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A78468 Certaine considerations wherein the prelates doe acknowledge that they stand by the meer mercy of the King and Parliament; not having any foundation in Scripture. And that the King and Parliament may dispose of them, at their pleasure. 1642 (1642) Wing C1698; Thomason E131_17; ESTC R11567 6,280 8

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Certaine considerations wherein the Prelates doe acknowledge that they stand by the meer mercy of the King and Parliament not having any foundation in Scripture And that the King and Parliament may dispose of them at their pleasure WHAT the reason or cause should be that subscription unto this booke of consecration and ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons hath beene of late yeares so hotly and egerly pursued by the Lords of the Clergy is a mystery perhaps not of many of the layty well understood And howsoever under colour of the maintenance of obedience to the statute of the Realme whereby this booke is confirmed the same subscription may seeme to bee pressed neverthelesse if the maine drift and reason of this pressure were well boulted out it is to be feared that not only the unlawful supremacy of an Archbishop is sought to be advanced above the lawful supremacy of our Soveraigne Lord King James but also that the Synodals Canons and Constitutions made by the Clergy in their convocation are intended if not to be preferred above yet at leastwise to be made equall to the common law and statues of the Realme By the ancient lawes and customes of the Realme one parcell of the Kings jurisdiction and imperiall Crowne hath evermore consisted in granting ecclesiasticall jurisdiction unto Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates For the maintenance of which imperiall jurisdiction power against the usurped supremacy of the Bishop of Rome divers statutes not introductory of a new law but declaratory of the old in the time of King Henry the eight King Edward the sixth and of our late most noble Queene deceased have beene made and enacted Yea and in a booke entituled The Institution of a Christian man composed by Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Edward Archbishop of Yorke all the Bishops divers Archdeacons Prelates of the Realme that then were Cooke de jure regis eccle fol. 8 fol. 53. fol 55. dedicated also by them to King Henry the eighth it is confessed and acknowledged that the nomination and presentation of the Bishoprickes appertained unto the Kings of this Realme And that it was and shall be lawfull to Kings and Princes and their Successors with consent of their Parliaments to revoke and call againe into their owne hands or otherwise to restraine all the power and jurisdiction which was given and assigned to Priests and Bishops by the licence consent sufferance and authority of the same Kings and Princes and not by authority of God and his Gospell whensoever they shall have grounds and causes so to doe as shall be necessary wholesome and expedient for the Realmes the repressing of vice and the increase of Christian faith and religion Ever since which time untill of late yeares the late Archbishop of Canterbury with the counsell of his Colledge of Bishops altered that his opinion which somtimes in his answer made to the admonition to the Parliament he held it was generally and publickely maintained that the state power and jurisdiction of Provinciall and Diocesan Bishops in England stood not by any divine right but meerly and altogether by humane policie and ordinance alone And that therefore according to the first and best opinion and judgement of the said Archbishops Bishops c the same their jurisdiction might be taken away and altered at the will and pleasure of the Kings of England whensoever they should have grounds and causes so to do Now since when as the Discipline and government provinciall diocesan ministred and exercised by the late Archbishop deceased and his Suffraganes was diversly handled disputed and contraverted not to be agreeable but repugnant to the holy Scriptures necessary also for the repressing of vice the encrease of faith and Christan religion to be changed they hereupon justly fearing that the most vertuous Christian Queen deceased upon sundry complaints made in open Parliament against the r many unjust greevances would have reformed the same their manner of government they then presently upon new advise and consultation taken D. Sutclif D. Bilson boldly and constantly avouched the same their government to have bin from the Apostles times and agreeable to the holy Scriptures and therefore also perpetuall and still to be used and in no case to be altered by any King or Potentate whatsoever By meanes of which this their enclining to the Popish opinion and holding their Iurisdiction to be de jure divino professedly mainteining in the Homily whereunto also subscription is urged that the King and all the Nobility ought to be subject to excommunication there is now at length growne such a maine position 2. part of the right use of the Church of having a perpetuall Diocesan and Provinciall government in the Church that rather then their Hierarchie should stoop they would cause the Kings Supremacie which he hath over their said Iurisdiction to fall downe to the ground Insomuch as by their supposition the King hath no authoritie no not by his supreame power to alter their said government at all And to this end and purpose as it seemeth in their late Canons have they devised and decreed this booke of ordination to be subscribed unto Which subscription cannot but quite and cleane overthrow the Kings supremacie and ancient jurisdiction in the most dangerous degree For if their Provinciall and Diocesan orders and degrees of Ministery together with their jurisdiction be to be used as established and derived unto them by the holy scriptures how then can it be in the power and jurisdiction of the King to grant or not to grant the use of Provincial and Diocesan Bishopisme and jurisdiction Or how may the Provinciall Bishops with their Diocesan Suffraganes be called the Kings Ecclesiasticall officers if their jurisdictions be not derived unto them from the King For if they be called Gods Bishops or Bishops of Gods making how then may they any more be called the Kings Bishops or Bishops of the Kings presenting nominating and confirming Nay besides who then can alter them who can constrain them who can revoke or recall their power and jurisdiction who can resist them or what King of England may pluck his necke from under their yoke Nay how should the Kings supremacie as by the ancient Lawes of the Realme it ought remaine inviolable If Diocesan Bishops bee Scripturely Bishops them may they stan● w●thout the King Diocesan Bishops hitherto upheld only by the lawes of the Realme when his Royall person whole Nobility and Realme is subject and liable to the censure of the Canon law excommunication Which law the Provinciall and Diocesan Bishops to this day in right and by vertue of their Provinciall and Diocesan jurisdiction and none otherwise do still use practise and put in execution Besides if Bishops Provinciall and Diocesan as they be described in that book be commanded in the Scriptures and were in use ever since the Apostles times then ought they to bee in the Church of England though the King
and his law never allowed nor approved of them But to hold this opinion as it will uphold the Popes supremacy because the generall reasons which uphold a Provinciall Bishop will uphold a Pope so will it once againe not only impeach the Kings supremacy but also be repugnant to the lawes and customes of the Realme By which supremacy lawes and customes only the provinciall diocesan Bishops have beene hitherto upheld For seeing the lawes and customes of the Realme doe make the Kings nomination presentation and confirmation the very essence and being of a Provinciall and Diocesan Bishop with us So that these offices ought to be held only from the authority gift and grant of the King how ought not the Kings nomination presentation authority and gift yea and the law it self in this case wholly cease if the order degree ministery and jurisdiction of a Provinciall and Diocesan Bishop be founded in holy Scripture Vnlesse we shall affirme that that was in the Apostles times which was not or that that it is to be found in holy Scripture which is not namely that there were in the Apostles times and that there be in the holy Scriptures no Bishops but Provinciall and Diocesan Bishops to bee found And that by the law of God and the Gospell every King and Potentate hath supreme power to suffer none but Provinciall and Diocesan Bishops to be in the Churches So that by subscription to allow that Provinciall and Diocesan Bishops be Scripturely Bishops and that their jurisdiction and power is a Scripturely jurisdiction and power is to deny that their jurisdiction and power dependeth upon the Kings jurisdiction and power or that by the Kings gift and authority they be made Bishops But now doth subscription you will say to the book of Ordination approve the orders and degrees of Provinciall Diocesan Bishops to be by divine right rather then by humane ordinance How Why thus It is evident saith the preface of that book to all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles times there have been these orders of Ministers in Christs Church Bishops Priests and Deacons Yea and by the whole order of prayer and of Scripture read used in the forme of consecrating of an Archbishop or Bishop it is apparent that the order of an Archbishop or Bishop consecrated by that book is reputed and taken to be of Divine institution And therefore seeing the names of those orders of Ministers must necessarily be taken and understood of such orders of Ministers as be set forth and described in the body of that booke it must needs be intended that the Ministers by their subscription should approve the order of Ministers mentioned in that booke to be of Divine institution and consequently that provinciall and diotesan Ministers or Bishops have not their essence and being from the nomination gift and authority of the King Besides if we should understand by the word Bishop him that hath the Ministry of the word and Sacraments as the Pastor and teacher and by the word Priest the Presbyter that is the Governing elder and by the word Deacon the provider for the poore then for the Ministers to subscribe to the booke of ordination would no way justifie those officers or degrees of Ministers which are described in that booke but would indeed utterly subvert and overthrow them Because the orders and degrees of a provinciall and diocesan Bishop of a Priest and Deacon mentioned in that booke be of a farre differing nature from those orders and degrees of Ministers which are mentioned in the Scriptures because they only agree in name and not in nature Wherefore seeing there be other orders and degrees of Bishops then Provincial Diocesan Bishops found in the holy Scriptures seeing also Kings and Princes being Vicarij Dei be commanded to authorise all things for the truth and nothing against the truth it seemeth necessary that his Majesty should not only restraine the Provinciall and Diocesan Bishops from urging subscription to this booke of ordination being so derogatory in their sence and construction to his supremacy as nothing can be more but also to keep the Bishops themselves within the tether and compasse of the word of God For if the word of God doe approve amongst the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments a primacy of order only denieth unto them any primacy of jurisdiction and power in ecclesiasticall government as the learned Protestants have proved against the Papists touching Peters supremacy then will it follow that ours also ought to be reduced to the same compasse both for the Kings Majesties safety and the Churches good Least Princes giving them more then God alloweth them they should themselves loose that right and authority which they ought to retaine in their owne Royall persons Now that it may not be objected that we begge the question of Scripturely Bishops not having any primacy of jurisdiction power in ecclesiasticall government to let passe all particular reasons of the Protestants against the Papists in this point it shall suffice in this place to produce for witnesses six and fourty Iurors against whom no chalenge or exception can be taken Namely the said Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Edward Archbishop of Yorke Iohn Bishop of London Cuthbert Dun●lmen Steven Winton Robert Cariolen Io. Exon John Lincoln Rowland Coven and Lichfield Thomas Elien Nicholas Sarum John Banger Edward Herefordien Hugh Wigornen Iohn Roffen Richard Cicistren William Norwicen William Meneven Robert Assaven Robert Landaven Richard Wolman Archdeacon of Sudbur William Knight Archdeacon of Richmond John Bell Archdeccon of Gloster Edmond Boner Archdeacon of Lecester William Skipp Archdeacon of Dorset Nicholas Heath Archdeacon of Stafford Cuthbert Marshall Archdeac●n of Nottingham and Richard Curren Archdeacon of Oxford Together with William Cliff Galfrid Downes Robert Oking Radulf Bradford Richard Smith Simon Matthew Iohn Fryn William Lukemaster William May Nicholas Wotton Richard Cox Iohn Edmonds Thomas Robertson Iohn Baker Thomas Baret Iohn Hase and John Tyson Sacrae Theologiae juris Ecclesiastici Civilis Professores All which Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and Prelates having with one voyce and accord shewed unto King Henry the eight that divers good Fathers Bishops of Rome did greatly reprove and abhorre as a thing clean contrary to the Gospel the Decrees of the Church that any Bishop of Rome or elsewhere should presume usurpe or take upon him the title and name of the universall Bishop or of the head of all Priests or of the highest Priest or any such like title proceed further and in the end conclude and give up their verdicts thus For confirmation whereof Fol. 59.60 it is out of all doubt that there is no mention made neither in Scripture neither in the writings of any authenticall Doctor or Author of the Church being within the time of the Apostles That Christ did ever make or institute any distinction or difference to be in the preeminence or