State consideration how like the inferiour Clergie is to yeeld true Canonicall Obedience to one that nescio quo jure requires it by Oath though he be oft forc'd on them against and never with their expresse will which they cannot expresse having neither positive nor negative votes in election Except perchance the whole Clergie of a Diocesse or Province may be fully represented by a Cloistred Chapiter among which are usually the very dregges of lowest men Who yet indeede themselves have no Elective votes but after the solemne dirge of Veni Sancte Spiritus are as sure to finde the Spirit in a Conge d' eslire as others not long since in the Tridentine Post-mantile Certainely it is to be desired that Christians would shew as much care and conscience in setting heads over whole Churches as some Heathen Emperours did in setting Governours over private Townes which yet they would not doe till at least free liberty was given to the Citizens complaint and rejection if not Election of the party propounded And this Antoninus learnt from the Jewes and Christians choyce of Their Church Governours in Those Times though now Latter ages are growne Wiser But I must leaue This subject We are now come to view our Bishop in his Office Though we may complaine as one once of Lewes the II. he cannot be fairely limn'd because still in Motion which yet in it selfe might be at least excusable were he not nimium Diligâ—ns too officious being made up of Two most inconsistent Offices the one of Church the other of State His deportment in Both we may guesse by his Maximes or Rules by which he goes which once seene wee shall quickely perceive how well he squares his Practise by his Principles and how consonant both be to true Church or State Policy I shall instance but in one or two for we may know Ex ungue Leonem The Climax runnes up thus First the Church hath power in all Indifferents Secondly the Church is Judge what is Indifferent Thirdly the Bishops and their Creatures are This Church If a Prince hath power to Command the persons and estates of his Subjects in case of Necessity and the same Prince be sole judge of Necessity it will be no wonder to me if That People be ever Necessitous If the Church have power in Adiaphoris and the same Church be Judge Quid sit Adiaphoron and This Church be the Bishops I shall not wonder to see those things that are purely Indifferent made absolutely necessary to the insupportable burden of all mens consciences But some will perhaps say These Maximes have influence onely into Church Government and so belong not to the present question of State Policy I confesse did they confine the pressing of these within the confines of the Church they could not so properly belong to the dispute in hand but they run over For the Maxime is very large It is not onely Indifferent things in the Church but Indifferent things in generall All-Indifferent things and so they may take in what they will Againe they doe really set Lawes in State matters under the notion of Indifferent so that all the Subjects Liberty or propriety in goods They compasse with their Net of Indifferencie which they make heavie with the plummets of greatest penalties Yea though they medled not at all with such Things as these without their Horizon yet if they make those Things to be Indifferent which are sinnefull as they doe I feare and to These inforce obedience with pretence of Church Policy They overthrow all Civill Government I take such Maximes to be the very Hinges upon which our Bishops Practice turneth I shoote not Arrowes of Scorne For truely I have not in my intentions either by â—outs or jeeres or by a factious Spirit to deale with This Adversary Michael himselfe would not revile the Devill It much lesse becomes me so to behave my selfe towards These Men with whom I treat among whom I know so many truely Eminent I desire to speake nothing but Truth Yea
I should exceedingly rejoyce if by the Spirit of Meekenesse men of that Learning and abilities which many of them are might bee reduced to That which I from my Soule conceive to bee truth and am perswaded will be so acknowledged by Themselves one day If these then be their Tenets as I suppose they will confesse them to be Is there any thing more Vnreasonable more Vnbrotherly more savouring of Selfe than These Positions Vnreasonable For allow the Church hath all power in Indifferents which I dare not yet yeeld who hath made the Church a Iudge beyond appeale what is Indifferent Is not this to bring necessary and indifferent things all under one notion If the Church shall judge indifferent things to be necessary and necessary to be indifferent which would to me be a sad story But you will say if the Church bee not the Judge of what is Indifferent who may be That Judge I tell you asking of questions is no answering of difficulties But secondly because I love to deale plainely I will tell you who shall be Judge In expounding of Scripture the Scripture but in finding out what is indifferent Recta Ratio must be Judge But who shall tell us what is Recta Ratio I answere Recta Ratio Will any man if the Church shall judge That to be indifferent which is not say it is indifferent or that my conscience is bound in this case Ex. grat I doe confesse the houre when the Congregation shall meete is indifferent if the Church will appoint hereupon Eleven of the Clock at night and Five in the morning in this Latitude under which we are I hope no man will say but that it is ill done of the Church and that neither my conscience nor my outward man is bound further in This than to a passive obedience certainely all force upon me in this case would be sinne in them But they will say this is a thing in its selfe Vnreasonable and so commeth not into the nature of indifferent thing But the Church having such power as is claimed who may dispute it But secondly this action must be considered either in the universall nature of it or else as it is presently to bee put in practise If you value and ballance it in this last sense nothing is indifferent no substantiall nor circumstantiall Being For we being bound to doe That which hic nunc is best That which is so with the circumstances will be our guide and the Church will have can have no power against This. But if you consider things in the universall nature not cloathed with these and these circumstances then it seemeth to have some Indifferency and then if ever it is in the Churches power and yet even then the Church can goe no further than what will be according to Reason For for a Church to say I will because I will is most Papall Tyrannicall and altogether displeasing to Christ but of This more in another place Thus their Tenets seeme to me very Vnreasonable They will doe more than Adam did He gave Names to Things according to their Natures they will give Natures according to their owne fancies Secondly very Vnbrotherly in that they make themselves the Church excluding all others in which act according to their Tenets they exclude all others from Salvation for they say in an ordinary way there is no Salvation out of the Church and They in this admit none into the Church but themselves Moses was upon a mistake reproved by the Jewes in that he made himselfe a Iudge though in that decision he released a Jew Truely I know not by what authority these Bishops stile themselves the representative Church for they must doe it either Iure humano or Divino By the last we doe not yeeld That is the Question in hand by the first they cannot for where doe the people either implicitely or explicitely elect them and resigne up their power to them Is it in their Convocation that they obtaine this priviledge That by the Lawes of this Land is not at all obligatory till confirmed by Parliament Secondly the people choose not These Convocation men but the Clergie and so they cannot represent the whole Church Thirdly the Clergie have no free election for the Bishop will appoint whom they must choose and this too Sub poena anathematis The Angells for the whole Ministery of the Church in the Revelation seeme to receive some particular honour from the Spirit yet not the power of a Representative Body but Quo jure humano aut Diuino Twenty sixe men shall challenge to themselves as proper That which is not so much as by a figurative right given to those Angels I know not And is not this Vnbrotherly to intrude my selfe and exclude all others from Their Right But lastly it savoureth very much of Selfe For certainely he that will out-doe the Pope is growne to a pretty height of pride Now in the Papacy it is a dispute whether the Pope alone or the whole Colledge of Cardinalls or a Generall Councell or the People or All These or Some of These with their joynt forces may stile themselves the Church But Our men without dispute like the Lyon in the Fable challenge All of whom the Poet is verified Aetas Patrum pejor avo tulit progeniem nequiorem And yet whoever takes up Errour at the Second hand will have an ill bargaine though he buy it cheape hee will be no gainer Error being like the Ierusalem-Artichoake plant it where you will it over-runnes the ground and choakes the Heart Thus having with the chaines of Indifferency bound up the Peoples Liberty they deale no better with their Prince Onely Polyphemus-like they leave Vlysses for the last For when the People are devoured Kings cannot escape But because Kings are of more prying Spirits they steale in upon them with Sugared Baites such as That of Theirs No Bishop No King But of This more anon I might instance in many other of their Maximes which I conceive very prejudiciall both to Church and State Policy But I will rather view their Practise according to These Principles of Indifferency In this I shall be very short not meaning to upbraide them with many monstrous miscarriages of late the rather because I am confident that God his Majeâ—tic and The Parliament will not permit them longer to transgresse in This height Onely I cannot but intreat you to observe how by Their Injunctions founded on Those Maximes They have imposed as necessary many things that are but Indifferent some things that are Vnlawfull First many Things but Indifferent they have injoyned as necessary Some to Ministers as Cassockes Gownes Tippets Hoods Caps Canonicall Coats Blackes and many other Some to People as Sitting with their hats off Standing up at Gloria Patri the Gospell and other parts of service Weighty matters indeed for Grave Learned Holy Reverend Divines to spend their time and thoughts upon I might perhaps goe a little higher
shall dictate Best as was prov'd before Now in these Circumstances Marriage is unlawfull to me and so not Good at all at this time because lesse Good than Non-Marriage so Achitophels Counsell was Bad being not good for That time because not Best For as Moralists say if it be possible Man could be necessitated to chuse One of Two Evills in That case the Lesse evill would be Good So when I am necessitated to chuse One out of two supposed Goods the lesse Good would be Evill and unlawfull to me who am still bound for ought I can yet see to doe Optimum pro hoc statu The Conclusion I ayme at through all these Premisses is This. There is no One Thing no One Act in all the World That I may doe or not doe ad placitum all Circumstances considered For This Act so propounded either is Best for that time and so must needes be done or not Best and so must not be done because in these Circumstances at This Time it is Vnlawfull as not being Good while a Better is in eye as hath I hopefully beene proved From This results our finall Determination concerning Indifference which is our Subject in hand No Thing No Act is Indifferent in Se in Re but either necessary to be done if Best or unlawfull to be done if Bad or lesse Good pro hoc statu What shall we say then hath the World talked so much of Indifference and the power in Indifference And yet no Indifference at all be in the World Give me leave here freely to propound my owne thoughts without offence being still more desirous to learne than to Dictate I conceive that all the Indifference in the world lyes in our Understandings and the Darkenesse thereof which makes them wavering sometimes and doubtfull whether to doe or not so that in Them seemes some Indifference to either extreme but there is none in the things themselves or Actions which are still either unlawfull or necessary if Lawfull at this time in these Circumstances never Indifferent in Themselves As then it is in the point of Contingence every thing is either True or False Certainly to Be or not to Be and in one of these still Necessary in Re and never Contingent yet to Mâ—e who cannot see the whole Chaine of Causes some things seeme Contingent that are necessary So for Indifference All Things All Acts are in Re either Necessary to be done or Vnlawfull but to my blind judgement while I cannot discerne whether I may Act or may not some things Seeme but are not Indifferent and so we thinke but erroneously that These may be done or not as we please For example sake suppose an unskilfull Physitian have two Simples by him one of which is poyson and the other a pretious Cordiall will any man living say These are Indifferent for a sick mans cure so as he may use them or not ad placitum without perill And yet now suppose the Physitian ignorant of both their Natures they may be said to be Indifferent though not in themselves yet to Him who not knowing either is Indifferent to Both and thinkes he may apply which he will without offence yet if he apply the one he erres because 't is poyson So it is in all the Things or Acts we thinke Indifferent In themselves they are poysons or cordials very Good and so necessary or very Bad and so unlawfull But while our judgements are clouded so that we see not the Nature of these Objects or Acts we are Indifferent because wavering betweene Them but They are not so in se or Really to us I may conclude then Nothing is Indifferent in Re in se but to our Vnderstanding some things seeme so for want of Good light CHAP. VI. I Have now done with the Nature of Indifference in which I have beene the more large because I found it more abstruse than it seemed at first view I come now shortly to examine What power may determine in Indifference and where this Power is fixed To All I may answer briefly thus By Divine Right This Power is and is not in the Church The Church hath and hath not power in Indifferent things First the Church hath no power to make any one thing Indifferent in it selfe that is to make it at one and the same time lawfull to be done or left undone positis omnibus circumstantiis For all Things and Acts are in themselves necessarily Good or Bad and cannot be Indifferent in Re as hath beene proved at large Againe we cannot say the Church hath power to determine what is Indifferent If at least All Indifference comes onely from the Darknesse of our Vnderstanding as before It then lyes not in the power of all other men living to determine what seemes Indifferent to one mans Understanding since He may perhaps not see what they all see e comrario We are now reduced into a narrow compasse having onely left to be considered Those Things which generally seeme Indifferent For there is no Indifference in Re but onely in appearance unto us because neither Scripture without or light within hath fully cleared whether such things should be done or not or if done whether in such or such a time place c. and in such cases only Things seeme Indifferent Now in These seeming Indifferents which sure are not so many as some pretend the Church hath and yet hath not power to determine All though but Seeming Indifference is as it were in medio betweene Two Extremes as was said before Now when Neither of these extremes is necessary There specially where Both extremes are doubtfull I conceive the Church hath not power to determine to Either Extreme As suppose Blacke and White colours should be Doubtfull whether both or either or neither were Lawfull In this case for ought I yet see the Church hath no power to determine any one so doubting to either Blacke or white The Reason is because Neither of These extremes are necessary there being so many intermediate colours betweene Both. But when One of the extremes betweene which we waver as Indifferent is necessary to be imbraced as in most cases it is Here all the Power Lawfull I conceive can do no more but resolve which of the Two extremes is Best whether it be safest to Do or not to Do whereof one is necessary to do so or so if I must do This Power whereever it be must be very warily exercised since of All Two extremes onely One as was proved can be Lawfull so that one is wholsome but the other poyson In These also the Church hath and hath not power If you please Thus It hath a power Iudicative or if you will Iuridicall but not Legislative It may and must determine for ought I know beyond all externall appeale yet againe it must not determine What and How it Will because it Will. No It also hath its bounds a Rule to goe by a constant Law and that non factam sed
natam Right Reason So that the Church is like the Iudges on the Bench in Westminster Hall that have a Iudicative or Declarative power being entrusted with the explication application execution of the Laws but not as the King and Parliament who have a Legislative power and so not only to declare what is Law but to make new Laws And yet even This High Court hath one Rule or Law to go by and this is also the Law of the Church even Right Reason And if they or the Church should erre from This Rule which God forbid we must obey indeed but Patiendo I will I must give Passive obedience to Lawfull Authority even there where I dare not I cannot I may not give obedience Active By the Church here I meane not onely One or Two or a Few of what Ranke soever but All even every True Member of the whole Church For I conceive every such Member hath de jure a Vote in This Determination But what if after the Determination I yet dissent from the judgement of the greater part of the Church which in all doubtfull causes seemes justly to challenge even by the law of Nature a decisive power What shall I do in This Case shall I make a Rent Schisme Faction that may fire Church or State God forbid no I must Read pray discourse and conferre with all humility sâ—bmitting my selfe to the Reason of any man that will teach me much more to the Judgments of many together eminent for learning and piety And yet if after all This I cannot be satisfied in my Doubts which must be Reall and not pretended scruples of a factious spirit In this case which sure will be very Rare where Right Reason is made supreme Judge I must suspend till my judgement be cleered left That which to another is Lawfull become sinne to mee Who cannot Act in Faith while I act against or with Doubts or Scruples However in the meane time I must quietly deport my selfe without faction turbulent commotion or uncharitable censure of Those who dissent from me both in Judgment and Practice wel knowing that the same thing may be Lawfull and necessary to one that sees it so which yet to me is unlawfull while I so doubt In This Case I conceive no Power on Earth ought to force my Practice more than my Iudgement For I conceive the Churches utmost compulsive power which must also very warily and bu rarely be used is but Expulsion or Excommunication which yet I suppose may scarce ever be exercised on one that so doubteth much lesse Fine Imprisonment losse of member or life Except his dissent in practice hath necessarily with it a destructive influence into the State also and Body Politique Which case I thinke hardly ever possible in Those Things which can be objects of Rationall Doubts which are onely such as the Scripture hath not determined And in all things not determined by Scripture which sure must needes be of lesse consequence One that Doubts with reason and humility may not for ought I yet see be forced by Violence Give mee leave by some Instances to cleare my meaning in all the premisses concerning the power in Indifferent Things Time Place and Deportment of our selves in the Congregation are the maine if not sole Things which beare this acceptation of Indifferent The Scripture not having laid downe expresse Rules for all particular cases of This Nature So that wee seeme least Indifferent to the use of This or That Place This or That Time This or That Gesture c. In These Things not determined by Scripture there must be some determination because one of the extremes is necessary We must use some Place some Time some Gesture else all limitation here were needlesse if not unlawfull as was said before The Church then Doubtlesse hath power to resolve here What Time what Place what Deportment c. and what they do herein though it should prove to be Evill They do by power which God hath entrusted them with And yet againe The Church here must not command what she will because she Wil but must goe by her Rule which is Right Reason if she swarve from This she erres And He that seeth Her error or Doubteth sinnes also if while he so doubteth he yeeld her more than Passive Obedience and if she force one so Doubting I thinke she sinneth more Now I need not rip up the foulnesse of our Bishops miscarriage in tâ—eir practice about Indifferent Things which yet hath fully suited with their principles as was touched before For though I should grant which I never shall that onely they and their Creatures were the whole Church Yet would they be so farre from a power of Making things Indifferent which yet some seeme to challenge or at least to exercise that indeed they have no power to determine what is Indifferent since it may be very easie for some men to thinke That Indifferent which to others seemes clearly either unlâ—wfull or necessary Againe in things seeming generally Indifferent they have no power peremptorily to determine to one Extreme when there is a medium betweene both extremes and so neither is Necessary In things seeming Indifferent where One extreme is necessary They cannot determine pro arbitrio but by a constant Rule of Reason much lesse by a Tyrannicall club Law force us to do though we rationally and modestly doubt whether it be Lawfull what they first Make rather than find Indifferent and then by their wonted maximes in Indifferent Things make Necessary on paine of Imprisonment losse of Eares yea life it selfe Which yet might be more tolerable if they onely tooke a Dictatorlike power to direct our judgments in things that seeme most abstruse or doubtfull in which yet they make themselves Gods for none but God can fully cleare much lesse force my Judgement But they scruple not point blanke to contradict our Reason and force our consciences in things extremely manifest as in Bowings and many other things which one as blind as he that so much commended Rhombus may see to be unlawfull CHAP. VII WE have seene the Antecedents Concomitants or Ingredients to Our Bishops Office Let us a little view some of the Consequents that result from his Office We shall consider but Two or rather One with Two Heads like himselfe at least looking two wayes His Relations both upward and downward First Vpward Nescio quoÌ„ fato Our Bishops have still depended on an others Beck In the time of Popery they were wholly moulded to the Popes Will which oft produced such wilfull and stubborne deportment both towards their Soveraigne and equals that wise men of those times began to perceive how insufferable such forraine dependance would still be in any free State Winchester was not the first though One that in Edwards the first Time professed such universal Obedience to his Creator the Pope that he quickly learned to refuse that I may not say disdaine to call the King his Lord.
grape and Our Teeth were almost all set on edge But blessed be God that hath delivered That Church and state from Tyrannicall Prelates and will ere long deliver us also They did the same in Denmarke till One of their Kings did perswade the people to Choose another Church Government After he had in publke read a Charge for three houres long containing Their Treasons and Rebellions even since the Time that the Pope was cast out of that Countrey When I call to minde their Cariage and miscariage here in England I must beginne with that of the Poet Infandum Regina jubes renovare dolorum Our first Reformation was much opposed by Bishops Gardiner Bonner and some others were no Changelings Yea we shall finde some Good men were Bad Bishops and the Evill were intolerable Ridley was too fierce in maintenance of Ceremonies Cranmer and Ridley both were for allowing Masse to the Lady Mary but That Admirable young Prince was even in his Infancie with King David wiser then his Teachers and could weepe though not yeeld to Their perswasions What Our Bishops did in Queene Maries dayes Bloody Times we all know sure it was an unhappy Proverb that was then learnt The Bishops foote hath trodden here What they intended under the Old Queene Essayed in King Iames his Reigne and had well nigh performed under Our Gracious King Charles to the Ruine of the Crowne We now beginne to know If at least Knowledge may properly be said to be wrought by Sense for If so our Feeling was enough to Teach us Yet what wanted in This may be supplied by the Daily complaints we are forced to heare not onely from England but Ireland also where yet perhaps they have more parts to act then One But he that sitteth in Heaven laugheth at them the most High hath them in derision CHAP. IX I Have scarce done with that Grand Principle of Episcopall policie No Bishop No King Yet I must now divert you a little from it or at least lay it aside awhile till It come in againe at due place which perhaps may be in This next dispute I am now come to the most moderate of Episcopall men For even These affirme that The absolute Best Church Government under a Monarchy is Monarchicall By the Way I must desire it may againe be remembred that hitherto I have contended onely with our Lordly Civill Episcopacie properly called Prelacie I have not yet disputed Ecclesiasticall Episcopacie in generall or the Prelacie of One Minister before another though I may touch That also before I conclude so that I am not bound to answer this Objection which sure cannot mean that the Best Church Government under Monarchy is Tyrannicall as indeed such Lordly Prelacie is even in their owne Judgements which are moderate but simply Monarchicall scilicet in Ecclesiasticis against which I have not yet disputed though I know This was One of the maine Foundations on which That Destroyer That man of sinne beganne first to build But I am content to follow them Here also Yet I must first sift out their meaning lest they deceive mee with words Doe they meane that All other Church Governments are destructive to Monarchy or do they mean Monarchy is destructive to All other Church Governmentâ— but Monarchicall The first sence is even the same with the former Axiâ—ome we discuss'd No Bishop no King except perhaps theâ— grant that every Monarch is a King but every King â— not an absolute Monarch But take Monarchy in what sense you please why cannot it stand with any kind of Church Government doth the supreme Civill power receive any essentiall part of it from Church Monarchy Is not Monarchy compleat even there where is no Church I am by no meanes of Their judgements who say None that are without the pale of the Church have right to any Thing here below A Tenet almost necessary to those that use to excommunicate Princes ad placitum and then stirâ— up forraine Enemies or Subjects themselves to dispossesse such Princes but to other States of very dangerous consequence I clearly conceive an Heathen Emperour may be as lawfull a Monarch as any Christian Prince And I doubt not but His Subjects owe as exact obedience to Him if his Civill Title be just as we justly pay to our Kings and Governours To say then that Monarchy cannot stand without Monarchicall Discipline in the Church is to weaken if not to breake the nerves and ligaments of supreme power nay to say that such a government will best suit with Monarchy is to vaile the lustre and Majesty of monarchy which like an healthfull stomach can easily assimulate all things to it selfe but is not changed by any If they would but speake their owne Thoughts They would turne the Proposition thus Church-Monarchy cannot stand without Civill Here the Mystery is unmasked It is true This Discipline cannot stand but where Princes will uphold it For That which hath no Footing in Scripture must leane upon Humane Right and thus it discovereth its owne weaknesse Divine Institution is able to bottome it selfe upon it selfe but Humane is like the weake Vine or Hop which without a pole must creepe and so rot upon the earth Yea some inventions of Men specially in matters of Religion are like the weake Fruitlesse Ivy that must be propt up by some Elâ—â— or mighty Oake and yet most unnaturally destroyeth That prop which holdeth it up And of This kind is That Humane or rather Demonicall Episcopacity of which we have treated all this time Our Bishops foreseeing This for They are wise in their generation thought best to invert the propositions and instead of this that Church Monarchy cannot stand without Civill They affirme Civill Monarchy cannot stand without That of the Church Thus they delude Silly people But to come a little neerer to their Best meaning Who stand so much for Church Monarchy I would gladly be shewed by Reason what there is in Church government why it may not derive it selfe into severall Corporations where either more or fewer may beare the sway still subscribing to those things which are left by Christ to the Civill government or Monarchicall power We see hundreds of Corporations are thus mannaged And what there is in formali ratione of Church government essentiall to Church government that will not endure This mihi non liquet Truly I do not yet know I cannot yet Imagine Wee see ever since the reformation of Luther and Calvin the Churches of Christ have had another discipline than ours under Elective and Successive under Protestant and Catholique Princes as will appeare clearely in Poland Denmarke in Scotland and the Palatinate in France and Germany I do from my heart agree that Civill Governours are Custodes utriusque Tabulae but what the Civill Magistrate hath to doe in Church matters till the Church hath done her utmost I could yet never learne The government of Christ is spirituall and Hee will have his worke wrought in a
sweete way by the power of the Spirit not by force If I erre in This I shall upon better reason recant In the interim hoping that the clearnesse of my thoughts shal with the candid Reader receive gentle interpretation I shall freely declare my opinion in This point Christ as I shall more fully prove hereafter hath cleerly unfolded to us the Two main things of Church affaires 1 The Doctrine 2 The Discipline of his Church Who will come in this case to adde or diminish any thing I appeale to any Ingenuous Reader of what Religion soever he be yea of what sect in any Religion Whether any power ought to force a Church in matter of Doctrine I conceive what is True Doctrine the Scripture â—ust judge and none but the Scripture but what a Câ—â—â—ch will take for True Doctrine lyes only in That Câ—uâ—ch Will Rome admit us to expound to them this place Hoc est corpus meum shall wee admit Rome's exposition Will either of us admit force There is certainly but one Truth but what shall be taken by the Church for Truth the Church must jâ—dge If you descend to Discipline will not the Case 〈◊〉 be the same In Discipline consider three things 1 Admission of members 2 Excommunication 3 Officers to execute these and other Ordinances Whether you will Baptize children and so â—y administring to them the Sacrament of Initiation admit them members of the Church Whether you will admit all for Church members that barely professe though they be open drunkards and very ignorant persons Whether you will have Pastors Teachers and Elders as your superiours in this worke or Bishops Archbishops Primates c. who shall judge but the Church So long as the Church in her Church Tenets intermedleth not with State matters under the notion of Religion I suppose the Civill power is not to interpose It is most true if the Church will broach with the Anabaptists that they will have no Governours nor Government This is a point not of Divinity but Policie and here the Scepter must set a rule or with the Adamites if there be any such allow Communion of wives This takes away property The sword must divide this quarrell or with the Papists that it is lawfull to kill Kings that faith is not to be kept with Heritiques I conceive in all these and cases of the like nature the decision lyeth in the Magistrate for These tenets overthrow either Civill Government or civill converse The Church must not goe out of her bounds But if the Question be how you will expound such a Scripture what Gesture you will use in such an ordinance what man is fit to be excommunicated what deserveth excommunication what is Idolatry what is wil-worship what superstition what is the punishment of those crimes who shall judge but the Church The Prince hath granted to such a Body by Charter such priviledges such offices who can interpose but the power instituting Christ hath given us a platforme of Church government with the offices and officers who may here intermedle but Christ himselfe It is most true when the Church findeth any refractary and thereupon doth excommunicate him he fals into the hands of the Civill Magistrate if he continue pertinacious and not before When Parliaments do consider matters of Religion they do it to deliver the Church from some who would impose upon her who would take the keyes from her that by the help of these keyes they may wrest the Scepter out of the hand of Soveraignty which God forbid And whilst Parliaments labour thus for the Church dealing no further in the affaires of the Church than by Scripture they may certainly they do well but if they once exceed their bounds the issue will be Confusion insted of Reformation Church and State government differ as much as the Sexes Yet as there may betweene These be an happy union Both keeping their bounds whilst the Husband hath the supremacie So may there be between the Church and State a sweete harmony The State having Committed to it the custody of the 10. commandments and yet the Church preserving to her selfe Her rights If the Church swallow up the State as it is in Popery Episcopacy the issue will be slavish grosse superstition and stockish Idolatry If the State overtop the Church there will be ignorance and atheisme But give to God that which is Gods and to Caesar that which is iâ— Caesars and both Church and State will fare the better Thus under favour both by reason and president it is cleere that any Church policie besides Episcopacie though onely one by right ought may stand with Monarchy CHAP. X. WHen I say Any Church Government may stand with Monarchy or other State Policie I desire to be understood of any Church Government Well regulated Which as I cannot conceive of our Episcopacie so I must againe publiquely protest that I verily believe This kind of Episcopacy is destructive not onely to Good Monarchy but all other State Policie whatsoever I meane not now to runne over so much as the Headâ— of my former discourse Every particle of which is to represent how uncongruous and incompatible to True policie of State Our Bishops Place Calling and Office is as now it stands establisht in this Kingdome If any man shall yet dissent from mee in this Cause I shall now onely intreat him to view one place of Scripture which yet perhaps at first glance may seeme to make but little for my purpose but it is an old Maxime among Interpreters Non est haerendum in Cortice Let us therefore a little examine the Text and if I be not in the Right I will gladly learne of any that can better informe me The Place I meane is that which of old in the Primitive Church was wont to be more perused and examined than I thinke it is now or hath beene of late and I cannot much wonder sith I see all men view the Sea and well consider it at distance from the top of a Cliffe or Rocke but when they are once fallen into it they shut their eyes winke and care to see as little as â—ay be of it while they have so much round about them I must not detaine you too long without left you think my Porch longer and bigger than my House It is That of the Apostle to the Thessalonians 2. Epist. 2. Chap. 3. and 4. Verses specially those words Who opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God or is worshipped For the understanding of this place we must premise This That it must not be taken as spoken of One single person but a Compages of many either existing together or else succeeding one another yet agreeing together in This Great Apostasie the maine thing here spoken of And in This I have but few Adversaries None I â—hinke but some few of the Romish faction that maintaine the grand Deceiver False Prophet or Apostate â—â—or so I â—â—ther call him than
Antichrist though I doubt not alâ—o but he is most truly Antichrist in Re shall come only in the end of the world and endure but three yeares and an halfe which yet begins to found but ill among the Romanists themselves In the next place I affirme This Man of Sinne for so I must stile him is not of the Laity over whom even over their Princes and Gods he exalteth himselfe but of the Clergy For he sitteth in the Temple of God Being come so farre without any Reall opposition I now demand Who This Man Compages or Systeme of Men is or can be The Pope I suppose will be answered by most of our Church And I yeeld it so beleeving Him to be prncipally intended here But if I can prove that Popery properly taken is the same in Re with Our Episcopacy or at least that This is but a Piece and Part of That Mystery of Iniquity then I hope it will be granted that such Episcopacy is also here intended per consequens that such Episcopacy is altogether against True Policie of State because it opposeth and exalteth it selfe above All that is called God c. This therefore is now my Taske to prove that Our Episcopacy is the same Really with Popery taken Properly Let us first then see what Popery properly may signifie for for ought I yet see the World is scarce agreed in this particular I cannot conceive that All Errours or Heresiâ—s held by some nay All Papists may in proper speaking be called Popery Most I hope All of the Papists agrâ—e with us in many Truths and All is not Heresie in which they Differ and yet All Heresie in Them not proper Popery No not every Error or Heresie in the Pope himselfe can proprie loquendo be said to be Popery There are many Things the Papists hold in common with many if I 〈◊〉 not say All Heretickes yet none ever properly called All Heretickes by the compendious Name of Papists Many points are not yet so fully determined among themselves but that some of them affirme and others deny of the same subject All of them will not agree about Originall sinne Free will Merit c. In this last which yet is one of the most fundamentall points of controversie now betweene us I see many of them comming so neere the Truth that one must have a quick sharpe eye to see where they come short for many of them yeeld Our workes do not properly merit as Ours but as Tincta sanguine Christi yea and some are not rigid in pressing the phrase Merit in its proper sense so that perhaps Their most refined opinion in This may be the more dangerous in the Consequence than substance or forme of it Nay before the Councell of Trent before which yet Popery had beene long in the world most of their Tenets were so much indetermined that scarce any of them knew what he was to hold and beleeve yet he was a Papist then and is so still and yet to this Day I thinke there is scarce one Doctrinall point in which they all agree Wee must then consider what that is which Denominates a Papist and may properly be called Popery It must sure be somewhat Essentiall as I may speake to that Church so that without This It could not be called a Popish Church That is doubtlessie such and such Dependance on the Pope This is in the Popes subjects truly Popery and this Dependance on Him â—s perhaps expressed by receiving his Name or Character in the Apocalyps In the Pope himselfe it is not This or That errour This or That Heresie but such an Independance such a Lordship such a Prelaticall Tyranny over civill and Church estates that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Popery And this is it that is so emphatically expressed here in This place to the Thessalonians He opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God c. And the exercise of This Popish Tyranny is lively limn'd out in Apoc. 13. vers 16 17. And he caused all both small and great rich and poore free and bond to receive a marke in their right hand or in their foreheads And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the marke or the name of the beast or the number of his name This Tyrannicall Prelaticall Power and Dominion which the Pope ufurpeth and excerciseth contrary to Gods Word over Clergy and Laity Princes and Subjects in their estates and consciences is in Him as in His Clients yeelding and submitting to this Popish Prelacy True Proper Popery And This is the Giving Imprinting or forcing of a Name Character or Number on the Popes part as Receiving This on the part of Papists though I have not now time at least not opportunity to discusse how much the Popes Name Character and Number may differ I doubt not but all are parts of That Prelaticall usurped Power which is truly Popish and received by Papists as Servants and Souldiers of old received their Lord's and Commanders Tessera or Character in their hands and foreheads But God also hath impressed his Motto on them all let them read it and tremble Apocal. 14.9 10. And the third Angel followed them saying with a loud voyce If any man worship the Beast and his image and receive his marke in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drinke of the wine of the wâ—ath of God which is powred out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lambe God hath beene pleased to parcell out Church and Commonwealth as severall and distinct Governments yet so that Princes should be Custodes utriusque Tabulae as was said before God hath beene pleased to make appoint and leave the Ministers of the Gospel Brethren and hath permitted none of them a Lordly Prelacy above another But now the Pope comes with a wide mouth and swallowes downe at once all Civill and Ecclesiasticall power Challengeth to himselfe not onely the Keyes but the Sword not onely Papall Dominion in Ecclesiasticis but Regall also in Civilibus This Usurpation of His is properly Popery this robbeth Christ of his Regall Office As every sinne breakes all the Commands the whole Law yet some sinnes do more properly intrench on some particular command so also is it in all Hereses and errors All someway oppose the whole Law of Christ and all the three Offices of Christ yet some more properly One of these Offices some another As the Doctrine of Merit de Condigno Congruo encroacheth on Christs Priestly Office the Alâ—horan mainly against his Propheticall But Popery most properly strikes at his Kingly Office and Authority For it is Christs Kingly Office to bind Kings in Chaines and Princes in Fetters of Iron if they resist him And He that usurps this Power and Priviledge labours to unthrone Christ to sâ—t above him and so properly
opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God or is worshipped This is the Pope and this is Popery Yea I may adde This is truly and most properly Antichrist though indeed perhaps not That Antichrist of whom S. Iohn speakes in his first Epistle Chap. 2.22 and 4.3 who it may be was Ebion or Cerimbus or some other though perhaps also Saint Iohn might speake that of some Lordly Prelacy which began though but to dawne if I may so speake of that darke mystery beginning to shew it selfe even in Saint Iohns daies for in some respect wee will not stand to yeeld a Bishops Pedegree might perhaps extend so high for even then Antichrist was conceiv'd However I doubt not to affirme the Pope is now most Really Truly and properly The Grand Antichrist For such is Hee most properly that encroacheth on Christs Regall Office This being It which now of all the three is most proper to him in his Glory and This he hath received as a most glorious Reward if I may so speake for all his sufferings in his humane Nature and This I think the Scripture Language Esay 53.12 Psal. 110.7 Phil. 2. 8 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 15.27 His Priestly worke was for the most part accomplisht in his Death His Propheticall Office as it were resigned over to his Holy Spirit But his Kingly Office is his owne propriety till the end come and so He that opposeth This is most truly Antichrist This is the Pope and this is Popery Now on the other part if any man please to survay Episcopacy with an unpartiall eye he shal find this kind of Episcopacy Popery to be all one in Re for they have the same Rise the same Media of their progresse and the same End The rise of Popery was by overthrowing Christs ordinances and setting up of his owne That this may appeare the more distinctly give me leave to shew you the Bishops boldnesse in the particulars of it Christs ordinances in the New Testament are either concerning Doctrine or Discipline I confesse the Pope hath made great assaults upon the doctrinall part but what he hath done in that kind he hath done many times by gathering up the negorgements of others and so they are not his owne or as an Heretique but not as Pope for the reasons which I have even now mentioned But he hath plaid his part mainly in point of Discipline This most properly belonging to Christs Royall Office as Doctrine to his Propheticall In the Discipline there are two things considerable 1 That which concerneth the Officer 2 That which concerneth the Nature of his office In the case of the Officer you have his Accesse to his Office and his Execution of the Office In the first Election and Ordination are considerable By Gods rule his Election is to be by the people his Ordination from the people by the hand of the Presbytery By the rule of Popery a Minister is Ordained by the Pope and his substitute and is elected by the same power and in the same way And as their Schoole darkens with a mist of their termes what they cannot cleere So do These to cloud their swarving from Christs rule They raise up new termes and instead of Election have Presentation Institution Induction The first is done by the Patrâ—n the second by the Bishop a way which Christ never knew It is so well knowne to all men that Episcopacy traces these very paths of Popes that I shall not need to say more for this part of their Identity In the execution of his Oâ—â—ce there are Acts of 2. sorts some wherein he hath a Ioynt power with other some wherein he is a sole Agent he is sole in Church preaching and in administration of the Sacraments he is coadjutor to others in Admission of members in Excommunication Under the Papacy the Minister or Priest hath the power of Preaching and Administration according to Gods Law and this onely with relation to the Bishop who in his Church superintends But in the other hee hath no power at all it is wholly given up to the Pope and by him committed to the Bishop And thus the Pope may truly while he is Dominus Dominorum stile himselfe servum servorum for hee impropriates all offices to himselfe and in liew of coadjutors given by God to the Minister the Bishop hath Officers appointed him by the Pope The Coadjutors of the Ministers by the Word in some cases were the People in some cases the Elders and Deacons and sometimes people Elders and Deacons but the Pope in lieu of these hath instituted another generation of helpers and lest that true name should reduce true Officers he hath given them yet another title as Apparitor Surrogate Chancellour Officiall Commissaries Deanes Church-wardens Overseers of the poore In all which Episcopacie and Popery have so twin-like a frame that seeing one you see both Nec Sofia Sofiae similior nec simiae simia And so I leave that point which concernes the Officer In the Nature of his office it is considerable 1 What the worke of his Office is Secondly from what power and thirdly in what manner he doth it For the first the subject matter of his office is Administration of the Sacraments Preaching Admission of members Excommunication In reckoning these the Pope conformeth to Gods Word and so doth Episcopacy for if we will erre we must sometimes goe right and then we may transgresse with lesse suspicion But Consider from what power the Minister of the Gospell Acts. He ought not to borrow his Commission from any but from Christ from Scripture and he ought to keepe close to That now the Papacie is wholly steared by Traditions Decretals Councels Canons Colledge of Cardinals and the Pope in the Chaire where he cannot erre in matters of Faith The Pandects of the Civill Law are too too boystrous and of too great extent for any Civilian to comprehend and yet that body of their learning is boyled up to such a degree that it runnes over and no memory is able to attaine it more than to compasse perfection in the learning of the Chinâ—es where the A. B. C. amounts to 10000 letters Constitutions crosse one another and almost all fight against the Gospell of Christ. Doth not Episcopacie Si magna licet componcre parvis according to its modicum do the same I confesse with them the Scripture is the rule but who must expound this Scripture Synods Councells Convocations Bishops Archbishops Some of these sometimes sometimes All of them And though by their owne confession These bind not mens Consciences yet They bind them to obedience which obedience they doe precisely Challenge and when they faile thereof they doe without the least scruple of conscience proceede to excommunication fine imprisonment deprivation and what not In the meane time it is held a sinne for a Lay man at all to thinke of these studies The Priests lips they say must preserve knowledge It is a sad case
say they when men with unhallowed hands will touch the Arke and with unsanctified eyes pry into these mysteries and so These men making the Scripture a Rule in appearance do in truth Monopolize all to themselves This is just and flat Popery In the last place The Manner which God hath prescribed is that every thing be done in decencie and in order with what singlenesse and plainnesse may be without any addition of mens inventions The Pope carrieth on his Jurisdiction with pompe and much outward glory They have coÌ„missions Injunctions Charters Seales Secretaries Clarkes and 1000 other inventions to grind the face of the poore Episcopacie hath its Courts Summons Clarkes Seales with other Ceremonies of the like nature Christs rule is that Ministers of equall ranke shall all have equall power Apostles indeed were above Evangelists and Evangelists above Pastors and Teachers but one Apostle was not above another nor one Pastor did not superintend another The Pope hath Priest Bishop Archbishop Primate Patriarch Cardinall Pope and Episcopacie hath Ministers now called Priests Deacons Bishops Archbishops Primates c. The Scripture commandeth Preaching in season and out of season but with the Pope and our Bishops All preaching is now out of Season I am sure out of fashion in themselves and cryed downe in others for with them Ignorance is the mother of Devotion The Scripture alloweth but two Sacraments the Pope addeth five and our Bishops are ambiguous Two onely they say are generally Necessary to salvation which may clearly intimate that there are More than Two though perhaps not absolutely Necessary to Salvation or though necesary yet not Generally necessary to all men in all times states and conditions whatsoever and so much the Papists yeeld of Their five Sacraments nay of fixe of their seven For onely Baptisme they say is absolutely and generally necessary to salvation the Eucharist even with them is not Necessary to Infants much lesse Matrimony Orders Confirmation Penance Vâ—ction In what do our Bishops then differ from Papists in This How do they differ in Baptisme Both Pope and Bishops hold it necessary absolutely necessary to salvation Yea the most Moderate of Both maintaine a generall Baptismall Grace Equally confer'd to all partakers of that Sacrament Indeed Our Bishops doe not openly use Salt and Spittle but yet they retaine the Crosse perhaps much worse and beginne to Claime spirituall alliances as the Papists doe In the Lords Supper the Pope makes rather than findes an Hostia an Altar a Priest and This Priest must offer for the sinnes of the Quick and Dead Our Bishops must have Priests Altars a Sacrifice Corporals and what not that Papists have to say nothing of their Times and Gestures which sure the Scripture never so determined much lesse excluded any that could not yeeld to such and such circumstances which none ever thought could be more than Indifferent In all Ordinances the Scripture now speakes of no other Holinesse then That which is Spirituall Rationall the Holinesse of the whole man The Pope hath found out new Holinesse which he puts on Places Times Vestments Bels Tapers Water Wafers Copes Basons Pots and Cups with other Vtensles And doe not our Bishops so also What meanes such rigid pressing of Holy dayes Bare heads in Churches Holy Surplices What meane they else by their Holy Chalices Holy Knives Holy Patents Holy Vtensles all which may be so sanctified by a devout Priest tâ—at they may become profitable to the Soules of those that use them How then doe our Bishops differ from Papists in administring Sacraments Manner of all Ordinances And is there any Greater Difference in Admission of Members and Excommunication This last being the last and Greatest Censure of the Church by both Bishops and Pope is made not onely most Common as the humour moves them but also most Ridiculous being the usuall appendix of one groat short in our Reckonings with our Lord Bishops Register Proctor or Apparitor I would not be mistaken here I bring not in These Things of Doctrine or Discipline as if by agreeing in One or Many of These I might convince Bishops and Papists or the Pope were all one The maine thing I drive at in all this is the Originall fountaine from whence All These spring and all the bankes that keepe in These Rivulets That vertue and power which moves and actuates all these in their proper Channels And This is Papall For what ever the Pope doth of his owne head by his owne Power Dictating to his Vassals as Head of the Church This is truly Papall and such is the Power by which They usurpe so much over mens persons and consciences in injoyning and pressing such or such Doctrine or Discipline So that a Bishops wearing a Surplice Cope Miter using the Crosse Bowing to the Altar and many such Things though they may be Errors yet All These or One of these makes him not a Pope a Popeling or properly Antichristian But Receiving These from the Popes Dictates doing them because he commands acknowledging his power in commanding This makes a Papist and Commanding them Pressing them on Others in such Despoticall power makes a true Pope a Reall Antichrist Nor may Our Bishops Evade by This which I easily see will be answered that though indeed they doe these things and command these Things yet they neither doe them from the Popes Command nor Command them in the Popes Power Though I should grant This which yet many wise men will not grant for Our Bishops first Power came from the Pope and of late also We have found letters advice commands Dictates from the Pope to some of our Bishops and that in Matters of greatest Consequence both for Church and State But grant all They say yet they may be Antichristian and so such in Re as the Pope is though not literally Romanists Except they doe or command in the Power of Rome This I shall be bold to affirme and maintaine till I see better Reason that He whoever he be that Commands the least title of Doctrine or discipline meerely Ex imperio Voluntatis in his owne Power and Authority without Licence or Warrant from Scripture or Right Reason where the Scripture hath beene silent though the Thing he so commands should happen to be good in it selfe Yet He in his so Commanding is not onely Tyrannicall but Antichristian properly Antichristian Encroaching on the Royall Office of Christ which is truly High Treason against God and most properly Antichristianisme I care not whether we call him a Pope Papist Romanist or any other name I call him Antichrist and if you will call Antichrist by the name of Pope I call such an Imperious Commander among us though he have no shadow of Dependance on Rome or Romish Pope an English Pope I meane an English Antichrist I neede not spend much time in shewing by what meanes Either the Pope or Our Bishops beganne and continued to be so Antichristian Du Plessis and Others have sav'd
me This labour In a word they have beene These With One hand they have laid Pillowes under Princes and all Governours appointed by God that so they might fall softly while they thrust them downe with the Other the stronger Hand Arme and all When These have beene so surely though gently laid downe asleepe They have beene bold to tread on them yet with Plush Slippers lest they should chance to wake stirre and get up againe and by Them as so many staires or steps mount up themselves into this Height of Tyranny Thus have they still opposed and advanced themselves against and above All that is called God or is worshipped And If with your owne thoughts you will please to goe on in the Chapter you will finde some other Media as Lying Wonders and others by which they have ascended I shall not neede to parallel Popish and Episcopall Media to Their Height All the world sees them now For they were not done in a Corner What meanes their Crying up an unjust and illimited power in Princes Is not This their bleating out of an illegall unwarranted Prerogative with which all Our pulpits have rung of late intended to tickle Princes till they be luld asleepe or to sow pillowes under them till They themselves can thrust them downe not onely from that Tyranny which Bishops would perswade them to usurp but also from their wholsome and lawfull prerogative What meaneth their Buzzing in Princes Eares That Kings cannot stand without such Bishops that if they should be put downe the Church and State too must needs be Ruined to This purpose they cry Blood Blood They can never fall without Blood so some of them have vaunted But Let them remember what Christ said to One to whom they so much pretend He that smiteth with the sword shall perish by the sword They know also whose Coat was sent home to their Holy Father with this Inscription written with his owne blood Iudge Holy Father whether This be Thy Sonnes Coat or not I have not forgotten how they have dealt with the People Ministry Gentry Nobility All sorts of men For they have many staires to step up by to such an Height but Princes are their highest steps their first Aime That which they have most sounded in the Peoples Eares is the Church the Church the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord by This as by a stalking horse they have come much neerer then else they could But now their Vizard beginnes to fall off and Men beginne to see the true power of the True Church and the Tyranny of that Antichristian Mock-Church which under the Maske of Indifference hath brought in most abominable Superstitions and most intolerable slavery on the Persons Liberties Bodies and Soules of Men. For they have pressed Consciences even unto Gasping yea and would not be satisfied though they daily heard the sighes and groanes of those bleeding hearts which themselves had stabd with the poysoned sword of Church-Indifference Indeed they have used Both hands and have stricken with Both. What the Keyes could not break the Sword hath cut And it had been much more tolerable If This Sword had pierced no farther then the Eares of Men with which they have yet beene much more busie then He was whom they bragge to have beene their first Predecessor Yet methinkes it was a sad Omen that this Sword should cut off the Eare of Malchus which signifies they say a King or Kingly Authority At This they strike indeed through the Eares and Hearts of so many Loyall Subjects We neede not seeke their End in all This. It cannot be doubted but by all These Meanes they aime at One End which is also the Popes to pull downe all Other Power and set up their owne Thus Thus they Oppose and Exalt themselves above All that is called God or is Worshipped as is more fully represented in another place of this Discourse Now let any man Living speake Are These Bishops These Usurping Prelates to be suffered in a Church or State where there is any respect to Right Church Government or True State Policie since it is Evident They are truly Papall most properly Antichristian and as Antichrist must Oppose and Exalt themselves above all that is Worshipped or Called God Which is most True Popery as hath beene demonstrated And as Popery Destructive to all Church and State Policie Doubtlesse some such Apprehensions as This wrought in their Breasts who being offered have refused Bishop-ricks and being possessed could not rest till they had Disinvested themselves againe Histories are full of forraine and Domesticke Examples of This sublect Such was Niceph. Bâ—emnides chosen Patriarch of Constantinople Weringbaldius chosen Bishop of Triers Theophilus Bishop of Adiana Aminonius cut off his Eare being Bishop that so he might be uncapable of That Function Eugenius the Philosopher left his Ministery rather than he would bee a Bishop Bassiances an Elected Bishop was by Memnon whipped before the Altar three houres together because he would not be made a Bishop Adrian with us refused the Archbishopricke of Canterbury being pressed thereunto Two or Three Popes might come into this Catalogue Clement the first was One Eâ— quis fuit Alter Shall I name Marcellus He neither refused nor resigned the Papacie yet solemnly professed be saw not how Those that possessed such high places could bee saved O but had These piously considered what Good they might have done in such high places or duly remembred their Owne or their friends advancement they could never have dome This But Ignoti nulla cupidâ— For answer to This Objection I shall give you some instances of Those that have resigned up their Bishop-ricks after they had held them long enough for a full Tryall Yea perhaps there be more of This kinde than of the other though the Proverb be Aegrius Ejicitur quam non admittitur Hospes Of These were Vlbranius Bishop of Sâ—etune Arnulphus Bishop of Mentâ— Addâ— Bishop of Lions Viâ—erbus Bishop of â—atisbone Henger Bishop of Mâ—â—â—s Michael Bishop of Ephesies with many more Amongst our Owne was Edmund Boniface and Robert Kalwarby Both Arch-Bishops of Canterbury Will. Beavose and William De Sancta Maria Bishops of London One of Lincoln and Two of Coventry I may adde Miles Coverdale who being deprived in Queene Maries dayes would not be reinyâ—sted in Queene Elizabeths but taught a Schoole There is One Pope Cornelius And Gregory the Great must not be forgotten who said He that affects the Primacie of the whole Church must be Antichrist or His Predecessor If some few Walloons or men of Geneva should declaime against Episcopacie They would prevaile but little because it would be said of Them perhaps as of That great disturber of the Church of old Insaniunt quia non sunt Episcopi But now Ex Ore Tuo judicaberis Bishops contend with Bishops not with Words but Deeds I beseech you consider that Flesh and Blood is not wont to refuse or part with such great
Advantages Sure we may conclude there is somewhat that stings within Latet Anguis in Herba These Good men doubtlesse found a Sting and they would not kick against Pricks When Saint Paul a Great Philosopher bids us beware lest we be entangled with Philosophy When Solomon who had tasted all the dainty Cates Nature could provide or dresse cries out All is Vanity All is Vanity When Bishops themselves who have fully enjoyed all the sweetnesse a Bishops Honour can afford shall pause and cry It is Enough It is Enough Non iterum bibam veneunm as once Dioclesian of his Empire Sure there must bee something worth reflecting on a faire warning for our Present or Future Bishops O you Judges of the Earth why will you not bee wise O you Senators for such our Bishops are why will you not learne Wisdome God forbid that of You should be said what the Spirit speaketh of some Why should they be smitten They rebell more and more Why should they be reproved They will still doe follishly Yet but for a little while For I am Confident yet within few Yeares if not Months if not Dayes the God of Peace and Truth will deliver his Church of This heavie yoke from which with the Letany Give me leave to conclude Good Lord deliver us SECTION II. CHAP. I. HAving cleerly proved how uncompatible Our Episcopacy is to Civill Government in State Policy let us now consider whether It may shelter it selfe under the Mysterious Covert of Antiquity I could heartily wish that in matters which receive their being from Scripture so immediately as Church Discipline doth wee might make the Scripture which is a sufficient rule our sole guide our sole moderator But as Heretickes in the day of Judgement shall cry to the mountaines to cover them so Heresies now also fly to the craggy rocks of remotest times and in such darke corners hope to shelter themselves Thither also wee will follow them quo fata trahunt we will advance Not doubting but to unkennell those little Foxes hoping even with Goliah's sword to lay Goliah in the dust and bring the five uncircumcised Princes of the Caenaanites to their just censure before the King or Captaines of the Israelites There is a most Reverend man famous for learning especially for that learning which is not open to every eye hath taken upon him the defence of This Cause I shall therefore in few words present to Him my thoughts upon those His determinations Concluding with Philip of Macedon that if I can but win the chiefe City the whole Countrey is gained Then I shall see whether Those things which are pressed by others be not altogether ineffectuall to determine the point which they dispute And so I shall leave the decision of This to the judgement and opinion of the learned Before I consider that Treatise in the parts of it give me leave to say that which is most true and I hope will satisfie all men If every word of that his booke were true yet it is little to the point For the Question is not Whether there have been Bishops ever since Christs time but Whâ—ther these have had power over their brethren or Whether one Bishop hath had Jurisdiction over another And this Question is double First Whether they have had any superintendence one above another Secondly Whether this hath beene mixt with that Lordlinesse which now is used forcing obedience by the edge of the Sword where the Keyes can give no entrance And of this in the whole booke there is not the least hint ne gry quidem Though this also were not enough for our Question which is not only of their Lordly power in Ecclesiasticis but also in Civilibus In the first Querie we shall quickly joyne issue agreeing with our Antagonists that there have beene Bishops viz. Ministers of the Gospel who have had a Scripture power in matter of Government over particular flocks but the other wee doe absolutely and confidently deny First He endeavoureth to prove the succession of seaven and twenty Bishops in the seat of Timothy and this hee essayeth by one single not to say simple witnesse a certaine man named Leontius whose writings have not delivered him famous to us for learning nor his exemplary holinesse mentioned by others famous for piâ—ty Truly a man of greater authority than he as Papias Ignatius Polycarpus who almost all knew the Apostles shall not bee of credit sufficient to sway my faith in this point Not but that they were most worthy men but because all Antiquity hath passed the refining pot of the Index expurgatorius I shall consider well before I subscribe And shall I then give credit to an unknowne Author in those things that were acted almost five hundred yeares before his birth Let the world judge whether it bee equall Neither is this Author quoted from witnesse of his owne but out of a Councell Now how Councells have beene abused those who have ever had place or note in great Assemblies can too well tell where there is almost no Order drawn up but after a serious review reducing the mistakes of the Clerks to the sense of those who did frame the Order which might else come forth most disorderly By what I have already said That other testimony brought from a fatherlesse Treatise of Timothy's Martyrdome cited only by Photius a learned man who lived seven or eight centuries after Christ will be of no weight for Photius doth but say he read it Hear-say in matter of judicature is no good testimony and reports in matter of opinion at the second hand are good to amuse those who defie venerable Antiquity but will never edifie those who desire to bottome their resolutions upon sound Reason The testimonies of Faelix Iohn of Antioch and Theodore are not of age sufficient to bee registred among the Ancients or to be valued because they are old I confesse I set a greater value upon Ignatius and Irenaeus who affirm Polycarpus was made Bishop of Smyrna by St. Iohn but this must not be of undeniable authority For of Ignatius I shall affirme this that All those who are any whit learned in Antiquity know that five of his Epistles are spurious and how unmingled those are which wee allow to be his wee doe not know who look upon Antiquity at such a distance But allow it to bee true that Onesimus was Bishop of Ephesus Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna c. This may be true but evinceth in no measure the Question in dispute Which is not of a Bishop in generall but such a Bishop The Authority of Tertullian also is of the same credit Hee tels us that Polycarpus was placed by St. Iohn at Smyrna and at Rome Clement by St. Peter This no body will dispute though I am not bound to beleeve it But where is the stresse of this Argument In the last place that of Clement Alexandrinus is as much questioned as all the rest But allow it to bee true that
When Paul writes to the Church of the Thessalonians 1 Thes. 5. v. 27. commanding That Epistle to be read to all the holy Brethren the Church of the Thessalonians should have Jurisdiction over other Churches which truely I doe not thinke to be a strong Argumentation Secondly the Word is taken collectively for the Assembly and charge of Ministers and not for One as appeareth evidently Revel 2. v. 24. He saith speaking to the Angel To you and to the rest in Thyatira he puts the Angel in the plurall number which hee would not have done had he written to a single Bishop Thirdly these Epistles are written to the whole Church for the threats and promises are read to them and the Epiphonema of every Epistle is this he that hath an eare let him heare what is spoken to the Churches But yet if this superscription could give any advantage to the Angel it would but extend to his owne congregation The Laodicean Angel hath no influence upon the Philadelphian or the Smyrnite and if that be not proved nothing is gained in the point of Episcopacy except it could be proved that these Angels had in their care many congregations under these particular Churches which never hath nor ever will appeare I hope it is manifest to all men that they cannot establish Episcopacy by Scripture Secondly there is much in Scripture against them For the word Elder and Bishop is all one Tit. 1. ver 7. For this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordaine Elders in every City as I had appinted thee for a Bishop must be blamelesse as the Steward of God First he sheweth Titus what manner of man an Elder must be viz Blamelesse and now proveth it because a Bishop must be blamelesse As if I should write to Thomas to live soberly because a Man must be sober it necessarily followeth that Thomas is a man So that Phil. 1. he writes to the Bishops and Deacons at Philippi Is it probable that a little Towne in Macedonia should have many Bishops when one Bishop must have many Cities in his Dioces Those Who translated the Bible foresaw This And therefore Acts 20. They have translated the word Episcopus an Over-seer Yet in other places they translate it Bishop And the Jesuites say Piae fraudes sunt licitae The carriage of the Apostles in severall places is remarkable when they come to a City as Acts 20. They send for the Elders of the Church never thinking of a Bishop he is so inconsiderable a man These places I hope make cleerely against them So now I will endeavour to shew what the Scripture holdeth forth for Church Government SECT II. CHAP. V. IN this search you will agree that the Government is fixed there where you shall see setled the plenary and absolute power of Election of Officers Decision of controversies and Excommunication of those that transgresse This you will find ministerially in the Officers But initiativè virtualiter conclusivè in the People The Officers are called Overseers Rulers and Elders c. Some of these are to preach and administer the Sacraments others to watch over mens manners others to serve Tables and looke to the poore All these are chosen by the People but whensoever by their industry any delinquency is discovered the whole matter is brought to the Church and there the people and Elders doe passe their definitive sentence Examine but where election of Officers decision of controversies excommunication of members are recorded and you shall have them all in the Church not representative but in the whole Church consisting of Officers and other members As first for election Acts 1.15 Peter speaketh to the People and telleth them they must choose one in Iudas his place and ver 23. It is said They appointed Two It is true the lot divided which of them two should be the man a course in the like case not unlawfull to us at this day But the reducing of it to Two was the act of the Church though Peter was amongst them So afterwards Timothy received his Evangelicall gift by the Imposition of Presbyteriall hands which Presbyters were in this worke the servants of one present Congregation Secondly Decision of Controversies either in cases of Conscience or in point of manners In cases of Conscience when Paul and Barnabas had no small difference about Circumcision they sent to Jerusalem where the Apostles Elders and Brethren meeting together joyntly returned that answer which you finde Acts 15 23.24.2◠Some would presse this place this act of the Apostles further and give to every Synod a Commanding Power because it is said Act. 15.28 It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay no further burden upon you Therefore they say a Synod hath a commanding and burdening Power But I cannot consent to that for then the major part of the Churches in Europe Africa Prester Iohns Country might meet and command all the Churches of Christ which God forbid in what they pleased and that jure divino for God when hee giveth a rule to his Church hee speaketh to the whole Church of Christ and not to any particular Congregation I only presse it thus farre That the People were joyned even with the Apostles in that Great Synod The Commanding power of the Synod lay in this that the Apostles speak the minde of the Holy Ghost But such authority is not left in us and therefore no such Obligation upon others Truly if there were such a power left us I should with much scurple resist any act of such Government whereof I could make a good construction For many times the power Commanding is more dangerous than the thing Commanded but there is no such power Neither as I said before doe I presse it with such a designe In cases of Civill converse Mat. 18.17 Wee must make our addresses to the Church and hee that will not heare the Church must be as a Publican In that place the greatest dispute will be What is meant by the Church for some will say Here is meant the Church representativè either in more as the Presbytery or in one as the Bishop and not the Church at large But I would labour to evince the contrary Weigh either the Context or the generall signification of the word Church and I hope the true sense will be manifest For Let us see how Church is taken in the Scripture It is used sometimes figurativè and sometimes properly Figurativè as when a particular house is called a Church As the Church in his house Rom. 16.5 Secondly When by Synecdoche the head is put for the whole as Christ is called the Church 1 Cor. 12.12 Thirdly Collectivè When all the Churches of Christ are called the Church 1 Cor. 10.32 It is used perhaps under some other figures but it will bee long to quote them all Secondly It is used Properly in two phrases First When the Congregation is
called the Church as the Church at Ephesus Corinth c. Secondly When the Congregations are called Churches as the Churches of Galatia and of Iadea Thus it is used Properly Thus Figuratively but no where Representativè scil the Ministers the Presbyters or the Bishops or all these for the Church You shall finde these and the Church contradistinct as To the Saints the Bishops and the Deacons 1 Phil. 1.1 To the Church and the Elders Act. 15.4 I conceive wee are bound to take a word in that sense which is currant in Scripture except that sense cleerely crosse the scope and spirit of the text You shall meet with that word 48. times in the New Testament and no where signifying that which wee call the Representative Church Very often for the Saints themselves As 1 Cor. 1. vers 15.2 Cor. 1. vers 1. 1 Thes. 1. vers 1. Why should we not then take it in the same sense Are not wee then bound to expound the word Church in some of those significations which are frequent in Scripture and not in that sense which is so far from being found in the text that a Contradistinct phrase is as I said before â—ather used Againe From the text and context that will appeare to be the meaning of the Spirit and no other The text is Mat. 18. vers 17. If hee shall neglect to heare Them tell the Church but if hee neglect to heare the Church let him bee to thee as a heathen man and a Publican The context is in the 15. and 16. verses If thy brother shall trespasse against thee goe and tell him his fault betweene thee and him alone If hee shall beare thee then hast thou gained thy brother but if hee will not heare thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established In the context and the text there are three things to bee examined before the true sense can bee found out First Who are meant in that Gradation in the 15 16 17. v. Secondly Who is meant by Them v. 17. if hee will not heare Them Thirdly What is meant by Publicans and sinners First Who is meant in that Gradation In the first place is meant the Party in the second is meant the Elders or the Bishops the Officers of the Church If you say They are not there understood yet I am confident you will not I am sure you cannot say they are there excluded If then the Spirit pointed at them with the other members of the Church or them solely It would be an unnecessary thing to bring him afterwards to them againe as to the Representative Church Secondly By Thee v. 17. is not meant only the Party but every Christian every Church member to whomsoever the newes of such a miscarriage shall come Else this will bee a meanes to nourish particular parties sidings which the Scripture doth exceedingly shun If by Gods Law hee should bee a Publican to one of the Church and not another If hee be so to every member of the Church this will bee a hard case That if a Bishop or an Elder one two or more shall passe the bitter sentence of Excommunication hee must be so to mee also though I know nothing of it But some will say that must be done before the Church To which I answer The word saith no such matter And thus those who mis-expound the Scripture must eck out the Scripture to make good their own imagination But secondly Why should it be complained of before the Church if the deciding power be in the Officers Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora But thirdly and lastly If you will have the whole Church heare it seemeth to mee against all reason in the world that the party deputed should have power the party deputing being present The Steward of a Court Leet or Court Baron is annihilated if the Lord bee there All Officers vaile bonnet when the party giving them power is present Why are Parliaments the representative body of the Kingdome but because the Plough cannot stand but because no plaâ—e can containe the whole body But if all the people could meet in Campo Martio should Those who now are but servants then bee more than servants surely the whole Church being present foure or five by Gods Law shall not rule all seeing Gods Law never appoints any standing Laws against the rules of nature In the third place wee must enquire after the sense of Heathen and Publican sc. the most odious of men Is it possible that any Christian shall bee to any Christian the most odious of men for the sentence of a Judge which hee never heard neither hath right to heare Thus if you will bee bound either by text or context or the common acceptation of the word in the Scripture by Church must bee understood the whole Congregation Againe for excommunication of members 1 Cor. 5.13 S. Paul commandeth Them sc. the whole Church to put away that wicked person and to deliver up such a one to Satan 2 Cor. 2. They restore him They forgive him Thus we see every where That in election of Officers in decision of Controversies in cases of Conscience in Excommunication the whole Church disposeth everything not the Bishops not the Presbyters alone I doe not observe the Church hath power in other things but in these and in all these in election of Officers in decision of controversies and excommunication of delinquents the whole power is in the Church I conceive then I have cleerely and briefly proved these three things 1 That there is little in Scripture for Episcopacy much lesse for such an Episcopacy as Ours 2 Something against them 3 Another Government cleerely delineated SECT II. CHAP. VI. IT being as I conceive it is cleered both from State-policy Antiquity and Scripture how incompatible Civill Government and such Episcopacy are I hope we shall never hereafter be choaked with that Proverbe No Bishop no King I doe most willingly pay very great reverence to a saying delivered to us by many successions from the wisedome of our forefathers But I shall ever crave leave to question that Maxime which may justly seeme to me the birth either of Ignorance or ends Antiquity must have no more authority than what it can maintaine by reason frequent impostures of this nature command us to be circumspect did not our predecessors hold the torrid zone inhabitabilem aestu till Noahs Dove Columbus discoverd Land the world was confined in the Arke of Europe Africa and Asia In Divinity where an error is of most dangerous consequence we have beene too credulous how many hundred yeares did our fore fathers swallow this pleasant bait We must believe as the Church believeth And since the light of Reformation was not particular assurance of our Salvation delivered us as an exact definition of our faith We have ventured our bodies as well as our soules upon these sands
for in the Art of Phisicke though our parents at a very great remotenesse were wiser it hath passed for a currant position that Phlebotomy almost in any case was more than dangerous and that men might pay deare for their learning they have beene as wise in Tenets of State-Policy Have not too many great ones closed in with Neroes conclusion mâ— oderint dum metuant Lastly Episcopacy hath beene the basis the superstructure the All the soule of Church Discipline for these many ages but dabit his meliora Deus Some of these Tenets spring from invincible Ignorance others have beene the base pullulations of spirits enslaved to false ends This No Bishop no King as I have fully proved pertakes of both and therefore hath no weight with me nor I hope shall ever hereafter be of credit with any body else for we see that old received truthes are not alwaies to be entertained and so I leave them with their maxime to the sentence of every judicious Reader SECT II. CHAP. VII THere yet remaineth an objection or two which must necessarily receive an answer before I shut up this discourse 1 Obj Allow there are some inconveniencies yea great ones in Episcopacy yet ex malis minimum it is better to beare these than groane under worse If Episcopacy be taken away Schismes and Heresies will breake in as armed men Tyranny is more eligible then Anarchy the wofull sense of Anarchy begot that sad Proverbe It is at it was with Israel when there was no King Ans. I doe agree to this that a confusion is a most lamentable condition and that those times are very perillous when every mans hand is up against his brother Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim Yea I doe professe the distraction of Heresies the most miserable of all Civill conquassations disjoynt the outward estate but Heresies distract our soules dismember our Churches stave off Iew and Gentile who know not whether part to believe shake the weaker cause heart-burning amongst the stronger doe exceedingly provoke God to wrath and displeasure But first let us consider whether it be possible to be without Heresies and Schismes Secondly whether Episcopacy be not the efficient cause of the most grievous Schismes and Heresies Thirdly whether Those which may justly be feared upon the removall of Episcopacy be of such dangerous consequence as to weigh downe the keeping up of that Government rather than to hazard what inconveniences may there-hence follow And 1 to the first of these It will bee cleere both from experience and Scripture and reason that Heresies must come Look over all Nations and all times and you shall finde them distracted with difference of opinions How many severall Sects doe you heare of amongst the Jewes and some of them extreame grosse the Sadduces the Pharisees the Esseans Herodians with many more though a great Critique reduce them to Three Christ had no sooner committed the care of his Church to the Apostles Disciples and ordinary Ministers but they were over-runne with Heresies Yea in their time some were of Paul some of Apollo some of Cephas in the interim Christ quite laid aside In the Church of Pergamus were there not some that held the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans In Thyatira did not some of the Church listen to the Prophetesse Iezebel who taught them to commit fornication and to eate things offered to Idolls Barnabas and Paul were at some difference the Doctrine of workes was pressed upon the Galatians and the resurrection from the dead questioned by the Corinthians Amongst Heathens where Morality was their God had you not the Peripatelickes the Sceptiques the Platonists the Epicureant and many other Sects The Pope and Papâ—cy have beene much turmoyled with Schismes and these Schismes have produced great confusions amongst them In the yeare of the Lord 420. Boniface the eighth being chosen the Clergy chose Eulatius and there they decreed one another Heretickes Simmachus and Lawrentius caused the same distraction in the yeare 499.760 Pope Custantine being convinced of Schismes and berest of both his eyes he and Philip another Pope were deposed and Stephen elected in their places Thus it was 958.973.995.1047.1058.1062.1083.1100.1118.1124 in the yeare of the Lord 1130 the disputes betwixt Gregory and Peter Both chosen Popes were so famous that it was growne a Proverbe and recorded in this verse Petrus habet Romam totum Gregorius orbem Every twenty yeares had such changes as these even till of late that Church hath beene vehemently turmoyled with all their Learned Amongst the Schoolemen some are Scotists some Thomists among the Polemiques some Iesuites some Dominicans And all these wrangle each with other In the yeare of our Lord 1400. there was a great dispute about the Originall sinne of the Virgin Mary Betweene 1215. and 1294. was that great Faction betweene the Guelsians and Gibelines though both were Papists One desending the authority of the Pope the other of the Emperour In some points of Controversie Bellarmine one of their ablest Writers is not to be read without restriction and not without Licence of superiors If we survey all Antiquity we shall finde no one Century free from Heretickes Ebion Cerinthus Marcion Samosatenus Novatians Sabellians Nepotians Maniches Arrians Pelagians with many others have troubled the Church from time to time If you descend so low as our daies even among Protestants you shall meet with too too many Divisions Luther and Calvin and the English Church betweene both a Calvinist for Doctrine a Lutheran for Discipline The Lutherans are divided in Rigidiores Molliores and these differ toto Coelo The Calvinists have many disputes How fiercely doth learned Erastus contend with Calvin and Beza about Excommunication denying the Church any such power The Church of England hath three maine Divisions The Conformist the Non-Conformist and the Separarist The Conformist hath the Orthodox Divine contending with the Arminian Socinian Pelagian Anabaptist and divers others who yet All stile themselves Sonnes of the Church of England The Non-conformist is uncertaine what he scrupleth for some can dispence with one of the three Grand Nocent-innocent Ceremonies some with another some with neither The Separist is subdivided too as they say into Seperatist and Semi-seperatist Many other Divisions there also be will be in Churches here Yea it is cleare in Reason that Divisions Sects Schismes and Heresies must come For many are apt to advance themselves and undervalue all others and Mens Braines being fertile of errors after they have conceived they must bring forth though the Gospell suffer never so much by it And while This Temper is among men you must still expect Schismes and Heresies The Scripture hath put this out of all doubt it saith Heresies must come Christ came to set a Sword not only betweene the Good and Bad but even among Professors of the same Christian Religion that Those who hold out to the End may have their Honour and Reward It is to be marked that Christ
the other members dependant on my Head so are all particular Churches I meane Congregations dependant on their Generall Head Christ but not on other of their fellow members If any man shall say that Hands depend not onely on the Head but also on the Armes Shoulders and Necke which are betweene Them and the Head on whom they ultimately depend I answer It is true the Hands are conjoyned to the Armes These to the Shoulders and Both by the Neck to the Head but yet They depend not on any but the Head I meane they are not directed and guided by the Dictates of Arme Shoulder or Necke but onely by the Commands of the Head so that there is onely a bodily outward Continuity and no vertuall Dependance but on the Head The Head sends out Animall Spirits and by them guides my Hand as my fancie pleaseth This Guiding or Directing Depends onely on the Head not Arme which when I meane to move my Hand is but as it were my Hands Servant that must goe and call and lead my Hand as a Gentleman Usher but not command it So are also all the Churches all severall Congregations They are all members and are all outwardly conjoyned One to another through all the world by the tendons and ligaments of Rivers Seas Hils Vallies and the like Yea and some of These are neerer to Christ their Head as they keepe themselves purer and walke more closely in dependance on Him Yet All these Churches are but Coordinate not among themselves Subordinate They are but conjoyned each to other not dependant each on other but All on their Head which alone can command and move them Yea though perhaps some One Church may come betweene Christ and another Church as the Arme betweene the Head and Hand yet it is there but as a servant to call on leade helpe uphold being so commanded by the Head but not to command dictate or over-top its fellow member You see here what Power we give to Synods and Councels or all other Churches over one particular Church â—o wit a counselling perswading which sure is very prevailing but not commanding Authority I doubt not but Christ doth sometimes require One Church to incite exhort admonish and perswade another fellow Church though This be not required of any one Angel in the Apocalyps towards another Church or Angel yet I suppose it may be in some Cases yea and so that the Other Church may haply sinne if shee doe not follow This Call and Counsell yet not because it comes from her fellow Church or any Synod but because It comes from Christ her Head that speakes through This Church to her fellow As the Hand might justly bee stiled rebellious that rejects the Animall Spirits sent from the Head though they come through the Arme Which is here in this Case not onely a servant to the Head but to the Hand also Yet doth not the Hand rebell because it refuseth That which comes from the Arme but because it came from the Head but through the Arme as an Instrument For if ever the Arme impose ought on the Hand which comes not from the Head as it doth sometimes in a flux of putrid humours from an ulcer in the Arme in this Case the Arme erres in so imposing on the Hand but the Hand rebels not in rejecting what the Arme so sends because it comes not from the Head On which and on which alone all the members vertually depend and not on any one or more fellow members All this while though we dispute the Independancie of Churches among themselves yet we have not the least shadow of a Thought to withdraw any Church from the Civill Magistrate Nay These men whom our Bishops brand so with Separation most cordially affirme that if Episcopacie can prove greater or better subjection or but equall to Them They will not scruple to subscribe to Them But alas if we once give way to Dependance of Churches must not the Church of England Depend on the Dutch or the Dutch on England as much as one Church in England must Depend on a Provinciall Church of Canterbury or Nationall in all England And if the English Church must Depend on the Dutch or Dutch on English which shall be Inferior This or That by This Dispute of Precedencie we shall at length â—ast all Churches into such a Confusion as some of our Bishops Sees were heretofore for superiority Pompejus non admittit superiorem Caesar non parem And now I conceive Yorke is Inferior to Canterbury Durham to Yorke not by any Law Morall or of Nature but positive of State Yea by This Dependance will follow a farre greater Evill than This dispute and confusion about Precedencie For if One whole Church must so depend on another then must also the Officers of This depend on Those of That Church And if so shall not all Church Officers returne to the Pope at length as to One Supreme Head on Earth If Geneva Depend on France why not France on Spaine Spaine on Italy Italy on Rome Rome on the Pope And had I begunne a great deale lower I should have come up higher to This Head Perhaps All the Inconveniences that can be objected on Independance though they could not be answered as I conceive they may will not ballance This One Inconvenience of Dependance But no more of This. The next Grand Inconvenience that may be feared on the removall of our Prelates is Licentia praedicandi not onely in that sense in which This phrase is used beyond the Seas and was in that sense forbidden under our Last Royall King ' Iames That was Licentia quoad Materiam This quoad Personam Now they say Not onely Every matter will be preached what every Minister pleaseth but also Every Person will turne Preacher Even Shoomakers Coblers Felt-makers and any other God is the God of Order and not of Confusion And if Order is to be observed any where It is sure in matter of Worship For if through the Churches default Disorder breake in at any craney you shall finde the Breach grow wider and wider every day Except the Cleft be stopt the Ship may quickly sinke And therefore I shall wholly agree and joyne with Them that indeavour with the first to allay the very semblance and apparition lesse than the least bubling up of Disorder Onely this I could heartily wish that Fire and Fagot may not determine this Controversie that These men may not be dealt with as were some of the Martyrs in Queene Maries daies For oft when the Bishops could not reply They would start up and sweare by the Faith of their Body that This was a dangerous grosse and Hereticall opinion and All This was but a Prologue to That Tragedy whose Epilogue was Flame and Fagot or at least the Fasces to younger men We have oft seene some of These Preachers before the highest Tribunall in This Kingdome For we thought it unreasonable with Those in the Acts to condemne
I aske how long shall he be a Probationer how many yeares months weekes Though he preach ten good Sermons no man tan tell but in the next he meanes to broach an Heresie But alas These poore men see not how weake all This is For Is it not easie for three or foure men or a Bishops Chaplain to commend a man be he Scholler or Groom or Butler or what he will let the Bishop without seeing or smelling This man give him his blessing blindfold and seale him a Licence What hurt is in all This For if This man preach well the Church will get good if ill cannot the Bishop as soone pull him downe as he set him up They answer Suppose he may which is hard to suppose since Orders once given leave an Indelible Character why may not ten or twenty men Good men in a Congregation as well set up a man and try how hee will prove For if Well it is Well he will do good If ill These ten or twenty men can as easily pull him downe againe as set him up Not so For the Bishop is still a very wise discreete Good Holy man and being entrusted by the Church will have a speciall care even more than an hundred others to set up a good man or else pull him quickly downe againe To This they yet answer The Bishop cannot tell how or what he preacheth when he hath set him up except hee can be present in all places at least many at Once to â—eare all young preachers that he Liceuseth and therefore though he would pull him downe yet he cannot because he cannot be still present to heare him Though he come once twice ten times yet the Preacher may hold in all his Herise till he see the Bishop absent and sometimes he must be absent But may not the Congregation then goe and complaine to the Bishop if their Preacher do amisse and upon complaint the Bishop will may and must suppresse that error If he doe not they say They are still where they were But if he do Censure This Preacher on the complaint of the Congregation Either he sees they complaine unjustly and then He doth injustice in censuring-upon an unjust complaint or else he must yeeld they complaine justly and then he also grants that This Congregation hath wisedome enough to judge whether a man preach well or ill and if so why may not the Congregation censure him for ill preaching without complaint to one Bishop Sed frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauâ—iora And so I leave This and come to another great Question that is wont still to be propounded to These poore Non Licensed Preachers It is This why if indeed they be fit or seeme fit or do but thinke themselves fit to be Ministers why then do they not enter into Orders or at least present themselves shewing their desire to be in Holy Orders if indeed they may be found fit for the Ministery as they thinke themselves Why do they halt betweene Two either let them serve the Church wholly and so be in Orders or else let them forbeare and not meddle with dispensing of Holy Ordinances This seemed to mee a very serious Question and therefore I much desired to heare their Answers Some of them say they know not yet whether they be worthy or fit to take on them Those Greater Offices which follow Orders onely they desire they may have leave as Probationers to exercise or keepe Acts before the Church 'till the Church shall approve of them and call them out judging them faithfull for higher imployment or generally to dispense all the Ordinances In the meane time They meddle onely with such Ordinances as they conceive not proper to Church Officers onely but in some sort common to all Christians yea to all men as was said before Others say they would gladly with all their Hearts be consecrated to God and wholly give themselves up to his service and worship in the Ministery but they are afraid to take Orders as Orders are now conferred in This State And yet in the meane time they dare not abstaine from Preaching where they have opportunity and a Willing Auditory lest they should detaine the Truth God hath revealed to them and should be guilty of hiding their Talent in a Napkin For they thinke they may do many Things belonging though not proper to a Minister though they be not nor can be as things now stand in holy Orders Their Instance is David who was a King and of the Tribe of Iudah and so could be neither Priest nor Levite yet they find King David often Preaching else they understand not the meaning of Those Phrases O come hither and I will shew you what God hath done for my poore soule and the like If these men in This be serious and do not pretend Conscience where it is some other Principle that acts them to some low end I cannot but much pity them that if they be fit they neither may be licensed nor yet preach without License But let us see why they dare not enter into Orders and so be Licensed Ministers They answer that they have not so much against Orders conferr'd by our Church or the manner of conferring them though under some Bishops This hath beene very strange and not warrantable either by Law of God or man they conceive as they have in their judgment and consciences against the Power conferring them For they doubt not to affirme that He who ever he be that taketh on himselfe power which the Scripture hath not given him to appoint dictate or command any one Thing either in Doctrine or Discipline though the Thing it selfe might possibly be good yet He that so dictates is Antichristian encroaching on the Regall Office of Christ and so a Traytor in Religion Now they dare not touch That which how Good soever in it selfe yet comes in Power and Vertue of an Antichristian Traytor Yea though such an one should command them a Thing very lawfull in it selfe as to weare a blacke cloath yet if Hee have not Commission to Command from Scripture they conceive He incurres a Premunire with God because he takes on him to do that as an Oâ—ficer for which he is not fore-armed with lawfull authority In this case they thinke they ought not to obey Him so commanding because though the Thing in it selfe be lawfull to be done yet they thinke him an unlawfull Commander and so dare not obey if for no other Reason yet for This that by obeying here they shall betray not onely their owne Priviledges which yet are very precious but also the Liberties and priviledge of all the Subjects of Christ even of the whole Church so that they become Traytors to their spirituall Common-wealth They give This Instance in Civill Things Suppose a Sheriffe that is a lawfull Officer come and command me to give him forty pound of his owne head without lawfull Authority to beck his command they