was never arraigned for those strange crimes which have beene proved upon some of it's Professours The Church is here to employ her authority which stretcheth not beyond suspension or deprivation and that of the Persons not of the Function How many Bishops hath Antiquity beheld shamelesly profaneing the holinesse of their Profession How many tainted with avarice ambition tyranny heresie sorcety and yet never man saw any considerable number of them condemned never durst or would any preferre a Bill for the suppression of the Order I am not ignorant of what is here commonly objected that absolute authority and supersâ—uity of riches are the usuall bane of the Soule and that there be but few men of ranke upon whom they have not a corruptive influence That these two being as it were inseperable Accidents cannot be sequestred from the Church without destroying the Subject which containes them That the Waldenses and Albigenses concurred in the same judgement and that of late they have received a totall proscription among our selves For the first it is granted by all that Riches and Authority suite not indeed with a narrow soule uncapable either of rightly understanding or knowingly valuing the pure and true dictates of Christianity To the second who denies but there may be Bishops without either investing them with an absolute Power or affording them any such excesse of riches In the whole Primitive Church there were none but indigent and necessitous ones enabled with no other authority then to dispense the graces of God and to proclaime his Judgements unto the People And yet no doubt but if choice were made of consci 〈…〉 men after the example of the Primitive Fathers there would be little ground to grudge them what the bounty of Kings and the consent of the People hath suffered them for so many ages successively to enjoy If they be such as are indeed worthy of a Bishopâ—icke they will employ their authority in executing Justice upon the vicious expend their riches in accommodating the needy as the Prelates here doe generally at this day Their very Adversaries confesse them to have ever beene most strict inquisitours after crimes and most severe â—â—nishers of the same Nor can they deny that the poore and unfortunate the Widowes and Orphans have ever found somewhat either in their Counsell or credit to protect them from scorne and reproach And they must needs farther acknowledge that besides those workes of Charity which call for a reverent esteeme and even a kind of veneration to the memory of an infinite traine of Bishops the publicke monuments founded by them both for the Honour and the profit of that Kingdome are so many pregnant arguments that they have employed their great revenues rather as just Stewards for the benefit of others then as the vassals of their owne pleasures Witnesse so many stately Churches famous Colledges rich Hospitals so many Bridges Foundations Dotations Edifices which owe their being to that Order 'T is true the Waldenses and Albigenses were generally against Bishops but who can give us the true meaning of those we desire may passe for our patternes How many were there amongst them whom it would be a great crime to propose for our imitation I cannot be induced to beleive that they of the most rationall sort among them who were best acquainted with the Errours which had then stole into the Church were the same with those who at that time made warre upon the Bishops Nor can I thinke that they who massacred Trincavell their Viscount in Besiers and dasht out their Prelates teeth having taken Sanctuary in Saint Magdalen's Church were in the number of those whose successours we glory to be called If so what may we thinke of the Divine Providence which forty two yeares after gave these bloud-thirsty men into the hands of the Croissades as very bloud-suckers as themselves who sacrificed them in the selfe same Church wherein they had spilled the bloud of others Vengeance pursued them into the place they had chosen for a Sanctuary and where they had exercised their cruelty there they received their punishment A remarkeable circumstance to assure us that the finger of God's Justice was there In the History of the Kings the Bookes of Chronicles and Mâ—ocabâ—â—s there are sundry notable examples of God's particular indignation against some upon whom he executed Justice in the same places where they had committed their severall crimes The like you have in Josephus and generally every Author abounds with such examples all which I will baulke with silence that I may not passe over two or three remarkeable accidents to this purpose in such fresh memory and knowledge of all the People here that even at this day they strike the consciences of the most with astonishment however they still continue in defiance to such visible summons from that providence which endeavours by this meanes to awake them The death of Hampden is one This man whom all your Novelists looked upon as one of the cheife Actours in the managing of their designe and who was the first that put them in a posture of Armes against their Prince received his Deaths-wound in the very same * * Chalgrove field feild where first he put the Militia in execution That of the Lord Brookes is another and perhaps you will thinke it a greater miracle In the very moment he threatned to demolish the Cathedrall of Lichfield the same day whereon they celebrated the memory of the * Saint Ghad Saint that founded it he was slaine with the glance of a bullet sent him from the hands of a dumbe person and that too just as he was peeping out at a door which I think hath not been hither to observed These circumstances are not to passe our attention being so many infallible testimonies of a Divine vengeance I might adde to the list of such examples that horrible disease of Pyâ—â— At the same time that his Conscience was gnawed with the vermine of ambition affecting a Tyrannicke power God gave him for food to lice and made him perish by such a kind of death as once he did those monstrous Tyrants Herod and Philip the second who both imbrued their hands in the bloud of their owne sonnes It remaines now that I should answer to such objections as are drawne from the custome of France wherein you can spare men labour your selfe with many moe besides that are acquainted with the present inconveniences which attend that way and foresee such as may be feared for the future In the meane time I will proceed to examine the grounds of Episcopacy And first of all I say that Episcopacy is either of Divine or at least of Ecclesiasticall Institution If of the former then ought Bishops to be continued where they are and restored where they are not Put case it be of the latter onely we are to examine whether it was establish'd upon good grounds or no and if so whether those grounds be not of equall validity
with us and we obliged as much thereupon to maintaine it I intend not at this time to discusse either of these two questions that taske hath already beene so amply performed by sundry eminent writers of this age that there remaines little more to be done to it Nor will I deliver my owne opinion I shall onely insist upon two others Saint Hierome saith that Episcopacy was instituted as the onely meanes to stoppe the current of those Divisions which sprung at first among Christians Before saith he that by the instigation of the Devill there were any fidings in Religion and People began to say I am of Paul and I of Cephas and I of Apollos the Churches were ruled by the joint resolutions of Preâ—sbyters But when every one began to fancy that those he baptized were his owne and not Christ's it was ordained throughout the whole world that there should be one chosen out of the rest with whom the cure of the Church was to be entrusted for the rooting up of Schismes and taking away all matter of dissention What this great Doctor spake so punctually of the Baptisme of Paul of Cephas and Apolloâ— is nothing in my judgement but an allusion to what we reade in one of the Epistles to the Corinthians and ought to be construed of all those seeds of division which the Devill scattered among Christians in the infancy of the Church and such as he hath throwne amongst them ever since Thus we see so many monstrous Heresies have beene strangled by meanes of this Order some â—â—â—oone as they saw the light others after they had in a sort empoisoned the whole Earth And if still there have continued some in the World or any slips of the old roote have beene remaining it hath generally happened in such places where Episcopacy had not it's full force and where Councells have not enjoyed their due liberty as in some of the Southerne and Easterne Countries and some also of the North where Christian Religion hath suffered either a totall extirpation or at least some notable alteration by 〈◊〉 If then Episcopacy hath produced fruits answerable to their hopes who did first institute it as beyond all contradiction it hath to what course shall we betake our selves in these distractive times wherein the Devill is so busy at his old game inâ—omenting Divisions among all those whom the Spirit of God hath freed from the yoke and slavery of Rome now especially when there are so many visible Factions amongst us some siding with Luther others with Calvin and most of the rest following no other guides then their owne apish unruly Fancies what course I say shall we now fly to for remedy but the example of all antiquity in tracing their Steps and conforming to their rules withall applying our selves to those Antidotes wherewith they healed the like distempers we suffer and are upon the point to perish under In those times the unity of the Head begat an Unity of Mission this an Unity of Doctrine and both together an Unity of all the Faithfull among themselves But in these dayes of ours from the multitude of Pastours equall in authority there flowes a diversity of Mission from this a repugnancy of Doctrines and from both jointly the Schismes and sidings of People which could never have befallen us had men contented themselves with a meere Reformation of Episcopacy and not utterly abolished it Or if during their Division they had established it in such places as they had made themselves Masters of or where they enjoyed a Toleration This is cleare from the example of Rome whose Disciples are never at oddes with themselves but still keepe the Body close and well compacted in all it's Members through the skill of their Conductours who have the sole power of deciding controversies amongst them and they neither have authority nor any the least badge thereof but what they derive from their Heads So that it is a rare thing to behold any Innovation of Religion with them either in Doctrine or Discipline and if any should arise that Order doth so hedge it in that it cannot proceed a steppe further then they please themselves If examples borrowed from our Enemies be odious let us insist onely upon that of England So long as the Bishops were not molested in their Functionâ— that Kingdome was not disquieted with any Schismes or disorders in the Church There durst not a Sectarie shew his head till those Christian Guides were overborne with violence and all superiority among Pastours decryed Now if their conjecture be sound who say that Saint Hierome builds not a bare allusion upon the words of Saint Paul but a cleare observation that immediately after the Apostles times there arose certaine jarres among their Disciples some pretending to a right of greater preheminence by reason of some better endowments which every one in particular ascribed to him who had baptised and instructed him and that upon this foundation the Devill attempted to build a multiplicity of bodies and prevailed so farre that he seemed to have got a share in the Church then in her Infancy have not we reason every moment to feare the like now from so many upstart Doctrines 〈◊〉 Religion and so many different sects in Europe resulting from that variety of Opinionâ— which is every where to be seene amongst out Teachers The malady is so great that it seemes to be arrived at its height and so little care is taken of applying a remedy as if men had a designe palpably to betray the cause of God The greatest mischeife I finde herein is that so long as our exteriour government shall continue in the same posture it is at this present it will be impossible to heale the distemper and if we go about to alter the Order established it must needes be from better to worse in as much as every sect will be busy in tempting others after it and so make a rupture in the Body and teare the Church in peeces Let us once more reflect a little upon Antiquity Had there beene ought amisse in the first institution of Episcopacy and had not indeed the spirit of God beene the sole contriver of it for the common benefit of the Church could his providence have given way to that generall unanimous approbation it received from Christians in every corner of the Universe We see clearely that of all the new Lawes and severall alterations devised by the wisedome and prudence of man there is not any one but hath beene opposed in some part of the world or other Witnesse what 〈◊〉 hath beene â—â—â—â—uded upon the Church either against the custome of Antiquity or the rules of Scripture such as arâ— the Supreme authority of one Person in cases spirituall the severall teâ—â—â—s about the Encharist Invocation of Saints worshiping of Images with many other But this decree which enables one of those that are imployed in the dispâ—â—sâ—tion of the Heavenly treasures with a power above his fellowâ—â— hath continued
inviolable among all the Nations of the earth for well nigh the space of fourteene hundred yeares together not a man in all this time opening his mouth against it what ever difference of opinions Schismes and Heresies the Spirit of blindenesse introduced within the pale of Christianity till this age of our Reformers who perswaded themselves they could by humane prudence setle among the Ministers of the Gospell an equality of merit of zeale of charity and affection by ordaining an equality of Power and Authority and were further confident by this meanes to cut the throate of that Tyranny under which our Fathers for so long a time had groaned as also to re-invite into the world that sweetnesse and â—ffability wherewith the founders of the Church so expressely charged it should be governed And lastly they presumed that if the Prelates were once outed integrity innocence and good manners would be restored to their place in the Church againe nor should luxury incontinence or any other kinde of leudnesse usurpe their Roomes any more for ever These indeed were good wishes and desires but the meanes of persuing them starke naught Neither did they meet with a generall likeing divers having rejected them as fighting with that successe which others had promised themselves in the use of them Did not Germany which first threw the Pope out of the Saddle and where the purity of the Gospell was first restored to its ancient Liberty retaine still in her Churches that superiority against which they declaime here 'T is inviolably maintained in most countries of the North. Did the Patriarch of Constantinople abjure or condemne it Cyrill when he reformed himselfe after the example of the Protestants in the West Or dare any of us deny him our Communion because he retained it Nay was he ever so much as advised to forgoe it The lustre and majesty of the title he bare was no impediment to him from being both a confessour and a martyr of the same Christ we worship But let us herein consult with our most eminent Reformers Luther a most violent opposer of the Authors of ruine and corruption in the Church after he hath spent himselfe in heaping reproaches upon the Bishops calling them Idolls and dumb Statues idle puppets deceitfull maskes trunkes without branches or rootes empty shadowes stage-players such as were so farre from knowing the honour of their Function and how to discharge it aright that they did not understand the Etymology of the name they bare wolfes breifly trayâ—ours 〈◊〉 murtherers the monsters of the Vniverse the burden of the earth the Apostles of Antichrist moulded and fitted for the destruction of the world and extinguishing the light of the Gospell at last he comes to himselfe againe and tells us that he inveighs onely against the corruption of their liver and their palpable Ignorance as for the râ—st thâ— he harboured not a thought against the Order and frame of the Church and that nothing he had spoken of those idle drousie Animalls and filthy belly 〈◊〉 Gods ought to be applyed to the honest Pastours and reall Bishops whom he there calls the Headâ— and Over-seers of the Christian Church In other places as namely in his Captivity of Babylon he overthrowes the sacrament of Order and rejecteth as a groundlesse fancy their indelible character But he quarrells not there with Bishops alone but even with Preists and Deacons avouching all the faithfull equally to be Preists and Deacons and endowed with equall Authority Notwithstanding recollecting himselfe he concludes for the exellency of Episcopacy acknowledging the name thereof to be sacred and ancient and that if he deny it those against whom he declaimes 't is because he thinks it unlawfull to bestow it on such whose corruption and filthinesse vendors them so unworthy of it In the Tract he compiled for the instruction of Ministers he closeth hiâ— reformation with an establishment of Bishops to which he would have the Cities of Bohemia conforme themselves in electing one or two and enabling them with Authority over the rest to goe in visitation about the Churches after the example of Saint Peter in the Acts which he stileth a lawfull and Evangelicall Archiepiscopacy But if men â—e so vainely timerous that they dare not adventure upon the reestablishing of an Apostolicall Institution he permits them to retaine the custome of Rome in having Bishops to call ordaine and confirmâ— such a they shall finde capable according to the platforme and Doctrine of Saint Paul So likewise you may see divers examples of that age which testify that the opinions of those times were much different from ours about the point in Question We finde in one of Peter Martyrs Epistles to Beza that a certaine Bishop of Troy making a scruple of continuing in that profession after his conversion to the Reformation was unanimously received and acknowledged of all for a lawfull Prelate whose Authority together with his Piety prov'd a maine advancement of the Churches good This worthy Author not condemning Episcopacy in generall passeth only this verdict upon it that in as much as none are raised to that dignity but by the favour of Princes Christians can have but faint hopes of reaping any great benefit thereby In the same place he concludes for the necessity of their visitations as a present remedy to curethe naturall infirmity of man who is ever declining from bad to worse and be speakes there of Primates and Arch-bishops as of those who for Sanctity of life and Purity of Doctrine were designed to this Function in the severall Cities and Sees of greatest note withall condemning those who intrude at their owne pleasures into the Ministery concludeing it is not without some emphaticall ground that in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus the severall conditions and qualifications of Bishops Preists and Deacons are so punctually described Where it is worth your observation that he marshalls all three in their proper ranks a pregnant evidence that he made more then two degrees of Ecclesiasticall Order And so likewise doth the Author of our reformed discipline in France who in the first Article acquaints us with three sorts of Ministers Bishops or Pastours Deacons and Presbyters quoting to this purpose the same Epistles with Peter Martyr Where two things deserve our notice first the name of Bishops and next that of Presbyters As for the former I cannot but wonder why he should confound it with that of Pastours then after distinguish both from Presbyters if it be true as many would have it that Presbyters Pastours and Bishops were but one and the selfe same thing in the Primitive Church As for the name of Presbyters it is misapplyed with us to such whose Function speakes them to be no more then Deacons A thing utterly repugnant to the practice all ages Whence it appeares that he was somewhat ashamed to baulke an Order which he knew the Primitive and purer Christians held in such singular estimation and the Church maugre the
same man to differ from himselfe We see that Families are ever at unity when they beare an orderly subjection to the Master of the House be there never so many private jarrings of opinions among the severall members Examine we the matter yet a little further Is there any thing more agreeable to reason then that the lesse depend upon the greater the weake and feeble upon the strong in a word to behold that subordination in the world that where any prejudiciall counselâ—â— or resolutions shall happen to â—e proposed they may be timously check'd by some intervening authority and kept within the bounds prescribed them How many may we every day see attempting to passe the bounds of their abilities and professions and of what a banefull consequence the impunity of such irregularities may prove I leave it for any man to determine This I 'me sure made the Divine Providence speake by the mouth of Saint Paul that * 1 Cor. 14. 29. when the Prophets speake there should be some to judge That which followes is very observable * v 33. The spirits of the Prophets are subject unto the Prophets whereof presently he renders the reason For * v. 34. God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all Churches of the Saints Behold Sir at a nearer distance the reasons for which this Order was first established which in my judgement are of equall force for the continuance of it to all ages seeing you have as great cause now as ever to feare those inconveniences which attend on equality You have Councels to be assembled Schismes to be composed Heretiques to be convinced and many ill appointed Churches to be visited But there is yet a more speciall and pressing motive in the case of England to wit the Genius of the People who being accustomed to gaze upon a gorgeous outside will not without much reluctancy be drawne to yeild any manner of reverence and submission to such as stand not upon the vantage-ground of honour Witnesse their Divines and all the gowned tribe Let their vertues be never so legible the Great ones looke upon them but as so many silly fellowes in blacke extracted out of the scumme of the People who for their part thinke they doe them a great honour if they shall vouchsafe to use them as their companions The case being thus what may we thinke would attend the extirpation of Episcopacy out of that Kingdome but the utter contempt of Christianity From vilifying the persons 't is ordinary to proceed next to a slighting of the Profession though never so sacred And if they put such a cheape esteeme upon the Persons of those that are to direct the Conscience and watch over the soule with what oscitancy and indevotion will all their counsels and instructions be entertained amongst them 'T is indeed the dignity of the Prelates which hath hitherto supported the dignity of Religion and if any manner of respect hath beene paid them it was first excited by the Majesty and lustre of that superiority wherewith God hath invested them as the most naturall meanes to keepe in an Evangelicall awe a People whose very Genius seconded with excesse of riches and security hath merited them the name of the most insolent People in the world But they tell us that the Bishops of meere Overseers were become absolute Lords and of Rulers had transformed themselves into Tyrants which indeed may be true of some but not of all How many have there beene in England since the Reformation so farre from the least smacke of their Predecessours or any of their fellow brethrens vanity that on the contrary in examples of modesty and and humility they have left most of the truly Reformed Pastours in Europe behind them who knowes not that the now Bishop of Durâ—aâ— notwithstanding the large revenues he formerly enjoyed and the severall titles of honour particularly annexed to that Bishopricke hath manifested to the world that he is cast in the same mould with those untainted soules of the Primitive Church All men may reade his temper and what spirit swayed him in his greatest prosperity inasmuch as now sharing in the common calamity depriv'd of all his livelyhood and brought to indigence thrown downe from so high a pitch of greatnesse to so low an ebbe from so much honour to so much infamy shut up as it were in a prison without ease without liberty and almost without a freind too aged about fourescore and five or six yeares he beares it all out with such composednesse of spirit such an absolute resignation of himselfe to the Divine Providence in the midst of these his trialls that he seemes to have no part in the corruption of the Times and those impurities wherewith they charge his Brethren such a large portion he hath in the innocence and vertues of the Primitive Martyrs Did ever any man behold a more Apostolique man then the present * Bishop vsher Primate of Ireland I applaud not now the learning either of the one or other I speake onely of their piety that characteristicall vertue of the Saints Could any the most active and noted adversaries of Episcopacy ever blemish the conversation of Doctor Bromhall Bishop of Derry of Jewell Bilson Hall Downham Davenant Sands Abbot Andrewes Vsher Prideaux and a large Catalogue besides of such whose vertues are not yet come to my knowledge no more then their names For all those prerogatives they enjoy above other men by reason of the Character they beare for all that superiority and those titles full of pompe and magnificence the Lawes of the Land have allowed them did ever any know them give the least scandall to the most scrupulous conscience or the least occasion for the meanest Subject to complaine of them On the contrary the whole course of their lives is a copy worthy the imitation not onely of such as had need to reforme themselves but even of the most unblameable persons I should but wrong their modesties in proceeding any further And I would be loath to distast them having no other intent then simply to describe them However I shall confidently a vouch thus much that they live in Episcopacy with much more integrity then any of their Persecutours do in their professions as being conformable to their intention who first gave life unto it The Divine Authours of so sacred â—n Ordinance knew well enough what high conceits are apt to surprize the soules of men when once they are lifted up above others and hence was it that of so many names wherewith the Apostles invested the Rulers of the Church they pitch't upon the name of Bishop for such as were to fit at the Sterne There were others that carried more state and lustre with them as that of â—astour wherewith homer honours his King of Elder of Doctour of President of Cheife But this is a name of toile and diligence by which the first imposers of it intended to containe such as
they had exalted above the ranke of others within the bounds of their câ—lling And agreeable hereunto what paines have the men we named ever denied to consecrate unto the Church Have they ever thwarted the Rules of their first Institution And if the name they beare speakes them engaged to a perpetuall taske in managing of publicke affaires have they not ever applied all the powers of their soules to the pursuance of the same Yes they have done it with a flaming and saint-like zeale and have made the world read in their Actions their constant readinesse to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to the good of their Brethren But they are traduced for countenancing Popery where it was already and scattering some new seeds thereof where it had been extirpate This may be true of some but is a grosse slander upon the most of them If it had a simple toleration this was done mostly out of a charitable regard towards the Reformed Churches in Popish Dominioâ—â— nay further for the good of the Papists themselves whom they so tolerated Their examples their conversation their affable deportment might happily one day draw them over to a Profession from which banishments and other the like rigorous courses doe commonly divert them Religion cannot be forced upon the soule God must either Infuse it himselfe or perswade it by men Had the Bishops leaned never so little to the Popish Party and could they have been induced by any warping in opinion to favour those of that Religion when the Protestants were overborne in Ireland they would certainly have used them with more humanity when they had them at their mercy as an argument of that good correspondence betwixt them But the case was much otherwise so as never were any in a more deplorable condition then they There is no manner of reproach disgrace losse persecution which hath not befallen them Had the Bishops there beene such as the common voice proclaimes them would they not have beeâ— spared And if they had not been Protestants indeed would they not have gone over to the Conquetours and have followed the prevailing party was there for all this I will not say a Bishop but even any well affected to Episcopacy whom the threats of Fire and Sword could prevaile with to embrace Popery and renounce the Reformed Religion They further tell us that they doated too much upon titles of pride and ambition and such honours as the superstition and Idolatry of blinder times bestowed on them Beshrew their hearts that did so But the Innocent have reason to complaine of hard dealing if they must be listed with the guilty were there indeed any such at all You will pardon me if I shall hereupon avouch that many even of our owne men have sometimes picked a quarrell where there needed none I remember we once fell in discourse upon this argument and how after some slight debate you agreed with me in the upshot that the Overseers of the Church ought in all reason to be invested with some distinct and peculiar character to draw respect from inferiours That this was ever the practice of the Church and the very intention of those that established a superiority therein Whence arose the severall appellations of Father Paternity Pope Holinesse with many such in use with antiquity Nor is Episcopacy and the respects due unto it commended unto us with more earnestnesse then formerly they were As God seemes to have graven his image in a more eminent manner upon the face of such as are in authority thereby representing his unity an unity not to be parallell'd with any thing in the world in like sort hath the Church universall honoured them with such prerogatives as might best denote the obedience due to God himselfe who conferred that function upon them Hence doth the Author of that Epistle to the Trallians which goes under the name of Saint Ignatius use these expresse tearmes Reverence your Bishop as yee doe Christ reserving also a share in the honour to the Presbyters that so by your subjection to the Bishop and the Presbytery yâ— may be sanctified in all things This Presbytery as he there interprets it himselfe is the Colledge of Presbyters a sacred Assembly the Bisoaps Councellors and such as we call Assessours in civill Courts to whom he enjoynes obedience as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ Where the distinction he makes betwixt the honour due to Bishops and that appertaining to Presbyters is worth our observation For he saith that the former are to be reverenc'd as Christ the other as his Apostles which he would never have done had he not presumed that they who were intrusted with the care of the Church did governe it according to the rules of their Master surrendring themselves to the obedience of his holy spirit and these holding fast to their head won authority to their Ministery and all their instructions by that conformity betwixt them I am not Ignorant that some cavill at this exhortation and take occasion hereby to condemne that age of having first attempted upon the honour and respect due unto Christ as if by such expressions the Bishops were put into the ballance with him but these men consider not how all this was grounded upon Scripture He that heareth you heareth me They have not rejected you but mee Obey thâ—â— that have the rule over you And besides what Ignatius enjoines in behalfe of Bishops Polycarpus a disciple of the Apostles expressely recommendeth in behalfe of Preists and Deacons in that excellent Epistle he wrote to the Philippians which we have only seene in manuscript Abstaining saith he from these things be ye subject to the Preists and to the Deacons as unto God and Christ the like expression was used by the Primitive Doctours of the Church in exhorting the People to obey their Kings and Princes which they borrowed from an Epistle fathered upon Barnabas not * This Epistle of Barnabas was 〈◊〉 first printed at Oxford by the Lord Primate of Ireland and since at Paris yet published to the world What inconvenience can there be in bestowing that upon one which hath beene given to many and allowing as much to a Bishop as hath beene granted an Assembly of Presbyters seeing that in the language of antiquity the care of the Church which was dispersed in the whole body is united in him and that authority which had beene scattered amongst so many wholly devolved upon him Suppose this corruption in manners they talke of were such indeed or worse suppose farther that the Bishops were guilty of some errours in Doctrine may we for all this suppresse them nothing lesse nay we are not so much as to decline theirs or any manâ— company upon this ground alone if we will beleeve one of our most able and judicious writers 〈◊〉 I meane who in his Lectureâ— Of the Church hath this passage that we ought not to deny a diseased Person the benefit of our society if the malady be not mortall and
Elizabeth and certainly those Princes had more to feare for the Rights of their Crowne which they rescued from the Romish Subjection then the People at this day can possibly have for their liberties and Priviledges Their Religion then bound them to what in all probability was very prejudiciall to the Rights of their Kings nothing doth now obligâ— them to the least disadvantage of the People Then they swore obedience to the Bishop of Rome now they do it to none but to God himselfe Then the discipline of the Church had well-nigh suffered a totall subversion and England after the example of Poland might have conceived that the Nobility alone without Bishops were intrusted with the Reformation of the Church and that there was no more need of Prelates for Counsellors of State that is to sit in Parliament Notwithstanding neither did that Example nor these considerations prove prejudiciall to the Bishops The Fundamentall law of the Realme by which they are established together with the necessity of maintaininâ— them and besides that sundry the most eminent amongst them had couragiously sacrificed their lives in behalfe of Christianity oâ—â—poysed all other considerations whatsoever And the law which first seated them in Parliament expects them there still now especially when God 〈◊〉 leased to make use of Publicke votes for the government of the Church they are of more importance then eveâ— They are in England as in our Assemblies of State or as the Clergy in our highest Courts of Justice Which of our Kings who are absolute Monarchs without sharing their Power either with People or Parliaments as they do in other places which of them I say did ever entertaine a thought of debarring the Bishops this Priviledge We finde indeed in a certaine old Constitution that one of our Kings out of a zealous and pious intent making it seemes a conscience of diverting them from the service of God discharged theâ— all except the Abbat of Saint Denys from assisting at Parliamenâ—â— and hearing criminall cases but we finde not that this Ordinanâ—â— was ever put in execution but on the contrary that the weighâ—ieâ— employments of those times were wholly devolved upon Church-men whose abilities and honesty won them such a generall repuâ—â— that the custome then was for Princes to select among others two Bishops for the cheife of their retinue to be the 〈◊〉 of the Court and withall to see that justice were exactly and due 〈◊〉 administred They had likewise two Masters of Requests continually attending on them one of which was alwayes â— Clergy-mâ—â— who gave present Justice And we finde in a certaine Constitutioâ— of one of our Philips that of five appointed to give answer 〈◊〉 such Petitions as were presented in Parliaments two were to be Lay-men and three Clerkes But what neede we go farther then England to warrant the equity of this custome debarre the Bishops their right of sitting in Parliament and what respect will a proud licentious People afford the Clergy you may assure your selfe none at all Let them use what meanes they can to make them their Synods or Councells of any esteeme with them they will conforme no further to them then they please themselves Indeed to disvote Bishops in such Assemblies is to bereave them of all Authority and to open a gap for any wilde Chrochers in point of Religion to enter in that Kingdome 'T is in a word to suppresse the Bishops themselves to throw downe the Pillars of the Church and so to render the conservation of Christian Purity impossible Perhaps Sir you may thinke I speake in this more then comes to my share being one who professe to have no portion in the corruptions of Rome and so much to abhorre the Superstition of embracing such things as some upon divers pretences either out of ignorance or malice have introduced into the world to the great prejudice and disquiet thereof and in derogation to the just liberty of Conscience But if you please to reflect a little upon that prodigious clashing of opinions which at this day divides England into so many severall sects you will certainely conclude with me that in case this Order be once abolished neither innocence of manners nor integrity of doctrine can any longer enjoy a place in that Church The reason 〈◊〉 obvious if it be but considered how since the discontinuing of Episcopall Power in that Kingdome those that owe obedience and should be accountable for their doctrines to the Bishops do now live in such a horrible fashion as I have allready inform'd you that we may safely beleeve the most of them are the spawne of such as were once disgorged out of the mouth of Hell and dispersed in the Church to stifle Christianity in her Cradle rather then the successors of those that have beene the constant assertors of truth and opposers of falshood Witnesse the severall impieties and heresies both ancient and moderne where with they empoyson the soules of that People who in the common confusion listen to them blindely swallowing downe under pretence of Reformation all sorts of fancies and doctrines indifferently The most absurd dreames of the old Chiliasts the most pernicious ertours of Origen the most infamous libertinisme of the Anabaptists and the most execrable impieties of the Sociâ—ians doe usually take up the greatest part of their Sermons the rest being designed either for inflaming the Auditours with the coales of sedition and setting both parties at an irreconcileable distance or else to embase all manners to the lowest degree of corruption Yet in this generall depravation God hath reserv'd for himselfe some well disposed persons and indued them with courage to enquire into their actions and to brand the crimes of the Age. They have stoutly express'd their dislike of what hath beene constantly delivered by many hundred Preachers in that Kingdome I will not present you with an exact list of all they have published Judge with your selfe if there be any impiety those men will make scruple of many of whom out of an extreame unheard of impudence have had the boldnesse to defame in the open pulpit some of the other sex whom they could not tempt to lewdnesse in their private Houses I am very credibly informed that their names were presented to the Parliament but could never heare oâ— any punishment so much as intended them this in my opinion was the 〈◊〉 crying sinne then that of the Ghostly Father who seduced a 〈◊〉 in time of confession There is in this an unparallel'd kind of scandall and such as you will find farre to surpasse the greatest crimâ—â— which have ever beene charged upon any Hereticke in the World Such disorders were not to be heard of till 〈◊〉 Bishops were outed of their Jurisdiction and ill Church discipline robbed of it's force and vertue notwithstanding the naturall irregularity of that People Three yeares Anarchy and Independance in the Church have plunged that State into more confusion then all the Civill Waâ—â— thâ— case prosperity and long