fert scelus facit suum Shall I be bold to give you a very few instances one for a hundred wherewith our Pulpits and our Presses do groan M. Speaker There is a certaine new-born un-seen ignorant dangerous desperate way of Independency Are we Sir for this independent way Nay Sir are we for the elder brother of it the Presbyteriall form I have not yet heard any one Gentleman within these walls stand up and assert his thoughts here for either of these waies and yet Sir we are made the Patrons and Protectors of these so different so repugnant Innovations witnesse the severall dedications to us Nay both these waies together with the Episcopall come all rushing in upon us every one pretending a fore-head of Divinity 1. Episcopacy says it is by divine right and certainly Sir it comes much neerer to its claym then any other 2. Presbytery that says it is by Divine right 3. Nay this illegitimate thing this new-born Independency that dares to say it is by Divine right also Thus the Church of England not long since the glory of the Reformed Religion is miserably torne and distracted You can hardly now say which is the Church of England Whither shall we turn for cure Another instance If I would deale with a Papist to reduce him He answers I have been answered so already To what Religion would you perswade me what is the Religion you professe Your nine and thirty Articles they are contested against your publique solemne Liturgy that is detested And which is more then both these the three essentiall proper and onely Markes of a true Church they are protested against what Religion would you perswade me to where may I find and know and see and read the Religion you professe I beseech you Sir helpe me an answer to the Papist Nay Sir the Papist herein hath assistance even among ourselves doth get the tongue of some men whose hearts are farre from him For at one of your Committées I heard it publiquely asserted by one of that Committée that some of our Articles do containe some things contrary to holy Scripture M. Speaker Sunday is a Sabbath Sunday is no Sabbath Both true both untrue in severall acceptation and the knot I think too hard for our Teeth Shall I give you an easier instance Some say it is lawfull to kneele at receiving the Elements of our holy Communion others plead it as expedient Some do presse it as necessary and there want not others who abhorre it as Idolatrous And Sir I am confident you cannot so state this easie question to passe among us but that there will be many contradicentes The second Epistle of S. Peter is now newly denied to be the Apostles Our Creed the holy Apostles Creed is now disputed denyed inverted and exploded by some who would be thought the best Christian among us I started with wonder and with anger to heare a bold Mechanike tell me that my Creed is not my Creed He wondred at my wonder and said I hope your worship is too wise to beleeve that which you call your Creed O Deus bone in quae tempora reservasti nos Thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} One absurdity leads in a thousand and when you are down the Hill of errour there is no bottom but in Hell and that is bottomlesse too Shall I be bold to give you one and but one instance more much clamor now there is against our publike Liturgy though hallowed with the blood of some of the first composers thereof And surely Sir some parts of it may be very well corrected But the clamors now go very high Impudence or ignorance is now grown so frontlesse that it is loudly expected by many that you should utterly abrogate all formes of publique worship a and at least if you have a short form yet not to impose the use of it Extirpation of Episcopacy that hope is already swallowed and now the same men are as greedy for abolition of the Liturgy that so the Church of England in her publique prayers b may hereafter turne a babler at all adventure A brainlesse stupid and an ignorant conceit of some M. Speaker The wisdome of this House will I am confident never sinke so low never fall into such a deliquium of judgment and of piety When you do I shall humbly submit my selfe unto the stake and fagot I mean for certainly Sir I shall then be a Parliament heretick Thus much for a taste of that whereof there is too much abroad For the divisions of Ruben there are great thoughts of heart abroad Sir Thus are we engaged into sad points of Divinity and with the favour of that Gentleman who did last time disgust it I must againe propound my doubtfull quaere to be resolved by the wisdome of this House whether we be Idonei competentes judices in doctrinall resolutions In my opinion we are not Let us maintaine the Doctrine established in the Church of England it will be neither safety nor wisdome for us to determine new Sir I do againe repeat and avow my former words And do confidently affirme that it was never seene nor knowne in any age in any Nation throughout the whole world that a set of Laymen Gentlemen Souldiers Lawyers of both gownes Physitians Merchants Citizens all professions admitted or at least admittable but the professors of Religion alone excluded that we should determine upon doctrines in Divinity Shall the Clergy hold different doctrines from us or shall our determinations binde them also They are a considerable body in this Kingdome they are herein surely concerned as much as we and ought not to be bound up unheard and unpartied Farther Sir if Clergy men among us be thought fit for no other then for spirituall imployment How shall we answer it to God and to a good conscience if we shut them out from that which we our selves pretend to bee their only and their proper work Mr. Speaker We cannot brag of an unerring spirit infallibility is no more tyed to your Chaire then it is unto the Popes And if I may speake Truth as I love truth with clearnesse and with plainnesse I do here ingenuously professe unto you that I shall not acquiesse and sit downe upon the doctrinall resolutions of this House unlesse it be where my own Genius doth leade and prompt me to the same conclusions Mr. Speaker We are here convened by his Majesties Writ to treat Super arduis negotiis regni Ecclesiae I beseech you let us not turn negotia Ecclesiae into dogmata fidei There is a great difference in objecto betweene the Agends and the Credends of a Christian Let us so take care to settle the government that we do not unsettle the doctrines The Short close of all with a motion is but this we are poisoned in many points of doctrine And I know no Antidote no Recipe for cure but one a
in way of pursuit for this one argument that no Canons can bind the Laity where we have no voyce of our own nor choyce of the Clergy persons who do found them nor assent in the susception of them after they are framed Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet M. Speaker It remaines as a wish that every member of that meeting who voted these exorbitant Canons should come severally to the Bar of the Parliament House with a Canon book in his hand and there unlesse he can answer his Catechisme as I called it shew what is the name of their meeting and unlesse he can manifest that the Laity are no part of the Church Conceptis verbis in such expresse terms as that House should think fit to abjure his own ill-begotten issue or else be commanded to give fire to his own Canons Section VI UPon my motion November 23. it pleased the grand Committee for Religion to appoint a Subcommittee to receive complaints from oppressed Ministers which Subcommittee was shortly after made a Committee by order of the House It pleased the Gentlemen of this Committee to put the honour and the burden of the chaire upon me from hence severall Reports have been delivered in I shall only trouble the Reader with the first of them 18 Decemb. 1640. Mr. White This grand Committee for Religion did authorize a Sub-committee among other things to take into consideration the unjust sufferings of good Ministers oppressed by the cruell-used authority of Hierarchicall Rulers In this and in other points we have entred upon many particulars we have matured and perfected but one If we had lesse worke you should before this time have had more but complaints crowd in so fast upon us that the very plenty of them retards their issue The present Report which I am to make unto you is concerning M. Wilkinson a Batchellor in Divinity and a man in whose character do concur Learning Piety Industry Modesty Two hardships have been put upon him one at the time when he presented himselfe to receive Orders and that was thus The Bishop of Oxfords Chaplen M Fulham being the examiner for Bishops now do scorne to do Bishops work it belongs to himselfe he propoundeth foure questions to M. Wilkinson not taken out of the depth of Divinity but fitly chosen to discover how affections do stand to be novellized by the mutability of the present times The questions were these 1. Whether hath the Church authority in matters of faith 2. May the Kings booke of sports so some impious Bishops have abused our pious King to call their contrivance His Majesties book may this be read in the Church without offence 3. Is bowing to or before the Altar lawfull 4. Is bowing at the Name of Jesus lawfull The doctrine of the first affirmed will bring a dangerous influence upon our beliefe by subjecting our faith to humane resolutions The other three are disciplinarian in the present way of Novellisme As soon as M. Wilkinson heard these questions Lupum auribus he had a Wolfe by the eares And because unto these captious interrogatories he could not make a peremptory answer M. Fulham would not present your petitioner to the Bishop for ordination Thus you see Mr. White a new way of Simony Imposition of hands is to be sold if not for money yet to make a side a party a faction They will not confer Orders but upon such as will come in and make party with them in their new practices as is evident by these questions Take this in this kind as a leading case a first complaint more are comming and M. Wilkinson shall have the poore common comfort Solamen miseris socios habuisse I proceed to his second sufferance which was by the Vice-chancellor of Oxford for a Sermon preached in his course at S. Marys in Oxford Short to make he preached better then they were willing to heare the Sermon fell into the eares of a captious Auditour For this Sermon he stands now suspended by the Vice-chancellor from all the spirituall promotion that he had which was only the reading of a Divinity lecture in Magdalen-hall The Committee required the Vice-chancellor to send unto us the Sermon with his exceptions in writing They were brought and being received they are three in number great and weighty in the accusation none at all in proof Nay M. White there is nothing presented unto us wherein to finde a colour or a shadow whereby to make the accusation semblable and consequently the suspension just Ecquis innocens erit si accusare suffecerit The particulars insisted upon pickt and chosen out of that Sermon by the Vice-chancellor are three every one a hainous charge and the first sounding little lesse then treason Give me leave to read them as Mr. Vicechancellor hath sent them in writing 1. Our religious Soveraigne and his pious government is seditiously defamed as if his Majesty were little better then the old pagan persecutors or then Queen Mary 2. The government of the Church and Vniversity is unjustly traduced 3. Men of learning and piety conformable to the publicke government are uncharitably slandered The least of these being duly proved will make him worthy of suspension but if M. Wilkinson be guilty of the first he is not worthy to live The truth is the Vice-chancellor hath learned audacter criminare and fayling in proofe hath only fowled himselfe Your Subcommittee upon due consideration of the cause and circumstance have hereupon unanimously voted that M. Wilkinson is free from all and every of these exceptions made against his Sermon by the Vice-chancellor We are all of opinion that there is nothing therein that deserves Notam censoris nedum lituram judicis If M. White there be in a Sermon as there ought to be aliquid mordacis veritatis shall the Preacher be for this suspended His mouth shut up for preaching truth boldly It is contrary to their commission for Sir they have a great charter to speak freely it is warranted unto them Jure divino Saint Paul doth own it in his instruction of Timothy The words are I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine Here is our case exactly Here was reproofe here was exhortation here was preaching out of season to unwilling or to unprepared hearers and yet in season the Theame was necessary and fitted to their want of zeale But the only fault was that the time is come when sound doctrine will not be endured Thus the Committee found it thus have I faithfully but imperfectly reported it and do now subjoyn the opinion and request of your trustees to this grand Committee Mr. Wilkinson is innocent and free from this accusation He had just cause to petition The Vice-chancellor hath been without cause nay against cause rigid and oppressive The Sermon deserved
without a too meane demission I may say debasing of many other of the same order Nay this Bishop not content with Ecclesiastick pride alone will swell also with ambition and Offices secular Truly Sir you have done exceeding well to Vote away this Bishop for of this Bishop and of this alone I must understand the Vote you have passed untill I be better instructed for your Vote is against the present Episcopacy and for the present you can hardly finde any other Episcopacy but this an authority how ever by some of them better exercised yet too solely entrusted to them all Away then with this Lordly domineerer who plays the Monarch perhaps the Tyrant in a Diocesse of him it is of whom I read Episcopalis dignitas papalem fastum redolet This kind of Episcopacy it smels ranke of the Papacy nor shall you ever be able utterly and absolutely to extirpate Popery unlesse you root out this soleship of Episcopacy To conclude in short and plaine English I am for abolishing of our present Episcopacy Both Diocesses and Diocesan as now they are But I am withall at the same time for restauration of the pure Primitive Episcopall Presidency Cut off the usurped adjuncts of our present Episcopacy reduce the ancient Episcopacy such as it was in puris spiritualibus Both may be done with the same hand and I thinke in a shorter Bill then is offered now by way of addition Downe then with our Prelaticall Hierarchy or Hierarchicall Prelacy such as now we have most of it consisting in temporall adjuncts onely the Diana and the Idoll of proud and lazy Church-men This doe but eâ lege on this condition that with the same hand in the same Bill we doe gently raise againe even from under the ruines of that Babel such an Episcopacy such a Presidency as is venerable in its antiquity and purity and most behoovefull for the peace of our Christendome This is the way of Reforming and thus by yeelding to the present storme and throwing that over-board which is adventitious borrowed and undue Peace may be brought home unto our Church againe the best of that building and the truth of ancient Episcopacy may be preserved otherwise we hazard all This would be glorious for us and for our Religion and the glory thereof will be the greater because it redounds unto the God of glory My motion is that those sheets last presented to you may be laid by and that we may proceed to reduce againe the old originall Episcopacy This being thus delivered and upon report being mis-resented abroad a stranger came to me the next day and with much shew of love and sorrow told me that I had lost by this speech the prayers of thousands in the City Very many others have since beene with me to try my temper but I have found in them all all that are absolutely Anti-Episcopall so much more of entreaty then of argument that indeed they have proved themselves as Bishops unto me for I have received Confirmation from them Section X. SInce the late Recesse some endeavours of mine have beene reported more distastive then before insomuch as that a lying generation gave it forth some that I was expelled the house others that I was in the Tower for what I had spoken The first passage was next morning after our meeting upon occasion then offered by way of complaint for not obeying the late Order of the 8 of September The complaint came from some Parishioners of Criplegate And thus I did on the sudden then deliver my selfe which presently I reduced into writing 21 Octob. 1641. M. Speaker It is very true as is instanced unto you that your late order and declaration of the 8 and 9 of September are much debated and disputed abroad perhaps it may be a good occasion for us to re-dispute them here The intent of your Order to me seemes doubtfull and therfore I am bold for my owne instruction humbly to propound two quaeres 1. How farre an Order of this House is binding 2. Whether this particular Order be continuant or expired Your Orders I am out of doubt are powerfull if they be grounded upon the lawes of the Land Upon that warranty we may by an Order enforce any thing that is undoubtedly so grounded and by the same rule we may abrogate whatsoever is introduced contrary to the undoubted foundation of our Lawes But Sir this Order is of another nature another temper especially in one part of it Of which in particular at some other time Sir There want not some abroad men of birth quality and Fortunes such as know the strength of our Votes here as well as some of us I speake my owne infirmities men of the best worth and of good affyance in us and no way obnoxious to us They know they sent us hither as their Trustees to make and unmake Lawes They know they did not send us hither to rule and governe them by arbitrary revocable and disputable Orders especially in Religion No time is fit for that and this time as unfit as any I desire to be instructed herein M. Speaker in the second place there is a question whether this Order whereupon your present complaint is grounded be permanent and binding or else expired and by our selves deserted I observe that your Order being made 8. September in hope then of concurrence therein by the Lords that fayling you did issue forth your last resolution by way of declaration9 September wherein thus you expresse your selfe That it may well be hoped when both Houses shall meet againe that the good propositions and preparations in the House of Commons for preventing the like grievances and reforming the disorders and abuses in matter of Religion may be brought to perfection wherefore you doe expect that the commons of this Realme doe in the meane time what obey and performe your Order made the day before no such thing but in the meane time quietly attend the Reformation intended These are your words and this my doubt upon them whether by these words you have not superseded your owne Order Sure I am the words doe beare this sence and good men may thinke and hope it was your meaning My humble motion therfore is this I beseech you to declare that upon this our Re-convention your order of the eighth of September is out of date And that the Cōmons of England must as you say quietly attend the Reformation intended which certainly is intended to be perfected up into Acts of Parliament And in the meane time that they must patiently endure the present Lawes untill you can make new or mend the old Section XI THe promise made in my last hath not beene performed in the House nor is now like to be The reason is there is now no probability that we shall debate the validity of our order of the eighth of September A day indeed Saterday the sixth of November was by order fixed for that theame but other affaires diverted
to stand up and to shew me teach me how I may prove that ever there was an Alexander of Macedon or a Julius Caesar or a William the Conqueror in the world For Sir to me as playn as evident it is that Bishops President have been the constant permanent and perpetuall governors and moderators of the Church of God in all ages And this being matter of fact I do hope that historicall proofe will be sufficient adequate proofe in that which in its fact is matter of History But proofes herein are so manifold and so cleare that I borrow the free and true assertion of a worthy and a learned Gentleman It may be thought want of will rather then want of light which makes men deny the antiquity of Bishops in the Primitive times Therefore answer not me but answer Ignatius answer Clemens Tertullian and Irenaeus Nay answer the whole indisputed concurrence of the Asian the Europaean and the African Churches All ages All places All persons Answer I say all these or do as I do yeild to the sufficient evidence of a truth Deque fide certâ sit tibi certa fides But do not think to bring me into a dream of a new born or new to be born Church-government never known never seen in Christendome before this Age As for them who say that all Episcopacy is Antichristian Truly Sir they may if they please with as sound reason and with as much knowledge say that all Church-government is Antichristian and I doubt there are some abroad ripe for such a sence Sir Let us be wiser than to cosen our selves with words and through a mistaken Logomachy run our selves into a Church Anarchy If you talke with a Papist in point of Religion presently he is up with the word Catholike Catholike he tels you he is of the Catholike Roman Church This go's off Ore rotundo but require him to speak playn English The Vniversall Roman Church and then you may laugh him into silence Just so some cry away with Bishops no Bishops no not of any kind I desire one of that sence to stand up and tell me sadly would you have an Overseer in the Church or not Ancient S. Clement whom S. Paul calleth his Fellow-workman in his undoubted Epistle to the Corinthians doth foretell that a time should come when there would be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Contention about the very name of Bishop I think the time is now For my part I will not make that my contention But for the government by an Episcopall presidency shew me any thing more agreeable to the holy word Shew me any thing more honoured by the holy Martyrs of the first and the latter times Shew me any more rationall and prudentiall way of government and I yeild unto you Some against all Episcopacy do plead unto us the fresh example and late practice of our neighbour Churches But I beseech you Sir are not we herein as fit to give them our as to take their example I am ashamed to heare yesterdays example pressed as an argument by some and the all-seeing providence through all ages to the contrary turned aside by the same men as not worth an answer Or if an answer you get it is but this dead one wherein as in a mare mortuum they would drown all reply Oh say they the mystery of Iniquity began to work in the Apostles time Ergo what Therefore say they this Episcopacy is that mystery of iniquity And so they do desperately conclude with themselves that Christ did never support his Church with a good government till Farell and Frumentius did drive their Bishop out of Geneva or since then untill Presbytery begat independency But their Syllogisme is as true Logick and as Consequentiall as our Kentish Proverb that Tenterden Steeple is the cause of Goodwin sands Both Arguments are in one and the same mood and figure But I return and proceed I have not asserted this kind of Episcopacy as Divine yet I professe that it soares aloft Et caput inter nubila condit It hath been strongly received that Presbyters succeed to the seventy Disciples and Bishops to the Apostles S. Peter honours Episcopacy by entitling the holy Apostles thereunto for Matthias is chosen to take a Bishoprick the very word there which Judas lost by going to his owne place S. Paul tels you This is a faythfull saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} If any man desire a Bishopricke he desireth a good worke And this S. Paul writes not at large in an Epistle to the body of a whole Church as to Rome or Corinth but this is in directed unto Timothy then designed to be the particular Bishop that is the President and Overseer of Ephesus Two things are or may be here objected First that neither of these Texts nor any other can be found expresly mandatory requiring the Office of Episcopacy in the Church Next that the name of Bishop is in some places plainly given unto Presbyters I answer If you put me upon this that you will not yeild unto Episcopacy untill you have a Text expresly positive therein consider if by the same rule you do not let loose many other points as well as this Shew me an expresse for the Lords day to be weekly celebrated It will be hard to find divers Articles of our Creed in the holy Scripture terminis terminantibus What have you there for Paedo-baptisme What precept or example have you frō our Saviour that women shal receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Why should women be baptised since the covenant to wch baptisme doth succeed Circumcision was a seale between God and men onely what have you there expresse why I may not beleeve the Trinity to be three Almighties as well as three persons but one Almighty But Sir the golden rule of Vincentius Lirinensis is an unfailing guide Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus look what among Christians hath been every where at all times by all men universally received Atque id quidem verè est Catholicum and there you may rest secured So I say that for right sence of these Texts and for warrant of this Episcopacy the universall practice of the whole Church of God especially in the Apostles times and immediately succeeding the Apostles is a most undeniable cōmentary to cleare unto us that this kind of Episcopacy is and was of Apostolicall allowance if not of Apostolicall institution And thus in other points doth Tertullian argue against Marcion and S. Augustine against the Donatists The second exception is thus These Bishops may well be thought to be but Presbyters for say they the name of Bishop is given to Presbyters also in holy writ Ergo Episcopacy is not a severall degree from Presbytery Surely Sir if this argument be a sound one then Apostleship it selfe was not a severall order and degree from the 70. Disciples and from Presbyters and then it had been a
you and the blind ignorant wilfulnesse of such as you I doe here charge the sad account of the losse of such a glorious Reformation as being the revived image of the best and purest ages would with its Beauty and Piety have drawn the eye and heart of all Christendome unto us The Horse-leaches daughters doe cry Give give And you that might have had enough doe still cry more more The greedy Vulture of an insatiate appetite is incurable To reform Episcopacy it is in your esteem too faint too cold a work it is labour ill bestowed and unthankfully accepted nay one of you said in my hearing it is a sinne to labour in the dressing and proining of that plant which say you is not of God and must be digged up And with Episcopacy away with the burden of our Liturgy a If you take not off this burden also it will be girded upon us closer and stronger then ever Away with the thought of a Nationall Church also b It hath no pattern in the Scripture c It is impossible for a Nationall Church to be the true Church of Christ Let us have no Church but Congregations d and let them be without all superintendency as much to say as let every family be a Church and have Religion as they please A way with all e distinction of Clergy and Laity it is popish and Antichristian Let us then banish from us such popish names and send them home to Rome f The Church is a body of parity whose members are all Kings and Priests g And every man must exercise his gifts in common So also the learned but herein absurd and grosse h Walo Messalinus Omnes olim Presbyterierant Latci and againe Waldensis Lutherus crediderunt tustos ac fideles Laicos posse omnes quae in Ecclesiâ Dei agi necesse est agere omnibus muneribus Ecclesiasticis defungi These things thus pressed and pursued I doe not see but on that rise of the Kingship and Priestship of every particular man the wicked sweetnesse of a popular parity may hereafter labour to bring the Kingdown to be but as the first among the Lords and then if as a Gentleman of the House professed his desire to me we can but bring the Lords down into our House among us again {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} All 's done No rather all 's undone by breaking asunder that well ordered chain of government which from the chair of Jupiter reacheth down by severall golden links even to the protection of the poorest creature that now lives among us What will the issue be when hopes grow still on hopes and one aime still riseth upon another as one wave follows another I cannot divine In the mean time you of that party have made the work of Reformation farre more difficult then it was at the day of our meeting and the vulgar mind now fond with imaginary hopes is more greedy of new atchievements then thankfull for what they have received Satisfaction will not now be satisfactory They and you are just in a Seneca's description Non patitur aviditas quenquam esse gratum Nunquam enim improbae spei quod datur satis est Eo maiora cupimus quo maiora venerunt Aequè ambitio non patitur quenquam in eâ mensurâ conquiescere quae quondam fuit ejus impudens votum Vltra se cupiditas porrigit foelicitatem suam non intelligit Learn moderation Mr. C. unlesse as b some of you Rooters doe seem to hold you doe think moderation it self a vice The Stoick was in that point more pious then such Christians his Motto was and your lesson is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} FINIS Iosh. 5. 13 Mr. F. T. C. S A. H. Dr. W. Sir Ben. Rudyer My L. G. D. Parker Polit. B. Bancroft 2 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. Mr. D. of C. Hos. 8. 4. a Ioh. 18. 36. b Joh. 19. 12. c Mat. 27. 37. a Joh. 13. 13. b B. Hall Episcop part 2. p. 106. c Luk. 22 24. a Mat. 20 20. b Act. 1. 6 c Mat. 20 22. d Act. 12. 2. a Mat. 20. 24. b Mar. 10 41. c Mat. 20 25. d Mar. 10. 24. e Luke 22 25. f Mat. 20 28. Mark 10 45. g Luke 22. 22. h Mark 10. 24. i Joh. 13. 15 16. a Luc. 22 29. b Luc. 22. 26. c Luc. 22. 27. d Mat. 20 27. Mark 10 44. e Mat. 20 26. Gal. de usu partium a Ethi l. 6 b Apoc. 1. 10. c 1 Cor. 11. 21. d Ro. 1. 7 e Rom. 14. 9. e Rom. 14. 9. f Part 2. p. 104. a Gen. 1. 31. a 1 Cor. 1. 24. a Gal. 2. 9 b Mat. 5. 5. c Mat. 11. 29. d Mat. 20 22. a 2 Cor. 1. 2 4. b 1 Pet. 5. c Luke 9. 62. P. 347. Ep. 57. This was so at first though afterward it was resolved that no Clergy man but onely Lay men should be Commissioners Mat. 18. 2. Mar. 9. 26 Luk. 9. 27 If Simon Zelotes were the last as some affirme Ps. 137. 3. 4. â— Psa. 38. 1. a Acts 4. 12. b Phil. 2. 9. c Cantic. 1. 3 1 Kin. 19 12. Deut. 4. 12. M. S. S. Mr. Reading Mr. Abbot S. R. H. This charge upon this occasion was afterward expunged the Declaration Jo. 3. 34. Mat. 26. 44. Acts 1. Acts 6. Acts 15. Seneca Sen. Protestation protested denies the Church of England to have the 3. marks of a true Church The Ministers in their Remonstrance doe complaine that the Creed is often rehearsed but they blotted out what they had put in that it is over-short and in one place dangerously obscure Polycar Arist. a As for them who admit a forme to be lawfull yet do declaime against authority for commanding and imposing the use of it it is to me a wonder and absurdity that a just authority may not bind that to be done by a law which is as they confesse lawfull in it selfe both to have and use b In the false copy abroad instead of may hereafter the silly Transcriber put in Nay hâ—r offerture which hath been some displeasure to me Judg. 5. 15. 10 Novemb 1640. Lo. Viscount Falkland D. Morton D. Williams D. Hall D. Iuxton D. Curle D. Bridgman D. Potter D. Duppa Tit. 1. 9. 1 Tit. 9. 10. Vers 11. As Mr. Reading M. Abbot 1 Sam. 2. Ep. l. 4. c. 92. Psa. 105. 15. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Vers 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2 Ep. ad Tâ—al 1 Pet. 2. 25. Epist. ad Tral Epist. ad Magnes Epist. ad Tral Sir Tho Aston review of Episcopacy p. 1 Phil. 4. 3. Act. 1. 20 1 Tim. 3. 1. 1 Pet. 5. 1. Act. 1. 20. 25 Act. 9. 27 2 Cor. 5. 16. Acts 14. 14. Rom. 16 7. Phi. 2. 25 Acts 20. 24. Eph. 3. 7. Col. 1. 23 a Ro. 15. 8. b Esa. 41. 27. c Heb. 3. 1. d 1 Pet. 2 25. 3 Jo. 9. Sen. Jer. 6. Mal. 4. 1. Cant. 1. 4 Zach. 11. Zach. 11. 2. Col. 2. 3. Esay 9. 6 Mat. 28. 20. a Lu. 6. 13 b Luk. 10 1. c Acts â— d Act. 6. 6 e Phil. 3. 17. f 1 Tim. 3. 1. g 1 Thes. 5. 12. 1 Tim. 5. 17. h 1 Cor. 3. 10. i Rom. 16 3. 21. Phi. 2. 25 Philem. 24. k 2 Tim. 2. 3. l Phil. 2. 25. Philem. 1. 2. m Heb. 13 17 24. n 1 Tim. 5. 17. o Rom. 12. 8. p ad Tral a As may be collected by Spensers wretched Pamphlet There was then but one Arch-Bishop and he impeached for his life Coloss. 2. 21. Dr. Hacket Rom. 2. 22. Prov. 8. 18. 1 A. G. 2 W. P. 3 S. W. B. 4 M. S. 5 W. C. 6 Mr. S. S 7 Dr. B. from others 8 Dr. W. 9 R. L. B. 10 Mr. F. 11 S. A. H. 12 T. W. 13 G. H. 14 S. E. P. 15 Mr. K. 16 I. K. 17 Civis ignoÌ„tus 18 T. C. Pro. 30. 15. Mr. F. a S. M. b Protestation protested p. 20. c Mich. Qnintin p. 4. d Eatons sermon vouched by Sir Th. Aston p. 4. e Assertion of Scottish government p. 3. 5. f Quintin p. 9. g Spâ—nâ—â—rs Pamphlet h thought to be Salmasius against Petavius p. 397. 398. a De Benef. l. 2. c. 27. b J. H. H. M. Epictetus
Idolatry till then this argument will be too sublime for my understanding God was neither in the strong and mighty Wind nor in the Earthquake yet these hardly if possibly can be figured but a still small voyce this certainly is beyond the curious Art of man to expresse and consequently free from all possible perill of Idolatry And therefore thus in Deuteronomy God doth character himselfe Yee heard the voice of the words but saw no similitude onely ye heard a voyce As if he should say I know you prone unto Idolatry but now commit Idolatry to a voyce to a sound to a name if you can I am grieved to see that wretched unlearned and ungodly Pamphlet ascribed to Master Burton with that daring impious title Jesu-worship confuted where by way of a Scornfull Sarcasme he is not afraid as with a nick-name to call Christians Jesu-worshippers I returne M. Speaker this as I said is a sad point in Divinity to forbid exterior worship unto God Was it ever heard before that any men of any Religion in any age did ever cut short and abridge any worship upon any occasion to their God Take heed sir and let us all take heed whither we are going If Christ be JESUS if JESUS be God all reverence exterior as well as interior is too little for him I hope we are not going up the back-staires to Socinianisme In a word certainly sir I shall never obey your Order so long as I have a hand to lift up to Heaven so long as I have an eye to lift up to Heaven For these are corporall bowings and my Saviour shall have them at his Name JESUS Yet sir before I end give me leave I beseech you to take off that which by mistake may else sticke still upon me I never liked the Bishoply injuctions in the late novell practices nor the severe Inquisition upon the bare omission of this posture The Bishops did rigorously exact it upon their owne heads the crime of that enforcement lies But I beseech you let not us be guilty in the other extream Truly to my sence it will savour lesse of Piety and more of Tyranny In the last place consider I pray that it is a point dogmaticall not yet fully resolved by Divines let us then be wary in it And let this with many other points be referred to a National Synod For one we must have or else we shall breake our Religion into a thousand pieces For this present my motion is as formerly that this Order be superseded by declaring to the Commons as your words in the Order are that they doe quietly attend the Reformation intended and that in the meane time they doe as they ought obey the Lawes that are Section XII ON Friday the 22 Octob. some debate there was upon a new short Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament It was languaged that they ought not to intromit themselves into secular jurisdictions which I received willingly For if it be found inexpedient certainely they ought not if it be made unlawfull de futuro they ought not if it be inconsistent with their Function still they ought not as was then argued by a worthy member of the House But when it was presently urged by a Gentleman my neighbour there that unto the words ought not should be subjoyned and that it is inconsistent with their function which was pressed and urged by a generall voucher of Scripture Fathers and Councels Yet I know that Gentleman will not in matter of opinion scarce in an Historicall point allow me proofe of what I can prove out of the two latter Occasionally then I thus expressed my selfe M. Speaker HOwever I am resolved in my private opinion of the inexpediency and unlawfulnesse for Clergy men to hold secular jurisdiction Duo gladii non sunt in unum conflandi conferruminandi yet sir my inward resolution doth not presently make me a Judge in a Dogmaticall point nor doe I know that this place doth enable me with that capacity if it be my private opinion yet I desire not to bind the judgement of the Land herein by an act of Parliament although determining to my own sence Certainely sir this point of inconsistency will lead this house much more that of the Lords where the Bishops are into a debate which may more safely and more prudently be avoyded I have formerly and againe I pray you that we may not engage our selves into the determination of doctrinall points in Divinity perhaps it is not proper for us and for my part I doe think we are not herein Idonei competâ—ntes judices Was it ever heard or seen that a set of Lay-men Gentlemen Souldiers Lawyers Merchants all professions admitted but the profession of professions for this worke Divines alone excluded that we should determine upon doctrinall points in Divinity Theology is not so low so facile a trade Let us maintaine the doctrines that are established to declare new is not fit for our assembly And for my part I do think I have found daily cause to wish these resolutions recommended unto other resolvers M. Speaker Divines are herein in dogmatick resolutions of Religion concerned as much as well as we They are a considerable party and ought not to be bound up un-heard It was a prevailing argument with me against the late Canons that they could not bind us of the Laity being a distinct severall body no way involved in their Votes Our plea was that we neither had a decisive voyce to determine with them not a deliberative voyce to consult with them nor an elective voyce in choyce of their persons to make them our Trustees to determine for us Nor lastly as at least we should have a susceptive voyce in a body of our own to receive their resolutions and of our selves to submit unto them These things are of a nature fit to be discussed by grave Divines in a free Synod of Divines to be chosen by Divines In the mean time let not us be guilty of the same which we have condemned in them we ought not to pay injury with wrong They cannot be bound where they are no way parties For it is a rule in Nature Reason and Religion Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet I am so good a friend to your Bill that for the better expediting thereof I desire the word Inconsistant may not stand therein Section XIII HAvind before professed that we are incompetent resolvers of doubtfull points in doctrine and finding how much of our pretious time every motion petition and occasionall passage in Religion did take up I thought it not inconvenient next day to renew my motion for a Synod Saturday 23 October Mr. Speaker YOu have entred an Order that nothing be treated of but affaires of generall concernement I will present you one as generall as universall as any can be The sad miseries of our distracted Church and consequently the hazard of Gods true
Religion with us doth even cut my very heart with griefe and feare If we let forth the government into a loose liberty for all religions we shall have none Libertinisme will beget Atheisme And truly Sir at present betweene Papisme on the one hand and Brownisme on the other Narrow is the way and few there be do finde it to right good Protestantisme Many mournfull sad complaints I have of late received from Ministers the ablest and every way the worthiest that I know I could willingly name you two one at Dover the other at Cranebroke in Kent Men upon whose merit let my credit stand or fall in this house He that hath preached least of these hath preached severall thousands of excellent Sermons to his people These are in no better condition then many other deserving men who doe generally complaine with griefe of hearts to see their now infected sheepe after long pastorall vigilancy and faithfull ministery to runne and straggle from them more in these last ten moneths then in twenty yeares before Give us I beseech you give us a remedy a speedy remedy to this growing evill or else our schollers are like to turne Papist Arminian or Socinian and all the ignorant party will either turne Atheist or else which is the next degree make to themselves a Religion of their own as themselves best please Sir we may sit here for ought I see and debate our selves and the world abroad into more and more distances of opinion we are not likely to worke our selves much lesse others into unity What is then to be thought on Sir the usuall ancient the best and I think the only way of cure is by a Councell A free learned grave religious Synod There is in some hand of this House and long hath beene a Bill for a Nationall Synod ready drawne With it we are curable without it I look for no peace My humble motion is this in a word If you love the peace of our Ierusalem command forth that Bill to be forthwith read or if that Bill be not to be had appoint a Committee to draw up another This is my motion and it is founded in a hope of piety and peace Section XIV UPon occasion of a Remonstrance 19 Novemb wherein divers passages then were concerning Religion and the Church-government and some in particular as I conceived very aspersive to our Religion in the solemne practice of it by our publick Liturgy charging it in hypothesi with vaine repetition and with savour of Superstition I did humbly move that some of that Committee who framed up that Remonstrance for us would please to assigne what those vaine Repetitions are in our Liturgy and what passages of Superstition Nothing was at all said as I remember to that point of Superstition But at length a Gentleman did adventure to name that which he seemed to think to be vaine Repetition He said that the Lords Prayer is eight nine or tenne times repeated I did with leave of the House reply that such repetition toties quoties how oft soever was if heart and words did go together farre from vaine That in my book the Lords Prayer was but twice in the whole morning Service unlesse the additionals of Baptisme Churching Communion Buriall c. did occurre That then in every severall act of Divine Service it was once and but once repeated as the high compleature of all devout expressions That this repetition in it selfe was warrantable as by our Saviours example who although he had not the Spirit by measure yet in the Garden he prayed three times using the same words The further debate of this was ofted to the next day and then it did grow toward a question whether all exceptions against the Liturgy should be totally laid by or further debated I did not hold our selves the proper determinators of this point I did thinke that from hence occasion might againe be taken inductive to renew my motion for a free Nationall Synod which I desired to enforce the best I could especially there being now obtained a generall promise of a Synod in this very part of that Declaration or Remonstrance Hereupon thus I adventured A coppy whereof being stolne from me issued lately forth both unknown to me and misprinted also which hath beene entertained abroad both with Applause and Exception Saturday Novemb. 20. M. Speaker THe question is whether these clauses concerning some pretended erroneous passages in our Liturgy shall be laid by or not I am of opinion to decline them here but not to bury them in a perpetuall silence In this very period you give us in generall tearmes a promise of a Nationall Synod I doe still wish the presency thereof it being to my understanding the onely proper cure and remedy for all our Church-distractions and may be proved if proofe be needfull to have been practised in the booke of God This promised Synod is too farre off let me have better assurance then a promise which that I may obtaine I will be bold to give you some reasons to induce that assembly and to speed it also M. Speaker Much hath been said and something attempted to be done to regulate the exteriour part of our Religion but Sir we bleed inwardly Much endeavour hath been to amend the deformed forms we were in and to new govern the government Yet Sir this is but the Leaves of good Religion fit I confesse notwithstanding to be taken care of for beauty and for ornament Nay some Leaves are fit and necessary to be preserved for shadow and for shelter to the blossomes and the fruit The fruit of all is good life which you must never expect to see unlesse the blossomes be pure and good that is unlesse your doctrines be sound and true Sir sir I speake it with full griefe of heart whilst we are thus long proyning and composing of the leaves or rather whilst some would pluck all leaves away our blossomes are blasted And whilst we sit here in cure of government and ceremonials we are poysoned in our doctrinals And at whose doore will the guilt and sin of all this lie Qui non vetat peccare cùm potest jubet It is true that this mischiefe growes not by our consent and yet I know not by what unhappy fate there is at present such an all-daring liberty such a leud licentiousnesse for all mens venting their severall sences sencelesse sences in matter of Religion as never was in any age in any Nation untill this Parliament was met together Sir It belongs to us to take heed that our countenance the countenance of this honourable House be not prostituted to sinister ends by bold offenders If it be in our power to give a remedy a timely and a seasonable remedy to these great and growing evils and that we being also put in mind shall neglect to do it we then doe pluck then sins upon our own heads Alienum qui