been a great noise and bustle for a better in the chief Materials and Superstructures thereof It is confessed Doctrine Worship and Government are the Essentials of a regularly constituted Church each of which hath been impugned traduced and defamed The Doctrine hath been least debated though too much the Worship hath been more scrupled and with great heats opposed the Government most of all canvassed and bandied against Upon which accompt this being most contemned by all Sectaries and least respected by many who retain a kindness for the Doctrine and Worship is first to be reflected on where it will not be amiss before that be considered to premise something in general relating to all and every of the contested particulars CHAP. I. Sect. 1. MAny things conducing to the well-being of a regularly formalized Church may be and are in their kind alterable which yet as Mr. Calvin observes nec subinde nec temerè nec levibus de causis should not be altered Considered precisely in themselves they may but if the reasons of their Constitution be regarded they are practicè moraliter unchangeable These terms are borrowed from a great Jesuit yet made use of by several reformed Divines in several important instances and approved by them for this reason because the first reason of their origination is moral and perpetual Those of this nature being not merely occasional temporary Proviso's which often vary either upon some sudden unexpected emergent or for the avoidance of some greater evil but were ordained for the great end of Christian Society and in the ordination founded on the general rules of the Gospel Whereupon with the Greeks they passed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Constitutions for their serviceableness to the great Concerns of publick Religion with the Latins as Divina Magisteria Divinae Dispositiones Divinae Sanctiones quae publicâ Lege celebrantur quas universa Ecclesia suscipit Mr. Calvin saith of them Sic sunt humanae ut simul sunt divinae which if I understand aright hath this clear sense They are humane in their composition but divine in their foundation and reason of their Constitution Sect. 2. To attempt a second Reformation will be a great reproach to our first Reformers who confessedly were men of great learning piety and zeal For if they failed in their undertaking either through ignorance oscitancy or interest it will be readily concluded they designed onely a Change and endeavoured an innovation which at once blasts their reputation and justifies all the imputations of their Romish Adversaries who impeached them of novelty and Schism And if we set upon a new refined Reformation as their former charge will hardly be evaded so with difficulty will we solve their latter Objections viz. Protestants have no Principles or which is as bad are so given to change they will not stand to their principles whereas if we maintain the Reformation to be onely a Reduction of affairs to the primitive Apostolical and Catholick order and state we do not onely thereby render a second Reformation unpracticable but also invalidate all the Romish contumelies and calumnies This was the avowed profession of our first Reformers they would onely retrieve the Primitive Christianity and settle this Church according to the Catholick Pattern concluding all other methods of Reformation to be irrational and schismatical Bishop Jewel in his famous Apology p. 176 177. fully declares it Accessimus quantum potuimus asserting the whole and every main part to be Apostolical and consonant to the judgment and practice of the ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers This Apology not onely Peter Martyr in his Epistle prefixed to it but also the learned Divines of Tigur Bullinger Gualther Wolphius c. have so highly approved that they resolved no Book extant in the Protestant cause was comparable to it Other eminent Transmarine Divines might be mentioned yea a Jesuit in his Pamphlet against Mr. Chillingworth hath confessed that of all other courses in the Reformation that which the English followed was the most effectual for the establishment of our Religion against the Romish Church The more shame for a presumptuous Ignoramus publickly to remonstrate We might as easily persuade the modish Ladies of Court and City to Queen Elizabeth's Ruffs as to gain him and his rabble to be content with her Settlement of Religion Sect. 3. This Church being thus Reformed and restored to its primitive strength and splendour to move for a second Reformation dissonant therefrom is in effect to renounce the Communion of the Primitive Catholick Church with which all successive Churches ought to hold as near as possibly they can a perfect correspondence and where this cannot be obtained by reason of some cross circumstances to reflect upon it as an infelicity The reason hereof is obvious for the primitive and successive Churches are but one Body having the same dependencies upon and relation to the one Lord one Faith and one Baptism and the Catholick visible Church and every regularly constituted particular Church is an organized Body having several Members for several Offices all which conspire for unity that there be no Schism in the Body which certainly would happen if successive Churches observe not the same Laws and retain not the same Government which the primitive maintained For that which maketh the Church one is the unity of these and that which distinguisheth one Body or Society from another is the diversity of Laws and Government and so long as the same Laws and the same Government are in force the Body is still the same Now as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever so is his Church which at first was embodied into an indeterminable Society For the Scripture assures us the Church is a Body and that Body whereof Christ is the Head Col. 1. 18 24. Eph. 4. 11 12 15 16. which we profess to be Catholick not onely in respect of persons and place but also of time The Catholicism whereof not onely includeth variety of places and multitudes of men but is to be extended to universality of succession Now evident it is that all Bodies Corporate whether aggregate such as the Church is or sole by their succession are immortal as long as they retain the same fundamental Laws and remain under the first settled Government If therefore we condescend to a new Reformation distinct from the first Settlement or opposite thereto we design a schismatical separation from the primitive Catholick Church if we put it in execution we fall under the same condemnation we sentence against the Romanists this being the common Protestant Apology We have departed from Rome no farther than she hath from the ancient Church and her self and if there were no other reason for this our secession as there is viz. That we embraced Christianity before S. Peter planted a Church there and when the Western apartment was set out by the Fathers this of ours had the honour of being one of the Seven
NO Reformation OF THE ESTABLISHED Reformation By JOHN SHAW Rector of Whalton in Northumberland GALAT. IV. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing Qui non zelat non amat LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-yard 1685. TO The Right Honourable AND RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD NATHANIEL Lord Bishop of DVRHAM His honoured Diocesan My LORD WHEN I designed the publication of the ensuing Treatise it was my resolution to present it to your Honour as once I notified to you which I have now presumed to put in execution though then I had not your express licence to prefix your Honour's name yet by some expressions of respect I conceived you would not be offended if I did Upon this presumptive allowance as I was encouraged so upon other obligations I was engaged to doe it I have received high respects from your Lordship upon several occasions and instances which I ought whenever an opportunity was offered to acknowledge with all due veneration neither could I pitch on a more fitter than this how mean and little soever it is The old Rule was He who could make no better payment should readily confess the debt Reddit qui libenter debet holds still good with noble and generous Spirits But this is onely a debt of gratitude and common honesty and an argument of good nature to honour those who have deserved honour but an higher obligation from a more divine principle is due from an inferiour Priest to his Diocesan That Order Let nothing be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the permission or consent of the Bishop I wish it were better observed is so strongly binding that I think every Curate without offence I hope to the greatest Rectors or Vicars is to apply himself in all doubts and emergent cases of difficulty to his Diocesan for resolution and all his Clergy should in all publick Undertakings have either his express or reasonably presumed consent especially if they be such as this Treatise makes a shew of viz. The asserting the excellency of our Reformed Church for its strength and beauty surpassing all others both for soundness of Doctrine purity and comeliness of Worship and Apostolicalness of Government A Church for this reason the more excellent because most opposed for as the hardest things are the most excellent so the most excellent are most aimed and shot at One sort perfectly hateth because they fear her as long as she holds up her head they must lowr fret and storm and never perfect their projects yet they most malign and vilifie her who by all humane and divine Laws should live in obedience to her No Church hath had more furious assaults made on her but her enemies were still repulsed a Church of that firmness that the Gates of Hell even when Satan was let loose could not prevail against her This is her comfort all the Reformed Churches of any good figure give her the right hand of Fellowship and of preeminence too The very attempt then to defend this Church is both Heroical and Christian how weak soever the Undertaker be he may have and hath a good heart though his hands be feeble It is true Non eget auxilio tali nec defensoribus istis yet if a Puny manage a Cause under dispute with good success against an old experienced famous Lawyer pleading on the other side he himself gains a little esteem but its great reputation to the Cause That Cause was good which so mean a man could defend This is my case who am sufficiently sensible of mine own weakness but very hearty to defend that Church whereof I have been a Priest for full forty eight years ordained by one of your Lordship's Predecessours for this I have suffered and do yet suffer in some sort sufferers may have leave to speak this I will defend when I can doe no otherwise by Pen while I am able yet always and no otherwise but permissu Superiorum upon which account I tender this address begging your Ghostly Benediction and that you will still repute me as Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father Your most obedient Son and Devoted humble Servant John Shaw PREFACE THEY who understand what Reformation means need not trouble themselves for a solution to that captious silly demand of the Papists Where was your Church before Luther for to reform is but to amend what is amiss to correct and rectifie what is faulty the same numerical subject still existing Reformation is like the renovation of a sinner Eph. 4. 22 23 24. Saul the Persecutour was the same man in kind with Paul the Professour The Prodigal who took his journey into a far Countrey was the same individual person who returned to his Father's House a penitent But because Reformation is sometimes necessary yet at all times dangerous men being apt to run violently from one extreme to another jumping over the golden mean therefore that it be warrantable it ought to be duly circumstantiated by just methods and measures which by the good providence of God and I think direction and guidance of his Holy Spirit hit on the right way observing all requisites for the happy management of that great work when she reformed her self For 1. It was done by just and lawfull Authority the King and Clergy of the Kingdom concurring as our late excellent King observed saying I am confident to make it clearly appear that this Church did never submit nor was subordinate to the two Houses of Parliament and that it was onely the King and Clergy who made the Reformation the Parliament merely serving to help to give the civil Sanction His Majesty's Second Paper to Mr. Alex. Henderson Part 1. fol. 165. 2. They had good grounds to undertake the work for that there was a necessity of Reformation the Testimony of Adrian the Sixth and Cardinal Pool de Conc. p. 86. will assure besides it was the desire or pretence of all Kingdoms in the Western division of the Church especially by the Emperours of Germany and Principalities therein 3. That they proceeded with due moderation is declared Can. 30. For we profess as they did our Separation was not from the Church of Rome but its Errours our Church is the same it was before onely differing as a garden weeded from the same unweeded as the body purged from the same unpurged What they did was to separate the pretious from the vile the dross from pure metal The Church was then like Jeremy's Baskets of Figs Jer. 24. there were good very good Figs in one in the other the Figs were evil very evil so in the Church there was on one side good very good things in another part evil very evil things and our Reformers as they cast out the evil so they were very carefull to retain the good What can we think then of our desperate Dissenters who despise these Dominions and speak evil of these Dignities who have undertaken this work with courage
and perfected it with a happy success even to the envy and admiration of the Christian world Certainly there hath not in any age in any part of the world in that space of time appeared such a race of Kings as our five Reformed Princes for all manly Kingly and Christian accomplishments neither hath there been a more Clergy-like Clergy than hath been under their Reigns We can esteem them to be no other than such as S. Paul Tit. 3. 10. notifies to be men subverted that 's desperate utterly perverted in understanding and will whom the Governour of the Church is to reject excommunicate him after two admonitions which if they work no good effect he is to reject with a severe censure take no pains to dispute with them any more hearken no more to their Replies and Objections faith Diod. they have by their contumacy and non-submission to their Governours put themselves into an helpless and hopeless condition they have excommunicated themselves without the Sentence of a Judge saith Dr. Ham there is no hopes of them and so leave them to the judgment of heaven as hath been accustomed What shall we say of half Conformists conforming Non-conformists who when they take the fit can come to Church and attend there by outward Conformity This will not clear them from the guilt of Schism bonum est ex integra causa and it 's to be feared there is hypocrisie in the case outward conformity may cheat the Law and mock men but it cannot be an holy living acceptable sacrifice to God because the good works of Faith must be done with a good and honest heart in sincerity and truth out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. and every duty must be done with respect to God's Commandment But do you see them come to Church Thanks to the King who will have Laws put in execution but when they come they come as Countrey-men do to Fairs and Markets some sooner some later and with the same reverence that they enter their Inn some not at the beginning or not till Sermon begin some go out in an hurly burly after the Sermon is ended this is contrary to the Act of Vniformity so that this coming to Church is neither Christian nor Legal Tea but many come early neither loll nor lubber nor hang down their heads like a bulrush as too many do but hold out to the last and demean themselves unless sometimes through inadvertency as the Law requireth This is confessed but for all that it will not denominate them true Members of the Church of England because many of them dispute scruple deny and undervalue the Authority of the Church rebell against its Governours Associate pack Juries in a design to ruine the Church and as opportunity serves take to a Conventicle hold correspondence with its professed enemies familiarly converse with the excommunicated by the Church and now and then commend them for their piety nay we are sure several of these late Conspiratours and Associatours were such as these all which acted directly contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and shall these pass for true Conformists who are but counterfeits do not the grossest Fanaticks reproach and upbraid us with them when they tell us tauntingly Take up your Church of England men you often declaim against us as Traitours and Rebels but who are such now Were not most of the Conspiratours such as observed and kept the Church They did so in part but we disown them because we look upon them as the most dangerous enemies to the Crown and the Church being most false to both by their juggling pretences to them both Church-Papists and Church-Puritans do undermine the Church whilst others profess an open hostility against it but a declared enemy without is not so dangerous as a pretended traiterous friend within But what esteem is to be given to new Converts Thanks to the King again my Lord Chief Justice and the Reverend Judges we have old Converts too if they prove not better than most of them have done we have no great reason to confide in them If the new be Converts indeed they are to be treated with all civility and by love without all dissimulation to be entertained and welcomed with the same rejoycings and caresses the Father ordered for his penitent Son to lay them on our shoulders as the Shepherd his stray Sheep because we have found what was lost yet this we cannot either with prudence or safety project till we have good security for their sincerity Let the old Converts be as forward and active for the service to the Crown and Church as they have been for the Ordinances of the Junto 's Keepers and Oliver as respective to the Episcopal Clergy as they were to the Presbyterian Trimmers c. then welcome good Friends if not adieu but for this we need not look into their hearts they may be known by their fruits and overt Acts Let the new bring forth fruits worthy of repentance promote the concerns of the Crown and Church as faithfully and strenuously as they have of the Faction of Conventiclers and Associatours let them come and welcome but if they cross or the King's service and dally in their duty good night to them also What is your opinion of those learned men who think there is no determinate Government of the Church I do not like a walking Church but for this Mr. Alexander Henderson in his Second Paper thinks that is built on a sandy foundation which is not built upon the foundation of Christ and the Apostles and all they doe so who content themselves with the Constitutions of the Church and munificence of Princes I desire them to satisfie his late Majesty's Quaere How can it be made appear that our Saviour and his Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter its Government at their pleasure I think if we once think of an ambulatory Church-Government at the next turn we must expect an ambulatory Creed Lastly Whereas we have had four successive excellent Princes to maintain the Reformation and many Parliaments too and one King with his Clergy thought it a necessary duty to reform this Church it s therefore the indispensable duty of their Subjects to conform not barely because it was established by their authority though that is necessarily required but also from the nature reasons excellency and goodness of the establishment it self which to evidence is the design of the following Treatise both in regard of it self and in comparison of other late Models both à priori and à posteriori which if I have sufficiently cleared to the satisfaction of any considering men who are willing to be convinced or confirmed I have done one part of a Christian Priest of the Reformed Catholick Church of England No Reformation OF THE Established Reformation EVER since the Reformation was happily compleated in this Kingdom there hath
Diocesan or Patriarchal Churches as well as Rome yet even this would justifie our Separation because it was our duty to reunite our selves to the Catholick Church all several Churches being but partes simulares homogeneal parts of the whole Whereupon it followeth that that Church which keeps closest to the primitive Catholick Pattern and holds the nearest alliance with it is the purest and that several Churches having such a relation to and dependence upon it neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to act as divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but are to teach and to be taught and to doe all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned to the whole and as Members of the same indeterminable Society Sect. 4. Suppose we should yield to another project of Reformation the issue will be confusion and desolation for if we may conclude their intentions from their former practices and present principles the design is to over-rule or abolish all their way was to strike at all root and branch and now they are for removing the Laws Their course of regulation is to rase the Walls of the City if they can if not to undermine them Down with the Church of England is the Popish Plot and the direct way to this is to divide it All the Papist Pot Cannons and Sophisms could never batter or shake our Jerusalem till some of the Citizens thereof made breaches in it Nay the Romanists never made an approach upon it till the Puritans had made an assault these gave the other both the opportunity and encouragement to attack it Tush say the Popelings let us levell this the Mushrome Sectaries will either fall in the ruines of it or else into our hands they have been very serviceable Tools to us in all our attempts and no doubt will be so on to the end if ever we effect it and then we know how to engage their tender Consciences let it but appear to them which we will not fail to doe they can gain by the barter they forsooth have a new light a new dispensation of Providence and they must wait on Providence and follow that light Sect. 5. What will the consequence of this work be if it go on Is it to remove what is established before we resolve where to fix This were certainly mad work to demolish old Structures before we have advised of the fashion of the new Perhaps a model is fansied but are all the Dissenters agreed about it When they had power too much and time too long to resolve on a settled way even then they neither would or could unite nor ever will or can This we are sure of none of the schismatical Parties can have their own ends unless all be taken away which crosseth their humours or interests and if this be done by violence or by Law not one of ten shall have his own ends which because they cannot obtain their feuds will be high till one party get the full mastery and then the Plot of Union is marred But who shall be taken into this motion to have the benefit of it If all nothing can follow but confusion without remedy and scandal beyond an Apology If one onely Party which yet is unknown what it is then the others if they dare will stand out and oppose it if not they will murmur and repine and thus expostulate Why should they be secluded Members debarred of the privilege of Comprehension This say they we can say for our selves we were drawn into the Lines of Communication by the persuasions and solicitations of their gratified Partizans and Comrades and though they say it have as much promoted the good Old Cause In this indeed we are all agreed we shall never enjoy Liberty of Conscience till we have power to kill and take possession neither likely to have Free Trade till without any respect to Law we can plunder and sequester Malignants and shall we who are fully accorded with them be laid aside If it be pretended the favoured will give good security for their good behaviour for the future whereof there is yet no evidence we are as free as they not doubting to affirm we are the more sober and peaceable in whom there is a more sweet and gratious spirit of love and zeal and have been more constant to their principles than they For we can prove many of them were active Conformists soon after proved persecuting Presbyterians then dough-baked Independents and now again have tacked about and are Cologueing Compliers However if some be received into favour and others rejected there is plain partiality in the case if all must be entertained a downright unaccountable Schism follows But to wave the Persons to be comprehended what Things must be granted them for an Union If onely a few unsatisfactory alterations be tendered the project is baffled we should be as far from Unity as now we are for then the clamour would be our burthens are a little mitigated but not removed our grievances are abated but not fully satisfied we must not leave an hoof behind us when we go out of Egypt If many and great alterations be submitted to then they triumph in their Conquests they had not onely Providence on their side but reason also and argument and then we shall hear of nothing in Pulpits Clubbs and Coffee-houses but stories of their mighty Acts that their Enemies are now under great convictions that they are the Godly conscientious Gods secret Ones and the good Old Cause must needs be God's Cause Having premised these Considerations let us next reflect upon the matters on which this motion of Reformation must proceed and first of that which is most opposed the Government CHAP. II. COncerning it the most proper method will be to discuss these following Propositions 1. That Church Government is necessary 2. That necessary Church Government ought to be one and the same throughout the Christian world at all times 3. That one Church Government is Episcopacy which hath prevailed ever since the first plantation of Christianity Sect. 1. Church Government is necessary for these reasons The Church is a Society which cannot subsist without it It is a Body whose parts are compacted each whereof hath its proper Office and Service it is that Body whereof Christ is the Head who therefore will provide for its preservation and peace by placing Governours over it which de facto he hath done 1 Cor. 12. 28. It is the House of God whereof Christ is the Lord who hath reserved this prerogative to himself to nominate and constitute the Stewards of his Houshold and Family as he did Luk. 12. 42. hence those commissionated by him are called the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Therefore for any to exercise a power in his House who is not authorized by him or to reject those powers which he hath entrusted to provide for his Family and rule his House is a most sacrilegious invasion and
Concord l. 6. c. 4. sect Igitur observes Indeed in the Latin Church Presbyters did lay on hands with the Bishop at the Ordination of a Presbyter yet this was observed not for its validity but for its solemnity and attestation For the African Fathers who ordered it ascribed the entire power to the Bishop Cod. Afric c. 55. 80. and even at Rome besore S. John's death Presbyters were settled in several Parishes by Enaristus Caron p. 44. and therefore we may believe before that the same was done in earlier converted Churches Mr. Toung in his Notes on S. Clem. 1. Ep. ad Cor. out of a Book which Mr. Petty brought from Greece hath this Sentence S. Peter was in Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 settled Churches by laying hands on Bishops Priests and Deacons It will not be amiss to superadd how far the Waldenses concurred in judgment upon this case with the Church of England which we find Parsons third part of the Three Conversions of England cap. 3. p. 44. who relates from Vrspurg Trithem Antomin and others that they onely approved three Ecclesiastical Orders at which his tender Conscience was moved viz. That of Deaconship Priesthood and Bishops which is very probable for the Fratres Bohemi to continue a succession of Bishops sent twelve men to the Waldenses in Austria to be ordained Bishops by their Bishops which was accordingly done and Corranus a Spaniard one of the Waldenses flying thence into England was retained a Preacher at the Temple and dedicated a Dialogue to the Lawyers there an 1574. in the close whereof he maketh a confession of his Faith where he declares his judgment herein I hold saith he there be divers Orders of Ministers in the Church of God viz. Some are Deacons some Priests some Bishops to whom the instruction of the People and the care of Religion is committed This we are sure of S. Bernard complains heavily many Bishops were of their Communion This was the primitive Establishment Conc. Cart. 3. and 4. Chal. Act. 1. for which reason Nazian in Vita Basil enforms us that he rose to his Bishoprick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the order and rule of spiritual ascent one degree after another So S. Hier. writes of Nepot in Ep. Fit Clericus per solitos gradus c. Num. 7. If S. Augustine's known and generally approved rule be admitted then the Order of Bishops is truly Apostolical because maintained in all Apostolical Chruches before any general Council had determined it And Tert. his Sorites will make it good which was that is truest which is first that is first which was from the beginning that was from the beginning which was from the Apostles that was from the Apostles which was inviolably and religiously observed in all Apostolical Churches Calvin speaks fairly to the case and so doth Beza too if their words may be taken who have tricks to eat them in the former saith the Bishops of the ancient Church made many Canons with that circumspection they had nothing almost contrary to the word of God in their whole Oeconomy l. 4. Instit c. 1. sect 14. but more fully thus they did not frame any other form of Government in the Church than that which God prescribed in his word The latter averreth what was then done was done optimo Zelo if so then they did it from warranty either from the Scripture or universal Tradition S. Hierome himself once said it was an Apostolical Tradition and when he said it was a Custome he proved it a good one because ordered for a good end as a safe remedy against Schism and an Apostolical Custome because taken in the Apostles times when one said I am of Paul c. which happened an 58. The disparity of Bishops and Priests was so religiously maintained in the primitive Church that the Fathers in the Council of Chalc. Act. 1. adjudged it sacrilege to bring down a Bishop to the degree of a Presbyter and the Doctrine of parity was condemned as flat Heresie in Aerius because he positively affirmed that there was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. one Order one Honour one Dignity in the Priesthood Dr. Crack Defens Eccl. Anglic. contra Arch. Spal p. 242 243. Bishops then as they were settled in matricibus Ecclesiis the Apostolical mother Churches so have been continued in all successive Ages without any considerable opposition for 1500 years which is so strong and cogent an argument to some who have not been over-fond of Episcopacy they have resolved it unanswerable since the Order hath been canvassed by some yet is still retained either in the Name or Thing in all the Eastern and Southern Churches generally in the Western and Northern reformed and others unless in two or three petty Associations in comparison of the rest where by reason of some cross circumstances it cannot be obtained though highly approved and much affected by most of their learned men never disowned or abominated by any but those whose zeal for the good Old Cause is immoderate S. Augustine's expression insolentissima insania insolent madness Num. 8. If these Structures be built upon the Foundation of the Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone the Fabrick is as firm as Mount Sion which may not be removed For if the Apostles did settle Bishops in their several Plantations and these such as the Prelatists plead for then that is the one necessary Government to be retained in the Church For the Apostles being inspired by the Holy Ghost they did then act and order the Church according to his directions Amesius himself resolves what is Apostolical Stands by Divine Right his words are Med. Theol l. 2. c. 15. n. 28. The Apostles were acted by the Divine Spirit no less in their Institutions than in the very Doctrine of the Gospel propounded by word or writing This he delivers to assert the Divine Authority and unalterableness of the Lord's day and will therefore hold here For if Episcopacy stand in the Church by the same authority that the Lord's day doth which Dr. Hammond hath fully proved then it hath the same Divine Authority for its Establishment This King James saw and so Premonition p. 44. is very positive That Bishops ought to be in the Church I always maintained as an Apostolical Order and so the Ordinance of God The Dissenters who allow of Church Government as such have often declared what concerns the rule of Government in the Church by Officers appointed by Christ is unchangeable Now that the Bishops are those Officers hath been evidenced from Scripture Rules and Precedents and confirmed by the suffrage of a cloud of Witnesses who as they accord in their Testimonies so were faithfull unto death some whereof were the chosen Witnesses of Christ's Resurrection some were immediate Successours to those ordained by the Apostles others of the highest reputation in the Church for testifiers of Catholick Tradition all of them had and still have such credit in the
Christian world that their attestation hath ever since been reverenced and accepted in momentous matters of Religion such as the religious observation of the Lord's day the number and integrity of the Canonical Books of holy Scripture the Baptism of Infants c. Episcopacy at least stands upon the same grounds with these if these upon the true measures of Piety and Religion be not alterable neither is it The most learned of the Dissenters have been forced to use the same proofs for these which we do for Episcopacy when they have not done so they have been baffled in a good cause as hereafter may be exemplified The Conclusion then is to attempt a Reformation of Episcopacy by its extermination is contrary to the sure and standing Rules of Christianity CHAP. III. THIS is farther to be discussed in point of prudence whether the change or standing thereof will conduce more to the publick interest which may be dispatched by these observations SECT 1. They who to the diminution or abolition of Episcopacy have or would set up new models of Church Government are either the Erastians the Presbyterians the Independents or the Pontificians The three former were hatched since an 1510. the last was long of hammering but was never rightly cast till Julius the Second moulded it at Lateran and of a crackt piece made it whole Now every of these will prefer Episcopacy caeteris paribus before any of the other Platforms but their own espoused Darling which they would have all to accept because complying with and favouring their wordly designs and interests But ask seriously any of the more observing and understanding men which of the Claimers they would rather incline to provided they could not possibly procure their own to bear the sway they will fairly take to Episcopacy Num. 1. The Erastians will by no means joyn with the Pontificians because they challenge and usurp a power to take cognizance in causes merely Civil in ordine ad spiritualia Not with the Presbyterians because they also claim the same sub formalitate Scandali both of them maintain the power both of make and confirm Ecclesiastical Laws as originally and radically in their supreme Judicatures the Civil Magistrate is onely to execute them which he must doe upon their Significavit's and Writs of Requisition at his peril otherwise he shall be clogged with their Sentences of Excommunication Nor do they much fansie the Independents because they will not endure the Civil Magistrate to interpose in Church matters nor have the least stroke in externals of Religion As for the Bishops though it be a grievance that they sometimes meddle in matters of a mixt nature yet because they know that what they act in these cases is by authority derived from the Civil Magistrate according to the known standing Laws they esteem Episcopacy as the most safe and expedient form and so Bishops may stand for the present till they can by rebellion grasp again all Civil and Ecclesiastical power in their clutches Num. 2. Independents utterly dislike both Erastians and Pontificians and though they can associate with the Presbyterians at present yet they hold no good opinion of them In a Book entituled Saint John Baptist they heavily declaim against them saying They had established a Dagon in Christ's Throne had stinted the whole worship of God c. at last it came to this they had rather the French King yea the Great Turk should rule over them In a Book called The Arraignment of Persecution they declared If ever the Presbyterians rule in chief an higher persecuting spirit would be found in them than they had felt from the Bishops J. O. hath excellently decyphered these Num. 3. The Presbyterians grin at them all Beza is as angry at Erastus Socinus and Morellius as the Pope Mr. Henderson's tender Conscience started at the thought of them The Books are commonly to be had wherein they oft and sadly complained all that they could expect for their expences of Bloud and Treasure none of their own was to be recompensed with greater grievances and more dangerous licentiousness which is too true than they ever mourned for which is very false for most of them were colloguing compliers under the Government of King and Bishops At last they cried out Matters were come to that pass they had exchanged a bad Religion for none at all See Excom Excom p. 18. inde And Edwards his Gangrene Num. 4. The Papists of all men had the advantage but the more sober considering men among them have expressed That all their purchases of Proselytes were no compensation for those miseries they had sustained and still feared from the Junto's and that they were much more happy under the former Government which secured their civil Liberties and Birth-rights SECT 2. But let it be for once presumed that each of those Models had somewhat good yet withall recollect that the Constitution of this Church is of so excellent a mixture with the choicest ingredients that it will effect those great ends so much pretended by them more strongly and obligingly if it may attain its just value and respect For Num. 1. The Erastians are to be commended for their pretended care and endeavours that the power of the Civil Magistrate be not infringed by any Ecclesiastical Usurpation So far good if they were not possessed or rather pretend onely to be with fears and jealousies that this Church approved some principle to the diminution of the Civil Power which what it is none can with any colour of reason conjecture unless this be it that whilst she fully renders to Caesar the things that are Caesar's she is still cautious to reserve to God the things that are God's Erastus the first Founder of that Order had no prejudice against any thing determined in this Church upon that score if we respect either the motives which induced him to quarrel the Allobrogian Model or the Arguments he framed against it The Motives were 1. He had observed that Calvin had so cunningly contrived it that he and his assisting Ministers could upon every occasion overtop the Statesmen The artifice lay herein he took for a blind onely six Ministers but twelve Syndicks yet so that the Ministers were to continue for life but the Statesmen to be annually chosen whereby he conceived these changling Officers would be so wary as not to cross the standing Moderatours which so happened as he himself signified in his Epistle to Bulling Semper fuimus in ist a promiscua colluvie superiores We had always the better in that rifraff Junto 2. He knew those chosen Officers had neither age or experience nor judgment nor manners a full description of the late Lay-Elders to enable them to sustain so great an employment with credit and honour 3. He was provoked that a Malecontent English fugitive had liberty to discuss this Thesis viz. That in every well-ordered Church this Government was to be retained in which the Ministers with the concurrence of
Servant to Saul 1 Sam. 22. 12. and David was Lord to Nathan 1 Reg. 1. 24. so neither were the Kings to execute the Sacerdotal Function but were bound to consult their Priests and Prophets as Joshua was Eleazer Num. 27. 21. by God's appointment and David did Abiathar 1 Sam. 23. 6. We are sure Saul Jeroboam Vziah were severely checked for exercising such Acts as formerly belonged to the Priests not that they were debarred from regulating and providing for the due discharge of the Priestly Offices for that is a part of their duty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. and Arist l. 1. Ethic. c. 13. was herein Orthodox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they are to permit the Priests the exercises of their Functions and in matters of Religion to require the Law at their mouths Mal. 2. 7. which all Christian Kings have always granted Mr. Hobbs owneth that after the Ascension of our Lord the power Ecclesiastical was in Apostles after them in such as they had ordained and so delivered downward to others ordained by them and the great Erastian name hath yielded them a power to decide cases of Conscience and to declare what is lawfull what not This was respectively done but he fell far short of the mark for certainly to baptize Proselytes is a larger portion of power than bare interpreting or teaching the Law even a power to admit Members into the Christian Society and in all reason they who have power to admit have power occasionally to exclude hence that Gentleman was forced to confess they had power to bind and loose which in Scripture signifies to forbid and decree which is more than any Casuist or Preacher as such pretends to and is rather proper to a Legislative or Judicial Power which was sometimes exercised by the Church as when the Apostles upon a complaint where no less men than S. Paul and Barnabas were Advocates for the Plaintiffs passed an obligatory Decree Act. 15. 28. 16. 4. That Precept or Permission Tell the Church at least implies the Church had then power to take cognizance of trespasses and to say the civil Magistrate is that Church is ridiculous for then the sense would be Tell the trespass to Constantine three hundred years after it was committed for till then there was no certainly known Christian Emperour and Christians were not by the Discipline of the Church to seek for remedy at heathen Tribunals in the first instance Now as there was a subordination of these Powers so there was a distinction the one was the power of the Sword committed to the civil Magistrate to reward well-doers and to punish evil-doers of all kinds Rom. 13. 4. an Heretick a Schismatick an Idolater or Blasphemer as well as a Thief a Murtherer or a Traitor and this hath its immediate effect upon the outward man body and goods with reference to the concerns of this life Ezr. 7. 26. the other is the power of the Keys to labour in word and Doctrine to exhort and rebuke with all authority to rule well in spiritual concerns to bind and to loose 1 Tim. 1. 17. Tit. 1. 5. Matt. 16. 19. the proper operation whereof is upon the Soul with reference to the world to come There is a difference saith the above cited Joh. Frig. Refor Pol. between Dominion and Jurisdiction neither the Apostles nor chief Bishops exercised Dominion but their Offices having Jurisdiction p. 16. as in France saith he p. 17. the King hath the civil Dominion the Parliaments the Jurisdiction so in England the Queen hath the Dominion but the Bishops the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction hence Arist l. 10. Ethic. c. 9. n. 10. resolves Legislatours are differenced from Practitioners of Faculties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Professours are to Act Legislatours to prescribe rules for acting The King's power is the supreme that of Priests subordinate which difference proceeds not from the natural excellency of the one power above the other but from the all-wise disposition of God who is the chief power empowring as he is said to be natura naturans The Bishops with their subordinate Ministers are the Executours of Christ's last Will and Testament the King is the Supervisor and the Judge too to grant them Letters of Administration Bishops and Priests are the Ministers of Religion Kings are the Rulers of it and them The substance of the whole is the true Sons of the Church of England are the sole Assertors of the King's Supremacy not onely in expressions and complement but in fact and real operation not upon reasons of State or dictates of Prudence but the rule of Conscience which none of the Dissenters therefrom will allow Not the Erastians for they play at fast and loose with the King's Supremacy and by distinctions and limitations fix it certainly no where but make it as variable as their fortunes One of the most esteemed Partizans made this interpretation thereof The King is the supreme Governour but not the supreme Power Gallant Law Sophistry as if it were possible he could govern in chief who had not a power sutable thereto The Independents plead an exemption from it The Presbyterians utterly deny it Such a Supremacy as the Kings claimed and the two Houses of Parliament Erastian-wise craved indeed at first they did but beg it which after they plundred I disclaim said Henderson second Paper num 7. The true Nonconformist makes it the main work of his Book to charge it with Antichristianism The Pontificians perfectly abhor it The Prelatists are the onely defenders of it The Pontificians make Kings their Churches Ministers and Presbyterians make them their Kirk Ministers not the Ministers of God The Erastians and Independents are agreed they are originally the People's Ministers not God's The Prelatists assent with the Law of Christ and the Laws of the Kingdom the King is God's Minister Rom. 13. The Presbyterians and Independents resolve the Kingdom is in and under the Church and then the Government of that must be conformed to that of this If then the Presbyterians be rampant the civil Government must be Aristocratical If the Independents be the masters of Misrule it must be Democratical but if it happen the Erastians be the Sultans then the Game is King and no King at the best he is but their Trustee he must stand on his good behaviour and pass his accounts to the Patriots for the contracting good People If the Pope be the great Cham the civil Government must truckle SECT 3. To bring the matter nearer home there was a time when the blades of Fortune in 40 thought it prudent to declare they had no intentions for any alterations It was when the Earl of Essex his Army had scented and followed the Scent very hotly and when the King had objected the designs amongst them they formed a Declaration to renounce all such purposes Aug. 9. 42. as before they had protested against it as a slander and for once such an one as the Father of lies had
pretend great zeal against Ignorance and Sin and the other is aggrieved at promiscuous Communions though both of them by their barkings and bawlings against this Church and the Discipline and Government thereof have and do still obstruct the methods which she hath provided as remedies against those maladies Now that those Offices which she hath determined for those ends are proper and very instrumental through the assistence of the Divine grace which accompanies and inanimates them to devoutly affected Christians most effectual thereto they will be necessitated to acknowledge by observing the Order prescribed which lies thus Every Infant is to be solemnly matriculated into the Church by holy Baptism these baptized in a competent time are to be catechised in the principles of Christian Religion and then to be confirmed by the Bishop and are required to give attention to the reading and preaching of the word of God Being thus prepared they are admittable to the great mystery of the holy Eucharist and for neglect of these means the offenders are liable to the censures of the Church That these methods are Scriptural and Apostolical most of the Dissenters acknowledge some of them indeed scruple at Confirmation but Calvin conceives it to be originally Apostolical with whom more than a whole Jury of reformed Divines have given in their Verdict Mr. Baxter thinketh it would quiet the wrangle about the formality of a Church Covenant and Membership Mr. Brinsley of Yarmouth was of opinion it would remove all the fears and jealousies of vain Disputers Calvin is positive this office was performed by the Bishop from the beginning and Mr. Dallee commends that of S. Hier. Episcopus c. in Dial. inter Orth. and Lucef In this I blame the Presbyterians and Independents because at present they hang together by the tails but for all the fair copies of their Countenances if their wished and laboured for turn come their faces will look several ways If the Presbyterians get the start and keep their ground for a while they will soon proclaim the Independents to be Babylonians If the Independents once more out-wit the Presbyterians and turn them out of power and trust then the Independents will face about and tell them roundly they are Egyptians SECT 5. As for the Papists the best they can brag on is their unity of which they rant highly that they and they onely have found out the true way to it this is a mere bravado to which a wise and learned person made heretofore this return viz. Let me see the Jesuits and Seculars reconciled in England a Dominican and Jesuit in Doctrinal Papistry French and Italians in state Papistry then I shall allow them a little to vapour their oral and conclave Traditionists are hard at it in their confutations of each other their great heads of Unity Pope Sixtus and Clemens fell very foul one with another they cannot agree about the Supremacy of a Pope and a Council nor which of their four or five Churches is the infallible one the Popes and Councils have declared several ways upon the points which obviates their common shift viz. Their clashings and bickerings are but in scholastick opinions and niceties for then the definitions of Popes and Councils are no matters of Faith But here again they quarrel for some assert a Doctrine is heretical by its repugnancy to what is revealed by Christ others affirm a Doctrine is heretical because the Church hath declared so it s the former sort thus confutes If the Doctrine be heretical from the Churches declaration then the Church hath power to make Articles of Faith about which also there is a great bustle among them for some of them peremptorily deny the Church hath any power to make Articles of Faith but most of the Canonists and all the Popes Exchequer men affirm it so schismatically are they divided about their Church the Head thereof with the terms and objects of their pretended Unity when these are smartly objected to them their onely salvo is Their Rule would be a means to hold them in unity if it were followed Very good for the plain English of this is their Rule about which they so smartly wrangle and concerning which they could never yet agree will or may be a means of unity when they are agreed about it In opposition whereto we assert the Rule which we propose is not flexible like theirs but infallible viz. the sure word of God duly applied for the application whereof we take in the consentient judgment of the universal Church in matters of Faith and in points of practice the constant usage thereof these we stand to because if they be not the true means of unity the true Church of God which always relied on these and no other had never any If to this some Romanists give assent as some of them do they are so far English Episcopal Protestants From all which premised there is great reason and good warranty to conclude that under the Government of King and Bishops the Civil Power is most safely fixed mixt Communion Ignorance and Sin are most effectually provided against Unity and Obedience storngly guarded therefore whatsoever good or desirable can be expected from Erastianism Presbyterianism Independency or Popery is really experimented in Episcopacy and therefore this in true polity ought to be retained and supported the other modes are not to be admitted or entertained not the Erastians for they play at fast and loose with Kings and the Church they respect no Government present to which their submission is compliance not obedience Not the Presbyterians for they encroach upon and vilifie Kingly authority if they find a King they will if they dare shackle him or in our Northern expression houghband him Not the Independents for with them Kings are the Peoples Creatures and Trustees neither will they permit him with their good wills to intermeddle in Church Affairs Not the Pontificians for reasons given by the learned Doctor Stillingfleet and that honourable Person who seconded him It is therefore the clear interest of the Crown if it would have a Church National to govern by it ought to be Protestant Episcopal as a late ingenious Writer hath observed lest if it be held of the Pope Kirk or People in Capite it totter and fall That Probleme which Dr. Prideaux Ep. Ded. ad fasc Contro An suprematus Papalis sit potiùs Antichristianus quà m Presbyterianus aut Enthusiasticus may hence easily be resolved if we be not too palpably partial we must declare them all or none at all to be Tyrannical or Antichristian The best Argument ever yet produced to prove the Pope to be Antichrist is his bold challenge over all Kings and Monarchs to depose them and dispose of their Crowns and Dignities which if it be good it will hold as strongly against all other Sectaries for they are as truly the Limbs of Antichrist who preach and press Rebellion against their lawfull Sovereign and those commissionated by
on my forehead the banner of the Cross The custome then being ancient and innocent because observed in the best times it ought to be retained and for its better observation be enjoyned by authority certainly not laid aside to gratifie humorous people 3. As for kneeling at the receiving of the holy Sacrament though there be not so clear a constat yet this is plain the Ancients used the same gesture they did at prayer which never was that of sitting which neither in it self hath nor in the esteem of the Ancients ever had any thing of reverence Tert. de Orat. c. 12. protests against it and Amesius c. 18. de Consc p. 191. rejects it because not expressive of reverence nor approved in Scripture Now kneeling was the ordinary custome Euseb l. 8. c. 5 8. standing was at particular times and places which they used as a significant Ceremony yet when they stood they bowed the body after the manner of worshipping which is sufficiently proved by that received rule Nemo manducat c. Let none communicate but he who first adores so that ordinarily they kneeled when they received and when they did not they worshipped The best reformed Churches use kneeling and the best learned of those who do not acknowledge it a gesture of humility and reverence which where it is constituted ought to be uniformly observed The Genevians in their Annot. on the harmony of Confessions are well content every particular Church should use her liberty in such cases particularly they make mention of kneeling at the Communion and use of all such Ceremonies as now are observed by the Lutherans Copes Organs c. and had been used before by Papists Annot. Sect. 14. Obs 4. ad Confes Bohem As an upshot to this when an English fugitive Separatist proposed his Thesis de Adiaphoris at Geneva he could not be permitted to discuss them The whole may be drawn up in this order Ceremonies are lawfull things some of this kind are expedient these expedients ought to be significant these may and occasionally ought to be imposed these so imposed are to be observed and those we practise caeteris paribus are to be settled rather than any other because thereby we honour our first Reformers we obey our lawfull Superiours we keep up our alliance with other reformed Churches sure with the chiefest and best and which is more we hold a firm correspondence with the primitive and present Catholick Church CHAP. VI. AS for the observation of Holidays the Grandees of the Sectarians seemed once willing to admit Festivals provided they were not called Holidays which was nothing else in them but a silly sour singularity and morosity for more learned and much better men than they never scrupled at the name Mr. Perkins Demonst Problem p. 232. n. 6. asserts this Holy they are not in and for themselves but for the holy duties then performed to God Dr. Rivet in Ex. 20. p. 167. declares A relative holiness belongeth to them and they might very properly be called Holidays ratione finis in respect to their ends and uses being separated for holy exercises So they were constituted and observed in the primitive Church S. Chrys Hom. in Ascen hath assured us The Catholick Church observed six recurring anniversary Solemnities in memory of Christ's Nativity Epiphany Passion Resurrection Ascension and mission of the Holy Ghost The matter of fact is notorious In the Reign of Dioclesian an 294. and by the Greek Menology on the twenty fifth of December the Christians assembled to commemorate the Birth of our Lord whereof the Emperour having received intelligence commanded the doors of the Church to be shut and fire set to it which soon consumed both them and it Julian in an hellish design joyned with the Christians in their publick Assembly on the sixth of January called the Epiphany The Festival for it 's called by Phil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Fast of our Saviour's Passion was solemnly celebrated and that from long custome Eus l. 2. c. 16. The dispute so early started about the time of the observation of Easter puts that beyond dispute Just Mart. Resp ad Orthod 115. speaks of its being kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Apostles time Euseb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. Eus l. 5. c. 23 24 25. and S. Aug. Ep. 119 ex authoritate Scripturarum universae Ecclesiae consensione The Ancients called Ascension Tessaracostae Scal. de Emend Temp. many are their Homilies on that day Conc. Elib c. 43. treats of Whitsuntide as an ancient Solemnity censuring all those who neglect it as Hereticks The matter of fact is backed with a good reason For if the primitive Christians were strict in the observation of the Birth-days as they were called but indeed Death-days of the Martyrs we cannot imagine they would be forgetfull fo the joyfull days wherein the Lord and the Lord of the Martyrs begun continued and perfected the work of the Redemption of mankind But evident it is those days were religiously observed S. Cypr. l. 3. Ep. 6. expressed his great care and zeal those commemorations and solemn Offices should not be slurred Rivet in Ex. 20. p. 154. saith Ratio postulat c. Reason requires that not onely certain days but sufficient be retained even as many as the right constitution safety good of the Church and the glory of God requires For we being exonerated from the Jewish yoke may have more ought not have fewer days for the service of God than they had but they had more than one in seven some whereof were of humane institution This he confirms p. 163. Quod de die c. that which was expresly said of the Seventh-day by analogy and parity of reason respects any day which the Church hath appointed and in common use hath observed for holy Meetings whereupon all Interpreters do conceive not onely the Lord's day but all other lawfully instituted Festivals are comprehended under the Fourth Commandment But a good word from Geneva may doe more service than all other authorities and reasons Hear a whole gang of Genevians at once Every Church may use her liberty in observing Ember-days and Holidays consecrated to the godly memory of the Saints Annot. in Harm Confess Sect. 16. Obs 1. ad Conf. Boh. and retain the use of singing Christian Hymns and Songs upon the Holidays Obs 2. Zanch. in Expl. c. 2. ad Col. so far approves them that though he thinks there is no absolute necessity for them yet there is a profitable necessity in their due observation Bishop Dav. in his exposition of the same words hath furnished us with three substantial reasons who will may consider them CHAP. VII THE last which is opposed is the Doctrine of the Church exemplified in the Book of Articles The Independent Sophi hath expressed so great kindness for 36 of them that by his Verdict woe be to him that shall dispute them no less correction will satisfie his tender Conscience than exile but away
to enterprise any thing which might infringe or abate the tenour of the Law The Presbyters and Deacons of Rome writing to S. Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 7. are very positive Quid magis c. What can be more necessary either in times of peace or persecution than to exercise due severity according to Divine order S. Augustine fully Tract 11. in Joh. Admirantur Donatistae c. The Donatists wonder that Christian Princes should bestir themselves against the detestable dividers of the Church but to abate their wonderment he subjoyns this reason Si verò c. If they did not labour to suppress them how could they give an account to God of their power which they had received from him because it is the duty of Christian Kings that they in their times preserve their Mother the Church in peace That smart saying of his Ep. 73. Possid is not to be forgotten Magis quid agas c. Think rather what course you are to take with those who will not obey Laws and how to handle them than to trouble your self to make it appear that their disobedience to Laws is sinfull This also shews that the Christian Emperours did make severe Laws against the Schismaticks of those times so did Constantine and his Sons Aug. Ep. 166. Ed. Bas To. 2. so did Valentian Gratian Theodosius Arcadius but Justinian took the safest course for the Hereticks being great traders he came even with them none should trade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but the Orthodox the rest had six months given them to consider whether they would conform or no. Evident it is that as the Emperours handled them sometimes more severely sometimes more remissly as the exigence of their affairs and state of the Empire would permit the Church and State did accordingly enjoy their peace and quiet or else were pestered with intestine broils and mischiefs The Governours of the Church were not behind hand to doe their part for the Laodicean Council forbids them admission into the Church c. 6. prohibits any Orthodox man to give his Sons or Daughters in marriage unto them c. 31. yea not to pray with them c. 33. and though it be true S. Aug. and Optat. called the Donatists Brethren yet at last they would not that was after that they had rejected or laid aside the use of the Lord's Prayer as many of our Fanaticks have done But above all Solomon prohibits the removal of what had been long settled by paternal power Prov. 22. 28. which the Ephesine Fathers with many other Ancients have applied to Church Customs and Constitutions Hereupon all wise men have dreaded the dissolution and abolition which is the Puritans work of Reformation of what hath been firmly established by good authority finding the provoking and irritating of humours by medicines in order to a cure have oft proved mortal and have oft resolved a tolerable sore is much better than an hazardous application for a remedy The Lawyers have a saying Better a mischief than an inconvenience which can signifie onely this that a remedy by admitting onely an inconvenience hath oft proved more mischievous in the event than the mischief they endeavoured to avoid because every notable change of State is apt to produce a world of unavoidable mischiefs it being morally impossible upon the exchange of a mischief for an inconvenience to prevent a new set of mischiefs which are not ordinarily found till they be felt It is notorious that even preposterous and unseasonable pressures of present remedies against either some present conceited mischiefs or fansied inconveniences hath choked the heart of all the main and principal concerns which ought first to have been respected and frustrated all those great ends whose advancement hath been pretended and whilst the greatest care of our Patriot Reformers should have been neither to tempt God nor to weary and harden his Vicegerent they have most impudently imprudently and wickedly provoked both by their rebellious actings and preposterous courses Heu probatum est witness not to go farther back our late Exclusioners and No-money-men Num. 3. Admitting a change be submitted to this will not gain nor secure those that are given to change For upon every such change they are ready ever and anon to change their principles and practices The Donatists the great Grandsires of our Sectaries did so at first they yelped Quid Imperatori c. What had the Emperour to doe in Church affairs but S. Augustine tells us with the change of the times they changed their note for taking their time they petitioned Julian the Apostate supplicantibus Rogatiano Pontio saith Opt. for liberty of Conscience which he readily granted them upon an hellish design ut per sacrilegas dissensiones as S. Aug. that by their sacrilegious dissensions he might destroy Christianity hip and thigh root and branch if possible Thus it fared with our Boutefeus they sadly complained and heavily declaimed against those Laws and do yet which our most Christian Kings had enacted for the keeping their Subjects in obedience with penalties upon the seditious disturbers of the peace and transgressours of Law upon the same Donatistical principle yet upon the lamentable change of the times they procured from the Junto's Keepers and Noll cruel Edicts against the regular Sons of the Church which were executed as Bishop Sanderson truly noted without justice or mercy that they had reason to complain as S. Augustine did of the Donatists they were so mischievous ut Barbarorum facta c. That the actings of Barbarians were more mild than theirs Aug. Ep. 122. Num. 4. All the forementioned Petitioners did earnestly solicite for the Religion established by Law avouching a change thereof was unjust most impious and uncharitable They had reason so to doe for that above-cited Text Prov. 22. 28. doth at least insinuate that it is contrary to all Religion equity and prudence upon every motion or singular humour of absurd and unreasonable Male-contents or Phantasticks to discompose or unhinge what our prudent and fatherly Governours have industriously set for the publick peace and tranquillity and have been long received with the approbation and full satisfaction of all good and peaceable Subjects But there is another Text Prov. 24. 21 22 which probably wrought on them to be so zealous for the established Religion My son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both A sad caveat this destruction is awarded not onely on the changelings but on the moderate medlers who are agitatours mediatours and apologizers for them who though they will not justifie them yet dare plead for them speak a good word for them and as much as they can with safety to themselves palliate and smother their crimes These though stylo novo they be called or miscalled the moderate sober party yet they answer not the name For they are either crafty designing
our Church be not left without security by Law against so violent and dangerous a party For we have little reason to believe that they who bid defiance to our present Laws and make sport with Proclamations will be persuaded by gentler means to obey others Both the adverse parties are violent and dangerous and in the other particulars equally criminal 11. No true Son of the Church will envy the quiet and security of innocent and peaceable men when there is assurance that by favour received they will not grow more unquiet but we cannot take too great care to prevent the restless designs of those who aim at nothing more than the undermining and blowing up of our established Church This the Puritans have done razing down the foundations thereof even to the ground and all those who refuse to subscribe and give satisfaction as to their sincerity are labouring with might and main to demolish it again And not it onely but even to destroy Monarchy and extirpate not onely the Priestly but the Kingly Office For so long as the nineteen Propositions the Votes of Non-addresses and the Association appear against them this can be no Calumny Nay their aims go higher than to the blowing up of our established Church even to the overthrow of all Religion For to my apprehension there is as great a difference between the Popish and Puritanical designs as between the persecution of Dioclesian and Julian the former killed the Priests and Christian Professours but the latter plotted and endeavoured the destruction of the Priesthood and Christianity it self Seeing therefore what Archbishop Whitgift foretold Mr. Fox foresaw Queen Elizabeth declared and King James hath observed of this Sect is fully made out in every period of time since they prodigiously appeared it were good to follow King Charles the First his Counsel Never to trust them Postscript IT is known the foregoing Discourse was prepared seven years ago if any inquisitive person would be satisfied why it was not exposed to the publick then and why now let him know it would have been judged unseasonable then when most mens heads and hearts were full of thoughts about the Popish Plot which doubtless had wickedness enough in the design and inward reserves Some would have said it was uncharitable because it swells with hard words as they are commonly phrased which would have been as hardly censured by those who favour or endeavour to palliate the unrighteous dealings of those who have hardned their hearts against all convictions and reprooss It will be hard for these men to prove that it is sin to call a Traitour a Traitour a Schismatick a Schismatick a Hypocrite a Hypocrite though it be impossible to prove all that are so called to be such indeed S. Paul hath told us there were Traitours in his days 2 Tim. 3. 6. whose folly should be manifest to all men v. 9. and that after they would wax worse and worse v. 13. Now if this great Apostle thought such should be detected to their ignominy a good reason should be assigned why our Dissenters and Republicans with their herd of Politico's who have been Traitours to all intents and purposes if ever there have been any such in any age or quarter of the world should not be branded with that title they have demerited The same holy Apostle termed those of the Concision Dogs Phil. 3. 2. because they rent the Church in pieces by their Separation and may not we bestow the same figure on the Schismaticks of this Church who cease not to snarl and bark and when they dare bite and devour the men worthy that is with them in this distinguishing note the King and Bishops with all truly loyal Subjects What S. Aug. l. 3. adv Pet. c. 83. said of their great Grandsires the Donatists we can say of them When did they spare being able to hurt us and to the Rogationists Ep. 48. You will do possibly what you can for our ruin seeing you cease not to be doing when you can doe nothing at all But I humbly conceive fairer pleas and pretences may be made for the Separatists of the Circumcision than can be contrived for the present Dissenters and I believe those Scribes and Pharisees whom S. John Baptist called a generation of Vipers were not a brood of so venemous Creatures as the generality of these be Our Lord and Saviour bids his Disciples beware of false Prophets as of ravening Wolves but these will never be known so as to be marked and avoided as S. Paul exhorts unless some marks be set upon them now who should doe this but they who are charged to discover the Wolves and as Watchmen and Shepherds to give notice of their approach especially when they appear in their assumed counterfeit harmless habit Indeed great zeal is pretended to keep out the Roman Wolf and some over-wise projectours seem to think the surest way to effect this is to let in other grievous Wolves make an Union joyn in an Association and in a defensive and offensive League with them who have once driven this Church into a Wilderness when all Israel were scattered upon the hills as Sheep that had no Shepherd But others much more wise and truly moderate than they did believe that would make a ready way for the Conclave Wolf to catch his prey whereof if he missed we should under pretence of stopping one gap set open an hundred gates to misery and confusion by bringing in a vast number of damnable Heresies and an unaccountable Schism It may be remembred that not long since as the vogue went there was a design to unite the Roman and Reformed Churches which though it was much more honourable and piously Christian than this so lately upon the stocks and as it is to be reasonably supposed still endeavoured by double-minded and unstable men who are given to change and by absurd and unreasonable men who count gain godliness yet this way was by the troublers of Israel cried down as a politick fetch and contrivance for the reduction of Popery notwithstanding their great Bell-weather Mr. Baxter had declared that that desire of reconciliation with Rome was with such additions as might bear a tolerable sense and for his part he was persuaded the Papists were as much afraid of King Charles well fare him for this and the Grotian design as of any thing that of a long time had been hatched against them But whatsoever may be said either against or for that the late balderdash project must not take For we are resolved to stand in defence of our Divine Monarchy nor will not be contented with a titular Isle of Wight King who may bear the name but God knows who should go away with the authority Neither can we part with our Apostolical Catholick Episcopacy to take a day it will not be of much longer standing of truce with those who have forfeited their Faith with God the King and the Church nor will we be pleased with
we may truly call them Traitours and Hypocrites which are as hard words as can be used and if they may not be used they were invented to no purpose But to salve the matter some have found out a moderate way of compounding it by joyning an hard and soft word together calling them dissenting Brethren For as the former is a very ungratefull unsociable and offensive word synonymous to Recusant Separatist and Schismatick the other is a sweet pleasant and comfortable appellative Now I cannot yet understand why the same may not be attributed to Romanists unless partiality or popularity prevail too much For the relation is founded either on Nature Profession or Office which are the common ways of appropriating that title but they are our Brethren by Nature as Men by Profession as Christians Dr. Burnet confesses them to be so and sure I am they are Ministers of the Gospel by designation and Function so that a reason should be rendred why Father Garnet Creswell Oldcorn Whitebread and Gawen may not be dubbed Brethren as well as Smectymnuus Brother Baxter Owen Lob or Ferguson If Idolatry destroy the Fraternity on one side of the House Sacrilege will on the other if positive Superstition break off the Brotherhood on the one hand negative will on the other if the Colliers Creed make us ashamed of the relation the no Creed or no Determinate will give us occasion to grieve and mourn if an implicite Faith in the Church or a blind obedience to the Pope make us like to Horse and Mule which have no understanding then it will so happen if we resign our reason to the resolutions of a pack of Demagogues unless we at last be contented the Pope's Chair be removed to the Speaker's at Westminster with a Nemine Contradicente But to shut up all it 's an hard case when men will censure others in that wherein they themselves are faulty For these mellow soft Souls when they are pinched or twitted make use of words as hard in sense though not so harsh in sound and can for a Friend's sake smother stifle and excuse their hard deeds as if we were faln back into Jeoffrey Chaucer's days when words were sins but deeds were not However if any think I have been too rude or bitter against those whom I believe upon good grounds to be dough-baked Ephraamites King-haters Church-Mountebanks Interlopers Barratours a most prodigiously ungratefull profligate Sect let them I say who think so prove it by good authority and reason I will confess and amend which is all the Reformation I yet know is needfull to them who live and are resolved by God's grace to die in the Communion of this most Christian Apostolical Catholick Church James 1. 10. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways Ecclus. 2. 12. Wo be to fearfull hearts and faint hands and the sinner that goeth two ways THE END ERRATA PAge 27 ult after Sylvanus add a full point and dele c. p. 34. 10. for Bidell r. Videli p. 35. 1. after martyr'd add was ib. 21. r. Aera p. 40. 27. r. Heming 41. 18. after day dele full point 42. 2. r. Caranz ib. l. 15. after find add in p. 46. 9. r. in moderate S. Aug. 60. 26. r. Tithes 77. 3. for blame r. clann 78. 21. for its r. which 84. 7. del for 96. 23. r. Evaristus 101. 18. del an honest 102. penul r. Weir 116. antepen r. judaicall 119. 3. for all r. date 124. 16. add to whom 131. 26. r. preside 133. 5. r. Martin in his Lexicon 139. 10. r. their Lord. 145. 12. r. at their own c. ib. l. 18. dele especially 150. 26. for by admitting r. for removing an incon c. 182. 11. r. misnomered 189. 5. r. Royalists 205. 6. for exposed r. opposed