lowdly against them And all this serves to convince our Apologist of unskilfulness in these matters who pronounces roundly that Mr. Gataker k p. 13. of his Book never had any Episcopal Ordination because he was Ordained by a Suffragan of one of those places mentioned in the Statute viz. the Suffragan of Colchester Suppose he were * As Mr. Clark tells us he was Collect. of Lives of ten Divines p. 131. he had notwithstanding Episcopal Ordination as I have demonstrated and as good as if he had been Ordained by the greatest Bishop in the World But he did not understand I see by this what those Suffragans were and contrary to what became an humble and modest man and the Title likewise of his Book wrote about things which he had not studied or considered Which made him also confound these with the Rural Deans alledging the Primate of Armaghs judgment concerning the power of Suffragans to prove it to be his Judgment that the Chorepiscopi or Rural Deans might lawfully ordain In which he hath done him a notorious injury for there is not such a word in his Book as that the Rural Deans may lawfully ordain But only that the number of Suffragans which was 26 might well be conformed to the number of the several Rural Deanries and supplying the place of those who in the Antient Church were called Chorepiscopi might every month assemble a Synod of the Rectors within the Precinct and conclude all matters brought before them by the major part of voices These are his words which do not signifie that Suffragans were the same with Rural Deans or Chorepiscopi but that there might be as many of the one as there are of the other and Suffragans do all that which those antient Officers did though they had power to do a great deal more For I have proved a plain distinction between them The Chorepiscopi were made by one single Bishop viz. the Bishop of the City to whom they belonged as the Council of Antioch tells us Can. 10. But the Suffragans being real Bishops were made as other Bishops are by three at the least according to the fourth Canon of the first Council at Nice And so they had power to Ordain Presbyters and joyn in the Consecration of other Bishops which the Chorepiscopi had not Nor did our Church ever acknowledge any such power residing in the Rural Deans or any meer Presbyters subject to the Jurisdiction of our Bishops to ordain Priests But as Hadrianus Saravia tells the Ministers of Guernsey l See Clavi Trabales p. 142. in his Letter to them As many Ministers as were naturally of the Country being not made Ministers of the Church by their Bishop or his Demissories nor any others according to the Order of the English Church were not true and lawful Ministers Where by Demissories I think he means the Suffragans of the Bishop of Winchester to whose jurisdiction they belonged Yes may some say our Bishops have sometimes declared otherwise For this Apologist m Pag. 13. out of Archbish Spotswood alledges the story of the three Scots Bishops who never had been ordained but by Presbyters and yet Bishop Bancrofts opinion was that they need not be ordained again which hath often been alledged heretofore by others particularly by the Lancashire Ministers of the first Classis at Manchester in whom he might have found a great deal more than this amounts unto For they fly to a Letter of the late Primate of Ireland with the Animadversions of Dr. Bernard upon it n The judgment of the late Archb. of Armagh c. 1658. in which this Story is cited and the judgment of many other learned Divines but nothing at all to the business For as the Gentlemen to whom the Lancashire Ministers wrote their Letter well observe o Excommunicatio excommunicata p. the Primate did not make void the Ordination by Presbyters but it was with a special restriction to such places where Bishops could not be had Which are the very words also of Archbishop Bancroft in the case of the Scottish Bishops As for the Ordinations made by our Presbyters the Primate declared himself against them in the very same Letter which they craftily concealed as you may read p. 112. of Dr. Bernards Book The words are these You may easily judge that the Ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from those Bishops unto whom they had sworn Canonical Obedience cannot possibly by me be excused from being Schismatical Which I find cited again in another Book of of his called Clavi Trabales p. 56. And both in that and the former Book p Judgment of the Archb. p. 122 c. Clavi Tiab p. 55. he tells us the Primate thought their Ordination void upon another score Because at the imposition of hands they neither used those antient words Receive thou the Holy Ghost c. nor the next Be thou a faithful dispenser c. nor any other words to that sense at least there is no order or direction for it And they also wholly omitted those words at the solemn delivery of the Bible inro the hands of the person ordained Take thou Authority to preach the Word of God c. So that there being no express transmission of Ministerial Power he was wont to say that such Imposition of hands by some called the Seal of Ordination without a Commission annexed seemed to him to be as the putting of a Seal to a Blank And if a Bishop had been present and done no more than they did he thought the same quere might have been of the validity of such Ordinations As for other Reformed Churches their case is widely different from that of these men as he might have learnt from another Bishop whom he cites now and then to no purpose viz. Bishop Bramhall * Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 71 72. who rells you that he knew many learned persons among them who did passionately affect Episcopacy and some of them acknowledged to him that their Church would never be rightly settled till it was new moulded And others he tells you though they did not long for Episcopacy yet they approve it and want it only out of invincible necessity And that their principal learned men were of this mind appears from hence that Dr. Carlton afterward Bishop of Chichester protesting in open Synod which then sate at Dort that Christ instituted no parity but made twelve Apostles the chief and under them seventy Disciples that Bishops succeeded to the Twelve and Presbyters of inferiour rank to the Seventy and challenging the judgment of any learned men that could speak to the contrary Their answer was silence which was approbation enough And after saith he discoursing with divers of the best learned in the Synod and telling them how necessary Bishops were to suppress their Schisms then rising their answer was That they did much honour and reverence the good
a power as he ascribes to them and as the Suffragans I shall now shew you were invested withal who were of the Order of Bishops as much as any other Some have called them Titular Bishops ordained to assist and aid the Bishop of the Diocess in his Spiritual Function and think they had their name from this that by their Suffrages Ecclesiastical Causes were judged But the better to understand what they were you must know that all the Bishops of any Province were antiently called by the Metropolitan his Suffragans being to advise and assist him in the common Affairs of the Church So the word is often used in the Canon Law and in latter times in the Provincial Council of Salisburg b An. 1420 Cap de Officio Ordinarii The Archbishop Everard speaks to all the Bishops as his Suffragans being called together with him in partem solicitudinis into part of the care of the people under his charge Which are the words of our Linwood also who saith the Bishops are called Suffragans because they are bound to help and assist the Archbishop c Archiepiscopo suffragari assistere tenentur Annor in cap. de Constitutionibus But since those times they only have been called Suffragans who were indeed ordained Bishops but not possessed as yet of any See and thence called Titular Bishops which kind of Bishops are no stranger than those Ministers at Geneva whom they call Apostoli who preach in the Country Churches and administer the Sacraments but have no certain charge Yet in England I must tell you it was otherwise as appears by the Statute of 26 Hen. VIII chap. 14. where provision is made for Suffragans which had been accustomed to be had within this Realm as it tells us both in the beginning and the middle of it And it is enacted that the Towns of Thetford Ipswich Colchester Dover Guilford Southampton and twenty places more besides them should be taken and accepted for Sees of Bishops Suffragans to be made in this Realm c. For this end every Archbishop or Bishop being disposed to have them for the more speedy administration of Holy things had the liberty given them to name and elect two fit persons and present them to the King who thereupon had full power by the Act to give to which of those two he pleased the Stile Title and Name of Bishop of such of the Sees aforesaid as he thought most expedient and he was to be called Bishop Suffragan of the same See After which the King was to present him by his Letters Patents under the great Seal to the Archbishop of Canterbury or of York signifying his Name his Stile Title and Dignity of Bishoprick requiring him to Consecrate the said person so nominated and presented to the same Name Title Stile and Dignity of Bishop For which purpose either the Bishop that nominated him or the Suffragan himself was to provide two Bishops or Suffragans to consecrate him with the Archbishop and to bear their reasonable costs This Statute though repealed in the first and second of Philip and Mary d Chap. 8. yet was revived among sundry other in the first of Queen Elizabeth e See ch 1. And it is sufficiently manifest from thence that these persons had Episcopal Ordination being Consecrated by the Archbishop and two Bishops more as much as any other And therefore secondly had Episcocal Power and Authority as much as the Bishop of the Diocess though being dependent on him the Suffragan could not use or execute any Jurisdiction Power or Authority but by his Commission under his Seal as the Statute likewise provides Upon which score Mr. Mason calls them Secondary f De Minist Angl. l. 1. c. 3. Bishops and further observes truly that though in compare with others they may seem to have nothing but a Title because they had not their proper Diocesses to themselves yet if we speak absolutely they had both the Title and the thing signified by it For they had for their Episcopal Seat some great Town g Oppidum illustre lege Parliamentaria illis designatum appointed to them by the Act of Parliament in which and some certain adjacent places to which the Bishop of the Diocess limited them they exercised their Episcopal Function From whence also they borrowed the name of Suffragan of Bedford Suffragan of Colchester c. So that none of those who were Consecrated Bishops among us in England whether Primary or Secondary as his words are were meerly Titular but destinated all of them to the administration of a certain place according to the sixth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon Accordingly we find that such Suffragans being made acted like other Bishops in all things For the Register of the Consecration of Archbishop Parker tells us that at the time of it four Chairs were set for four Bishops one of which was John Hodgskin Suffragan Bishop of Bedford who assisted also in the Consecration of the Bishops of London Ely Lincoln and divers others which he could not have done had he not had Episcopal Power and consequently the Power of Ordaining Presbyters as well as of Consecrating Bishops And so much this Apologist might have learnt from him whom he calls a Learned Prelate if he had read his Books with care I mean Bishop Bramhall who writes thus of the Power of Suffragans h Romphaea Printed 1659. p. 93 The Office and the Benefice of a Bishop are two distinct things Ordination is an Act of the Key of Order and a Bishop uninthroned may Ordain as well as a Bishop inthroned The Ordination of Suffragan Bishops who had no peculiar Bishopricks was always admitted and reputed as good in the Catholick Church if the Suffragans had Episcopal Ordination as the Ordination of the greatest Bishops in the world Nay if he had but read their own Authors he would not have doubted that Suffragans were altogether to speak in their stile as bad as Bishops For the Admonition to the Parliament puts them among the Titles and Offices devised by Antichrist and declares that though they take upon them which is most horrible to rule Gods Church yet they are plainly by Christ forbidden and utterly with speed to be removed You may read more to the same purpose in the Preface as I find it cited in the Censure of the Pamphlet called Humble Motives for Association An. 1601. p. 23 25. In which year I find this a part of the Secular Priests complaint against the Jesuites that they would not be subordinate in any manner to the Ordinary Prelates of England as Bishops and Suffragans and that they withstood their endeavours to have Bishops or Suffragans i Dialogue between a Secular Priest and a Lay Gentleman p. 73. 87 90. By which you may see they were numbred among the Prelates to whom all Priests were to be subject which made those fiery Dissenters from our Church to declaim so
that he should study rather how to give no account at all For he is grosly ignorant in other Learning as well as in this as appears by his discourse about Ordination by Presbyters which follows a little after The Friendly Debate gave him no occasion to mention any thing of this nature but he had a mind it seems to give us a taste of his skill in this great Question though it be so small that I know not how to excuse his boldness in medling with it He supposes that the Chorepiscopi which he makes the same with our Rural Deans may lawfully Ordain And next that Suffragans were but such Presbyters so that he who was Ordained by them had not Episcopal Ordination And then thirdly He would have you believe that Archbishop Vsher and other Learned men concurring in judgment with him were of this opinion Every one of which propositions are notoriously false as I will plainly shew you by demonstrating these three things 1. That those called Chorepiscopi Rural or Country Bishops never had the Power of Ordination being not of the Order of Bishops but Presbyters something advanced above the rest 2. On the other side that Suffragans had the power of Ordination being not meer Presbyters but Bishops as those in the City were And lastly That the late Primate saith nothing contrary to this For the first The Country Bishops saith the Council of Neocaesarea n About the year 314. Can. 13. were but of such a degree as the seventy Disciples and appointed after their Type to whom the Antients every body knows make Presbyters to be the Successors as Bishops are to the Apostles And therefore that Council calls them only Assistants to the Bishops in that part of their Diocess which was distant from the City But that they had only a part of the Episcopal Power committed to them not the whole we learn from the Council of Ancyra presently after Can. 13. which decreed that the Chorepiscopi or Country Bishops ought not to ordain either Ppesbyters or Deacons o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which purpose he that pleases may find many authorities in Justellus his notes upon that place And in the Council of Antioch Can. 10. the same is decreed again that they should know their bounds or measures and appoint Readers Sub-Deacons and Catechists but not dare to proceed further nor to make a Priest or Deacon without the Bishop of the City to which both he and his Region were subject The same Canons were in the Roman Church as appears by the Body of the Decrees p v. part 1. Distinct 63. c. 4. The words of which being abbreviated by Sigebert he calls them Arch-Deacons But afterward the Council of Laodicea decreed Can. 57. that this sort of Officers should be abolished and no Bishops should be appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Villages and in the Countries and that they who had been already constituted should do nothing without the consent of the Bishop of the City But instead of them there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitors that should go about to find out what was amiss and correct mens manners In like manner we find in the Body of the Canon Law q Distinct 68. c. 5. a Decree of Pope Damasus to this purpose That the Chorepiscopi have been prohibited as well by that See as by the Bishops of the whole world One reason of which prohibition might be that they did not r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know their own bounds as the Council of Antioch determined but ventured to appoint Church Officers without the Bishops Consent Upon which occasion St. Basil wrote a particular Epistle to the Chorepiscopi requiring that no Minister ſ Epist 181. p. 959. Tom. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Readers and such Ministers as those Luke 4.10 whatsoever though of the lower rank should be made without him contrary to the Canons It is a sad thing saith he to see how the Canons of the Fathers are laid aside insomuch that it is to be feared all will come to Confusion The Antient Custom was this That there should be a strict inquiry made into the lives of those who were to be admitted to minister in the Church The care of this lay upon the Presbyters and Deacons who were to report it to the Chorepiscopi and they having received a good testimony of them certified it to the Bishop and so the Minister t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was admitted into Holy Orders But now you Country Bishops would make me stand for a Cypher and take all this Authority to your selves nay you permit the Presbyters and Deacons to put in whom they please according as Kindred or Affection inclines them without regard to their worth But let me saith he have a note of the Ministers of every Village and if any have been brought in by the Presbyters let them be cast out again among the common people And know that he shall be but a Lay-man whoever he is that is received into the Ministry without our consent By this it is apparent that Presbyters had not power so much as to make the lowest Officers in the Church and that the Chorepiscopi though above the rest of the Presbyters in Office yet were not so high as Bishops but were a middle sort of men between both An image of whom was remaining in the late Bohemian Church as I learn from Comenius who in his Book concerning the Discipline and Order among them tells us that beside the Seniors or Bishops u For they had Episcopal Ordination after they had been made Presbyters and Epicopal Jurisdiction and Succession from the Bishops of the Waldenses and Ministers or Presbyters they had certain Ecclesiastical Persons called Conseniors who were between the other two For they were chosen out of the Ministers presented by them to the Bishop and then solemnly ordained by him to the Office of Conseniors by a new imposition of hands But at the same time these Conseniors promised Obedience to the Bishop x Ratio Discipl Ord. Eccl. cap. 2. p. 37. as the Ministers when they were Ordained promised Obedience to them as well as to the Bishop z Ib. p. 33. Their Office therefore was among other things as we are told Chap. 1. page 23 24. to keep good Order to observe what was worthy of correction to inform the Bishop of it to provide fit persons for the Ministry to exercise Discipline with the Bishop and visit with him or without him if he required it to examine those that were to be ordained Ministers or Deacons to give them testimonials to the Bishop and in short To supply the place of the Bishop in businesses of lesser moment So it appears by the Book and by Comenius his Annotations upon that Chapter a page 92. Minoribus in negotiis Episcopi vices obirent Thus much may suffice for the Chorepiscopi who had not such
order and discipline of the Church of England and with all their heart would be glad to have it established among them but that could not be hoped for in their State Their hope was that seeing they could not do what they desired God would be merciful to them if they did but what they could Upon which speech one well notes q Answer to a Letter written at Oxford 1647. p. 13 14. that if they hoped for mercy that might pardon what they did then they supposed they were not in the best estate and that their necessity could not totally excuse them from fault for then in that particular there had been no need to hope for mercy Nor could they well think otherwise since being pressed they denied not but that Episcopacy was of Christs own institution To this necessity Mr. Calvin himself hath recourse declaring that their calling being an extraordinary thing ought not to be estimated by the common Rule It were to be wished indeed saies he in the same place r Epist ad Regem Poloâ—iae p. 142. that there were a continual succession of Pastors that the Function it self might be delivered as it were from hand to hand but the Pope having broken the succession of such as preached the uncorrupted Doctrine of Christ God provided a remedy exciting pious and learned men to reform the Church and committing to them an extraordinary Office This saith Melancthon Å¿ Enarratis in Evang Joh. Cap. 1. God did in antient times setting a greater value upon his Church than upon the ordinary Power in it If indeed the ordinary power would have done their duty He is worthy saith Mr. Calvin of any execration who will not submit himself to that Hierarchy that submits it self to the Lord. And I protest before God and in mine own Conscience saith Zanchy that I hold them no better than Schismaticks that account or make it a part of Reformation of the Church to have no Bishops t Both these cited by Dr. Peter Moulin the Son in whom you may read a great deal more Of this mind were the first Reformers who as the Augustane Confession saith had no intention to deprive the Bishops of their Authority but the Bishops refusing to admit them into holy Orders unless they would swear not to preach the pure Doctrine of the Gospel u Cap. ult de potest Eccles this compelled them the publick ordinary door being shut to enter into holy Orders in a private and extraordinary way Yea we have often testified say the Authors of it our great desire to preserve the Ecclesiastical Polity and even those degrees in the Church which are but of Humane Authority This we declare again and again to be our mind And this will and desire of ours shall excuse us before God and all the World to all Posterity that the overthrow of the Authority of Bishops may not be imputed to us It was meer necessity you see which drove them to Ordination without Bishops which somtimes makes that lawful which otherwise would be unlawful They are the words of the Gloss cited by Dr. Crakenthorp in this very business who compares the Case of the Reformers with that of Scipio * Defens Eccles Anglicanae Cap. 41. contra Spalat 1635. as others I find have done since in his very words without naming him There being as Valerius Max. tells us a need of money to defray some necessary Charges of the Common-wealth Scipio demanded a supply out of the Publick Treasury Which the Quaestors refusing to open because the Law seemed against it He opened it himself by a private Key and made the Law give way to utility and necessity The same was done in some Reformed Churches The Apostles had commended their Keys to Bishops nor were they ever lawfully used saith he by any others than Bishops before that time When the Roman Quaestors he means Bishops denying to open the door and admit any to the Office of Pastors unless they would ingage not to preach the pure Doctrine of the Gospel Some great men like Scipio chose rather to lay hold on the Keys and receive Ordination from the hands of private persons than that the Church should be unfurnished and the People perish They would not have gone out of the Rode if they could have avoided it as our Presbyterians did of their own accord Who ought therefore to acknowledge their error to return into the regular course from whence they voluntarily strayed and not stand upon the justification of their proceedings by the example of those who are nothing like them But with all their heart would have intertained such Bishops as our pretended Reformers thrust out of possession and joyfully received such Ordination as here they rejected But if they resolve still to continue to maintain what they have done I would wish them to get an abler Apologist than this man and you my good Friend I would advise to keep this old Saying in your mind Remember not to trust no not those that pretend to learning seriousness humility and modesty For you see by what hath been said that this person who makes a shew of these qualities is grosly mistaken to speak no harsher word and too boldly indeavours to lead others into errors I acknowledge indeed that there are both learned and modest men among them but they are the confident talkers who generally carry the Bell away and are cried up for all worth and excellency Do what I can I must think there is too much truth in the censure passed upon you by the Second fair warning to take heed of the Scottish Discipline y Printed at the Hague 1651 by Ri. Watson p. 152. That you are not wont to prick any in the List of the Learned but the best read men in Synopsis's and Systems in Common place Books and Centurists or in your own Reformed Fathers whom you believe to be more proper than the antients because standing as they tell you upon their shoulders When if set on even ground the longest arm they can make in true Learning and Eloquence will not reach half way up to their girdles But you may imagine perhaps that though the Apologist be not so well versed in the Laws of the antient Church yet he hath good skill in the Laws and Customs of our own Land So indeed any body would think that reads his Book and relies upon his bare word but he that hath so much distrust as to take the pains to examine what he saith will presently discover that he writes as if he were as unacquainted with them as with the Laws and Customs of Japan The same heady forwardness possesses men now that did in Gregory Nazianzen's days when as he tells us z Orat. 9. p 150. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. all were wild to teach and talk about the Spirit of God without the Spirit and therefore no wonder they venture to talk of our Laws without any Law
Thus this modest Apologist puts in their exception a Pag. 20. against our Church for committing the power of Excommunication to men that are not in holy Orders Which is notoriously false and the contrary I could shew him hath been acknowledged in their own Books But he needed have look'd no further than to a Book published not many years ago concerning the Practice in the Ecclesiastical Courts Where he might have been informed in express terms b Francisci Clark Praxis in Curiis Eccles Titul 20 an 1666. That the Judge of the Court having pronounced a man contumacious and decreed that he is to be excommunicated in punishment of his contumacy next proceeds to read the Excommunication if he be in holy Orders Otherwise he delivers it to be read by the Priest appointed by the Archbishop for this purpose Which Priest to this effect sits judicially with the Judge himself ☞ Of if he never heard of this Book yet he hath heard I am sure of the Third Part of the Friendly Debate Where if he had been pleased to read a Book before he had censured it he might have found this bold Error corrected in Philagathus and so avoided it himself But I see plainly and am heartily sorry for it there are more of that mans evil humour who love to talk of things upon Record out of their own drowsie imaginations The general cry against the continuation of the Friendly Debate was that it was a breach of the Act of Indemnity or Oblivion which was raised meerly out of their own brains that are stuft with words more than things without consulting the Act it self But this cry Philagathus followed with open mouth and now he hath got another to bear him company who deserves in like manner to be chastized for his bold folly Especially since he mentions this so often first in his Preface then at least five c Pag. 34 73 106. 112 150. times in his Book and in one place affirms my Book seems to be a continued breach of the Act of Indemnity in the very design of it And all this after I had evidently demonstrated in the further Continuation which he also mentions p. 150. that whatever it seems to him this is a gross and impudent Calumny But I shall spare him notwithstanding this boldness and have I assure him thrown away those apt illustrations of his Vanity which offered themselves because he hath more civility in him than the sober Answerer I shall only desire him to follow his own advice which he gives me on this occasion d Pref. p. 8. viz. To do justice upon himself and execute his own Book in the flames for committing such crimes For I must tell you there are a great many more of them He tells you confidently that the Notes commonly called the Assemblies came out before the Assembly convened p. 15. By which I see he is no better skill'd in Ordinances than in Laws For the Ordinance for their convention bears date June 12. 1643. requiring them to meet the next first of July And the Annotations came not out till two years after in 1645 e So it should be Printed in the Friendly Debate not 1646. But you may think perhaps they did not convene at the time appointed Know therefore that on June 24. 1643. all Ministers were required by an Order to pray on the next Fast for a blessing on the Assembly who were to meet on Saturday July 1. and that accordingly they did meet on that day as Mr. Fuller quoted sometimes by this man observes in his History And not long after f July 19. 1643. I find presented an humble Petition for an extraordinary Fast beseeching among other things that Justice might be executed on all delinquents and after this an Order * Aug. 10. 1643. that those of them who were Residents in the Associated Counties should be desired to go down and stir up the People to rise in their defence By which it appears they not only convened but began at least to be busie about that which did not concern them long before those Notes saw the light But let us pass by this And observe rather how he satisfies in the lame excuse he makes for their not calling the Apostles alwaies by the name of Saints In the judgment of our Church saith he it is not necessary as may hence be concluded That in all the Collects for the days set apart to commemorate the holy Apostles in there are but two wherein they are stiled Saints These are his words g Pag. 43. but if you love truth call to mind the Rule I gave you and remember not to trust Even they who call one another frequently by the name of Saints have not such a care as one would expect of common honesty nor of their own fame neither but will assert such manifest untruths as lie open to every eye Turn to the Prayers for particular days in the Service Book and you shall find that they who told him this for I charitably suppose he took it upon trust made no conscience of what they said For those glorious persons whose memories are celebrated in our Church and I hope always will be are called no less than nine times in the very body of the Collects by the names of Saints h St. Steven St. John St. Andrew St. Paul St. Mark St. Philip and St. James St. Peter and St. James Seven of which were Apostles and the other an Evangelist and the first Martyr And lest any one should imagine he made his observation by the old Common-Prayer Book and thence may justifie himself you may understand that there is no difference in this point but only in two of the Collects in one of which in stead of St. John the Evangelist as it is now the words were the blessed Apostle and Evangelist John and in the other instead of St. Philip and St. James it was St. Philip and other Apostles This may teach you to suspect the reasonings of these men which may very well be thought to be exceeding careless who are no more exact in reporting matters of Fact which lie before their eyes But as for their stories which they spread up and down and indeavour to propagate to posterity by stuffing their Books with them as this man doth there is the greatest cause to think that either they have no truth at all in them or are very much altered from their original You ought to let them pass for idle tales unless you have better authority for them than these mens Books who you see are so bold as to report notorious falshoods which every body can confute Their Traditions you should look upon as of no more credit than the Popish Legends It being so easie for men to forget the very words they heard and to place others in their room so common to add or leave out what is most material so hard and often impossible to know all
same Office to continue in them and their Successors to the end of the World But suppose all our Church-men had been silent or that they are of no esteem with our Adversaries yet since this Opinion of the Divine Right of Episcopacy hath been asserted by other Divines whom they respect it ought not to have been reproached Bucer declares in his Book of the Kingdom of Christ as I find him cited above 60 years ago y Regiment of the Church by Mr. Tho. Bell chap. 9. just as our Book of Consecration doth that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost that one to whom the name of Bishop was peculiarly attributed should take the care of the Churches and preside over all the Presbyters And nearer still to the very words of our Book in his Treatise of the power and use of the Ministry as he is alledged by Saravia These Orders of Ministers have been perpetual in the Church and were presently in the beginning appointed by the Holy Ghost of Bishops Priests and Deacons He that will see more to this purpose may read Bishop Mortons Episcopacy Asserted Chap. 5. Sect. 4. Nay this is the Language of Antiquity and they may as well call St. Gregory of Nazianzum a Hector as any of us For he sticks not to tell his Auditors in plain words that he held his Office by the Law of Christ You may find the passage in his seventeenth Oration z page 271. where after he had exhorted all the People to obedience he turns his speech more particularly to the Rulers and Magistrates asking them if they will give him leave to speak freely As truly saith he I think I may since the Law of Christ hath made you subject to my Power and to my Tribunal 3. This you may think is very high but I must let you know they who seem to lay their claim lower and speak in a more humble stile as some love to call it differ but in a verbal nicety in the different manner of expressing the same thing rather than in their different judgment upon the substance of the matter So that excellent Bishop lately mentioned Dr. Sanderson hath clearly resolved a Episcopacy not prejudicial to Regal Power p. 12 13. For sometimes this term Divine Right imports a Divine Precept which is the first and most proper signification when it appeareth by some clear express and peremptory Command of God in his Word to be the Will of God that the thing so commanded should be perpetually and universally observed And that the Government of the Church by Bishops is of Divine Right in this stricter sense is an Opinion saith he at least of great probability and such as may more easily and on better grounds be defended than confuted But they that chuse to speak otherwise understand by Divine Right an Authority for a thing from the Institution Example or Approbation either of Christ or of his Apostles c. which is a secondary meaning of the term but not much distant from the former For the Observation of the Lords Day depends on this Divine Right and there is as much to shew as he saith p. 19. if not more for such a Divine Right of Episcopacy as for the Divine Right of that day So that whosoever they be that either wave the term Divine Right or else so expound it as not of necessity to import any more than an Apostolical Institution Yet the Apostles Authority b Ib. page 39 40. in the Institution of Episcopacy being warranted by the Example and as they doubt not by the direction of their Master Jesus Christ they worthily esteem to be so reverend and obligatory as that they would not for a world have any hand in or willingly and deliberately contribute the least assistance towards the extirpation of that Government but rather hold themselves obliged in their Consciences to the utmost of their power to endeavour the preservation and continuance of it in these Churches and do heartily wish the restitution and establishment of the same wheresoever it is not c Now that Episcopacy is of such institution and so of Divine Right he further adds c v. Ib. p. 18. is in truth a part of the established Doctrine of the Church of England and hath been constantly and uniformly maintain'd by our best Writers mark these words and by all the Sober Orderly and Orthodox Sons of the Church This is sufficient to shew that there ought to be no such distinction made as we find in this man between high and low Conformists since all have spoken to the same effect and yet were no Swashbucklers but in this great persons opinion the Sober Orderly and Orthodox Sons of the Church 4. But let us suppose there is some difference yet they that have spoken the highest words of Episcopacy never thought Aerius a greater Heretick than Arius nor had more Charity for those that deny our Saviour's Deity than for those that scruple the strict Jus Divinum of Episcopacy No this is a suggestion from the Father of lyes the Calumniator of the Brethren and seem to me to be the words of one whose tongue is set on fire of Hell For though our best Divines have called it the Heresie of Arius d Doctor Crackenthorp Defens Eccl. Anglicanae p. 241 242 to affirm that there ought to be no imparity in the Church or distinction between Bishops and Presbyters and determined that this imparity was instituted and approved by the Apostles yet they have declared withal that they who think as Aerius did are so far from being in a worse case than Arius was that they are not in so bad Let but obstinacy and perverseness be wanting it will be no Heresie and if it be Heresie being about a point of Discipline it will not be among those which St. Peter calls damnable Heresies e Bishop Andrews 3. Letter p. 56 57. These are the words of one who was as vehement an Assertor of the Divine Right of Episcopacy as any hath been and there are none among us but will subscribe to them who is so far you see from making Aerius a greater Heretick than Arius that his words plainly make him less 5. But these perhaps are such Hectorly Divines you may think that they mind not what they say so belike if it be true which he says just before that they prefer Arminius before St. Austin A very strange humour that these high Episcopal men should set a Presbyterian Divine above a great Bishop But suppose upon other scores they should be so phantastical yet this part of his accusation will contradict the calumny next before it namely that they prefer the Romish Church before the Reformed Transmarine Churches How can that be when the Arminians are among those Reformed Churches for whom it seems they have such a great affection and when the Pope himself as every one knows that understands these matters is against the Divine Right of Bishops nay
by Autority 1644. p. 17. Nay it was not the kindness of the Presbyterian Ministers that the Independent Brethren were suffered but they sadly complain of it as you may read in the Petition of the London Ministers to the House of Commons t Septemb. 18 1644. grounded upon the first Remonstrance of the Houses wherein they declared it was far from their purpose or desire to let loose the golden Reins of Discipline and Government in the Church to leave private persons or particular Congregations to take up what Form of Service they please and upon the Covenant wherein they ingaged themselves to be not only for a full Reformation but an Vniformity in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government This was received with great Acceptation and the next year u Decemb. 18 1645 the same Ministers agreed upon a Letter to the Assembly against Toleration in the body of which they expresly call them Reasons against the Toleration of Independency in this Church The Common Prayer then you may be sure could not be tolerated by their good will whatever this man sayes nor were Dr. Gunning and the rest suffered at London and Oxford till their Power was out of Doors Whilst the Covenant was in Credit it was severely forbid and the King himself had it been in their power should not have had the priviledge to use it This Covenant also though he would have us believe the contrary was prest with great Rigour Look into our Church saith Bishop Bramhall x Replication to Bishop of Chalcedon p. 40. and see how many of our principal Divines have lost their Dignities and Benefices only because they would not take a Schismatical Covenant without any other relation to the Wars I have read of a thousand imprisoned and sequestred upon this score and near an hundred Fellows of Colledges in one Week banished Cambridge for refusing it Nay the Houses were so impartial they are the express words of Mr. Pryn y Fresh Discovery c. 1646. Sect. 3. in the prescription of it that such Members of the Lords or Commons that did but scruple the taking of it were suspended the Houses till they did conform Upon which ground he shews how unequal it was that any man should be priviledg'd and exempted from it And therefore I do not believe that many of the Episcopal Perswasion were suffered to enjoy places in the Churches Colledges and Schools without ever taking the Covenant as this Apologist affirms p. 23. unless he means after it was laid aside and the Sectaries as they then spoke not only obstinately refused it but openly oppugned and derided it nay framed an Anticovenant against it in their private Congregations z Mr. Pryn. ib. But it is no wonder he should write thus confidently when Mr. R. Baily had the face to write notwithstanding all this that the Covenant was so far from being urged by fear of unjust suffering that to this day it could never be obtain'd from the Parliament of England to enjoyn that Covenant upon any by the penalty of a two-pence a Review of the Fair Warning p. 80. No indeed what need that when the terms were take it or lose your Benefice Just such another vapour he made for these men are much given to it in another place affirming in a Sermon at the Hague that not any thing had hitherto been objected against the Covenant What could be more impudently spoken when the Reasons of the University of Oxford had been published against it several years before and testified the bold falshood of what he saith also in his Epistle before the Review where he would qualifie the business a little that to this day no man has shewed any error in the matter of that Covenant And indeed shew what we will it is all one they will not regard it They still retain I see by this man a wonderful affection for the Covenant and cannot endure it should bear any blame It was not saith he the Cause of the War Why so the Battel at Edgehil being fought before the Covenant came into England p. 22. what of all that The Covenant might notwithstanding be a great cause of the War and I will prove it had a great hand in it All the stirs in Scotland were by the means of it they entring into it without the Kings consent obtruding b Large Declaration p. 75 199. it with threatning beating tearing of Cloaths turning men out of their Livings Excommunicating Processing those that would not subscribe it and binding themselves to a mutual assistance against all persons whatsoever Upon which the Kings Commissioner desired that they would add Except the King and his Successors but they refused it and in their explication of the Covenant which came out afterward would add no such thing but only that they would defend his Person and Authority in the Preservation and Defence of true Religion c Ib. p. 108 109. In that form it marched into England d What use the Arâ—â—y made of the clause the Remonstrance about the Titary at the Isle of Wight will tell you whither the Spirit of it was come before and had raised those Arms which might have been soon laid aside again had it not been for the Covenant For without the assistance of the Scots the Parliament of England knew not how to carry on the War and without the Covenant came along with them or march'd before them they would not jog or stir a foot As appears by this Relation which I find in the Second Fair Warning e By Rich. Watson 1651. p. 178 179. sent from one well acquainted with the Affairs of his own Country When the Commissioners saith he came down into Scotland from the Parliament of England and a Letter they brought was read in the Assembly there they received no other Answer but this Gentlemen we are sorry for your case but whereas your Letter saith you fight for Defence of the Reformed Religion you must not think us blind that we see not your fighting to be for civil disputes of the Law which we are not acquainted withal Go home and reconcile with the King He is a gracious Prince and will receive you to his Favour ☞ You cannot say it is for the Reformed Religion since you have not begun to reform your Church You had thriven better if you had done as we did begun at the Church A few days after this new Addresses being made their Friends in the Assembly made this proposition Will you joyn in Covenant with us to reform Doctrine and Discipline conform to this of Scotland and ye shall have a better answer The Reply was thanks and that they would represent their desires to the Parliament from whom they had no instructions for such an agreement Nay said the Assembly again this will be loss of time and the danger is great the Parliament nor being able with all their forces to stand two months before the King
we will rather therefore draw up the Solemn League and Covenant here and send up with you some Noblemen Gentlemen and Ministers that shall see it subscribed which was accordingly done The Covenant was cried up the Scots came into England and what did they come for It was saith the Preface to Mr. Knox his History to fight the Battels of the Lord i. e. to pull down Episcopacy and to set up Presbytery in its room according to the Covenant which League and Covenant saith Mr. Rutherford was the first foundation of the ruine of the Malignant party in England f See Toleration Discuss'd p. 117. but not of Episcopacy this Gentleman would have you believe for it was declared in the Assembly that the Covenant did not bind against a Primitive Episcopacy page 31. What they mean by a Primitive Episcopacy I will not stand to enquire but this is well known that the Three Ministers in their first answer to the Divines of Aberdeen positively affirmed That Episcopacy was not abjured by their Confession nor their Covenant g See Large Declara ion p. 117. which was averred by many other Covenanters to those who otherways scrupled to enter into their Covenant And I know that some declared the same in England and yet notwithstanding nothing would satisfie but the extirpation of Episcopal power and they laboured tooth and nail to settle the Government by Presbyters alone This the people thought was the great end of the Covenant and there is no doubt but the scope of the first contrivers of it was to destroy Episcopacy root and branch This was their first work after the War was begun to send a Commissioner to the English Parliament 1642. to move them to cast out Bishops not a word of limiting them and others to the King at Oxford to sign all propositions which because he would not do they resolve to assist their Brethren against him under the name of the Common Enemy h Second Fair Wa ning p. 185. But before they came they told the Commissioners of Parliament as I shew'd you they must covenant to reform Doctrine and Discipline conform to Scotland And accordingly the same Author informs me that their Covenant came into England with such a clause as this We shall reform our Church in Doctrine and Discipline conform to the Church of Scotland i Ib. p 383 of which the Independent Brethren cheated them making that be razed out and those words inserted which we now read in it However the abolition of the Office of Bishops was their great demand of the King as Mr. R. Baily expresly affirms adding that the unhappy Prelates had found it to be their great demand from the beginning of our troubles unto this day k Review of fair Warning 1649 chap. 12. p. 76. And he plainly affirms that to deny them this satisfaction was to conclude that the King himself and all his Family and three Kingdoms should perish Why so I beseech you It could not be otherwise notwithstanding all their fine words in the beginning for they had sworn to root them out and could not break their Covenant to save three Kingdoms And therefore at last Mr. Baily perswades himself the King did consent to abolish Name and Thing not only for three years but for ever Strange when his Majesty had so often clearly protested that he could not with a good Conscience consent to it Did they force him at last to do it against his Conscience or did they give him such satisfaction that he saw at last he might safely do it Alas we dull souls do not understand the mysteries which they can find in words His Majesty consented to lay aside Bishops for three years till he and his Parliament should agree upon some settled Order for the Church Now this saith he was tantamount to for ever it being supposed mark the jugling that they can never agree to admit Episcopacy again Why so For all and every one saith he l Ib. chap. last p. 8â— in both Houses having abjured Episcopacy by solemn Oath and Covenant observe that the Parliament could not agree with the King to erect the faln Chairs of the Bishops so there remained no other but that either his Majesty should come over to their Judgment or by his not agreeing with them yet really to agree in the perpetual abolition of Episcopacy since he had granted to lay aside Bishops till he and his Houses had agreed upon a settled Order in the Church This was an admirable contrivance especially if you call to mind as the Answer tells him how there was something else agreed viz. that twenty Divines of his Majesties nomination being added to the Assembly should have a free consultation and debate about the settlement of Church-Government after those three years or sooner if differences could be composed A very free Debate this was like to be in which all Reasons that could be given for Episcopacy were shut out of doors and concluded by an Oath to be put to silence But why should I trouble my self any farther The wider indeed the hole grows in the mil-stone the clearer a man may see through it but this mans Sophistry is visible enough already nor needs there more words to shew that this modest Braggadocio vaunts himself ridiculously in the merits of his party and that Mr. Vicars and such like were not the only men that reviled and calumniated They that pretend to humility modesty and seriousness cannot forbear it But if you desire a farther tast of his Spirit I pray have so much patience as to hear how he uses me In the Preface he accuses me of railing and in his Book p. 2. of reviling without taking notice of one word that I have said in answer to these calumnies They are resolved I see to be confident and to have their saying do or say we what we can For he tells you also of my jeering scoffing false accusation and mocking lightness and drollery p 90. 92 137. but not a syllable to make good the charge No that was a hard thing but very easie to say that I write sometime what might better become some Ecclesiastical Hudibras or a Doctor of the Stage than m p. 35. c. Just thus Mr. R. Baily was pleased to answer that excellent Bishop which this man commends Dr. Bramhall Concerning the 8th Chapter of whose Fair Warning he saith it much better beseemed a Mercurius Aulicus than either a Warner or a Prelate n Review p. 48. He charges him also with gathering together an heap of Calumnies c. though as the Reply tells him that heap was nothing else but a faithful Collection of Historical Narrations which require not the credulity of the simple but the search of diligent people if they distrust them The same I say for my self they must be beholden to a new light which no body can see but themselves to make Historical truth to be a slander They are
he expresly determines point-blank against this mans decision of his Case For this is his Maxime Rule 7. That a Law should oblige the Conscience does not depend upon the acceptation of the Law by the people Which supposing that which hath been already said is a certain Rule he tells you and there is no doubt in it Of this minde were the first Christians as I shall not now stand to show you and our first Reformers of Christianity in this Kingdom Who I must let you know used no such distinctions as these men do now but said expresly the same that I do That we must submit to all manner of Ordinaunces of men for the Lords sake so long as they ordeyne nothing contrary to the express Woord of God And be that resysteth shall receyve to hymself dampnation for as moche as he resysteth the Ordinaunce of God They are the words of a Book called the Destruction of small Vices written in Edward the Sixth's days as far as I can guess Tyndal also taught the people thus x Obedience of a Christian man fol. 26 Whosoever keeps the Law of the Prince whether it be for fear or vain-glory or profit though no man reward him God will bless him abundantly and send him worldly prosperity as thou readest Deut. 28. what good blessings accompanied the keeping of the Law and as we see the Turks far exceed us Christian men in worldly prosperity for their just keeping of their temporal Laws And in another nameless Book called the sum of the Holy Scripture y Printed by John Day with priviledge 1547. chap. 26. I find this Declaration That the very Christen yeldeth hymself willingly under the Governaunce of the Swerd and Temporal Justice he payeth tailles he honoureth the Puissaunce and worldly highness he serveth he healpeth he doth all that ever he may do to thintent that the same Puissaunce may prosper and be kepte in honour and feared albeit that the same Puissaunce to him is neither nedeful nor profitable And if he should not do so be were no Christen but should sin against the Rule of Charity For he should give evil ensample to other that they should not honour the Temporal Puissaunce but despise it And this despising of the Temporal Puissaunce bringeth dissention and mark this maketh sensual persons profitable unto nothing It would be too tedious to add the words of other good men and therefore I shall onely desire you to ponder the counsel and direction of the famous Amyraldus late Professor at Saumur For you are much concerned in it being given with a particular respect to our affairs in an address to our present Soveraign z Paraphr in Psalm Epist Dedic 1662. pag. 1. There are three things saith he by which the course of our life is governed and as we may say steered in this Sea of worldly affairs By the Law of Nature by the Laws of our Country and by the Study of propagating Religion To this last we should yeild all if the other two do not openly gain-say it Where either the Law of Nature or the Political Laws do command any thing which is inconsistent with our Study of promoting Religion we must diligently consider what God commands us in that matter that so we may exactly distinguish between his Will and our own between what he requires and what we are moved unto onely by our own zeal What God commands is to be done though our Parents or Magistrates command the contrary But whatsoever is commanded by them which is not contrary to the express Precepts of Religion a Disertis Religionis praceptis non adversum that we are to look upon as commanded and given us in charge by God himself because God is the Author of their Power as he is the Author of Nature whose Commands and not our own voluntary Zeal we are to make the Rule of our life And therefore we are not here to have more regard either to the danger which we may fancy the Church is in or to the hope which we have conceived to our selves of advancing the Glory of God then to that Will of the most high God which is manifested to us either in Nature or in Civil Laws For God hath affection enough to his own Glory and kindness enough to his Church and Power and Wisdom sufficient notwithstanding all the dangers that I see to advance his Kingdom and support his Church although I contain my self within the bounds and limits which Nature and Civil Government prescribes This is the resolution of that excellent person by whose Principles I wish heartily you would all govern your selves otherwise the most glorious profession that you can make will not perswade us you have the same spirit of Christian Piety You have read perhaps or heard how the Devil one day appeared to St. Martin as he was at prayer all glittering and shining in a most Majestick state telling him that he was Christ who being shortly to come down upon Earth gave him a visit first This he repeated again saith the story Sulpitius Severus in vita ejus cap. 25. and bid him not be faithless but believe So I will replyed the good man but not till I see him in that habit and form wherein he suffered bearing the Marks of his Cross The Application is easie and in short but this If you would be acknowledged for the faithful Disciple of the Lord Jesus let us see you in that garb wherein they alway appeared taking up the Cross patiently humbly and lowly meek and gentle quiet and peaceable submissive to Government and obedient to Laws Till then we suspend our belief Farewel FINIS Books printed for Henry Eversden under the Crown-Tavern in West-Smithfield THe Divine History of the Genesis of the World explicated and illustrated or a Philosophical Comment on the first Chapter of Genesis and tryal of Philosophy both Ancient and Modern by that most infallible Rule Anonymus in quarto 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Being filled with the Spirit As also the Divinity or God-head of the Holy Ghost asserted and the Arguments brought against it throughly examined and answered c. By John Goodwin late of Coleman-street London quarto 3. Theodulia Or a Just defence of Hearing the Sermons and other teaching of the present Ministers of England By John Tombes B.D. 4. A serious examination of the Independants Catechism and therein of the chief Principles of Nonconformity to and separation from the Church of England in two Parts To which is added an Appendix of the Authority of Kings and obedience of Subjects By Benj. Camfield Rector of Whitwell in Derbyshire 5. The Pen's Dexterity Compleated Or Mr. Rich's Short-hand perfectly taught which in his life-time was never done by any thing in Print Allowed by both Universities Oxford and Cambridge FINIS