and Reformed hath suffered very much in England when it was best setled we have upon us the wounds both of peace and war As our former long peace and undeserved prosperity treasured up much morbifick matter so the civil war by mutual chafings and exasperatings did breed higher inflammations and festrings yea and our late truce rather than tranquillity hath been so far from a serious consideration and well-advised setling of our distractions in Religion that many men have had but more leisure and liberty to scratch their own and other mens scabious itchings and to make wider the gaping corifices of our religious Ulcers Indeed private hands can do no other who besides their petulant passions being under no publick restraint and modesty have infinite partialities both as to self-flatteries and designs It must be the Gravity and Majesty the Nobleness and Ampleness of publick Wisdom and Authority which must by prudence and impartiality both in counsels and actions reach the depth and equal the proportions either of our maladies or our remedies to which if wise and worthy men do not in time contribute their counsels prayers and endeavours for the help and healing of our Religious Affairs doubtless the disorders and sinister policies of either weak or wicked men will utterly ruine the very remains and ruines of this Church Nor can the Civil State be ever steddy or permanent where Prince and Subjects Preachers and People are so divided in their principles and practises of Religion both as to their Ministry and Ministration as to the original and exercise of all Ecclesiastical Authority and Communion that they still think it a great part of their Religion either to reform or ruine each other It is observed to be one main pillar of the Turkish Polity Peace and Empire which is so vast and diffused yet generally so peaceable and unanimous that their Religion or Holy Law as they call it being once setled is never permitted by any man to be shaken or disputed much less altered or innovated in the least kind I know it is not fit for Christians to follow all Mahometan rigors and severities no more than their follies and simplicities yet if the setledness of so wild a Rhapsody of Religion as the Alcoran contains which is made up of Truth and Falshood of Fables and Fancies of Dreams and Dotages be of so great moment to preserve their civil peace where no wise man can be much concerned what is believed or disbelieved by him or any man in such a meer Romance of Religion of how much more consequence and conscience would it be to all Christians in any Polity or Nation to have their Religion well fixed and setled which is so Ancient so Holy so True so Venerable so Divine so in its Nature Centre and Circumference but one so deserving to be most United and Uniform both as to its Doctrine and Profession It is a shame to see Mahometans wiser in their generation than Christians who are or ought to be the children of that Wisdom and that Light which shines upon them all by the Scriptures as the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness It is childish for us who are cunning careful enough to preserve civil peace to be so careless of religious Unity and Harmony as to be tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine according to the sleight of men who lye in wait to deceive the hearts of the simple serving not the Lord but their own bellies We should rather study to be rooted and grounded in the Catholick Truth which is according to Holiness Justice Order and Charity after the primitive pattern and constant practise of all true Churches Preachers and Professors whose Authority and Reverence ought to sway more with us than any new and private mens Inventions which no man will admire that well understands the old which were so founded upon Verity so fortified by Charity so edified in Unity so reverend for Antiquity so permanent in their Constancy according to the particular constitutions of every Church which still kept the great and Catholick Communion as to the main amidst some little varieties of outward profession not as to substance but onely in Circumstances or Ceremony For as to the main every Christian Layical or Clerical Catechumens Penitents and Communicants Deacons and Presbyters kept the stations in which God and the Church had set them Every member kept to its Congregation every Congregation to its ordained Presbyter or lawfull Minister every Presbyter to his own Bishop every Bishop to his Metropolitane every Metropolitane to his Patriarch every Patriarch not to the Pope but to the Generall Councills and every Generall Councill to the Scriptures and those Apostolick Traditions which were Catholick and so agreeable to them All which orderly gradations were certainly in the Catholick Church as lawfull as those which the policy of Presbytery hath invented for Congregationall Classicall Provinciall and Nationall Consistories I am sure they were much more usefull For those of old preserved every private Christian every Family every City every Country every Province every Nation that was Christian not onely in a Church-way or Ecclesiasticall Communion and Correspondency as to their particular bounds and neerer relations in every Parish or Congregation or City or Country but as to that Catholick bond of Charity which binds up all Christians in all the world in one fellowship of one body and one Church whose head is Christ to whom every true believer and visible Professor in the whole latitude of the Church being by the Word and Spirit of Christ fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part doth both edifie and increase it self and others in Truth and Love without which all Churches all Religion and all Reformation are but like parts or members separate from their body not without flesh sinewes substance or bones but yet without blood and Spirits Life and Soul For as the particular parts and members of the naturall body do not live thrive and move onely by that particular substance spirit life and aptitude which is apart in them but by a concurrence with an influence from and a participation of that common Spirit Life Virtue which they have from the whole while they are in Communion with it so is it with Christians singly and severally considered their virtue is small and separated none at all because they want so much of Authority and Validity as they want of Catholick Unity and Ecclesiasticall harmony which keep Christians and Churches intire to Christ and to each other by that one and common spirit which runs through all true Christians by virtue of which and not of any private spirit all publick transactions which concern any nobler part or portion of Christs Church are to be carried on and anciently were in all orderly Churches as branches of the Catholick This this great and publick Communion in the
blessings I enjoy The least of which I may say with Jacob is beyond my greatest deserts I am of opinion That No price is too dear to purchase civill peace except onely that which pawns or sels the peace of a good conscience for it That the Liberty and security of a private Christian under any Government and Governours to whom God hath subjected him is First to pray 1 Tim. 2.3 Next to pay Rom. 13.6 I am no stranger to the domestick defeats of humane policies pretensions protestations presumptions which have by their frustrations not onely confuted the light and vulgar confidences of some men and their parties But they have even non-plussed and confounded the most pregnant hopes and assured expectations of many both too credulous and too presumptuous Christians Who looking too much upon the supposed meritorious virtues of some men and the enormous vices as they thought of others have allowed lesse freedome to the wonderfull operations of God and the intricacies of Divine Providence than is fit to attend the Abysse of Soveraign power and the Majesty of Infinite Wisdome In which onely a wise man and good Christian who lives by Faith not Sense may safely rest and glory even then when he is most posed and least understands the riddles of Gods wayes or the depths of his unsearchable judgements whose fathomings and unfoldings are reserved to make up the eternall admirations and beatitudes of patient and humble Christians in another world I know we live in a querulous Age where few men are so modest as not to think they deserve larger enjoyments and better preferments than they enjoy Or so content as not to think they suffer more pressures than they have deserved You might no doubt have many importune monitors and would have infinite earnest Suppliants if YOU were in place and Petitions were in fashion from every County and Corporation in ENGLAND Where the meere vulgarity like Swine are prone to cry out more for a little bite by the eare than for all the sordidnesse of sin and irreligious faedities into which they shamefully fall and in which they securely wallow if left to themselves by the cruell indulgence of their betters and superiours The out-cries and complaints of the Commonalty in civill regards if you should every way effectually satisfie which is no easie matter It being as equally hard to please as it is base to flatter the Populacie And yet should leave the concernments of their soules as to the true Christian and Reformed profession of Religion to that loose licentious and languishing posture whereto some mens distempers and indifferencies already have and farther seek to reduce this Nation as to any setled doctrine uniform profession Catholick order and Nationall combination best becomming this as all such famous and ample Churches of Christ Certainly Your secular agitations complyances and successes would as little commend your fidelity and discretion much lesse your Christian zeal and charity as those cures would doe the skill of any Physicians who should take care to mend the clothes or heale the scratches of their raving and distracted Patients without any regard to their feavers and frenzies which are their greatest maladies and uncured will be their greatest miseries I presume you well understand That true Religion is the chiefest ingredient not onely to make up mens spirituall and eternall peace but even their civill and temporall tranquillitie That no men can be good Patriots who are not good Christians That men heal but slightly as Physicians of no value the hurts of the daughters of their people if they doe not apply seasonable and soveraign medicines to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pestilent distempers which disaffect the heads and hearts of men in matters of Religion whose Body is Truth whose Soule is Love Its Beauty is Good Order Its Health is Peace with God and good men The indication crisis or judgment of its maladies are to be made not onely by that totall defect or absumption of Religion which is naturally incident to the profaner sort of men but many times it hath dangerous symptomes and effects arising from Pleurisies of piety from Surfets of Sanctity from the too hot Livers and over-boylings of Religion even in those that are as Solomon calls them righteous overmuch of too high and plethorick constitutions in Piety For as a wise and witty man once said The heads even of Gods children are as prone to breed nits and lice as other mens Infinite odde opinions like the itch and scabs or boils of Egypt arise from the ranknesse and luxuriancie of some mens crude and indigested godlinesse The best and most generous Vines even of Gods owne planting will soon run out by their luxuriancie not onely to sowrenesse but even to barrennesse as to good grapes unlesse they be carefully pruned and orderly bound up by those holy severities of Christian discipline order government and communion which are necessary to every Church especially those that are grown to so large a size to so numerous an extent as that of England Christian Counsellours and States-men such as YOU either are or may be will then prosper most in their politick counsels and designs when they suffer not Policy to overlay Piety when secular projects are neither the sole nor principall objects of their endeavours But primarily and impartially seek the kingdome of God and his righteousnesse Not putting that in the reare to be brought up in the fag end of a Civil war when both Church and State are sore and circumcised which should have been in the Van or front of all Parlamentary counsels and proceedings Nor setting mens heels above their heads Or which is more deformed preferring their Bodies and Estates before their Souls and Consciences Which preposterous methods doe oft make not onely Parlaments of State but even Church-Councils and Assemblies as Greg Nazianzen complains to become Nehustan broken idols and despised vessels while Christian men act more like cunning and pragmatick Politicians than charitable and sober Christians Passionately intending humane designs and Divine onely with partialities and factious byassings In such cases who can wonder if their results and conclusions be as wretched and ridiculous as their premises are unworthy of wise men and ingenuous Christians Who should never so remember they are Men as to forget they are Christians Related in Sacred and Religious as well as Civill and Naturall bands not onely to one another as Men as Brethren but also to one God their Father one Saviour their Elder Brother one holy Church both as Catholick and Nationall their common Mother I cannot but observe the solicitous counsels the sequacious complyances the vigilant cares the resolute endeavours of my Countrymen to preserve the civill unity and ancient polity of this Nation Not to suffer any part of this Commonwealth to be dismembred or under pretence of either naturall Liberty or a secular Independency to
exercised to each other their numerous conventions their fervent devotions their reverent attentions their unanimous communions their cheerfull Amens those blessed hopes and unspeakable comforts which thousands enjoyed both living and dying in the obedience to and communion with the Church of England All these holy fruits and blessed effects as most certain seals and letters testimoniall were I conceive most pregnant evidences and valid demonstrations of true Religion and of a true Church so happily setled by the joynt consent and publick piety of this Nation that it was not in reason or conscience in modesty or ingenuity to be suddenly changed much lesse rashly deserted and rudely abandoned chiefly upon the giddinesse of common people or by the boysterousnesse of common souldiers whose buff-coats and armour cannot be thought by any wise and worthy Souldiers to be like Aarons breast-plate the place from which Priests and people are to expect the constant oracles of Urim and Thummim Light and Reformation Such of that profession as are truly Militant Christians that is humbly wise and justly valiant as I hope many Souldiers may be will think it enough for them modestly to learn and generously to defend as Constantine the Great said to the Nicene Bishops not imperiously to dictate or boldly to innovate matters of Religion in such a Church and Nation as England which was I am sure and I think still is furnished with many able Divines many Evangelicall Priests and Ministers of the Lord whose lips preserve saving knowledge who have many a one of them more learning and well-studied Divinity in them than a whole Regiment nay than an whole Army of ordinary Souldiers whose weapons are not proper for a spirituall warfare nor apt as Davids hands either to build or repair a Church otherwaies than as Labourers who may possibly assist the true Ministers who are and ought to be the Master-builders of Gods house whose skill is not to destroy mens bodies but to save their souls not to kill but to make alive It must ever be affirmed to Gods glory because without any vanity or flattery that the Church of England for this last golden century came not behind the very best Reformed Churches nor any other that profess Christianity in any part of the world which is not my particular testimony who may seem partiall because I unfeignedly professe my self a son and servant of it but it is and hath been the joynt suffrage of all eminent Divines in all forraign Reformed Churches who have written and spoken of the Church of England ever since its setled Reformation not with commendation onely but admiration especially those who coveting to partake of the gifts and labours of English Divines have taken the pains to learn our hard and untoward language Yea I may farther with truth and modesty affirm that saving the extraordinary gifts of Tongues Miracles and Martyrdomes the Church of England since its setled Reformation under Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory came not much short of the Primitive Churches in the first and second Centuries Which had at least some of them as I shall after shew rather more than fewer ceremonies partly Judaick partly Christian yea far greater errors and abuses were found among some of them than were generally among any professors in communion with the Church of England witnesse those touching the Resurrection of the body and in the celebrating of the Lords Supper among the Corinthians The first some denied the other many received covetously uncharitably drunkenly disorderly undecently in the Church of Corinth Besides the scandalous fact of the incestuous person with which they were not so offended as became Christians they were also full of factions and carnall divisions going to law one with another before Infidels undervaluing the blessed Apostle S. Paul and other faithfull labourers preferring false Apostles and deceitfull workers with no lesse folly than ingratitude challenging in many things disorderly and uncomely liberties which amounted to clokes of malice and a licentiousnesse tending to confusion These and other corruptions were among Christians of an Apostolicall Church newly planted carefully watred and excellently constituted Nor are there lesse remarkable faults found by the Spirit of God in six of the seven Asian Churches mentioned in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation while yet they were under Apostolicall inspection For the Devil who is a great rambler but no loyterer began betimes to sow his tares in Gods field by false Apostles unruly walkers deceitfull workers meer hucksters of Religion schismatick Spirits proud Impostors sensuall Separatists wanton Jezebels curious and cowardly Gnosticks with all the evil brood of Nicolaitans Simonians Cerinthians and other crafty Hypocrites brochers of lies patrons of lewdnesse extremely earthly and sensuall yet vaunters in proud swelling words of spirituall and heavenly gifts but more covetous of filthy lucre and sedulous to serve their own bellies than zealous to serve the Lord or to save souls In all which instances of diseases growing even upon any of those Primitive Churches however Christians are commanded to repent and do their first works to keep themselves pure from contagion private or epidemick yet are they no where put upon the pernicious methods of reproching rending and separating from the very frame and constitution of their respective Churches as they were holy Polities Constitutions or Communions setled by the Apostles in decent subordinations and convenient limits of Ecclesiasticall order government authority and jurisdiction without which all humane societies civil or sacred run to meer Chaosses and heaps of confusion Which as the God of order and peace perfectly abhors so he no where by any Divine precept or approved example recommends any such practises to Christians under the name notion or intention of reforming abuses crept into any Churches presently to rend revile contemn divide destroy and make desolate the whole order polity frame and constitution of them which is very Christian and very commendable If the grand example of Divine Mercy was ready to spare Sodom upon Abrahams charitable intercession in case ten righteous persons had been found in that city and Jerusalem in case one man could have been found there who executed judgement and sought the truth how little are those men imitators of Gods clemency or Abrahams pity who have studied and still endeavour by all acts of power and policy utterly to destroy such a Church as England was in which many thousands of good Christians may undoubtedly be found who are constant adherers to the Faith gratefull lovers of the Piety and most pathetick deplorers of the miseries of the Church of England Whose excellent Christian state and Reformed constitution deserved much better treatment from those at least who were her children carefully bred born and brought up by her however now they appear many of them better fed than taught more puffed up with the surfeits of undigested Knowledge than increased in humble
to destroy that holy order and Evangelicall function from whose declared rules and injunctions in the Church they had degenerated for neither the infirmities nor the presumptions of men ought to annull that office or abolish that authority which is Divine Christs commission which is given to the Church must not be voyded or cancelled by reason of any Ministers omissions Sacred institutions such as the Ministry and government of Christs Church are ought to continue notwithstanding the intervening of mans ignorance errour profaneness or Idolatry The plagues and leprosies arising from mens persons and adhering to them are not imputable to that place power station and authority which they have in the Church Men may be unworthy of their holy function but the function it self is not made unworthy no more than Aarons joyning with the people in making the golden calf did disparage the sacred dignity of that Priestly office to which he was by the Lord designed The enormous folly of Eli's sons did not make the sacrifices they offered of none effect nor yet nullifie the honour and office of that Priesthood wherewith they were duly invested Judas his being an Hypocrite a Thief a Traitour and a Devil yet did not abrogate that Apostolical office and Episcopall authority which he had received from Christ equally with the other Apostles untill by open Apostasy he fell into open rebellion desperation and perdition Which gross and open Apostasy either from Christ or his Gospel from the Christian faith or their Ministeriall office and ordination cannot with any truth or fore-head be charged upon the Clergie or Ch. of England who for the main both in the consecration of Bishops and ordination of Presbyters in the administration of holy duties execution of their offices generally and for the main kept to the Ancient Primitive and Apostolick customes of all the Churches of Christ since the Apostles dayes so that whatever blame charge or reproch is cast upon the Clergie or Church of England must equally lie upon all Christian Churches since the first complete and setled constitution of any Church I know the mouths of some men like moths and their tongues like worms are prone to corrode by infinite scruples scandalls and reproches all the beauty of the Church of England with all the merit and honour of its Clergie but blessed be God we stand or fall with the Catholick Church of Christ with the whole order race and Apostolick succession of Christian Bishops and Presbyters we more fear the rudeness and heaviness of mens hands than the sharpness of their wits or weight of their arguments which are as spiteful and yet as vain as the vipers biting of the file when from some Ministers personall failings they fasten their venomous teeth upon the whole state and constitution of the Church of England In whose behalf I am neither afraid nor ashamed to appeal to you my most honoured countrey-men as the nearest and best Judges in the world of this matter First as to the Church of England in its godly care and Christian constitution whether you do believe or really find that in any thing it hath been wanting which is necessary for the good of your souls Next as to the Bishops and Ministers of England whether abating personall infirmities they have not generally been ever since the Reformation both able and faithfull in the work of the Lord whether as Mr. Peter du Moulin confesseth you and your fore-fathers do not chiefly owe to them both the beginning and continuance of the Reformed as well as Christian Religion next under the mercy of God and the care of your pious Princes whether the tenuity or weakness of some Ministers who had less abilities and perhaps too little incouragements were not abundantly supplied by the eminent sufficiencies of many others and if every Diocese had not an excellent Bishop at all times or every Parish enjoyed not a very able Preacher yet I am sure neither of the two Provinces in England nor any one County ever wanted since the Reformation either excellent Bishops or excellent Preachers in them to a far greater store than was to be enjoyed in Primitive times when Dioceses were larger and petty Parishes not at all in the Church of Christ So then I may justly quere whether one odious century of Ministers branded some of them for scandalous because they were more exactly conform to the Laws and Customes established in the Church of England were a just ground to reproch the whole Clergie or to abolish the order function and succession both of Bishops and Presbyters which some men aim at officious compilers of that uncomely Centâ— Whether they might not with as much truth and more reason have enumerated the scandalous livings of England as so many not convicted but supposed scandalous Ministers many of whose maintenance was worse than their manners and more unworthy of their profession Whether any thing truly objectable against any Bishop or Minister of England as scandalously weak wicked and unworthy may not with as much more truth be objected against their severest enemies No man in England not grosly ignorant or passionately impotent can deny what I here affirm and proclaim to all the world That the Clergie of England both Governours and governed taking them in their integrality or unity as they were esteemed a third estate in the Body politick or as an Ecclesiasticall fraternity and corporation have been not onely tolerable but commendable yea admirable instruments of Gods glory and the good of mens souls in this Church and Nation That as they did at first in the morning of the Reformation so ever since during the heat and burthen of the day they have with great learning and godly zeal with Christian courage constancy integrity and wisdome every way asserted vindicated and maintained the truth purity and power also the peace order and honour of Christian and Reformed Religion against Atheists and Infidels against the superstitions of the Romanists on one side and the factions of the Schismaticks on the other Nor have they onely built with the trowel but fought also with the sword of the Word What Giantly error what Papal Goliah hath ever appeared defying this Reformed Church whom some excellent Bishops and other learned Divines who were Episcopal have not encountred prostrated confounded and beheaded the spoiles and trophies of them are still extant in their works as eternall monuments of the incomparable prowess worth and merit of the English Clergy What wholsom saving and necessary truth did they ever wilfully deprive You of In what holy institution and ordinance of Jesus Christ have they ever conspired to defraud or diminish you In what holy work or duty have they come short of any In what excellent doctrine gift grace or vertue have they been so defective as not to give your forefathers your selves and all the world most illustrious proofs and generous examples To which testimony no ingenuous knowing and conscientious
little proportion of plain easie and well-known truth which neither needs nor desires such Gnostick disguises such vapourings and vampings of uncouth language such muddy rather than mysterious clouds of words which rather signifie a crackt brain a fanatick spirit or an affected hypocrite who either knows not or cares not what they say or do than any such blessed broachings of rarities as they set forth their pageantries of new-drest Divinity to be with the emphasis of Gospel-truths precious sparks spirituall manifestations rare discoveries unheard of emanations the Saints anointing the uncarnating of a Christian the pryings of Gods children into their fathers glory their rising and reigning with Christ their deification with God With these and such like either torments of opinions or terriculaments of expressions do these new sort of Preachers seek not to edifie in the most holy faith but to scare and terrifie their silly sectators out of their sober senses and mother-wits by which God knows they are onely capable as babes of milk things and words easie to be understood but not of such hard and strong meat as these men proffer them which are indeed stones rather than bread and many times serpents more than fishes dry and bare bones or rotten and noysome carrion rather than savoury and wholsom nourishments of sound and Christian Doctrine But if any of these rare Master-cooks of Christianity whose art is to new dress and disguise old Divinity when they have first learned themselves then taught others to despise those plain and practick methods of Faith and Repentance of Piety and Charity which were wont to be commended to good Christians by the learned orderly and excellent Ministers of the Church of England if these mysterious Mountebanks do by chance hit upon some new notions and odde expressions either by reading some of the Speculatists of the Roman party as Harpius Nubergensis Thomas de Kempis Martin d' Espilla Teresa or the like if they can spell out Theologia Germanica or conne by heart the religious Rhodomontado's of H. N. if they can as Heraclitus his ass feed upon the tall thistles of Jacob Behmen Vanhelmont or some such piece of Familistick nonsense and Seraphick curiosity if they have naturally a chimerick fancy a stroke of Evans or Gostelowes crowing brains if in many odde ravings they perchance light upon something that seems truish and newish gay and glistering in Religion beyond what was heretofore known by themselves or usuall to the common people because neglected and despised by grave and sober Ministers Yet still all this their glory and invention amounts commonly to no more than the Devils setting Christ on the pinacle of the Temple not to exalt him but to tempt him the end and aim is that from the precipice of pride and presumption he may cast them down and destroy them After much bigness they bring forth perhaps some Scholastick subtilty some Sceptick nicety or Seraphick sublimity which onely serves to puff up but not at all to feed either themselves or their windy Disciples much after the rate that Origen did when he decayed or doted when from a learned Catechist at Alexandria from a grave and admired interpreter of Scripture he turned Chymist in Divinity Allegorist in Religion for leaving the fruitfull valleys and plain paths of necessary Christian verities he fancied nothing but high-flying curiosities and far-fetch'd fancies of which as Tertullian speaks good Christians have no need and so no desire since the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ is sufficiently and plainly revealed to them in the Scripture although even Tertullian himself as a man of an enormous wit and transcendent fancy too big for it self was hardly able afterward to keep within those sober bounds which sometime he prescribed to others after the good rule of S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be soberly wise or wise with sobriety but He even He turned Enthusiast and driven by envy disdaine and anger beyond the bounds of Reason and Religion he forsook the Catholick Communion of the Church not in Doctrine so much as Discipline to comply with some fanaticks who fitted his sharp and melancholy humour which was prone to severities of conversation and extasies of speculation Not onely great wits as Origen and Tertullian so Nestorius and Apollinaris c. but lesser ones as Montanus and Manes and Arius whom Saint Jerome calls Daemonium meridianum are many times prone to adventure on the brinks of hell their itch and petulancy are not satisfied till their bold fancies and heterodox opinions have an haut-goust of blasphemy till they so far advance upon the suburbs of errour heresie and damnable Doctrine that they can hardly be fetched off by any salvoes of cunning sophistries with pretended inspirations or nice and subtil distinctions which are like high-tasted sawces made with garlick or onions purposely applied to tainted meats to make their putidness less perceptible or more passable with grosser palates As dead carcases so are the corrupt minds and doctrines of men the more putid by how much the more swell'd in the pomp of words Take their raptures rarities and novelties of our new Masters at their best they have ever much more in the shew than substance of Religion like Herons and Estriches they are more in the wing and feather than in the body and substance they are such precious discoveries as are justly nauseous to a gracious spirit and of which a good Christian may safely be ignorant If any simple souls do perchance light on any of their jingling notions and be taken with their new-sounding Divinity like the noyse of tinkling Cymbals or bag-pipes or Jews-trumps compared to that grave Church-musick which was made of the ancient harmony of Catholick Doctrine yet I see no cause for either the authors or followers of those novell niceties to be puffed up swelled so excessively in themselves nor yet to despise as they do all those grave Divines and godly Christians whose rack is not so high but their manger may be as full who can be content with manna though they have no quailes wherewith to gratifie their wanton appetites Truly I could never yet esteem these vapouring Seraphicks these new Gnosticks to be other than a kind of Gipsy-Christians or a race of Circulators Tumblers and Juglers in the Church who have more of little apish tricks and feats than of solid ability industry or honesty they impose upon the vulgar by a kind of legerdemain by a juggling and canting way in Religion much shifting up and down much capering and vaulting they use but they advance not at all in any vertue grace or knowledge They are a sort of funambulones dancers upon the ropes in Religion whose affected height and daring curiosity in their notions and motions doth not countervail the danger of their audacity or the impertinency of their activity nor have they any cause to despise those who walk more lowlily and soberly on
its strength and materialls from the Scripture its model manner and composure from the counsell wisdome experience and authority not onely of this Church of England but of the Primitive Ancient Catholick Church in all ages and places against all which few men had heretofore the confidence or indeed impudence in any grand part much lesse in the whole to oppose their private fancies and suggestions Now no petty people are so clownish or inconsiderable but they dare to cavil question or deny almost every point owned as Religion in the Church of England I shall not need to instance in the grand Mysteries of the Trinity Christs Divinity his satisfaction to divine justice in the resurrection of the body or the souls immortality nor yet in the point of Originall Sin or naturall depravedness and defects of the necessity of Divine Grace of Christians imperfection in the best state of this life of the right use of the Morall Law and the true bounds of Evangelicall Liberties All which with many other grand concernments of Religion are daily not onely ventilated and discussed but contradicted and denyed by many Modern Arrians Socinians Pelagians Antinomians Novatians and others besides the constant Controversies of Papists so far that nothing almost is left sound or setled among us nothing that any Minister can preach or practice as Religion but somewhere or other it finds much snarling quarrelling and gain-saying Every crosse-grain'd piece of pride or peevishnesse or ignorance adventures to bark at what they list yea to bite tear and worry the reputation and integrity together with the learning and ability of any yea all the true Ministers of England who are become miserable not onely by that great and unintermitted pains which they must take if they will be faithfull to their own and other mens souls nor yet by that biting poverty or tenuity of their worldly condition for the most part of them which is so hardly to be relieved by those dribliting pittances which with tedious attendings and shamefull importunings they can get in But beyond both these Ministers are in such a state of perpetuall inquietude as is like that of very poore people who are onely rich in vermine and so troubled with them that they are not permitted night or day to take their rest or to enjoy that sweet sleep and quiet repose indulged to all creatures by which they might sometime deceive their sore labour and forget both their miseries and their sorrowes For when all is done that belongs to a sober Ministers ministeriall duty and charge after indefatigable paines continuall studies invincible patience which like Ostridges must digest the iron morsels and manners of this age when despairing and made incapable of any honorary rewards in Church or State answerable to his gravity and merit every way he onely covets for some ingenuous rest and tranquillity under the shadow and protection of that Church and State which he hath a long time faithfully served yet then even in his age and at all times he must be summoned with daily alarmes and provoked to successive duels by all sorts of factious and fanatick Spirits new or old who list to be contentious T. though he be wearied and almost tired with the long and constant fatigations of his Ministery though he be almost naked and unarmed as to the polemick or controversall part of Divinity yet must he be compassed with Briars and Thornes frequently molested with the perverse disputes and endlesse janglings of those who have no reverence to this Church nor the Catholick Churches constant opinion or practise grounded upon Scripture and manifested by undeniable Tradition The Ministers of England are the common Butt at which every fooles bolt is presently shot If any be lesse apt for disputation through unwontednesse weaknesse depressions poverty and infinite dis-spiritings and so possibly lesse able on the sudden to defend that truth and that Church for which he hath dared to be a suffering Martyr and Confessour against the bitter arrowes and subtill Sophistries of his many-mouthed Adversaries modern Sectaries who make what use they can of the Philistines files and grindstones the wonted cavils sophistries and fallacies of the Papists and Jesuits against this Church the seeming disadvantages of any one Minister when he is publickly surprized and in the very Church assaulted by such impudent Antagonists these are presently voted among the vulgar as the totall rout baffle and disparagement of the whole Ministeriall order yea and of the Church of England As if none of its Fathers or Sons its Bishops or Presbyters so cried up heretofore for their excellent learning dexâ—â—rous fortitude were able to encounter these doughty Champions these men of Gath whose glory now is rather to defie and over-awe the Israel of God by force than to fight lawfully by the rules of right disputation from Scripture or Reason If the enemies of the Church of England would lay aside their Swords and Pistols their Troopers and Musketeers their Guns and Canons which have been so oft their Seconds and so alwaies a terror to the true Clergy of England if they would keep to the lists and weapons of Scripture and reason of Catholick example and constant tradition which armes are proper for Religious contests I believe they would be easily so matched in every point that they would have no cause long to boast of having the better of any Learned and Grave Minister who undertakes to assert the cause of the Church of England both in its Doctrine and Discipline Which is indeed assisted not onely by the Spirit and suffrage of all estates in this Church as Christian and reformed as ancient and modern but also by the wisdome and consent the judgement and practise of all the famous and flourishing Primitive Churches throughout the world so that the justification and honour of the Church of England depends not upon any one Ministers weaknesse or ability but upon that solidity juncture and conformity it hath in all the main parts of it with the Catholick Church of Christ in all Ages He that fights against one fighteth against all he must confute them all before he can justly condemn the Church of England which hath for so many years laboured between the Furnace and the Anvill under the restlesse files and hammers of its various Adversaries who have resolved sooner to die than to suffer the Church of England or its orderly Ministers to live in peace CHAP. VI. AMong other Sects that like swarms are of late risen up against the Church of England and its ancient Ministery none are more numerous petulant and importune none more busie bold and bitter than the haughty-spirited and hotter-headed Anabaptists For all of them have not at least shew not the like horns and hoofs some are persons of more calm grave and charitable tempers These novel Disputers against and despisers of all Infant-Baptisme whom no ancient Church ever knew no lateâ— Reformed Church but ever spewed out and abhorred
superstitious Duties as seem at best impertinent to true Piety but some of them are erroneous sacrilegious pernicious In some things they are boldly adding to or detracting from the Doctrine and Institutions of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ in other things they impose for sacred and necessary such opinions and customes which are but the rust and drosse the disease and deformity of Christian Religion contracted in the long ignorance darknesse and almost barbarity of times which God winked at but now they appear highly and justly scandalous yea intolerable to more judicious and lesse credulous Christians who are very sensible not onely of that offence which many Papal Injunctions and Observations give to themselves as Christians but also to the very Heathens to Jewes and to Mahometans who cannot reconcile in any Reason or Religion the Idolatrous use of Images and Hoasts among Papists to which they must submit if they will be in communion with them or converted to be Christians nor yet those Tridentine Terrours and Anathema's of eternall damnation which are thundered by them against all those who will not against Christs expresse Word own as Truth and submit to as necessary those opinions and practises among Papists which seem either impious or impertinent as to true Faith and a good Conscience Against all which burthens too heavy for any wise and generous Christians to bear when once duly informed of the weight danger of them and duly reformed from them as the great Wisdom Piety and Order of the Ch. of Engl. in its sacred Ministry and holy Ministrations was heretofore the greatest barre and bulwark in all the Christian world so the disadvantages of the Reformed Religion are now so palpable and the danger of the people of this Nation as so obvious in their returning to that Egypt and Babylon again which is not the Church of Rome but its disease and oppression that I know not in ordinary providence any means can be used or is left to stop the daily prevalencies of Popery and the great Apostasie of England to the Romish superstition and subjection in after-times unlesse God stir up such Wisdome Zeal and Care in those that have honest hearts joyned with publick power and influence not so much to fleece and depress Popish Recusants by pecuniary exactions which is to set Religion to sale and to make merchandize of mens errours rather than fairly to perswade and win them by the proper and perswasive engines of true Religion but rather duly to restore and speedily assert the Honor Order Succession Unity Authority and Majesty of this Reformed Church and its Catholick Ministry from which when the Papists see our selves to be such profound Revolters with what face can we expect they should ever come in to our Reformation which they now behold with joyfull and disdainfull eyes so mangled so deformed so massacred by our own hands How can we with Justice Honour or Humanity inflict severe penalties upon Papists as refusing to conform to our Church and Religion when they protest with so much truth to our faces they cannot see any Church any Religion among us as uniform publick authentick constant What they say formerly had the goodliest figure and fairest presence of a Christian Church and the best Reformed of any is now deformed ruined demolished nothing but scattered rafters and pieces of that ship-wreckt vessel now appear floating up and down in a restless and foming sea of faction opposition and confusion between Bishops Ministers and People some are Episcopal others Presbyterian a third sort Independent all are disparate or opposite in Discipline some are Heterodox in Doctrine the Anabaptists rise against all and the Quakers soare above all To which of all these with many other Sects shall an honest-hearted Papist apply himself to be safe and setled in Religion If to the poor and depressed remaines of Bishops and the Episcopall Clergie who yet adhere to the Church of England alas they are weak and exhausted contemned by many pitied by some but asserted by few or none according to their true merit in former ages or their present Worth Courage Constancy and Patience in this If the Romanists go to the Presbyterian party which like small shoots sprang out so thick in England upon the cutting down of Episcopacy to which they all formerly submitted these besides their Levity Parity and Inconstancy as to their former Stations Opinions and Oaths seem so unseasonably insolent and magisterially domineering before they had got a full and just dominion that all sober men think them rather popular plebeian impertinent in their heats transports passions than so modest wise and grave as becomes those who will undertake to wrest Government out of the hands of their superiours and betters every way and to impose a novelty of untried and undesired Discipline upon such a great and stout Nation as England is which disdaining the insolency of Popes and offended at the indiscretion of some Bishops will hardly ever bear the pertnesse of petty Presbyters who cannot want Vanity Impudence and Arrogancy when they fancy themselves in a supremacy of Power above People Parlaments and Princes for they affect no lesse as Christs due and theirs too If the tossed Romanists run to the spruce and self-conceited Independents for shelter because these fine new Masters seem to have patents for Christian Liberty and urge a Magna Charta from Christ to be accountable to none in matters of Religion but their own little Congregation Church or Body in which as in an Ecclesiastick Corporation or free Burrough of Religion they may hang and draw exercise high and low Justice upon mens souls as they list in their little Conventicles yet here the poor Papist finds so much of a rude and exotick novelty such a grosse shew of Schisme such variety such an inconsistency such a plebeian petulancy such pitiful and ridiculous affectations and arrogating of Church-power in some of the plebs and such contempt of it in others that he cannot think it is other than some pieces of Josephs bloody coat or some torn limbs of his body compared to what Splendour Order Strength Beauty Unity Decency and Majesty in Doctrine and Discipline in Faith and holy Duties was formerly to be observed even to the envy admiration of sober Papists in the Church of England how much more in the Ancient and Catholick Churches grand Combinations from which these petty fractions and crumblings of Christians seem most abhorrent and dissonant This goodly Cedar then of the Church of England being thus broken and hewn down and nothing like it or comparable to it planted in its room but such Shrubs and Mushromes as grow of themselves out of the ranknesse of the earth vulgar humours and passions under whose shade any Egyptian Vermine Frogs or unclean Birds may hide themselves no wonder if the Papists triumph in their sufferings and constancies if they despise all our Presbyterian Independent Anabaptistick and fanatick Novelties if they
the liberty honour and purity of the Church of England For they well knew that the secular interests and Ecclesiastick designes of the Church and Court of Rome ever have been and still are carried on with a mighty tide and strong current not onely of Papal authority and popular credulity as of old but of Learning Eloquence Riches Honor Power Pomp Policy yea with great plausibilities of Piety Sanctity Unity and Charity of later Ages All which popular and potent biasses will easily and unavoidably over-beaer in time as to the generality of people all those feeble resistances or oppositions that can be made by such an equivocall generation and dubious succession of poor despised and dispirited Ministers whatever they are whether of Episcopall Presbyterian or Independent characters who in great part naked and unarmed unfed and unstudied reduced to a sneaking and starveling habitude both of Body and Mind of Honour and Estate will prove pitifull Champions for the true Reformed Religion when they shall neither have just Ability nor justifiable Authority to assert the true and just measures of Religion and true Reformation Who is there that in after-Ages will adventure his Soul his Religion with those men Ministers that can have neither Learning nor Livelihood capable to bear up with their spirits and parties or the Authority and Honour of their calling especially when they are to encounter with such sons of Anak such Zanzummims and Goliahs who will ever appear on the Papall side to defie all Reformation that seems to reproch their deformities Alas will not the predicant or rather mendicant Patrons of so divided Religion and deformed parts of Reformation seem in their own eyes unlesse they be strangely swelled with the puffe and breath of Popularity but as Zanies and Dwarfs as Grasse-hoppers before them with their thred-bare Coats hungry Bellies and servile Spirits How will these that never had means or leisure to advance their studies of Divinity or practise of preaching beyond a modern Synopsis and an English Concordance being raw and infants in dogmatick Truths perfect strangers to Polemick Historick and Scholastick Divinity to Councils Fathers and Languages how will they be affrighted to read or hear of the great names of Baronius Bellarmine Possevine Perron Petavius Sirmundus and many other Grandees of the Roman side great Clerks great Church-men and great Statesmen too who are able to carry with them Troops of Auxiliaries Legions of Assistants being as rich as learned very wise and weighty to use and improve all the strength and advantages they have of Estate and Honour Studies and Parts for the advance of their side in their Errours and Superstitions which of late years their followers have done with unhappy successe and great encrease of their faction against the Reformed Religion of the divided Church of England whose scattered Remains in a short time will be like a flock of silly and helpless Sheep that have neither safe folds nor any skilfull and valiant Shepherds to defend and rescue them CHAP. XXVIII NOr do these wilely Romanists exercise their malice against this Reformed Church onely with their own strength and dexterity but they have other oblique Policies and sinister Practises by which they set on work the hot heads and pragmatick hands of all other Sects who pretend the greatest Antipathies to Popery and yet most promote its interests by their Factions and fanatick Practises by their heedlesse and headlesse their boundlesse and endlesse Agitations which blast all true Reformation and bring in nothing but Division and Confusion For among these there are a sort of people who affect Supremacy in Church and State too a spirituall and temporall Dominion no less than doth the Pope of Rome there are among them many petty Popes who would fain be the great and onely Dictators of Religion whose opinionative pride and projects are as yet of a lesser volume blinder print but they every day meditate agitate new Editions of their power and larger additions to their parties and designes being as infallible in their own conceits as imperious in their spirits and as magisteriall in their censures as the proudest Popes of Rome not doubting to condemn and excommunicate any private Christians and Ministers yea whole Christian Churches yea and the best Reformed in the world such as England was if they be not just of their form and fashion or if they will not patiently submit to their multiform and deformed Reformations by which they daily wire-draw true Reformation to such a small thread that losing its strength and integrity it must needs snap in pieces and become uselesse the strange fires of blind popular preposterous and sacrilegious Zeal so overboyling true Religion and sober Reformation till they are utterly confounded and quenched with such sordid and shamefull deformities as must needs follow their Divisions Distractions and Despiciencies as to all Church-order Christian unity and Ministeriall authority Thus many heady and giddy Professors have been so eager to come out of Babylon that they are almost run out of their wits and far beyond the bounds of good consciences so jealous of Superstition that they are Panders for Confusion so scared with the name of Rome that they are afraid of all right Reason and sober Religion so fearfull of being over-righteous by following vain traditions of men that they fear not to be over-wicked by overthrowing the good foundations of Order Honour Peace and Charity which Christ and his Apostles have laid in his Church fierce enemies indeed against the Idolatry of Antichrist but fast friends to Belial and Mammon to Schisme and Sacriledge which having no fellowship with God and Christ must needs belong to the party of Antichrist which contains a circle of Errours while Christ is the centre of Truth and we know that parts diametrally opposite to each other may yet make up the same circumference and be at equal distance from the centre so may Practises and Opinions which seem most crosse against each other yet as Herod and Pilate alike conspire against Christ and true Religion like vicious extremes which are contrary to each other and yet uncorrespondent with that vertue from which they are divided They are children in understanding who do not already discern and deplore what wise and godly men have long ago foreseen and foretold that by these two Papall policy and fanatick fury the superstitions of the Romanists and the confusions of Schismaticks the happy state of the reformed Church of England was alwayes in danger to be mocked stripped wounded and crucified some men already fancy that they see it weeping and bleeding crying and dying using in its sad expirings the last words of its Saviour first to her God Why hast thou forsaken me next for her Enemies and Destroyers Father forgive them they know not what they do While the Papists on the one side rob God of his glory giving religious worship to Creatures the Sacrilegists on the other side
Divisions and intestine Quarrels in others being like the Birds called Ruffs ever brusling and pecking against each other may make them seem at present not so dangerous or pernicious in regard of civil Troubles and Seditions as they have been to the Ecclesiasticall Uniformity Beauty and Honour yet later as well as former experiences may not onely admonish but assure you that besides the Roman advantages which are greatest and last the private Passions and various Interests even of these lesser Factionists and Sticklers will not seldome nor a little hazard your civil peace when once their severall parties and opinions can get numbers capable to set up their pretensions under any specious name either of Anabaptistick Repentance or special Calls and Inspirations or a Fifth Monarchy or Christs Kingdome in this world or any Saints reigning upon earth for a thousand years more or lesse according as they can get and hold power over mens bodies and souls and be supreme to all intents and purposes both civil and religious I make no great doubt but these men will be found as rigid cruell and implacable in their heights and soveraignties as ever those bloody Papists were whose principle was to destroy all they count Hereticks and the others to destroy all they count not godly Saints because forsooth not of their respective parties either Papists or Schismaticks England at severall times beside other Countreys hath had terrible Essayes what such spirits aim to doe and they will out-doe their own aimes when their rude hands should be able to keep pace with their giddy heads malicious hearts and extravagant tongues How have they sometime threatned to destroy not onely Church-men and Ministers but all Gown-men and Lawyers yea all others in any power or capacity above them if incompliant with them You cannot be ignorant how the pulse of such people beates when they have tasted of severall Religions and sipped of many Reformations which like variety of Wine so strangely intoxicate common men and women that of friends they grow most insolent enemies against those Churches and Christians which they first despise then forsake at length divide and at last destroy as farre as lies in their power Thus desperately disdainfull unaffable and intractable grew the Donatists Novatians Arians and others in St. Austins time superciliously refusing all offers of Christian conference and charitable accommodation with him and other holy men of the Catholick Communion yea some of them unprovoked as St Austin tells us put Catholick Christians and Ministers to exquisite tortures casting unslaked lime with vinegar into their eyes to burn them out that they might be as blind in their bodies as their persecuters were in their soules railing most bitterly as Rossidius in the life of S. Austin tels us against that holy man and his fraternity of Bishops and Presbyters because he did mightily discover and render detestable their hypocriticall madness for which these impudent wretches and impious pretenders to religion called him a carnall man a formall Professor a rotten Christian an execrable person not fit to live thus for the comfort of many unjustly despised and untruly reproched Bishops and Presbyters of the Church of England was he treated by these fanatick Factionists who was one of the most excellent lights for learned humility charitable industry and modest constancy that ever God raised up to his Church since the Apostles dayes I will not odiously repeat to you the well known yet infamous seditions and rustick tumults raised in Germany by the Anabaptistick and other Spirits to the destruction of above an hundred thousand poor people Other attempts were made by such Zelots upon other Provinces and Cities sufficient to tell the world what good stomachs some men have to devour all things civill and sacred when once they can be Masters of mis-rule Their despite is not onely against the learning livelyhood and lives of Bishops and true Ministers of Churches either Reformed or Roman that stand in their way but all is fuell that comes under their flaming Fingers They long to be sharers and Masters of the Estates Lands Places Profits Honours Powers and Wives of Magistrates Noblemen Gentlemen Merchants Citizens Yeomen and Tradesmen whose barnes or shops or houses are better furnished than these Reformers yet are Whosoever they or their Prophets Parasites should decree as John of Leiden did to be Reprobates because not complying with their wild opinions and holy ravings presently they were branded for ungodly next they were voted as enemies to Jesus Christ at last they were devoted to Poverty Prisons Banishments and Deaths unlesse they chose a voluntary Confiscation and banishment to escape other mens inordinate fury Who can marvaile that these abominable desolaters in their Principles and Practises should not be very sparing of those Supports which men have for their bodily lives and temporall welfare where they see them to be such prodigall and pittilesse wasters of all those Ministers and meanes which might most contribute to make mens soules eternally happy in Piety and Charity of which the Devil never makes greater havock than when he obtrudes excessive needlesse and endlesse Reformations as his grand Impostures which like violent torrents not fill but trouble and confound all those purer streames and fountains of Religion which had much more of Christian purity and constancy in them though not so much of the overflowing fury and muddy inundation How can you O worthy Gentlemen or your posterity expect other effects in the sacred or civill concernments of this Nation when inordinate liberty naturally begets licentiousnesse in Religion licentiousnesse variety variety animosity animosity fury and fury force the usuall Climax or gradation of all popular and irregular motions in Religion In which common reason and naturall Divinity much more Christianity possessing men that there can be for the main but one true Religion as there is but one true God and his holy will but one every man is prone first to presume that he is in the right next he growes so partiall to his own perswasions as to imagine this above all others best and onely pleasing to God then he concludes all other wayes of Religion are as displeasing and offensive to God as to himself Hence he kindles to a zeal in Gods behalf both to decry all other and to cry up his own Religion after this he hath potent impulses to propagate his own and extirpate all others as an acceptable service and sacrifice to God This he first doth by words disputing writing rayling reviling If these methods of converting and reforming the wicked world will not serve he concludes them as his and Gods opposers to be obstinate then he flies to the sword first in vote then in use so soon as he and his party can get number and power sufficient to act with probable safety such an opportunity he counts a call of God an hand of providence inviting and directing what to do in order to
most clearly his good pleasure and liking to this Church of England its Religion Reformation and Ministry namely by those eminent gifts and undeniable graces of his Spirit which in great and various measures he hath plentifully poured forth upon the Godly Bishops and other good Ministers of this Church who were subject to them to the edification of his faithfull people among you in all spirituall blessings even to the admiration of our neighbours the joy of our friends and regret of our enemies If the excellently Learned and Godly Bishops whose names and memories are blessed assisted by other able orderly and painefull Ministers of this Church who being duly sent and ordained by them were humbly obedient to them as to spirituall Fathers if they have carefully and happily steered for many yeares the sometimes faire and rich Ship of the Church of England in which so many thousand precious soules have been imbarked for heaven and eternity between these two dangerous gulphs the Scylla and Charybdis of Papall Superstitions and uncharitable Separations steering it by the compasse of Gods word with such Christian prudence order and decency as is therein commanded or allowed in which happy conduct they and their successors were still very able willing and worthy to have proceeded if the wrath of God highly offended for the wantonness wickednesse and unthankfulnesse of the generality of people under so great meanes and mercies had not justly suffered so rude stormes of both religious factions and civil dissensions to arise which having torne the tackling rent the sailes loosened the junctures unhinged the rudder broke the maine mast cast the chiefest Pilots and skilfullest Marriners over-board quite defaced the lesser card or compasse of Ecclesiasticall Canons and civill lawes have at last driven her within the reach and danger of both these dreadfull extremes which she most declined leaving this poor weather beaten Church after infinite tossings like a founder'd ship in a troubled Sea of confusion attending one of these two sad fates either a Schismaticall dissolution or a Papall absorption either to be utterly shattered in pieces by endlesse factions or to be swallowed up at last in the greater gulph of Romane power and Policy which cannot but have alwaies a very vigilant and intentive eye what becomes of the Church of England If the Ministry of the Church of England whilest it was yet flourishing and entire as a City united in it self as an orderly family or holy corporation consisting of Fathers and Brethren of Bishops and Presbyters might justly challenge before God and all good men this merit and acknowledgement from you and your fore-fathers that for Learning and Eloquence both in preaching and writing for acutenesse and dexterity in disputing for solidity and plainnesse in teaching for prudent and pathetick fervency in praying for just terror in moving hard hearts to softnesse and feared consciences to repentance for judicious tendernesse in comforting the afflicted and healing the wounded Spirit lastly for exemplary living in all holy and good waies in all which particulars becoming a Christian Church neither you nor they have had any cause to envy the most Christian and best Reformed Churches in the world as to that honour and happinesse which consists in the excellent abilities honest industry due authority regular order of Ministers also in the decency usefulnesse and power of holy Ministrations all which blessings experience sufficiently tells you were formerly enjoyed by many gracious and judicious Christians farre beyond what hath been or ever can be hoped under these moderne divisions deformities distractions and dissolutions which do indeed threaten in time utter desolation to this Church and the true Reformed Religion if Gods mercy and wise mens care do not prevent If nothing but ignorance or malice blindnesse or uncharitablenesse barrennesse or bitternesse of Spirit in any men can deny this great truth this honest humble just and modest boasting to which the injuries indignities and ingratitudes of these last and worst times have compelled sober Ministers as they did St. Paul who ought to have been better valued and commended by them If you O Noblemen Gentlemen and Yeomen of England are so knowing that you cannot be ignorant of this truth and so ingenuous that you cannot but acknowledge it in behalfe of the Church of England and its worthy Clergy while you and they enjoyed Piety Peace and Prosperity if beyond all cavill or contradiction this right ought to be done to Gods glory this Churches honour the ancient Clergies merit and your own with your fore-fathers renowne that after-ages may not suspect them for Hereticks or Schismaticks nor you for Separates or Apostates as forsaking that good way in which they were reformed and established in the purity power and polity of true Religion If all these suppositions be true as I know you think they are how I beseech you can it be in the sight of your most just God and mercifull Saviour who so abundantly blest this Church and his servants the Ministers of it in teaching comforting and guiding you and your pious predecessors soules to heaven to change and cast off such a Ministry and such Ministers Yea how can it be in the censure of pious and impartiall men other than a most degenerous negligence a Mechanick meannesse a most unholy unthankfulness for you or any Christians to passe by with silence and senselesnesse with carelesnesse and indifferency all those sad spectacles of Church-divisions and distractions of Church-mens diminutions debasements and discouragements lately befaln them by a divine fatality and justice partly through the imprudence of some Clergy-men severely revenged by the malice or mistake of some Lay-men whose heavy and immoderate pressures have faln chiefly upon those Ecclesiasticks who were Christs principall Vicegerents Messengers Ministers and Embassadors his faithfull Stewards his diligent Overseers his vigilant watchmen his wife dispensers of heavenly Mysteries to your Soules From whom so many Apostasies have been commenced and carried on by infinite calumnies indignities and injuries against them and their orderly authority and function as if you and your Children had lately found more grace and virtue better Ministeriall sufficiencies and proficiencies in some Tradesmen Troopers in Mechanick ignorance illiterate impudence in the glib tongues the giddy heads empty hearts of such fellowes as are scarce fit to be your servants in the meanest civill offices as if these were now fit to be your Pastors and Teachers your Spirituall inspectors and rulers of your Soules beyond any of those Reverend Bishops and Learned Doctors and other Grave Divines who heretofore through the grace of God dispensed to you by their incomparable gifts and reall abilities those inestimable treasures of all sound knowledge and saving wisdome of grace and truth which were carried on with comely order and bound up with Christian unity Doubtlesse the forgetting of those Josephs who have been so wise storerâ—s and so liberall distributers of the food of eternall life to our hungry soules
Custom and Canons of this as of all Churches also by the ancient Lawes of this Nation thus splitting even their dear Presbytery in pieces which was best embarqued with Episcopacy while they ran this on ground upon the Rocks Quick-sands the oppositions of power and the despiciencies of people between which all Church-government and publick respect is now removed from both Bishops and Presbyters Alas how pitiful a part of any Government have any of these Ministers now to act and please themselves with who affected to play a new game at Chesse in this Church onely with pawns and rooks without Kings or Bishops whose unseparable fate at least as to the Genius of England King James very wisely foresaw would stand and fall together if he had as wisely prevented the danger and damage of both it being very hard for any Soveraign Prince to govern such an head-strong people unless he have power over their minds as well as their bodies This a Prince cannot have but by Preachers who as the weekly Musterers Orators and Commanders of the populacy do exercise by the Scepter of their tongues a secret and swasive yet potent Empire over most peoples soules These preachers he knew were not easily kept either in good order or in just honor being men of quick fancies of daring and active confidences great valuers of themselves and ambitious to be many Masters yea popular and petty Monarchs in the Thrones of their Pulpits and Territories of their Parishes unlesse there were some men over them who are fittest to be above them as being too hard for them in their own sphere and mystery best able to judge of Ministers Learning Opinions Preaching Praying and Living men for yeares of Gravity and Prudence rewarded with Estates and Honors And such were Bishops without whom Christian Monarchs are like those Kings who had their thumbs and great toes cut off it being not possible for a Prince immediately to correspond with every petty Presbyter nor is it comely to contest with them nor can he be quiet from their pragmatick janglings unlesse they be curbed by some such Learned Authoritative and Venerable Superiours as are properest for them who were the fittest mediums between the King and his other Clergy both to perswade Princes to favour the Church and to perswade Church-men to preach and practise loyalty toward their Princes which tends to the honor of both Magistracy and Ministry So that it was no other then an obvious conjecture to foretel No Bishop no King since the same Scriptures and Principles of both reason and religion piety and policy lead men to obey both as rulers over them in the Lord or to reject both by affecting popular parities and communities as in Church so in State Which abatement of Kingly or Soveraign power in one person as to its civil Magistratick and Monarchical eminency hath by late experience been found so inconsistent with the Genius of this English Nation that the Representatives of the People have not onely importunely petitioned the restitution of Monarchical yea Kingly government but they have actually setled the main authority in one person under an other Name and Title justly fearing lest the dividing and diminishing of Soveraignty Majesty and Authority as to the chief Governour should in time make a dissolution of the civil Government by frequent emulations and ambitions incident to any such Nation as England is which hath so many great and rival Spirits in it prone to contemn or contest with any thing that looks like their Equal Nor do I doubt but Time will further shew us if it hath not done it already sufficiently that no less inconveniences and mischiefs both as to Church and State may follow the debasing and destroying of Ecclesiastical power and authority in England dividing and mincing it so diverting the ample and fair the ancient and potent stream of Episcopacy which flowed from the Throne of Christ and of Christian Kings into the new rivulets small channels and weak currents either of Presbytery or Independency The Scepter of Government in Church or State like the staff or rod of Moses when it is cast out of his hand on the Earth or populacy turns to a serpent Democracy being a very terrible Daemogorgon untill it be resumed into Moses his hand as King in Iesurun it doth not return to its former beauty strength and use which that did after it had justly devoured the rods and serpents of the Magicians as in time Monarchical Government will do all other kinds or essayes in Engl. which are but the effects of popular passions and encroachments carried on more by some Preachers Inchantments then by Lay-mens Ambitions Strabo and others tell us that the people of Cappadocia when the Romanes had conquered their Kings and offered them their Liberty as a Province or free State under them they refused the favour affirming the temper of their Country was such that the people in it could not live if they were not governed by a King So pertinacious were they as indeed most people in the world have been and are at this day to retaine the sacred Tradition of Kingly or Monarchicall Government which being parentall and Patriarchall is most naturall and divine derived to us by nature and confirmed by good experience ever since Noah and Adam who had their just Soveraignty as Fathers and Kings over all mankind derived to them from God the Great Father and Eternall King over all from whom Monarchy and so Episcopacy derive their Majesty and Authority Primogeniture carrying with it as Princely so Priestly power which made the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 41.45 Exod. 3.1 to signifie both Prince and Priest The want of either of which and the swerving from either of them commonly occasioneth infinite distractions in any Nation and Church especially if they have been in all times wonted to be governed by them To avoid which miseries among Mankind the Wisdom of God hath guided as most Nations to Monarchy so this and all primitive Churches to the royall Priesthood of Episcopacy from the very cradle or beginning of Christianity At which time S. Jerom to Euagrius confesseth it was toto orbe decretum a Catholick Decree and Order through all the Christian world which could be no other then Apostolical at least And however other Reformed Churches may make a shift to live and some of them thrive without the formal name and title of Bishops though most of them have the efficacy of the power and the reality of the authority in their Superintendents yet I am confident till English Spirits are wholly cow'd and depressed with war and such exhaustings as utterly dis-spirit and embase the Nobility Gentry and Communalty nothing will be more inconsistent with them than what savours of parity and popularity in Church-Government They will rather affect to have every one what they list which in effect will be no Government properly Ecclesiastick further then they may be commanded
the maine Rule End and Order of Religion This once done however there might still be some tossings and dis-satisfactions as to private mens opinions yet as to the maine interests of Religion as Christian and Reformed also as to the grand concernments of this Church in its Unity Honor Purity and just Priviledges these would by such Ligatures and limits of Truth and Love be much preserved from running into endlesse factions and sacrilegious confusions which cannot but tend to civil combustions and end at last in the Romish usurpation which as the Dam of Romulus never failes to make its prey of any Churches that are divided and any Christians that are scattered dis-satisfied or scandalized with their Religion by which meanes either our Thames will run to Tiber or Tiber will come to our Thames This will be the last result these the dregs and bottom of our Religious distractions and unsetlednesse if they be not wisely remedied Mean time for want of some such sober fixation and equall standard of Religion in its publick profession to which both Prince and people of all sorts might both wisely consent and conform First there cannot be that mutual Christian Charity and neighbourly Communion among subjects Next there cannot be that kindness or correspondence that Love and Fidelity between Prince and people which would be if they did say Amen to the same prayers and serve the same God in the same manner Civil disaffections do infallibly follow between Soveraignes and Subjects upon any Diversity in Religion as is evident not onely in Germany Poland France Ireland and Scotland where the greatest popular dis-satisfactions and asperities against their Princes were still raised by the jealousies which some people had of their Religion but also in England while Subjects suspected as if their Governors in Church and State did daily warp from that Religion which was Reformed and established in the Church of England from which at last it appeares none varied lesse than those that have been most destroyed none more than those whose jealousies and passions for Reformation have over-born them and this Church to as great deformities as there are novelties and to as many distractions as there are divisions which in Religion as wounds do not onely divide but deface the beauty of any body Naturall Civil and Ecclesiastick Nor can there be any publick discrepancies of Religion between Prince and people but either the Prince cries out of Faction Sedition and Rebellion against his subjects or subjects complain of Tyranny and Persecution as to their Princes injunctions at least of superstition as to his profession if it be with more ceremony or lesse solemnity than they fancy or are wonted to Yea we find by some mens interpretation of their Covenant the clause for allegiance thus limited in the preservation of true Religion that is say some as far as we think the King preserves what seemes to us true Religion so far we will be faithfull to him if he varies from that we may fall from him Besides these mischiefs which are either imminent or incumbent and indeed unavoidable where Prince and People are still left to chuse their several Religions amidst the Varieties and Uncertainties of different Modes and Forms of opposite Preachers Parties Professions and Churches such as now divide not onely England but all Christendom in time the Prince or chief Magistrate here in England or any Christian and Reformed Church may be either an Atheist as unsetled in any Religion because he sees so many or else he may be an Idolater an Arrian a Socinian a Papist an Anabaptist a Familist a Seeker a Quaker any thing or nothing as well as a Protestant or Professor of the true Reformed Religion which is never well Reformed if it be not well united and established no more than a diseased body is well cured or purged which is daily breaking out in boyles and botches And since experience shews us in England that many Subjects by the scandal of our Divisions are turned Atheists Papists Socinians Anabaptists Familists Seekers Ranters Quakers any thing yea nothing as to true Religion which consists in Piety Equanimity Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour what shall hinder those that hereafter may be in Soveraign power and exposed to many temptations to take the same freedom when they list and to profess Popery or any thing when Religion is left to their choice and Indifferency there being no publick Worship Catechize Articles or Canons to which all agree as the Card and Compass of Religion by which both Prince and People may safely and unanimously steer their course towards Heaven in a Christian consent and harmony much more punctual and explicit than that is of owning onely one God which the Turks do and one Lord Jesus Christ which all Hereticks and Schismaticks do Which sad fate of a Prince and People who are every day to seek and chuse or change their Religion cannot befall England without sore conflicts and many bloody bickerings the temper of the English being not so dull and flegmatick and over-awed as that which possesseth some Dutch-men and Almaines whose zeal for trade and gain besides their social drinking which begins and ends all their differences makes them more capable to endure different professions of Religion among them so far as they do not endanger the civil peace nor obstruct their blessed commerce yet even these Churches and States have some setled form and profession of Religion in Doctrine worship and discipline yea they in the Netherlands have a very handsom Liturgy and other publick boundaries or Symbols of their Religion from which when once their Magistrates perceived such variations to grow by the Remonstrants party as might shake their civil peace and the stability of their Church they did to their no small cost and pains stop the breach both by the Synod of Dort and the power of the Sword not permitting those whom the publick sense counted Innovators in Religion to enjoy any such freedom or toleration as might endanger any publick perturbations which would have grown easily from such parties as wanted not Learning Wit and Pretentions of Piety on each side to carry on their Opinions as far as their passions and interests listed which is to have Empire and Dominion not onely over all mens bodies but their souls too either by fair or foul means for no Opinion or Sect is content with the Trundle-bed or Footstool but affects the Throne and Scepter of State and of Religion that it may have a complete soveraignty over men which is never well managed by private mens petty activities and therefore best prevented by the publick Wisdom Moderation and Setledness which ought to be in every Nation State Kingdom or Commonwealth that owns it self as a Church of Christ who is but one Lord and hath taught all his Disciples but one Religion All sober and honest men whose fishing and harvest lyes not in our troubles do sufficiently see that Religion as Christian
same Faith Spirit Power and Authority was it that made the just and valid sentence of Excommunication in Primitive times so terrible and that of absolution so comfortable to all good Christians even as the sentence of Jesus Christ at the last day which Tertullian Cyprian the first Council of Nice and others tel us of Because it was no private spirit of any Christian or Congregation or Church or Presbyter or Bishop or Metropolitane or Patriarch that properly did excommunicate but it was the Spirit Power and Authority of Jesus Christ given to diffused among and shed abroad in his whole body of the Catholick Church and in that name dispensed by the particular Bishops and Pastors of it in their severall Stations or Places as the visuall and audible powers or faculties which are in the soul are exerted and exercised onely by the Eyes and Eares Hence was it that whoever was by any one Catholick Bishop with his Presbyters and his people excommunicated was thereby cast out of that and all other Churches Communion in all the world nor was it lawfull as the Nicene Councill and African Canons tell us for any Bishop Presbyter or Christian people to receive into Church-fellowship or to the holy Communion of the Eucharist any one that was thus secluded Then did this great and weighty Thunderbolt of Excommunication seemingly lose its Primitive virtue and value not really for it holds good still according to the Originall Commission when lawfully executed in binding or loosing in opening or shutting as Christ deposited it with his Apostles and their successors when Factions or Schismes being risen in the Church contrary sentences of Excommunication were on all sides passionately bandied against each other not from that unity of the Spirit which kept the bond of Truth and Love but from the private Passions Presumptions Prejudices and Opinions of such as either openly deserted or occasionally declined from that Catholick Community and Unity of one Faith one Lord one Baptisme one Spirit for gifts and graces for the Authority and Efficacy of Christs holy Ministry After these preposterous and partiall methods not onely many particular Christians but some Presbyters and Bishops yea whole Synods and Councils have sometimes passed the sentences of Excommunication both as to declaring the guilt and merit of it also to the act and execution of it very precipitantly partially passionately and uncharitably even against such Doctrines Practises and Persons as were orthodox and peaceable really in Communion with Christ and with the Catholick Church of which one early great and sad instance was that in the second Century of Victor Bishop of Rome who in the case of Easter grew so zealously exasperated against the Greek and Eastern Churches as Quartadecimans that he thought them worthy to be excommunicated in the name of all the Latine Churches notwithstanding that many grave and Learned Bishops with their Churches testified that in observing the fourteenth day of the month they followed the Primitive Custome and pattern delivered by the Apostles to them wherein St. Irenaeus according to his name with greater Moderation and Charity sought not onely to appease but to represse the inordinate heats of that Pope and his adherents who had a zeal but not according to Charity breaking Christian Communion while he urged too much conformity in all outward things beyond the liberty which was granted and had been long used in the Church concluding that difference of times or daies not divinely determined in the observation of the same duty ought not to make any breach of Catholick Unity Christian Charity but rather assert exercise that Christian Liberty which may in Circumstantialls as to outward Rites be in the severall parts of Christs Church untill all think fit to agree in that Circumstance of time as well as they did in the substance of the duty which was the Eucharisticall Celebration of Christs Blessed Resurrections which was the reviving of the Christian faith and hope After this example did St. Cyprian in Africa excommunicate those that would not rebaptize or did communicate with such as Hereticks and Schismaticks baptized herein being contrary to the sense of the Catholick Church At length these and the like passions or surprises even of some Orthodox Bishops were made patterns and encouragements to any pragmatick Hereticks and arrogant Schismaticks These as they grew to any bulk and number like Snow-balls by rouling ventured to handle this hot Thunderbolt of Excommunication when they had most cause to fear it because their Petulancy Obstinacy and Contumacy against the true and Catholick Churches Judgement and Communion most deserved it if their first error did not Hence Excommunication was at last every where reduced and debased to private spirits full of pride revenge and partiality the Catharists or Novatians the Donatists and Arrians feared not by their Pseudoepiscopal Conventicles and Schismatical Assemblies to denounce these Terrors and Anathema's and to use the sharp sword of spiritual curses against the soundest parts of the Church as some dared to do against Athanasius and all the Orthodox both Bishops Presbyters and People This made in after-times all Excommunication very much slighted and despised while it either served to little other use than to execute the Popes wrath for many hundred years of great Darkness and blind Devotion or afterward in times of more Light and Heat it was uâ—ed as Squibbs are rather to scare and smut than much to burn or blast those who either used it or abused it rather to gratifie their own private spirits than to execute that publick power and Authority which Jesus Christ hath committed with his Spirit and Word to his Church and the Rulers of it by which who so was justly cut off cast out and given over to Satan was looked upon as separate from the comfort of Communion with Jesus Christ and the true God as well as the true Church in all the World Nor was this onely a declarative act as to the merit of that fearfull doome and state confirmed by the consonant suffrage of all the Church as damnablâ— without Repentance and Reconciliation of which every private Christian might easily make a verbal report and oral denunciation but it was an authoritative and effectual act executive of the just and deserved judgement of God so as to be ratified in Heaven according to the original tenor and validity of Christs Word and Commission without Repentance just as what is by virtue of their Office done by any publick Judge Notarie or Herald is not onely declarative but also executive of the Will and command of the Prince specified in the authentick Commission or mandate under the Broad seal which is not onely the voice of the King and his Councel but of the Law and publick Justice it self yea of the whole Republick or Community as every man lawfully condemned by any Judge or cast by any Jury is virtually cast and condemned by the Will suffrage and consent of the Body politick
possibly as Valiant Pious and Morall yet Wisdome being the highest humane endowment and politick or gubernative prudence being the noblest exercise of wisdome in this world for the publick and common good of mankind few of whom are fit to governe themselves or others it is but fit that greater publick incouragements and preferments of Honor and Estate should be given to these than onely to strength which alone is but brutall the endowment of a body which men have common with beasts but the other is proper to our reasonable soules by which we are not far from Angels and neer of kin to God In which excellencies since some Ministers may and do exceed others which makes these want Governours and the others fit to govern what is there of Humane or Divine Law that can be against so prudent so necessary an Order and Polity in the Church as Bishops are and ever have been Whose so envied Estates and Dignities were still no more than that double honour which the Apostle challengeth from all Christians as due to those that rule well and labour in the Word and Doctrine not onely by teaching and writing themselves but by taking care that others do so too within the limits of sober Life and sound Doctrine which works many yea most I hope of our Bishops did and all might yea should have done since the Reformation with as much paines and to as much publick good as this or any other Antiprelatist can pretend to So far was the case of Bishops and Deanes and Prebends different from that of Monks and Abbots which this great D. seeks to parallel as equally needlesse idle odious and pittiless when he cannot be ignorant that Bishops being immediate Successors to the Apostles with whom were anciently resident in Cities the Venerable Colledges of Presbyters which were Deanes and Prebends as their ordinary Counsel these must needs be much elder than any Monastick Orders unlesse he think Jo. Baptist began those Bishops were as placed by the Apostles ever owned in all Ages and Places and reverenced by all orderly Presbyters and Christian people yea and by all Christian Princes by whose pious munificence they were endowed with Revenues and Honors long before ever Presbyters had their Glebes apart and Tithes appropriate to them yet were these Bishops and the Colledges of Presbyters more severely used than the Monks and Abbots who had pensions for life allowed them if they staied in England I appeale to all that are not Levellers in Church or State Is not Government good order and comely subordination as necessary in the Church among all men both of the Laity and Clergy as the family of Christ the Household of faith and an holy Polity City or Common-wealth as it is in all civil Fraternities Companies and Communities or in this paintiffs family Where besides food and other necessaries which he provides for himself in common with his Servants and Children yet doubtless he still reserves for himself a Benjamins portion as to the eminency of his Estate and Authority above them as a Father and Governour Were it robbery and violence to take away any thing unjustly from his children and not so to take all from him as a Father Let this great advocate who pleads I suppose without his see uncalled and unhired against the poor Bishops let him freely declare next bout to all the world whether if he had been a Bishop which honor few men are of the Heresie to think he would have refused being a double-Beneficed and very Conformable man he would have been content that measure should have been offered to him which he thus justifies and triumphs in as offered to his Fathers the Bishops men much his betters every way some of whose shooe-latchets he was not worthy to unloose unlesse he have more worth in him than ever yet he discovered to the world whose agitations have yet been as various as many and as importune to and fro as any Presbyters in England Besides that he endeavours for ever to obstruct any generous return of this Nation to put the Church and Clergy into any Estate of Order Honor and Estate worthy of such Learned and Worthy men as might be bred up if such publick incouragements were not wanting I do in no sort doubt of his Tenderness Touchiness and Impatience if the case had been his own I find how he is netled for a little portion of Bishops Lands to which he pretends a right of purchase I have ever heard this character of this plaintiff that he was ad rem satis intentus nor was he among Pharaohs lean Kine that needed to have fed upon the fatter Quo teneam modo How partial are the principles of some Protestant Preachers of some Quodlibetick Presbyters They may well be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are so far 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-tormenting who are self-condemned who seek to ingratiate and corroborate with men of power by an absolute commending of that for lawful just and good without any peradventure which hath alwaies been a case scarce disputable among Learned and Godly men in all Ages so much did they ever not onely incline but generally resolve the case quite contrary to this great Casuist However it is the safer side no doubt not to alienate any Church-lands and in dubious cases a Divine yea a Doctor and a great one that undertakes to be Confessor and Absolver to Parl. and people he should rather advise in tutiorem partem to the safer side than adventure upon or incourage to that which hath any thing dubious or dangerous in it as to sin yea and a sin of an high nature as Sacriledg is esteemed by all Nations by all Christians that have not buried Christianity and Christ in the Mount Calvary of covetous hearts the Golgotha's or places of skulls where no Helena will ever look for the Crosse of Christ in hope to find it They are far enough from being true Christians who dare Crucifie the Pastors Preachers and Ministers of this Crucified Savour O how glorious and gracious an example to all sorts of men in the present and after-Ages hath this Rabbi this great Master now in our Israel given Prima est haec ultio quod se judice c. May not all men hereafter venture in any case never so doubted to follow this one Doctors opinion if any way plausible or probable against the generall streame and current of all Learned men A latitude which of late I find some Jesuits have allowed in cases of conscience Truly it might seem veniall for secular and military men in cases of civil urgencies and as they imagined necessities of self preservation to seize upon the shew bread the Priests portion and Goliahs sword too as David and his men did by the good leave of the Priests but it had become a Clergy-man and an eminent one who still ownes I think his Academick degrees as deserved and his Ecclesiastick Orders which sure were from