Saturdays Slop So easily did the Popes prevail with our now friends of Scotland that neither miracle nor any special packet from the Court of Heaven was accounted necessary But here with us in England it was not so though now the Popes had got the better of King John that unhappy Prince and had in Canterbury an Archbishop of their own appointment even that Steven Langton about whom so much strife was raised Which notwithstanding and that the King was then a Minor yet they proceeded here with great care and caution and brought the Holy-days into order not by command or any Decretal from Rome but by a Council held at Oxford Ap. Lindwood Anno 1222. where amongst other Ordinances tending unto the Government of the Church the Holy-days were divided into these three ranks In the first rank were those quae omni veneratione servanda erant which were to be observed with all reverence and solemnity of which sort were omnes dies Dominici c. all Sundays in the year the feast of Christs Nativity together with all others now observed in the Church of England as also all the Festivals of the Virgin Mary excepting that of her Conception which was left at large with divers which have since been abrogated And for conclusion festum dedicationis cujuslibet Ecclesiae in sua parochia the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication of particular Churches in their proper Parishes are there determined to be kept with the same reverence and solemnity as the Sundays were Nor was this of the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication any new device but such as could plead a fair original from the Council held in Mentz anno 813. If it went no higher For in a Catalogue there made of such principal feasts as annually were to be observed they reckon dedicationem templi the consecration Feast or Wake as we use to call it and place it in no lower rank in reference to the solemnity of the same than Easter Whitsontide and the rest of the greater Festivals Now at the first those Wakes or Feasts of dedication were either held upon the very day on which or the Saints day to which they had been first consecrated But after finding that so many Holy days brought no small detriment to the Common-wealth it came to pass that generally these Wakes or Feasts of dedication were respited until the Sunday following as we now observe them Of the next rank of Feasts in this Council mentioned were those which were by Priest and Curate to be celebrated most devoutly with all due performances minoribus operibus servilibus secundum consuetudinem loci illis diebus interdictis all servile works of an inferiour and less important nature according to the custom of the place being laid aside Such were Saint Fabian and Sebastian and some twenty more which are therein specified but now out of use and amongst them the Festival of Saint George was one which after in the year 1414. was made by Chicheley then Archbishop a Majus duplex and no less solemnly to be observed than the Feast of Christmass Of the last rank of Feasts were those in quibus post missam opera rusticana concedebantur sed antequam non wherein it was permitted that men might after Mass pursue their Countrey businesses though not before and these were only the Octaves of Epiphany and of John the Baptist and of Saint Peter together with the translations of Saint Benedict and Saint Martin But yet it seems that on the greater Festivals those of the first rank there was no restraint of Tillage and of Shipping if occasion were and that necessity did require though on those days Sundays and all before remembred there was a general restraint of all other works For so it standeth in the title prefixt before those Festivals haec sunt festa in quibus prohibitis aliis operibus conceduntur opera agriculturae carrucarum Where by the way I have translated carrucarum shipping the word not being put for Plough or Cart which may make it all one with the word foregoing but for ships and sayling Carruca signifieth a Ship of the greater burden such as to this day we call Carrects which first came from hence And in this sense the word is to be found in an Epistle writ by Gildas Illis ad sua remeantibus emergunt certatim de Carruchis quibus sunt trans Scyticam vallem avecti So then as yet Tillage and Sayling were allowed of on the Sunday if as before I said occasion were Math. Westmonaster and that necessity so required Of other passages considerable in the Reign of K. Henry III. the principal to this point and purpose are his own Coronation on Whitsunday anno 1220. two years before this Council which was performed with great solemnity and concourse of People Next his bestowing the order of Knighthood on Richard de Clare Earl of Gloucester accompanied with forty other gallants of great hopes and spirit on Whitsunday too Anno 1245. and last of all a Parliament Assembled on Mid-lent Sunday Parliamentum generalissimum the Historian calls it the next year after This was a fair beginning but they staid not here For after in a Synod of Archbishop Islippes he was advanced unto the See Lindw l. 2. tit de feriis Anno 1349. it was decreed de fratrum nostrorum consilio with the assent and counsel of all the Prelates then assembled that on the principal Feasts hereafter named there should be generally a restraint through all the Province ab universis servilibus operibus etiam reipubl utilibus even from all manner of servile works though otherwise necessary to the Common-wealth This general restraint in reference to the Sunday was to begin on Saturday night ab hora diei Sabbati vespertina as the Canon goes not a minute sooner and that upon good reason too ne Judaicae superstitionis participes videamur lest if they did begin it sooner as some now would have us they might be guilty of a Jewish superstition the same to be observed in such other Feasts quae suas habent vigilias whose Eves had formerly been kept As also that the like restraint should be observed upon the Feast of Christmass S. Steven S. John c. and finally on the Wakes or Dedication Feasts which before we spake of Now for the works before prohibited though necessary to the Common wealth as we may reckon Husbandry and all things appertaining thereunto so probably we may reckon Law-days and all publick Sessions in Courts of Justice in case they had not been left off in former times when as the Judges general being of the Clergy Finâ—â— of the Law l. 1. c. 3. might in obedience to the Canon-law forbear their Sessions on those days the Lords day especially For as our Sages in the Law have resolved it generally that day is to be exempt from such business even by the Common Law for the solemnity thereof to the intent that people may apply
the Lord Commissioners the Right of Sitting there 1. The Prebends Original Right 2. Their Derivative Right and lastly their Possessory Right Upon hearing the proofs on both sides it was ordered by general consent of the Lord Commissioners That the Prebends should be restored to their old Seat and that none should sit there with them but Lords of the Parliament and Earls eldest Sons according to the ancient custom After this there was no Bishop of Lincoln to be seen at any Morning-Prayer and seldom at Evening At this time came out the Doctor 's History of the Sabbath the Argumentative or Scholastick part of which subject was referred to White Bishop of Eli the Historical part to the Doctor And no sooner had the Doctor perfected his Book of the Sabbath but the Dean of Peterborough engages him to answer the Bishop of Lincoln's Letter to the Vicar of Grantham He received it upon good Friday and by the Thursday following discovered the sophistry mistakes and falshoods of it It was approved by the King and by him given to the Bishop of London to be Licens'd and Publish'd under the title of a Coal from the Altar In less than a twelve-month the Bishop of Lincoln writ an Answer to it Entituled The Holy Table Name and Thing but pretended that it was writ long ago by a Minister in Lincolnshire against Dr. Cole a Divine in the days of Queen Mary Dr. Heylyn receiv'd a Message from the King to return a reply to it and not in the least to spare him And he did it in the space of seven weeks presenting it ready Printed to his Majesty and called it Antidotum Lincolniense But before this he answered Mr. Burtons Seditious Sermon being thereunto also appointed by the King In July 1637. the Bishop of Lincoln was censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering with Witnesses in the Kings Cause suspended à Beneficio officio and sent to the Tower where he continued three years and did not in all that space of time hear either Sermon or publick Prayers The College of Westminster about this time presented the Doctor to the Parsonage of Islip now void by the death of Dr. King By reason of its great distance from Alresford the Doctor exchanged it for South-warnborough that was more near and convenient At which time recovering from an ill fit of Sickness he studiously set on writing the History of the Church of England since the Reformation in order to which he obtained the freedom of Sir Robert Cottons Library and by Arch-bishop Laud's commendation had liberty granted him to carry home some of the Books leaving 200 l. as a Pawn behind him The Commotions in Scotland now began and the Arch Bishop of Canterbury intending to set out an Apology for vindicating the Liturgy which he had commended to that Kirk desired the Doctor to translate the Scottish Liturgy into Latin that being Published with the Apology all the World might be satisfied in his Majesties piety as well as the Arch-Bishops care as also that the perverse and rebellious temper of the Scots might be apparent to all who would raise such troubles upon the Recommendation of a book that was so Venerable and Orthodox Dr. Heylyn undertook and went through with it but the distemper and trouble of those times put a period to the undertaking and the Book went no farther than the hands of that Learned Martyr In Feb. 1639. the Doctor was put into Commission of Peace for the County of Hampshire residing then upon this Living into which place he was no sooner admitted but he occasioned the discovery of a horrid Murther that had been committed many years before in that Countrey In the April following he was chosen Clerk of the Convocation for the College of Westminster at which time the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sending a Canon to them for suppressing the farther growth of Popery and reducing Papists to the Church our Doctor moved his Grace that the Canon might be enlarged for the Peoples farther satisfaction as well as the Churches benefit what was done therein and many other notable things by that Convocation may be seen at large in the History of the Arch-Bishops Life Friday being May the 29th the Canons were formally subscribed unto by the Bishops and Clergy no one dissenting except the Bishop of Glocester who afterward turn'd Papist and died in the Communion of the Romish Church and was all that time of his Life in which he revolted from the Church of England a very great Servant of Oliver Cromwel unto whom he dedicated some of his Books But for his Contumacy in refusing to subscribe the Articles he was voted worthy of Suspension in the Convocation and was actually Suspended by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which being done the Convocation was ended In Novemb. 3. A.D. 1640. began the Session of the long Parliament At the opening of which a general Rumor was spread abroad that Dr. Heylyn was run away for fear of an approaching storm that was like to fall upon his head as well as on his Grace the Arch-Bishop of Cauterbury but he who was ever of an undaunted spirit would not pusillanimously desert the Cause of the King and Church then in question but speedily hastned up to London from Alresford to confute the common calumny and false report raised on him by the Puritan faction that he appeared the next day in his Gown and Tippet at Westminster-Hall and in the Church with the accustomed formalities of his Cap Hood and Surplice employed then his Pen boldly in defence of the Bishops Rights when the Lords began to shake the Hierarchy in passing a Vote That no Bishop should be of the Committe for Examination of the Earl of Strafford being Causa sanguinis upon which the Doctor drew up a brief and excellent Discourse entituled De jure paritatis Episcopum wherein he asserted all the Bishops Rights of Peerage and principally of this as well as the rest That they ought to sit in that Committee with other Priviledges and Rights maintained by him which either by Law or ancient custom did belong unto them A rare Commendation at this juncture of time for which the Doctor is to be admired that he could command his Parts and Pen of a sudden to write on this subject or any other if there was need that did conduce to the publick good and above all make a quick dispatch in accomplishing what he had once undertaken and begun But for those quick dispatches the Doctor afterward endured many tedious waitings at the backs of Committe-men in that Parliament especially in the business of Mr. Pryn about his Histriomastix for which he was kept four days under examination because he had furnished the Lords of the Privy Council with matters out of that Book which Mr. Pryn alledged was the cause of all his sufferings Great hopes had the Committee by his often dancing attendance after them to sift the Doctor if they could gather any thing by his speeches
to the best edifying of the Church For thus we read how Paul disposed of Timothy and Titus who were both Evangelists sending them as the occasions of the Church required from Asia to Greece and then back to Asia and thence to Italy How he sent Crescens to Galatia 2 Tim. 4. Titus to Dalmatia Tychicus to Ephesus commanding Erastus to abide at Corinth and using the Ministery of Luke at Rome 1 Cor. 14. So find we how he ordered those that had the spirit of Prophecy and such as had the gift of tongues that every one might use his talent unto edification how he ordained Bishops in one place Elders or Presbyters in another as we shall se◠hereafter in this following story The like we may affirm of Saint Peter also and of the rest of the Apostles though there be less left upon record of their Acts and Writings than are remaining of Saint Paul whose mouths and pens being guided by the Holy Ghost have been the Canon ever since of all saving truth For howsoever Mark and Luke two of the Evangelists have left behind them no small part of the Book of God of their own enditing yet were not either of their writings reckoned as Canonical in respect of the Authors but as they had been taken from the Apostles mouths and ratified by their Authority as both Saint Luke himself Luk. 1. Hieron in Marc. Clemens apud Euseb l. 2. c. 15. Act. 8.12 v. 14 15 17. and the Fathers testifie And for a further mark of difference between the Apostles and the rest of the Disciples we may take this also that though the rest of the Disciples had all received the Holy Ghost yet none could give the same but the Apostles only Insomuch that when Philip the Evangelist had preached the Gospel in Samaria and converted many and Baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ yet none of them received the Holy Ghost till Peter and John came down unto them and prayed for them and laid their hands on them as the Scriptures witness That was a priviledge reserved to the Apostles and to none but them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 18. in Act. 8. as it is in Chrysostom And when the two Apostles did it they did it without Philips help or co-operation who joyned not in it nor contributed at all to so great a work for ought we find in holy Scripture In this regard it is no marvel if in the enumerating of those ministrations which did concur in the first founding of the Church the Apostles always have preheminence First 1 Cor. 12.28 Apostles Secondarily Prophets Thirdly Teachers c. as Saint Paul hath ranked them Nor did he rank them so by chance but gave to every one his proper place Hom. 32. in 1. ad Cor. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom first placing that which was most excellent and afterwards descending unto those of a lower rank Which plainly shews that in the composition of the Church there was a prius and posterius in regard of order a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or more honourable as the Father calls it in regard of power as in the constitution of the body natural to which the Church is there resembled some of the members do direct and some obey some of them being honourable 1 Cor. 12.22 23. some feeble but all necessary The like may also be observed out of the 4. chap. of the same Apostle unto the Ephesians where the Apostles are first placed and ranked above the rest of the ministrations Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers of which some were to be but temporary in the Church of God the others to remain for ever Hom. 11. in Ephes 4. For as Saint Chrysostom doth exceeding well expound that Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First he doth name Apostles as they in whom all powers and graces were united Secondly Prophets such as was Agabus in the Acts Thirdly Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as had made no progress into many Countries but preached the Gospel in some certain Regions as Aquila and Priscilla and then Pastors and Teachers who had the government of a Country or Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were setled and employed in a certain place or City as Timothy and Titus If then a question should be made whom S. Paul meaneth here by Pastors and Teachers I answer it is meant of Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it such as were placed over some certain Cities and that the Bishops were accounted in the ancient times the only ordinary Pastors of the Church in the room and stead of the Apostles we shall shew hereafter Chap. 6. n. And this I am the rather induced to think because that in the first Epistle to those of Corinth written when as there were but few Bishops of particular Cities S. Paul doth speak of Teachers only but here in this to the Ephesians writ at such time as Timothy and Titus and many others had formerly been ordained Bishops he adds Pastors also Theoph. Oecum in Ephes 4.4.11 Certain I am that both Theophylact and Oecumenius do expound the words by Bishops only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such Bishops as both Timothy and Titus were by them accounted Nay even Saint Hierome seemeth to incline this way Hieron in Ephes 4. making the Prelates of the Church or the Praesides Ecclesiae as he calls them there to be the Pastors and Teachers mentioned by Saint Paul i.e. Pastores ovium magistros hominum Pastors in reference to their Flocks Teachers in reference to their Disciples But to go on unto our story Our Saviour having thus enabled and supplyed his labourers with the gifts and graces of his Spirit it could not be but that the Harvest went on apace Act. 2.41.47 The first day added to the Church 3000 souls And after that God added daily to it such as should be saved The miracle wrought by the hands of the two Apostles at the Beautiful gate Act. 3.2 opened a large door to the further increase thereof For presently upon the same and Peters Sermon made upon that occasion we find that the number of the men which heard the word and believed Act. 4.4 was about five thousand Not that there were so many added to the former number as to make up five thousand in the total but that there were five thousand added to the Church more than had been formerly S. Chrysostom and Oecumenius Chrys hom 10. in Act. 4. hom 25. in Act. 11. both affirming that there were more converted by this second Sermon of Saint Peters than by the first So that the Church increasing daily more and more multitudes both of men and women being continually added to the Lord and their numbers growing dreadful to the Jewish Magistrates Act. 5.14 it seemed good to the Apostles Vers 26 who by the intimation of the
people in the electing of their Bishops it had been ordinary for the Bishop yet in place to consecrate some one or other that should assist him whilst he lived and succeed after his decease only the Church of Alexandria never had that custom And they that had that custom Aug. ep 110. as it seems did not like it well for whereas Valerius Bishop of Hippo out of a vehement desire to have S. Austin his successour did consecrate or ordain him Bishop whilst as himself was yet alive Saint Austin was resolved for his part not to do the like it being a thing prohibited by the Nicene Council Quod ergo reprehensum est in me noli reprehendi in filio meo as he there resolveth So that the place in Epiphanius tendeth unto this alone viz. to shew the reason why Athanasius could not succeed Alexander in that See though by him designed which was that he being yet alive Ep. ad Euag. it was against the custom of that Church to ordain another Saint Hierom secondly observeth that the Presbyters of Alexandria unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant did use to chuse one from amongst themselves whom being placed in a more eminent degree than any of the rest they called a Bishop And this saith he continued in that Church à Marco Evangelista ad Heraclam Dionysium Episcopos from the time of Mark the Evangelist until the Bishopricks of Heraclas and Dionysius Smectymn p. 31. Some hereupon infer that the persons who brought in the imparity of Ministers into the Church were not the Apostles but the Presbyters An inference as faulty as was that before All that Saint Hierom means is this that from the time of Mark till the days of Heraclas and Dionysius the Presbyters of Alexandria had no other Bishop than one whom they had chosen out of their own body just as a man may say on the like occasion that from the first foundation till the time of Sir H Savil the Colledg of Eaton never had a Provost but one Euseb hist l. 6. c. 12. â—â— whom they had chosen out of their own society Now Heraclas before he was ordained Bishop was not a Presbyter of that Church although a Reader in the Schools of that famous City and belike Dionysius also was And therefore it is well observed by the Cardinal that Hierom writing to Euagrius relateth quid in ea Ecclesia usque ad haec Dionysii tempora in electione Episcoporum agi consueverit Annal. An. 1248. n. 5. what was the usage of the Church of Alexandria in the election of their Bishops until the times of Dionysus However we have gained thus much by Hierom that from Mark downward till those times and a long time after there wanted not a Bishop properly so called Hier. Comment in ep ad Titum in that famous Church and therefore sure they came not first into the Church Diaboli instinctu by the Devils instinct as he elsewhere saith There is another observation in the Commentaries ascribed to Ambrose which having some resemblance unto that before and a like sinister use being made thereof I shall here lay down and after give some Annotations on it to explain the place Comment in Eph. c. 4. The Author of those Commentaries affirmeth that Timothy whom Paul created Presbyter was by him called a Bishop because the first Presbyters were called Bishops it being the custom of the Church for so I think the sense must be made up ut recedente eo sequens ei succederet that he the first departing the next in order should succeed But being it was found that the following Presbyters were utterly unworthy of so high preferment that course was altered and it was provided by a Council ut non ordo sed meritum crearet Episcopum c. that merit and not seniority should raise a man he being appointed by the suffrages of many Priests to be a Bishop lest an unfit person rashly should usurp the place and so become a publick scandal These are the Authors words Resp ad tract de divers minist gradibus c. 23. be he who he will And from hence Beza doth collect that Bishops differed not from Presbyters in the Apostles times that there was only in every place a President of the Presbytery who called them together and porposed things needful for their consideration that this priority went round by course every one holding it in his turn for a week or more according as the Priests in the Jewish Temple had their weekly courses and finally that this Apostolical and primitive order was after changed upon the motives and inducements before remembred Smectymn p. 31. Some of our modern Writers against Episcopacy have gone more warily to work than so affirming from those words of Ambrose or whosoever was the Author that this Rectorship or priority was devolved at first from one Elder to another by succession when he who was in the place was removed the next in order amongst the Elders succeeded and that this course was after changed the better to keep out unworthy men it being made a matter of election and not a matter of succession These men come neer the point in their Exposition though they keep far enough in the Application inferring hence that the imparity of Ministers came in otherwise than by divine Authority For by comparing this of Ambrose with that before mentioned out of Hierom the meaning of the Author will be only this that as in some places the Presbyters elected one of their own Presbytery to be their Bishop so for preventing of Ambition and avoiding Faction they did agree amongst themselves ut uno recedente that as the place did vaike by death or deprivation by resignation cession banishment or any other means whatever the Senior of the whole Presbytery should succeed therein as the Lord Mayor is chosen for his year in London But after upon sight of those inconveniences which did thence arise it was thought fit in their election of the person rather to look upon his Merit than his Seniority So that for all this place of Ambrose were those Comments his the Bishop may enjoy a fixt preheminence and hold it by divine Authority not by humane Ordinances But to return unto Saint Peter and to the Churches by him planted and founded by him in Episcopacy in these Western parts I shall in part rely on the Authority of the Martyrologie of the Church of Rome though so fat only and no further as it is backed by venerable Bede and Vsuardus ancient Writers both the latest living in the year 800. and besides them in some particulars by other Authors of far more Antiquity Bellarm. de Scriptor And these for better methods sake we will behold according to the several Countries into which S. Peter either went himself or sent forth his Disciples to them to preach the Gospel And first for Italy
the City Provinces As for the Church of Antiochia it spread its bounds and jurisdiction over those goodly Countries of the Roman Empire from the Mediterranean on the West unto the furthest border of that large dominion where it confined upon the Persian or the Parthian Kingdom together with Cilicia and Isauria in the lesser Asia But whether at this time it was so extended I am not able to determine Certain I am that in the very first beginning of this Age all Syria at the least was under the jurisdiction of this Bishop Ignatius in his said Epistle to those of Rome Ignat. ad Rom. stiling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Bishop in Syria but the Bishop of Syria which sheweth that there being many Bishops in that large Province he had a power and superiority over all the rest Indeed the Bishops of Hierusalem were hedged within a narrower compass being both now and long time after subject unto the Metropolitan of Caesarea as appears plainly by the Nicene Canon though after they enlarged their border and gained the title of a Patriarch as we may see hereafter in convenient time Only I add that howsoever other of the greater Metropolitan Churches such as were absolute and independent as Carthage Cyprus Millain the Church of Britain Concil Ni. c. 7◠and the rest had and enjoyed all manner of Patriarchal rights which these three enjoyed yet only the three Bishops of Rome Antioch and Alexandria had in the Primitive times the names of Patriarches by reason of the greatness of the Cities themselves being the principal both for power and riches in the Roman Empire the one for Europe the other for Asia and the third for Africk This ground thus laid we will behold what use is made of this Episcopal succession by the ancient writers And first Saint Irenaeus a Bishop and a Martyr both derives an argument from hence to convince those Hereticks which broached strange Doctrines in the Church Iren. contr haer lib. 3. cap. 3. Habemus annumerari eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis c. we are able to produce those men which were ordained Bishops by the Apostles in their several Churches and their successors till our times qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab hiis deliratur who neither knew nor taught any such absurdities as these men dream of Which said in general he instanceth in the particular Churches of Rome Ephesus and Smyrna being all founded by the Apostles and all of them hac ordinatione successione by this Episcopal ordination and succession deriving from the Apostles the Preaching and tradition of Gods holy truth till those very times The like we find also in another place where speaking of those Presbyteri so he calleth the Bishops which claimed a succession from the Apostles He tells us this quod cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris acceperunt that together with the Episcopal succession Ir. adv haeres l. 4. cap. 43. they had received a certain pledge of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father See to this purpose also cap. 63. where the same point is pressed most fully and indeed much unto the honour of this Episcopal succession Where because Irenaeus called Bishops in the former place by the name of Presbyters I would have no man gather Smectym p. 23. as some men have done that he doth use the name of Bishops and Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense much less conclude that therefore Presbyters and Bishops were then the same For although Irenaeus doth here call the Bishops either by reason of their age or of that common Ordination which they once received by the name of Presbyters yet he doth no where call the Presbyters by the name of Bishops as he must needs have done if he did use the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense as it is supposed And besides Irenaeus being at this time Bishop if not Archbishop of the Church of Lyons could not but know that he was otherwise advanced both in power and title as well in Dignity as Jurisdiction than when he was a Presbyter of that very Church under Pothinus his Predecessor in that See and therefore not the same man meerly which he was before But to let pass as well the observation as the inference certain I am that by this argument the holy Father did conceive himself to be armed sufficiently against the Hereticks of his time and so much he expresseth plainly saying that by this weapon he was able to confound all those qui quoquo modo vel per sui placentiam malam vel vanam gloriam vel per coecitatem malam sententiam praeter quam oportet Ire adv haeres l. 3. c. 3. colligunt Who any way either out of an evil self complacency or vain-glorious humour or blindness of the mind or a depraved understanding did raise such Doctrins as they ought not So much for blessed Irenaeus a man of peace as well in disposition and affection as he was in name Next let us look upon Tertullian who lived in the same time with Irenaeus beginning first to be of credit about the latter end of this second Century Baron ann eccl anno 196. Pamel in vita Tertull. as Baronius calculates it and being at the height of reputation an 210. as Pamelius noteth about which time Saint Irenaeus suffered Martyrdom And if we look upon him well we find him pressing the same point with greater efficacy than Irenaeus did before him For undertaking to convince the Hereticks of his time as well of falshood as of novelties and to make known the new upstartedness of their Assemblies which they called the Church he doth thus proceed Tertull. de praes adv haeres c. 32. Edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum c. Let them saith he declare the original of their Churches let them unfold the course or order of their Bishops succeeding so to one another from the first beginning that their first Bishop whosoever he was had some of the Apostles or of the Apostolical men at least who did converse with the Apostles to be their founder and Predecessor For thus the Apostolical Churches do derive their Pedegree Thus doth the Church of Smyrna shew their Polycarpus placed there amongst them by Saint John and Rome her Clement Consecrated or Ordained by Peter even as all other Churches also do exhibit to us the names of those who being Ordained Bishops by the Apostles did sow the Apostolical seed in the field of God This was the challenge that he made And this he had not done assuredly had he not thought that the Episcopal succession in the Church of Christ had been an evident demonstration of the truth thereof which since the Hereticks could not shew in their Congregations or Assemblies it
was Thursday following they were advanced so far as to the Wilderness of Sinai I say the third day of the third month For where the Text hath it Exod. 19.1 In the third month when the Children of Israel were gone forth out from Egypt the same day came they into the Wilderness of Sinai by the same day is meant the same day of the month which was the third day Exod. 19. ver 3.10 11. being Thursday after our Account The morrow after went Moses up unto the Lord and had commandment from him to sanctifie the people that day and to morrow and to make them ready against the third day God meaning on that day to come down in the eyes of all the People in Mount Sinai and to make known his Will unto them Verse 17 That day being come which was the Saturday or Sabbath the people were brought out of the Camp to meet with God and placed by Moses at the nether part of the Mountain Moses ascending first to God and descending after to the people to charge them that they did not pass their bounds before appointed It seems the Sabbath rest was not so established Verse 21 but that the people had been likely to take the pains to climb the Mountain and to behold the Wonders which were done upon it had they not had a special charge unto the contrary Things ordered thus it pleased the Lord to publish and proclaim his Law unto the people in Thunder Smoak and Lightnings and the noise of a Trumpet using therein the Ministery of his holy Angels which Law we call the Decalogue or the ten Commandments and contains in it the whole Moral Law or the Law of Nature This had before been naturally imprinted in the minds of men however that in tract of Time the character thereof had been much defaced so dimmed and darkened that Gods own people stood in need of a new impression and therefore was proclaimed in this solemn manner that so the letter of the Law might leave the clearer stamp in their affections A Law which in it self was general and universal equally appertaining both to Jew and Gentile Rom. 2.14 the Gentiles which know not the Law doing by nature the things contained in the Law as S. Paul hath told us but as at this time published on Mount Sinai and as delivered to the people by the hand of Moses they obliged only those of the house of Israel Zanchius hath so resolved it amongst the Protestants not to say any thing of the School-men who affirm the same De Redempti l. 1. c. 11. Th. 1. ut Politicae ceremoniales sic etiam morales leges quae Decalogi nomine significantur quatenus per Mosen traditae fuerunt Israelitis ad nos Christianos nihil pertinent c. As neither the Judicial nor the Ceremonial so nor the Moral Law contained in the Decalogue doth any way concern us Christians as given by Moses to the Jews but only so far forth as it is consonant to the Law of Nature which binds all alike and after was confirmed and ratified by Christ our King His reason is because that if the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Jews did concern the Gentiles the Gentiles had been bound by the fourth Commandment to observe the Sabbath in as strict a manner as the Jews Cum vero constet ad hujus diei sanctificationem nunquam fuisse Gentes obligatas c. Since therefore it is manifest that the Gentiles never were obliged to observe the Sabbath it followeth that they neither were nor possibly could be bound to any of the residue as given by Moses to the Jews We may conclude from hence that had the fourth Commandment been meerly Moral it had no less concerned the Gentiles than it did the Israelites For that the fourth Commandment is not of the same condition with the rest is no new invention the Fathers jointly so resolve it It 's true that Irenaeus tells us how God Lib. 4. cap. 31. the better to prepare us to eternal life Decalogi verba per semetipsum omnibus similiter locutus est did by himself proclaim the Decalogue to all people equally which therefore is to be in full force amongst us as having rather been inlarged than dissolved by our Saviours coming in the flesh Which words of Irenaeus if considered rightly must be referred to that part of the fourth Commandment which indeed is Moral or else the fourth Commandment must not be reckoned as a part or member of the Decalogue because it did receive no such enlargement as did the rest of the Commandments by our Saviours preaching whereof see Matth. 5.6 and 7 Chapters but a dissolution rather by his practice Dial. cum Triphone Justin the Martyr more expresly in his dispute with Trypho a learned Jew maintains the Sabbath to be only a Mosaical Ordinance as we shall see anon more fully and that it was imposed upon the Israelites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of their hard heartedness and irregularity Contra Judaeos Tertullian also in his Treatise against the Jews saith that it was not spirituale aeternum mandatum sed temporale quod quandoque cessaret not a spiritual and eternal Institution but a temporal only Saint Austin yet more fully that it is no part of the Moral Law In Epistola ad Galat. For he divides the Law of Moses into these two parts Sacraments and Moral Duties accounting Circumcision the new Moons Sabbaths and the Sacrifices to appertain unto the first ad mores autem non occides c. and these Commandments Thou shalt not kill nor commit adultery nor bear false witness and the rest De spiritu lit c. 11. to be contained within the scond Nay more he tells us that Moses did receive a Law to be delivered to the people writ in two Tables made of stone by the Lords own finger wherein was nothing to be found either of Circumcision or the Jewish Sacrifices And then he adds In illis igitur decem praeceptis ecceepta Sabbati observatione dicatur mihi quid non sit observandum à Christiano Tell me saith he what is there in the Decalogue except the observation of the Sabbath day which is not carefully to be observed of a Christian man To this we may refer all those several places wherein he calls the fourth Commandment praeceptum figuratum in umbra positum a Sacrament a shadow and a figure as Tract the third in Joh. 1. and Tract 17. and 20. in Joh. 5. ad Bonifac. l. 3. T. 7. contra Faust Manich. l. 19. c. 18. the 14th Chapter of the Book de spiritu lit before remembred and finally to go no further Qu. in Exod. l. 2. qu. 173. where he speaks most home and to the purpose Ex decem praeceptis hoc solum figurate dictum est Of all the ten Commandments this only was delivered as a sign or figure See also
what is said before out of Theodoret and Sedulius Chap. 1. n. 6. Hesychius goes yet further and will not have the fourth Commandment to be any of the ten Etsi decem mandatis insertum sit non tamen ex iis esse In Levit. l. 6. c. 26. and howsoever it is placed amongst them yet it is not of them And therefore to make up the number divides the first Commandment into two as those of Rome have done the last to exclude the second But here Hesychius was deceived in taking this Commandment to be only Ceremonial whereas it is indeed of a mixt or middle nature for so the Schoolmen and other learned Authors in these later times grounding themselves upon the Fathers have resolved it generally Moral it is as to the Duty that there must be a time appointed for the service of God and Ceremonial as unto the Day to be one of seven and to continue that whole day and to surcease that day from all kind of work As moral placed amongst the ten Commandments extending unto all mankind and written naturally in our hearts by the hand of Nature as Ceremonial appertaining to the Law Levitical peculiar only to the Jews and to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes Aquinas thus c. 2. 2ae qu. 122. art 4. resp ad primum Tostatus thus in Exod. 20. qu. 11. So Petr. Galatinus also lib. 11. cap. 9. and Bonaventure in his Sermon on the fourth Commandment And so divers others I say the fourth Commandment so far as it is Ceremonial in limiting the Sabbath day to be one of seven and to continue all that day and thereon to surcease from all kind of labour which three ingredients are required in the Law unto the making of a Sabbath is to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes and proper only to the Jews For proof of this we have the Fathers very copious And first that it was one of Moses Institutes Justin the Martyr saith expresly Dial. eum Triphone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As Circumcision began from Abraham and as the Sabbath Sacrifices Feasts and Offerings came in by Moses so were they all to have an end And in another place of the same discourse seeing there was no use of Circumcision until Abrahams time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of the Sabbath until Moses by the same reason there is as little use now of them as had been before So doth Eusebius tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De praeparat l. 7. c. 6. c. That Moses was the first Law-giver amongst the Jews who did appoint them to observe a certain Sabbath in memory of Gods rest from the Worlds Creation as also divers anniversary Festivals together with the difference of clean and unclean Creatures and of other Ceremonies not a few Next Athanasius lets us know that in the Book of Exodus we have the Institution of the Passeover Synopsis sacrae Script the sweetning of the bitter waters of Marah the sending down of Quails and Mannah the waters issuing from the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what time the Sabbath took beginning and the Law was published by Moses on Mount Sinai Macarius a Contemporary of Athanasius doth affirm as much viz. that in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 35. which was given by Moses it was commanded as in a figure or a shadow that every man should rest on the Sabbath day from the works of labour In Ezech. 20. Saint Hierom also lets us know though he name not Moses that the observation of the Sabbath amongst other Ordinances was given by God unto his People in the Wilderness Haec praecepta justificationes observantiam Sabbati Dominus dedit in deserto which is as much as if he had expresly told us that it was given unto them by the hand of Moses Then Epiphanius God saith he rested on the seventh day from all his labours De Pond mensur n. 22. which day he blessed and sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by his Angel made known the same to his servant Moses See more unto this purpose advers haeres l. 1. haer 6. n. 5. And lastly Damascen hath assured us De fide Orthod lib. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law nor Scripture that then there was no Sabbath neither but when the Law was given by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then was the Sabbath set apart for Gods publick worship Add here that Tacitus and Justin refer the Institution of the Sabbath unto Moses only of which more hereafter Next that the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews or those at least that were of the house of Israel the Fathers do affirm more fully than they did the other For so Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath was given unto the Jews in his first Homily of Fasting Saint Austin so Sabbatum datum est priori populo in otio corporali Epistola 119. Sabbatum Judaeis fuisse praeceptum in umbra futuri de Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. and in the 13. of the same Book unum diem observandum mandavit populo Hebraeo The like to which occurs Epist 86. ad Casulanum The Jews the Hebrews and the former People all these three are one and all do serve to shew that Saint Austin thought the Sabbath to be peculiar unto them only That it was given unto the Jews exclusively of all other Nations is the opinion and conceit also of the Jews themselves This Petrus Galatinus proves against them on the authority of their best Authors Ch. 16.29 Sic enim legitur apud eos in Glossa c. We read saith he in their Gloss on these words of Exodus The Lord hath given you the Sabbath What mean say they these words he hath given it you Quia vobis viz. Judaeis dedit non gentibus saeculi because it was given unto the Jews and not unto the Gentiles It is affirmed also saith he by R. Johannan that whatsoever statute God gave to Israel he gave it to them publickly except the Sabbath and that was given to them in secret according unto that of Exodus Exod. 31.17 Ainsworth in Exod. 13.9 It is a sign between me and the Children of Israel Quod si ita est non obligantur gentes ad sabbatum If so saith Galatinus the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath A sign between me and the Children of Israel It seems the Jews were all of the same opinion For where they used on other days to wear their Phylacteries on their arms or foreheads to be a sign or token to them as the Lord commanded they laid them by upon the Sabbaths because say they the Sabbath was it self a sign In Gen. 2. So truly said Procopius Gazaeus Its Judaeis imperavit supremum numen ut segregarent à caeteris deibus diem septimum c. God saith he did command the Jews
and to make ready for the Sabbath That done they take no work in hand Only the Women when the Sun is near its setting light up their Sabbath-lamps in their dining rooms and stretching out their hands towards them give them their Blessing and depart To morrow they begin their Sabbath very early and for entrance thereunto array themselves in their best Cloaths and their richest Jewels it being the conceit of Rabby Solomon that the Memento in the front of the fourth Commandment was placed there especially to put the Jews in mind of their Holiday Garments Nay so precise they are in these Preparations and the following Rest that if a Jew go forth on Friday and on the night falls short of home more than is lawful to be travelled on the Sabbath day there must he set him down and there keep his Sabbath though in a Wood or in the Field or the High-way side without all fear of wind or weather of Thieves or Robbers without all care also of Meat and Drink Periculo latronum praedonumque omui penuria item omni cibi potusque neglectis as that Authour hath it For their behaviour on the Sabbath and the strange niceties wherewith they abuse themselves he describes it thus Equus aut asinus Domini ipsius stabulo exiens Id. cap. 11. froenum aut capistrum non aliud quicquam portabit c. An Horse may have a Bridle or an Halter to lead not a Saddle to load him and he that leadeth him must not let it hang so loose that it may seem he rather carrieth the Bridle than leads the Horse An Hen must not wear her Hose sowed about her Leg They may not milk their Kine nor eat any of the milk though they have procured some Christian to do that work unless they buy it A Taylor may not wear his Needle sticking on his sleeve The lame may use a staff but the blind may not They may not burthen themselves with Cloggs or Pattens to keep their feet out of the dirt nor rub their Shoos if foul against the ground but against a wall nor wipe their dirty Hands with a Cloth or Towel but with a Cows or Horses tail they may do it lawfully A wounded Man may wear a Plaster on his sore that formerly was applyed unto it but if it fall off he may not lay it on anew or bind up any wound that day nor carry money in their Purses or about their Clothes They may not carry a Fan or flap to drive away the Flies If a Flea bite they may remove it but not kill it but a Lowse they may yet Rabbi Eliezer thinks one may as lawfully kill a Camel They must not fling more Corn unto their Poultry than will serve that day lest it may grow by lying still and they be said to sow their Corn upon the Sabbath To whistle a tune with ones Mouth or play it on an Instrument is unlawful utterly as also to knock with the ring or hammer of a Door or knock ones hand upon a Table though it be only to still a Child So likewise to draw Letters either in dust or ashes or on a wet Board is prohibited but not to fancy them in the Air. With many other infinite absurdities of the like poor nature wherewith the Rabbins have been pleased to afflict their Brethren and make good sport to all the World which are not either Jews or Jewishly affected Nay to despite our Saviour as Buxdorfius tells us they have determined since that it is unlawful to life the Ox or Ass out of the Ditch which in the strictest time of the Pharisaical rigours was accounted lawful Indeed the marvel is the less that they are so uncharitable to poor Brute creatures when as they take such little pitty upon themselves Crantzius reports a story of a Jew of Magdeburg who falling on a Saturday into a Privy would not be taken out because it was the Sabbath day and that the Bishop gave command that there he should continue on the Sunday also so that between both the poor Jew was poisoned with the very stink The like our Annals do relate of a Jew of Tewkesbury whose story being cast into three riming Verses according to the Poetry of those times I have here presented and translated Dialogue-wise as they first made it Tende manus Solomon ut te de stercore tollam Sabbata nostra colo de stercore surgere nolo Sabbata nostra quidem Solomon celebrabis ibidem Friend Solomon thy Hands up-rear And from the Jakes I will thee bear Our Sabbath I so highly prize That from the place I will not rise Then Solomon without more adoe Our Sabbath thou shalt keep there too For the continuance of their Sabbath as they begin it early on the day before so they prolong it on the day till late at night And this they do in pity to the souls in Hell who all the while the Sabbath lasteth have free leave to play For as they tell us silly wretches upon the Eve before the Sabbath it is proclaimed in the Hall that every one may go his way and take his pleasure and when the Sabbath is concluded they are recalled again to the house of Torments I am ashamed to meddle longer in these trifles these Dreams and dotages of infatuated men given over to a reprobate sense Nor had I stood so long upon them but that in this Anatomy of the Jewish follies I might let some amongst us see into what dangers they are falling For there are some indeed too many who taking his for granted which they cannot prove that the Lords Day succeeds into the place and rights of the Jewish sabbath and is to be observed by vertue of the fourth Commandment have trenched too near upon the Rabbins in binding men to nice and scrupulous observances which neither we nor our Fore-fathers were ever able to endure But with what warrant they have made a sabbath day in the Christian Church where there was never any known in all times before or upon what Authority they have presumed to lay heavy Burthens upon the Consciences of poor men which are free in Christ we shall the better see by tracing down the story from our Saviours time unto the times in which we live But I will here sit down and rest beseeching God who enabled me thus far to guide me onwards to the end Tu qui principio medium medio adjice finem THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH The Second BOOK From the first preaching of the Gospel to these present Times By PETER HEYLYN D.D. COLOSS. ii 16 17. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the SABBATH Days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. To the Christian Reader AND such I hope to meet with in this Part especially which treating
free him yet by his Doctrine of Predestination he hath laid such grounds as have involved his followers in the same guilt also For not content to travel a known and beaten way he must needs find out a way by himself which either the Dominicans nor any other of the followers of S. Augustine's rigors had found out before in making God to lay on Adam an unavoidable necessity of falling into sin and misery that so he might have opportunity to manifest his mercy in the electing of some few of his Posterity and his justice in the absolute rejecting of all the rest In which as he can find no Countenance from any of the Ancient Writers so he pretendeth not to any ground for it in the holy Scriptures For whereas some objected on Gods behalf De certis verbis non extare That the Decree of Adams Fall and consequently the involving of his whole Posterity in sin and misery had no foundation in the express words of Holy Writ Institut l. 3. c. 23. Sect. 7. he makes no other Answer to it than a quasi vero as if saith he God made and created man the most exact Piece of his Heavenly Workmanship without determining of his end And on this Point he was so resolutely bent that nothing but an absolute Decree for Adams Fall seconded by the like for the involving of all his Race in the same prediction would either serve his turn or preserve his Credit For whereas others had objected on Gods behalf that no such unavoidable necessity was laid upon man-kind by the will of God but rather that he was Created by God unto such a perishing estate because he foresaw to what his own perversness at the last would bring him He answereth that this Objection proves nothing at all or at least nothing to the purpose Calv. Institut lib. 3. cap. 23. sect 6. which said he tells us further out of Valla though otherwise not much versed as he there affirmeth in the holy Scriptures That this question seems to be superfluous because both Life and Death are rather the Acts of Gods Will than of his Prescience or fore-knowledge And then he adds as of his own that if God did but fore-see the successes of men and did not also dispose and order them by his Will then this Question should not without cause be moved Whether his fore-seeing any thing availed to the necessity of them â—aâ—m â—â— sect 7. But since saith he he doth no otherwise fore-see the things that shall come to pass than because he hath decreed that they should so come to pass it is in vain to move any Controversy about Gods fore-knowledge where it is certain that all things do happen rather by divine Ordinance and appointment Yet notwithstanding all these shifts he is forced to acknowledge the Decree of Adams Fall to be Horribile decretum a cruel and horrible Decree as indeed it is a cruel and horrible Decree to pre-ordain so many Millions to destruction and consequently unto sin that he might destroy them And then what can the wicked and impenitent do but ascribe all their sins to God by whose inevitable Will they are lost in Adam by whom they were particularly and personally necessitated to death and so by consequence to sin A Doctrine so injurious to God so destructive of Piety of such reproach amongst the Papists and so offensive to the Lutherans of what sort soever that they profess a greater readiness to fall back to Popery than to give way to this Predestinarian Pestilence by which name they call it to come in amongst them But howsoever having so great a Founder as Calvin was it came to be generally entertained in all the Churches of his Plat-form strongly opposed by Sebastian Castellino in Geneva it self but the poor man so despightfully handled both by him and Beza who followed him in all and went beyond him in some of his Devises that they never left pursuing him with complaints and clamours till they had first cast him out of the City and at the last brought him to his Grave The terrour of which example and the great name which Calvin had attained unto not only by his diligent Preaching but also by his laborious Writings in the eye of the World As it confirmed his power at home so did it make his Doctrines the more acceptable and esteemed abroad More generally diffused and more pertinaciously adhered unto in all those Churches which either had received the Genevian Discipline or whose Divines did most industriously labour to advance the same By means whereof it came to pass as one well observeth That of what account the Master of the Sentences was in the Church of Rome Hooker in eccle Pol. Pres p. 9. the same and more amongst the Preachers of the Reformed Churches Calvin had purchased so that they were deemed to be the most perfect Divines who were most skilful in his Writings His Books almost the very Canon by which both Doctrine and Discipline were to be judged The French Churches both under others abroad or at home in their own Country all cast according to the Mold which he had made The Church of Scotland in erecting the Fabrick of their own Reformation took the self same pattern Receive not long after in the Palatine Churches and in those of the Netherlands In all which as his Doctrine made way to bring in the Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support the Doctrine and crush all those who durst oppose it Only it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat wilder than the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself had more rightly placed in Massa corrupta in the corrupted Mass of Man-kind and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for the Election or Reprobation of particular persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election or Reprobation of particular persons the restraining of the Benefit of our Saviours sufferings to those few particulars whom only they had honoured with the glorious name of the Elect the working on them by the irresistible powers of Grace in the Act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the said Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of thier Deviation they being scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main fountain which they built upon but passing under the name of Calvinists as they thus did And though such of the Divines of the Belgick Churches as were of the old Lutheran stock were better affected unto the Melancthonian Doctrine of Predestination than to that of Calvin yet knowing how pretious the name and memory of Calvin was held amongst them or being unwilling to fall foul upon one another they suffered his Opinions to prevail without opposition And so
together can conclude on any thing unto the prejudice of the third Bodinus that renowned States-man doth resolve it Negatively and states it thus nihil à duobus ordinibus discerni posse quo uni ex tribus incommodum inferatur Bodin de Rep. l. 3. c. 7. si res ad singulos ordines seorsum pertinet that nothing can be done by two of the Estates to the disprofit of the third in case the point proposed be such as concerns them severally The point was brought into debate upon this occasion Henry the 3d. of France had summoned an Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ondinum to be held at Bloys Anno 1577. the Form and Order of the which we have at large by Thuanus Lib. 63. But finding that he could not bring his ends about so easily with that numerous body as if they were contracted to a narrower compass he caused it to be mov'd unto them that they should make choice of 36 twelve of each Estate Tonanus in hist temp l. 63. quox Rex cum de postulatis decerneret in consilium adhibere dignaretur whom the King would deign call to Council for the dispatch of such Affairs and motions as had been either moved or proposed unto him Which being very readily assented to by the Clergy and Nobility who hoped thereby to find some favour in the Court and by degrees to be admitted to the Privy Council was very earnestly opposed by Bodinus being then Delegate or Commissioner for the Province of Veromandois who saw full well that if businesses were so carried the Commons which made the third Estate would find but little hopes to have their grievances redressed â—â—iin de Rep. â— 1. c. 7. their petitions answered And therefore laboured the rest of the Commissioners not to yield unto it as being utterly destructive of the Rights and Liberties of the common people which having done he was by them intrusted to debate the business before the other two Estates and did it to so good effect that at the last he took them off from their resolution and obtained the cause What Arguments he used in particular neither himself nor Thuanus telleth us But sure I am that he insisted both on the ancient customs of the Realm of France as also of the Realm of Spain and England and the Roman Empire in each of which it was received for a ruled case nihil à duobus ordinibus statui posse quo uni ex tribus prejudicium crearetur that nothing could be done by any of the two Estates unto the prejudice of the third And if it were a ruled case then in the Parliament of England there is no reason why it should be otherwise in the present times the equity and justice of it being still the same and the same reasons for it now as forcible as they could be then Had it been otherwise resolved of in the former Ages wherein the Clergy were so prevalent in all publick Councils how easie a matter had it been for them either by joyning with all the Nobility to exclude the Commons or by joyning with the Commonalty to exclude the Nobles Or having too much conscience to adventure to so great a change an alteration so incompatible and inconsistent with the Constitution of a Parliament how easily might they have suppressed the potency and impair the Priviledges of either of the other two by working on the humours or affections of the one to keep down the other But these were Arts not known in the former days nor had been thought of in these last but by men of Ruine who were resolved to change the Government as the event doth shew too clearly both of Church and State Nor doth it help the matter in the least degree to say that the exclusion of the Bishops from the House of Peers was not done meerly by the practice of the two other Estates but by the assent of the King of whom the Laws say he can do no wrong and by an Act of Parliament whereof our Laws yet say quae nul doit imaginer chose dishonourable that no man is to think dishonourably Plowden in Commentar For we know well in what condition the King was when he passed that Act to what extremities he was reduced on what terms he stood how he was forced to flye from his City of London to part with his dear Wife and Children and in a word so overpowred by the prevailing party in the two Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him as his case then was to deny them any thing And for the Act of Parliament so unduly gained besides that the Bill had been rejected when it was first brought unto the Lords and that the greater part of the Lords were frighted out of the House when contrary unto the course of Parliament it was brought again it is a point resolved both in Law and Reason that the Parliament can do nothing to the destruction of it self and that such Acts as are extorted from the King are not good and valid whereof we have a fair Example in the book of Statutes 15 Ed. 3. For whereasz the King had granted certain Articles pretended to be granted in the Form of a statute expresly contrary to the Laws of the Realm and his own Prerogative and Rights Royal mark it for this is just the case which he had yielded to eschew the dangers which by denying of the same were like to follow in the same Parliament it was repealed in these following words It seemed good to the said Earls Barons and other wise men that since the Statute did not proceed of our Free will the same be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsel and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. Or if it should not be repealed in a formal manner yet is this Act however gotten void in effect already by a former Statute in which it was enacted in full Parliament and at the self-same place where this Act was gained that the Great Charter by which and many other Titles the Bishops held their place in Parliament should be kept in all points and if any Statute be made to the contrary 42 Ed. 3. c. 1. it shall be holden for none CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or control the actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the Kings make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or