in horrid and desolate plantations I confesse things of this nature which being obsolete are urged afresh upon the publick practise of Christians in Religion ought as I conceive to have their revived and renewed Authority from the joynt Counsell pblick prudence and consent of the Nation else rigorous remedies even of disorders may prove worse than the supposed or reall diseases For many antiquated Ceremonies in Religion though they be not quite worne out yet as garments long agoe made and now out of fashion are rather to be kept as Monuments in the Wardrobe and Records of Religion than to be on the suddaine put upon mens backs and urged to be worne especially when they seem antique to the most and uncomely by their unwontedness to be commonly worne though the stuffe be never so good and the state of them not unhandsome Although all these might not amount to any thing that is properly Popery no more than a thousand shadowes can make one substance or body yet many did judge them as a cumulative kind of Popery which cloyes Religion with such a Masse of needless Ceremonies that it is like a tree too much over-growne with mosse even to a barrenness or like a garment not adorned and set off but wholly hidden incumbred and buried with a superfluity of lace which is either a great Prodigality or as great a Vanity and Affectation especially considering the matronely gravity which best becomes Christian and Reformed Religion as that sancy was of our Henry the Fifth who when he was Prince of Wales came one day to the Court and his Fathers presence with a suite all cut and embroidered with oilet-holes having a needle hanging out of every hole that he looked more like a Porcupine than a Prince But as that Prince afterward proved a very brave King very pious and valiant besides successfull which adds much to any Princes piety in the opinion of common people when he left his needless needles betook him to his Victorious Sword so it is probable this Bishop if he had received so grave an admonition as the wisdome and meekness of a Parlament could have given him and other Bishops of his mind would easily have amended any such luxuriancy of Ceremonious observations which if they would be a meanes to induce any judicious Papists to change their opinion as to these points of Doctrine which most divide us and them truly it were a very great uncharitableness in us not to comply very far with them in whatever the Church commands as innocent and decent ceremonies But sure they must be very silly birds and scarce worth the catching which will be taken onely with the chaffe of ceremonies or pictures in a case of Religion which so highly concernes their consciences and salvation so as to change their side upon these formalities untill their judgement in the maine matters of Doctrine be convinced and satisfied nor do I know how we can well lay such strong lime-twiggs among such chaffe as would hold any Papists firme to our party and perswasion Not that I would have them scared or scandalized the more against us for want of that reverence and decency which becomes us in the worship of God and in holy mysteries by the dictates of Reason as well as the Indulgences of Religion but considering that just and vast distance in some grand points between us and the Papists as to outward worship grounded upon inward perswasion and devotion I think it becomes the wisdome and wariness of Protestants according to the admirable temper and moderation of the Church of England in its Reformation as not to deny themselves the use of any things enjoyned as decent because Papists had abused them so not to affect by any particular modes to symbolize so far with them as may confirme them in any thing that we judge Superstitious or Idolatrous This made many sober men so much strangers to the Policy and Piety of those who so much urged to set the Lords Table Altar-wise to adorne it with the Crucifix and other pictures and to bow with adoration toward it Though these might be lawfull in the abstract yet sure not expedient in that state wherein the Reformed Profession stands opposite to the Papists superstitious veneration of a Creature transubstantiated to a God Though I have no conscience of duty toward an Idol so as to worship it but onely to the true God who is every where yet I think it best for me not to go into an Idols Temple there to worship the true God when I may do it other-where without any such appearance of evill or scandall to those that see me and know my principles against it But as to the true and real discriminations between the Religion of the Church of England and Popery in Doctrine I conceive the best dimensions of this Bishop are to be taken by those that are wholly strangers to him as I am by that notable Book which was lately published and dedicated to his Lordship by Dr. Cosins his well-known friend and successour than whom no man ever fell under greater popular jealousies for Popish yet no man it seems less deservedly as appeared when he came to the Test before the Committee of Lords who then cleered him as to Mr. Smarts accusations for Superstition and since that he hath further cleered himself no man more handsomly before the best Protestants in France where his long exile and sufferings have not so exasperated him as to make him yield any way to the Papists yea no man hath at home or abroad been a more stout Defender of the Protestant Religion as it was established in the Church of Engl. which the testimony of Mr. Daillé one of the Protestant Ministers at Charenton neer Paris fully and freely confirms telling all the world That they are either beasts or fanaticks who count Dr. Cosins a Papist from whom no man is really more removed which his very excellent History touching the Canon of the Scripture fully assures us being a grand and fundamental point in difference between the Papists and us wherein he having so irreparably battered and shaken their Apocryphal Babel by solidly proving the Church of Rome to be erroneous and pertinacious in that point all sober men will soon suspect her honesty fidelity and pretended infallibility in other things which do as little agree with the pristine Practice and judgement of the Catholick Church Truely it is pitty so great and able a vindicator of the Reformed Religion should longer suffer a pilgrimage among Papists being forced to dwell in Mesech and to have his habitation in the Tents of Kedar and not have leave to return in peace to his native Country of which he hath so well deserved in this learned undertaking which piece sure he would not have dedicated being so Antipapistical that it peels the very bark of the Church of Rome round to his friend the Bishop of Ely if he did not intend him a collateral security
fancy but in the publick counsels and constitutions of every Kingdome State and Polity Nor was this more true piety and charity than prudence and policy in the Bishops and other Ministers of the Church to whom as to gowned and bookish men and not as to armed souldiers doth all the Christian world owe under God the planting propagating and preserving yea and the due reforming of true Christian Religion For the armes of flesh or any carnal weapons going along with the Gospel which is a spirituall warfare as so many Pioneers with pick-axes and spades to demolish and overthrow civil powers must needs have alarmed and armed all States and Princes all honest and just all wise and morall men against it when they looked upon Christianity as coming not to preach and save but to plunder and spoile for all wise Magistrates know that there was no trusting to the moderation and justice no nor to the mercy of any men who came with force against them Though they professe as Andronicus did and Absalom before him never so much to mend and reform things yet they will at last rob kill and destroy and as the Sons of Jacob dealt with the Sichemites they at first onely pretend to circumcise men yet at last they will not onely geld but kill them Armed Religion like Eagles and Hawkes is alwaies terrible Which considerations do justly harden all mens hearts that have any thing to lose or to keep in this world against all forcible and riotous entries of any Religion or Reformation whatsoever which seldome failes to be sacrilegious as well as rebellious Hence the present feares jealousies and abhorrencies which many Princes and States as well as Bishops and Church-men that are of the Romish Communion have taken up against any Reformation of Religion by such popular methods and principles which they see are seldome begun and never ended without infinite trouble confusion and ruine of all things both sacred and civil every wise man rightly judging that when God is pleased to bring in the beauty and blessing of true Religion or due Reformation to any Church or Nation he will as he did in England most eminently so stir up the spirits of Soveraigne powers the method he anciently used in purging and reforming the Temple and Church of the Jewes by Hezekiah Josiah and others that the work shall go on as without noyse like the building of the Temple so with Order and Honor to the glory of God the safety of Princes the honor of the Clergy and the peace of the people as well as the purity of the Church and true Religion Till this may be done a thousand civil burthens and oppressions yea persecutions are easier than any sinful presumptions yea true Religion will be beautifull when it is black with persecution if then it be comely with patience Scorching Reformations so burn the face of Religion that they leave not onely sad scarres but shamefull Stigmas or brands upon it which look very like rebellion and barbarity engaging men and Christians into mutuall hatred blood-shedding deaths and destruction Let men pretend never so much to be Saints godly yea and inspired too yet as the purest water and the wholsomest flesh when once they come to feel the heat of factions and begin to boyle up to civil perturbations they will soon discover a very black fome and foule scum to rise in their hearts and actions which as Hazael they hardly thought could have been in them carrying them to injustice immoderation uncharitablenesse presumption rebellion sacriledge and cruelty and all unwarrantable actions before they are aware of the folly falsity or foulenesse of their own as indeed all mens hearts at whose bottom lies all manner of filth and villany which is then easily and constantly discovered when they are passionately and inordinately stirred Nor is it at all to be considered how pure men appeare as to that which is upward or outward in their Religious protestations and professions when once they come to that Romantick and Errant spirit which thinks it as much gallantry to fight for their Religion as some do for their Mistresses beauties which exceeds quarrelling and killing each other by civil and heroick murthers for no other offence but the glory of their opinion and the preferring of their fancy What did ever seem more holy than the Euchites and Circumcellions of old what more precise and godly than John of Leiden and his crew what more inspired than our Hacket and Coppinger what less covetous and impartiall than Massaniello All of them were not very warme but very scalding Reformers yet came to nought Adde to all these what was or is more titularly holy than some later Popes of Rome who ever seemed more solicitous to advance Religion Yet by their usurping both St. Peters swords by interpreting Arise Peter kill and eate in a sanguinary sense by making the Bishop of Rome the greater light to rule the day and Emperours or Kings in their dominions to be as the Moon and lesser lights by challenging a power unchristian and inordinate to depose lawfull Princes to absolve Subjects from â—â—eir oathes to expose their lives to their Subjects or any other mens swords to dispose of their Thrones and Kingdomes as they please in order to the Romish Churches or Courts interests they have made all the world now very wary of them Even those Princes that are of the Papall Communion are grown very reserved and vigilant as to their civil power now their eyes are so opened that many moderate men have highly suspected as Padre Paulo the Author of the History of the Councel of Trent and others this Papall arrogancy to be one of the shrewdest markes of the Papall Antichristianism a Bishop thus enormously exalting himself by fraud and force by blood and violence in the Church or Temple of God above all that is called God in civil Magistracy directly contrary both to Christs pattern and the two great Apostles precepts as well as practises who though they laid with the other eleven Apostles the foundations of an Episcopal Hierarchy by the parity or Aristocracy as of the chief Apostles so of Bishops yet they never either exercised or enjoyed or dreamed of a Monarchy in which one Apostle or Bishop should have dominion over all others and over the whole Church Episcopacy as it is Primitive and Apostolicall exactly and conscientiously preserves to all Princes and Soveraigne Magistrates whatsoever their civil peace and safety of their persons their lawes and powers with their just prerogatives as well as it doth the Evangelicall and ingenuous Liberties of all Christian Subjects which are alwaies and onely to do well either in active or passive obedience But as the Papll claimes and flatteries of former Ages did with full mouth and open forehead invade yea and by force insult over the just powers of Soveraigne Princes however of late they have been more cunning modest and tender so other spirits which from Pygmies have
Idolatry Heresie Schism and Apostasie in all the world if God had not in the place of primitive miracles supplied the Church with such Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters whose admirable learning undaunted courage indisputable authority uniform order and constant succession was beyond any miracle which did at once both wonderfully attest and mightily preserve the sanctity mystery and majesty of Christian Religion from the subtilty of persecutors the sophistry of Philosophers the contumacy of Schismaticks and contumelies of Hereticks being too hard by Gods assistance for the malice of men and the wiles of Satan All which are then under severall new notions and disguises probable to prevaile over this or any Christian Church when such liberty shall be used by vulgar spirits and inordinate minds as shall not onely diminish and abate but quite in time destroy and vacate the divine reverence and inviolable sanctity of religious mysteries and holy ministrations which will inevitably follow where the Catholick order and divine authority of Ministers derived through all ages is not onely questioned and disputed but denied despised variated prostituted usurped by whosoever list to make himself a Minister in any new way which cannot be true if new nor authentick if it be exotick unwonted in the Church of Christ either broken off or different from that primitive commission and constant exemplification or Catholick succession which was owned and observed in Bishops and Presbyters throughout all the Christian world For my part I abhor all intrusion and obtrusion of dangerous Novelties both from Papists and Separatists either in Doctrine Discipline or Government of the Church and those I account dangerous yea detestable Novelties which not upon any plea of ignorance or necessity but meerly out of wantonness and wilfulness seek to alter the sacred streams and currents of Ecclesiasticall power authority and order from those fountains where Christ first broached it and those conduits by which the Apostles derived it which unquestionably was by Bishops and Presbyters I know that the sacred office and Angelick function of the Evangelicall Ministry as it is from my Lord Jesus Christ and is in his name and stead so it ought to be managed reverenced esteemed transmitted and undertaken among all true Christians as a visible supply of Christs absence in body as an authoritative embassie or delegation from Him as a sacred dispensation of that Ministry to his Church by chosen and duly ordained men setting forth his History his Precepts Promises Sacraments and other holy Institutions together with the Ministrations and Gifts of his holy Spirit by which he promised to his Apostles to be with them to the end of the world in that holy work wherein he employed them and their lawfull successors to be his witnesses among all nations whither he should send them So that every true Minister as with the ancients Mr. Calvin observes in his proper place and order as Bishop or Presbyter is first a Prophet to teach and instruct in the truths of God that part of Christs Church over which he is constituted next he is as a Ruler Shepherd and Governour over them in the Lord to feed and guide them in that holy order and discipline which becomes the lesser and the greater the single and sociall parts of Christs flock according as they are under their several care and inspection lastly every true Minister is in his proper station to perform in Christs stead those offices of his Evangelicall Priesthood which he hath assigned to be dispensed for his Churches good as the solemn consecration and celebration of that Eucharisticall memoriall of the great oblation of Christ to his Father upon the Cross for the redemption of the world by which all mankind is put into a conditionall capacity of salvation and upon their true faith and repentance Christs body and blood with all his meritorious benefits are evidently set forth signally confirmed and personally exhibited in that great Sacrament and most venerable mystery to every worthy Receiver He is further to offer up upon the altar of Christs merits the spiritual sacrifices of the Church in prayers praises thanksgivings alms and charities Besides this there is in the true Pastor or Minister of the Church of Christ according to their proportion and degree their line and measure as Bishops and Presbyters a power of mission and propagation in order to maintain that holy succession of an Evangelicall Priesthood which Christ Jesus hath appointed and which the Apostles with their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in all the world have to this day continued without any interruption or any variation as to the maine of the power and practise of Ordination So then as these three offices are eminently in Christ as the great Prophet Prince and Priest of his Church to all which he was consecrated by the mission of his Father by his own Blood-shed and Passion also by the anointing of his eternall Spirit which filled him with all divine Graces ministeriall Gifts and miraculous Power necessary for so great a work so the Lord Christ being absent in body but present in his power and Spirit had derived and committed the outward ministeriall execution of these his offices to chosen and ordained men as over-seers and workers together with Christ of themselves but earthen vessels yet the fittest instruments for the present dispensations of his Gospel and grace which yet are to be carried on according to the first appearance of Christ in the flesh in such darkness weaknesse and meannesse as may most set forth the present excellency of Gods gracious power and set off the future manifestations of his glory to his Church which even in this inferiority and obscurity of the Gospel hath yet as three that bear witnesse to its truth in heaven the wisdome of the Father contriving the love of the Son effecting and the power of the holy Ghost applying Evangelical mercies to poor sinners so it hath three that bear witnesse on earth to that glorious truth and mystery of the Gospel the water of Baptism which sprinkles to Regeneration the blood of the Lords Supper which feeds and refreshes believers also the Spirit of ministeriall Power and Authority which hath been and still is from Christ continued in all true Christian Churches As the first three are one in an essentiall unity of divine nature so these later three as S. John tells us agree in one that is in one Soveraign author Jesus Christ and in one sacred order and office of Church-Ministry or Evangelical dispensations successively derived from the Apostles Elders and Deacons by a power and commission peculiar to those who are duly ordained to be Christs Deputies Lieutenants and Vicegerents in his Church for those holy offices and divine ministrations whereto they are severally appointed in an higher or lower degree as Apostles or Elders as Bishops or Presbyters as Pastors or Teachers either over-seeing as
much letting of blood as these last Calentures which have infinitely wasted the people and spirits of these three Nations taking their first popular heats or pretending so at least from the zeal each party had for its Religion not as Christian which all professe but as discriminated by particular marks of lesser Opinions and Perswasions which occasion more discords than all their agreement in other main matters can preserve of Love and Concord as men as Countrey-men or Christians How oft since the Reformation in England began and was perfected to so great a beauty for Justice Piety Order Charity Moderation and Honour as became the Glory of God the Majesty of Christian Religion and the Wisdome of this Nation have the struglings of Religion threatned and began civil broyles not onely in eighth's dayes both in the North and West when yet Reformation was much unhewn and unpolished people being unsatisfied because untaught as to the just grounds of necessary Alteration but afterward in succeeding Princes dayes especially in Queen Elizabeth's long and happy reign how infinitely did religious discontents boyle in some mens breasts insomuch that for want of vent in open flames of Hostility which the publick Power Policy and Vigilancy of those times repressed they bred all sorts of foul Impostumations even to the study of Assassinations Empoisonings and Treasons some so black and barbarous as are unparallel'd in former and will be scarce credible in after-Ages Nor did the discontented Papists onely meditate first revenge then Soveraignty by blowing all up at one blow that was sacred or civil in this Nation but even that little cloud which at first seemed but as an hands breadth of difference in some outward Forms Ceremonies and Circumstances of Religion as Christian and Reformed this in time grew so full of sulphurous or hot vapours that it looked very black when it was not yet very big in England either by schismes or separations being much cooled and allayed yea in great part dissipated and vanished through the excellent temper of that Government both in Church and State which that renowned Queen and her wise Councel preserved which suffered neither Conformity to grow wanton and lazy nor Non-conformity to be presumptuous or desperate nor yet too popular by out-vying the other party either in Piety or Industry Episcopacy as the ancient and onely Catholick Government of this and all other Churches for 1500. years was then had in due veneration allowed its double honour both in Church and State in Parlaments and Synods it was treated with great gravity and respect by that incomparable Princesse afterward it was asserted with greater indulgence and passion by King James who began that Proverb which his Son saw verified No Bishop no King yet in the beginning of the late Kings dayes Episcopacy and the state of the Church was even pampered and cosetted by so excessive a favour and propensity as made it seem his chief Favourite not onely for reasons of State but of Conscience The Episcopall throne and dignity seemed as immutable as the Kings Scepter and Majesty so zealously devoted he was to assert it so fearfull by any sacrilegious act to diminish it such a Patron such a Champion for the State Ecclesiastick that upon the matter he was resolved to venture Kingdomes Life and all upon this cause and either to swimme or sink with the Church of England against the Tide of all Faction What could be desired of greater advantage and security than such an immensity of favour from so potent a Monarch for the indemnity and stability of the Episcopall interests and its friends in England which in the Beginning of King Charles his reign had what they could hope or desire his benignity exceeding the very hopes of Church-men his Royall favour confirming all those Immunities Honours Jurisdictions and Revenues as sacred and inviolable which they enjoyed by the Lawes Priviledges and Customes of England to which the Learning Gravity and Merit of many worthy Bishops and other Church-men in England bare so great and good a proportion that few were so impudently envious as not to think that many yea most of them well deserved what they soberly enjoyed The heat of the opposite Factions as Non-conformists or Separatists was so much allayed that it seemed quite extinguished nor possibly could it have revived to so sudden and dreadfull flames if the immoderations of some mens passionate counsels and precipitate activities had not transported them beyond those bounds which politick and it may be pious prudence did require which easily re-inkindled those old differences which had been so much suppressed that they seemed quite buried in England till they took fresh and unexpected fires from the cold climate but hot spirits of Scotland which finding prepared and combustible matter there and here too soon brake out to such flames as were not to be quenched but with the best blood in England and the overthrow of the ancient Government both of Church and State even then when both seemed to be in their greatest height and fixation So dangerous even beyond all imagination and expression are the sparks of religious dissentions if they be either by preposterous Oppositions provoked or by imprudent Negligences permitted to ferment and spread in any Church and State or if they be not by at powerfull way of reall Wisdome and true Piety which is the best and surest policy so quenched and smothered as may take away from all men of any Worth Modesty and Conscience any just cause to endeavour or desire any such Innovations as those did who upon Presbyterian principles first aimed at not a totall change of Doctrine but onely an amendment of Discipline and Government in this Church which as they seemed in a short time to have obtained beyond their first designs so in no long time after they were as much frustrated and soon defeated by other subsequent parties which sprang up upon the like grounds of religious differences After Episcopacy was thrust under hatches what I pray could be more absolute and Magisteriall bigger in words lookes enterprises in terrours of others in boasts and confidences of it self than the Presbyterian party was after once that Leven by a Scotch maceration and infusion had diffused it self and sowred many peoples simplicity here in England against the Episcopall constitution and administration of this Church How did this high-flying Icarus in a short time disdain any rivall puffing at all its Prelatick adversaries setting its feet on all the Bishops and the Episcopall Clergies neck as the Israelites did on the five Kings of the Amorites before they were to be slain which thing was done at Josuahs command who was the supreme Magistrate but these forward Spirits tarried not for any such command or consent to their dominion from the Prince of the people but their new soveraginty fought to spread it self like lightning in a moment to the latitude of these three Kingdomes impregnated and palliated with many popular petitions
once the North-wind ceased to fill its sailes Besides this Independency confining all its authority to a little body and narrow compasse of one Congregation hath a stroke or knack in it of greater popularity than Presbytery it self which having many heads and hands soon grew terrible to great men as well as common people threatning them not onely with one sword or scepter but with the combined force of many Presbyters and Presbyteries with appeales from one Consistory to another which looked like dew-rakes and harrowes armed with so many teeth that none great or small should escape them but he must needs fall under the first second third or fourth Consistorian Power either Parochiall or Classicall or Provinciall or Nationall new names and great words which common people would hardly learn in one yeare nor understand in seven Furthermore the Magistratick genius and Emperiall spirits of this Nation intending intirely to govern it both in Civil and Ecclesiasticall respects began in time to be better advised and so to be aware how they or the Nation fell under the Discipline of any Populacy or Presbytery whose Rods nay Scorpions castigated King James during his pupillage or minority in Scotland so severely that he could never forgive or forget their insolency to his dying day as he bitterly complains in his Basilicon Doron every petty Presbyter that had twenty Marks a year salary to live upon fancying himself a Peer not onely to the Lords but to the Prince himself This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many-headed Hydra of Government King James did and so might all wise men see cause enough perfectly to abhorre both in Church and State that it was not onely folly but madnesse to buy the experience of it in England at the charge of our own miseries when we had our neighbours late examples so near us that they were enough to have scared any wise men from such an hare-brain'd and plebeian Presbytery as King James and others describe specially the Learned Reverend and Impartiall Arch-bishop of S. Andrews who modestly sets it forth in his late excellent History of the Church of Scotland in its rise progresse activity and recesse which was a Government popularly at first extorted from Bishops Peers and Princes by a company of minute Ministers or petty Preachers whose extravancies the wisdome of King James after reduced to a well-regulated Episcopacy under which Scotland as well as England enjoyed I believe its best dayes Thus when Presbytery had lopped Episcopacy to the stumps in Engl. yea and thought it had grubbed it up by the Mattock and Pickax of the Covenant when it self from a small Shrub had set it self up began to take root and to fill the land against the will of the chief Cedar in the Forrest fancying it was now full of sap both of Divine and Humane Right as if it were in high favour both with God and man yet then it suddenly dwindled and looked so withered as if it had been Planet-struck or smitten with a sharp East-wind when indeed it was nothing else but the spirit of Independency and other Novelties which like Palmer-worms or Caterpillers secretly bred in every corner of the land and which have now also made their way even into Scotland it self sometime the great Scene and Throne of Presbytery now very tottering and much weakned as to that part of affected soveraignty in Church-affairs Nor is this young tall and seemingly so thrifty shoot of Independency which is yet but slender and more run up in height than spread in bulk this is not so firmly fixed that it cannot be removed having little root in Scripture or in the true reason of Government and Polity nor more in any Church-patterns or practise of Antiquity being like Jonah's gourd the child of a night of yesterday in comparison of Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy yea and a younger brother to Presbytery which was but a modern shift used among some Reformed Churches when they could not have as they desired Reforming and Reformed Bishops to rule them for else they had never God knows dreamed any thing of such a Presbytery as should tend to the extirpation of Apostolick Episcopacy Nor is Independency with all its easie rootings and windings in our loose and broken soyle of England as yet far spread in the judgements of the most learned grave and sober persons of England looking upon it as incongruous in its Novelty Feebleness Factiousness and popular temper to the Genius and interest of the English people who are never to be long or well ruled by those whom they think their equals or inferiours Even Independency it self which hath a pretty soft phrase and easier cords to bind people together in small bodies will in time find its weaknesse in it self and betray it to others whence will follow other variations from it oppositions against it and contempts of it Who knows what way fierce Anabaptists ambitious Millenaries Seraphick Familists rude Ranters and silly Quakers wil affect for their Church-government or any other new and yet namelesse Faction which may hereafter be spawned more agreeable to the vulgar humour which loves greater Latitudes Indifferencies Loosenesses and Cheapnesses of Religion both in Opinon and Practise than learned and modest Independents will allow Who sees not how much the uncivil confidence and childish clownery of Quakers takes with the vulgar beyond any thing while to set off their Enthusiasmes with a greater emphasis they affect a rude and levelling Conversation with a familiarity of Thouing their betters and superiours at every word fancying great holinesse in their simple and superstitious Yea and Nay which are not the sole and confined but onely the shortest expressions of true and honest meanings disdaining to use any signs of Duty common Courtesie or Respect which by the Laws of God and man are due to Parents Equals or Superiours according to the gentle courteous and humble behaviour of all Christians in all Countreys and Ages yet do these sort of new leaders pretend they come nearer to Jesus Christ and to God because they have no respect of any persons but themselves and no doubt in order further to relieve their Necessities and Obscurities these men would be content to have all things common after the fashion of primitive Charity when the Churches necessities had an empire of love not force over particular Christians proprieties These and the like discriminations of parties in Religion which are but lately grown out of the distempers of the Church of England as wormes out of Job's sores or dunghill have already not onely their Founders and Patrons which must be almost deified by their respective Disciples but they have also their grand Masters Abettors Propagators Followers and Champions each challengeth to themselves the titles of Christians Saints godly people the Church c. not as good fellowes in a charitable community and Catholick correspondency but in a supercilious reserve almost excluding all others and unchurching them who are not just of their
all others to prefer it and so the Bishops of all other Cities made no scruple to yield the precedency of honor and order to the Bishops of Rome which was as lawfull as it was orderly But when the Papall arrogancy lifted up it self above its brethren by a Luciferian height through the subtilty and importunity of Pope Boniface as Platina in his life tels us he afterward sought to exalt himself above all that is called God the Papall ambition very cunningly invading not onely the Rights of Kings and civill powers but of the Ecclesiastick Rulers also for the Roman policy saw that unlesse it got above all Bishops it could not easily get above all Christian Princes and Magistrates which supported the honor and freedome of each other Then Monastick and Jesuitick flattery following pride the Bishops of Rome must be not onely the chief Bishop but the Father the Fountaine the Lord the Prince of all Bishops and all Episcopacy indeed the onely Bishop of Divine and Apostolick Authority all other Bishops must be as his off-sets his Suffragans or his Chaplaines nothing without him and able to do nothing as Bishops but by a power derived from the Pope forgetting the Primitive equality of all Bishops as to their Episcopall Rights Power and Office which followed the parity of the Apostles as to their Apostleship which all Antiquity with St. Cyprian St. Jerom Gregory the Great and others owned as Unicus in solidum Episcopatus but one Tree or source of Ecclesiasticall Authority first rooted in Christ afterward derived to the chief Apostles and from each of them to their successors in all the Christian world This once laid aside and buried in the darknesse and insolency of warlike and superstitious times the degenerated Bishops of Rome by degrees gained their processe and designe which was to have no civill or Ecclesistick power in the world but such as might derive from and depend upon them all Princes and Prelates must be his vassalls or they must have no Principality no Episcopacy This axe was the first and a very heavy sharp one that was laid to the root of Episcopacy by the Papall arrogancy after whose copy all those may be suspected to write who first blot out Episcopacy that they may blot and out-bolt set up and pull down Magistracy upon such principles and pretentions of Religion as they list to set up and fancy for the advancing of Christs cause the Gospel Religion and Reformation words never more used by any than the Popes of Rome since they used the style of Holinesse and Servant of Servants but intended Highnesse and exercised Soveraignty over all according to that Mystery of Iniquity which was by some of them carried on and is not to this day laid aside though more tenderly and warily managed being on all hands either despised or disliked by all Christian Princes that are not forced by dependance or fear to be parasites to the Pope I know in this point other novel Antiepiscopal parties on all hands have sought with all artifices to captate Magistratick favour as well as plebeian applauses representing themselves so submissive and complyant to Princes and Parlaments to all States and civill Polities that they fancy to favour their side as if they onely studied to bear the crosse of Christ and not to weare any Crown of soveraignty But how modest some of them have been in seeking to set up Jesus Christ and themselves not onely without but against the expresse will and consent of the lawfull Princes and chief Magistrates no lesse than against the Lawes in force yea and against the far major part of the community of all sorts I leave it to others yea to themselves to judge who have any just ingenuous or blushing principle in them I am sure the Anabaptists at Munster first pretended to abhor all wars and weapons of blood while their party was small weake and frozen but afterward they could find hands as well as feet As for Presbytery and Independency truly they have given not only terrible alarmes and assaults to both Monarchy and Episcopacy which were both of them their lawfull superiours but they have even now sharpe rigours and ambitious rivalries against each other which of them shall have most power and most hands as well as most favour or indulgence Neither of them are looked upon as making any great scruple to bring in the prevalency of their parties by force of armes when once they presume of numbers sufficient neither of them seem to make any great conscience to set up their new Scepters by absolute power where petition and agitation will not serve their turne because both of them pretend to have Jesus Christ sure on their side who is indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords yet I do not find that he hath any where made them his Lieutenants to Rule for him upon the score and Title of any Church-power notwithstanding that they intitle their designes with his cause and inscribe their banners with his name as Pontius Pilate did that Crosse whereon he Crucified Jesus Christ. Many of them I find do hold all Men all Christians all Ministers all Magistrates all Princes Kings and Emperours enemies to Jesus Christ that are not declaredly for them and will not be subject to their Discipline or Government Many Grave and Learned men heretofore and of later times have set them forth not onely in their occasional zelotries and transports but in their meditated principles and declared designes to be such strikers and sticklers that they seem to be born with hornes and hoofes at least with teeth and swords in their mouths preaching as in Gods and Christs Name that if Christian Princes will not Peers and inferiour Magistrates may if these will not the common people may and ought to Reforme any Church or Religion after such a Form as their leaders list to fancy and prescribe Nor is this to be done with gloves and mittens with petitions and prayers but with gantlets and speares with clubs and swords if need be and if they can get power into their hands which they say is to be counted Gods power or a providentiall dispensation to his people thus to carry on his glory his word and his cause as to Religion though against his expresse Word against all Rules of justice against all Lawes and bounds of civill order and obedience yea against common honesty even to the violating of just oathes and superinducing of perjurious superfetations yea even to excommunication and deprivation of the chief Magistrate or Prince of their place and power in case they be refractory Thus do many men tell us they have found the Disciplinarian pulse of Presbytery at least if not of Independency to beat almost ever since they were born so that they have and ever will give no small terror jealousie and trouble to all soveraigne and Magistratick powers where ever they can by popular arts get footing both of them bearing
excluded Do we not read in one Melchizedek the Type of Christ both Prince and Priest joyned together Afterward were not Aaron and Moses the one as King the other as Chief-priest appointed by God as the leaders of the Church of God From this example Abiathar the Priest also Gad and Nathan the Prophets were Counsellours as well as Confessors to King David so was Azariah the son of Zadok the Priest a chief Prince and Counsellor to King Solomon so Jehojadah the Priest was a Father a Protector and a chief Director to King Joash who ceased to prosper when he wanted such a Counsellor 2. When no men may be presumed or indeed generally are and in all times have been so able in managing and advising of matters religious as eminent Bishops and well-chosen Church men certainly none were so fit as they to give account to the Prince and State of the true estate of the Church and Religion which are miserably mis-represented by other ignorant or envious Informers none so much layes to heart the true concerns of Religion or the interests of mens souls none will so much take care that these suffer no prejudice and detriment by any Lay-mens disorderly insolency or covetous encrochments 3. As for the preaching part of a Bishop or his residence and inspection to his particular Diocese it can be no hinderance as some men have pittifully pretended sometime to attend the general good of their own and all others Dioceses they may not be thought to neglect their own Cabin who are sometime imployed for the reparation or conservation of the whole Ship as my Lord Viscount Newark very honourably learnedly and eloquently expressed himself in the House of Peers where it was briefly disputed touching Bishops sitting as Peers in the House which they had done ever since there was an House of Christian Peers in England So that the pretended damage as to their particular care of their Diocese is abundantly compensated by the good they may do to the publick which may easily be as much as that was of the English and Scotch Presbyters who were dispensed with for many moneths Non-residency as to their particular Livings and charges when they were to attend the Assemblies great service of making a Catechize a Directory and helping to extirpate Bishops out of this Church and State 4. The retortion upon these Ministers especially who were so much enemies to Bishops being in any Council Civil or Ecclesiastick must needs be a most smart and severe conviction of their Partiality when we have daily seen so many petty Presbyterian and Independent Preachers as busie as Bees and every where eager Sticklers in all secular Councils and Affairs How did some of them haunt some Lords and Commons in the long Parlament How did they ply all Committees specially that for Religion which had swallowed up the Convocation How prone are they still uncalled to croud or insinuate into all publick yea into Cabinet-Counsels both military and civil What of concern in Church or State for these last eighteen years can move or pass without their suggestions whisperings and agitations Many publick Declarations savour much of their strain and form both for fancy and phrase especially if they regard any religious businesse of State as Fastings Humiliations Thanksgivings and the like which heretofore were managed by the counsel of great Bishops as able I believe as any of our new and little ones But it is not strange that some men should think themselves fit to be at both ends of all publick Counsels either laying or hatching them and yet be so eager against all Bishops who were full as honest and in all respects as able and worthy as the best of these Sticklers for nothing makes men more presumptuous of themselves or more envious against others than want of true knowledge of eithers dimensions 5. And lastly the very light of Nature makes it seem very preposterous and impolitick to exclude all Church-men of which Bishops were ever the chief Fathers out of all publick Counsels for all Nations have taught us that they did so far venerate their Gods and honour their Religion as never to carry on their chief Counsels publick Affairs of War or Peace for Religion or Civility without taking some of their Holy men and Priests into their Councils so King Balak cals for Balaam in his greatest exigencies so were the Pontifs or Flamens ever among the chief Roman Counsellors and Senators so were the Druids ever among the British and Gallick Parlaments so were the Magi among the Persian Princes so at this day are the Mufties among the Turks chief Counsel All Mankind knowing this that the best counsels are those which rise nearest to Jupiters Throne and are drawn from the clearest fountains of Divine Wisdom If the true God and the Son of God the Christians Saviour have justly the Titles of the All and Onely wise yea the wonderful Counsellors how I beseech you can it stand with any Christian sense or reason of State and true Religion to exclude those men beyond any from all publick Councils of Church and State who are most in Gods and Christs stead best studied and acquainted with the Divine Will Wisdom and Counsel in Gods Word I am sure so far as I am versed in any Histories neither this Church or State nor any other did ever flourish without Bishops among the prime Counsellors both in Parlament and other-where nor did they ever more flourish in Piety Peace and Plenty than when these had as great an influence as any other Men of Learning Worth and Wisdom How things may hereafter thrive where the Clergy are so nipt and frost-bitten time and success will best inform the survivers yet it is no very promising omen when neither Clergy-men are encouraged to be fit and able nor if fit and able are at any hand to be admitted to such publick use and honour when any others may whatever extraction rise and education they have had for they are not alwayes noble Rivers and ancient Springs of Vertue Wisdom and Honour but many times small Brooks and very inconsiderable Rivolets which aspire to this honour of contributing their small drops of Counsel into the great publick Cistern of Government And such were they as far as I understood men for the most part who with least patience could bear any Bishops to sit in counsel with them lest they should be miserably outshined and eclipsed by the others improved parts and well-known learning which vastly exceeded the small shreds and short ends which many other men were so highly conceited of in themselves whose Estates laid the greatest foundation of their Honour But I here crave the Readers pardon for this digression no way impertinent to my designe which is to demonstrate the merit and so far to recover the publick esteem and honor of good Bishops and all the Clergy such as they ever enjoyed in this and all other Christian States till these darker daies in
England which pretend to seek a greater light by putting out of Princes Courts and Counsels the chiefest Lamps and Stars of Learning Religion Counsell and Wisdom To returne then to this excellent Bishop and able Counsellour the Primate of Armagh as to his personall policy domestick subtilty or private cautiousness truly he had little enough of the Serpent but as to his harmelesse innocency he had very much of the Dove ever esteeming Piety the best Policy and Sanctity the safest Sanctuary If any thing might seem to have been as a veniall allay in him it was a kind of charitable easieness and credulity which made him prone to hope good of all and loth to believe evil of any especially if they made any Profession or shews of Piety he did not think there could have been so much gall and vinegar mixed with the shewes or realities of some mens graces untill he found by sad experience some Godly people and Presbyters professing much Godliness who formerly were prone to adore him as a God or an Oracle were now ready to stone and destroy him with all his brethren the British Bishops He was most prone to erre on the right hand of charity and to incline to those opinions in things disputable which seemed to set men furthest off from Pride Licenciousness and Profaneness of which he was better able to judge than of Hypocrisie being more jealous of Irreligion than Superstition which is the right hand and more venial extreme of Religion He had not til of late yeares felt the scalding effects of some mens over-boyling zeal or the dreadfull terrors of their righteousness who affected to be over-righteous who despised his Learned Wise and Moderate Counsels touching the setling of Peace Order and Government in the Church The rare endowments of this pattern of a perfect Bishop were both wrapped up and set forth as occasion required with such Tender Piety such Child-like Humility such a Saintly Simplicity such an Harmeless Activity such an Indefatigable Industry such Unfeigned Sanctity such Unaffected Gravity such an Angelick Serenity and such an Heavenly Sweetness as made all his Writings perspicuous though profound his Preaching plaine yet most prevalent He had an Eloquent kind of Thunder of Reason mixed with Scripture-Lightning which together had a pleasing potent terror his praying was fervent and pathetick without affecting either too diffused a variety or too circumscribed an Identity his fervency discretion and sincerity alwaies set his prayers far from any thing either of a verball and vaine repetition or a flat and barren invention he ever highly esteemed and devoutly used the Liturgy of the Church Indeed he Prayed or Preached or Practised continually the Scholar the Christian and the Divine his whole life as to the conversable part of it was so Civil so Sacred so Affable so Amiable so Usefull so Exemplary to all persons of any Worth Ingenuity and Honesty that came to him that in earnest nothing Ancient or Moderne that ever I knew or read of in these British Churches or any forreigne Nation was more August Venerable Imitable and Admirable than this blessed Bishop such Candor yet Power such Largenesse yet singleness of heart such Majesty with meekness appeared in all that he seriously said or did I never saw him either morose or reserved much less sowre or supercilious If he were sad it made him not silent but onely more solemn as night-pieces which have admirable work of perspective in them though not so much light with them if he were chereful he abhorred not such facetious and ingenious elegancies of discourse as shewed that Risiblity was as proper to Religion as Reason that Holiness was no enemy to Cheerfulness but great graces might safely smile and innocent vertues sometimes laugh without offence He was indeed as the Church of Smyrna testifies of holy Polycarp their first Bishop there placed by St. John the Apostle a most Apostolick person a true Divine a most exemplary Christian and a most Venerable Bishop equalizing without doubt if not exceeding any one of the ancient famous Bishops and chief Fathers of the Church not onely in his Primitive Piety but in his great literature for he was joyntly excelling in all those things wherein they were severally most commendable he was as our Saviour saith of John Baptist a Prophet yea greater than an ordinary Prophet for among the children of men or children of God and of the true Church there hath not since the Apostles dayes been born a greater than He. If I or any man were able to reach the Height Length Depth and Breadth of his Gifts and Graces his acquired and infused endowments some taste or essay of which his faithfull friend and servant Dr. Bernard as Timothy to this St. Paul hath given and is daily further imparting to the world yet no Epitomes or little Volumes are able to containe so ample a subject nor give that satisfaction to Learned men at home and abroad as is justly exspectable from so copious and complete a theme Whose humble and holy industry was such that besides his vast designes for Writing and Printing he never failed since he was Presbyter Prelate or Primate to preach once every week if health permitted him besides many times on the week-day upon occasion which was so far from being his reproch as if he made himself too cheap as some men of more pompous than pious spirits have calumniated that like Davids dancing before the Lord it turned not to his diminution but to his great honor among all People Presbyters Prelates Peeres and Princes that had any knowledge what was the true dignity of a Divine and the commendation of a Christian Bishop nor was it any great paines to a person of his fulnesse who did not pump for but poure out his Sermons like a pregnant spring with a strange Plenty Clarity and Vivacity Certainly if all our Bishops had so honored God according to their Places Parts and Strength by imitating the best of their Predecessors yea the Apostles and our Lord Jesus Christ the greatest Bishop and greatest Preacher it is very probable not onely Bishops but Episcopacy had at this day suffered lesse diminution and dishonor if all Bishops hearts and mouths had been as open as his sure they had stopped the mouths and silenced the tongues of all their adversaries But by this and other either real failings or supposed defects of some few Bishops as in Sea-banks where low and weak the horrid inundation hath broke in upon Episcopacy and all Bishops with such a torrent of violence that we see the best of them could not keep out nor stand before the impetuosity of the times which if any Bishops in any Age or Church might have merited and hoped to have done this excellent Primate and other Bishops then in England and Ireland might have done it who were persons of so great Learning Piety Moderation Humility For besides the many other most accomplished Bishops then in England