that since the grace of Christ is as large as the prevarication of Adam all they who are made guilty by the first Adam should be cleansed by the second But as they are guilty by another mans act so they should be brought to the Font to be purifyed by others there being the same proportion of reason that by others acts they should be relieved who were in danger of perishing by the act of others And therefore S. Austin argues excellently to this purpose Accommodat illis mater Ecclesia aliorum pedes ut veniant aliorum cor ut credant aliorum linguam ut fateantur ut quoniam quod aegri sunt alio peccante praegravantur sic cum Serm. 10. de verb. Apost sani fiant alio confitente salventur And Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resp. ad Orthodoxos But whether they have originall sinne or no yet take them in puris naturalibus they cannot goe to God or attaine to eternity Numb 5. to which they were intended in their first being and creation and therefore much lesse since their naturals are impair'd by the curse on humane nature procur'd by Adams prevarication And if a naturall agent cannot in puris naturalibus attaine to heaven which is a supernaturall end much lesse when it is loaden with accidentall and grievous impediments Now then since the only way revealed to us of acquiring Heaven is by Jesus Christ and the first inlet into Christianity and accesse to him is by Baptism as appears by the perpetuall Analogy of the New Testament either Infants are not persons capable of that end which is the perfection of humane nature and to which the soule of man in its being made immortall was essentially design'd and so are miserable and deficient from the very end of humanity if they die before the use of reason or else they must be brought to Christ by the Church doores that is by the Font and waters of Baptism And in reason it seemes more pregnant and plausible that Infants rather then men of understanding should be baptized For Numb 6. since the efficacy of the Sacraments depends upon Divine Institution and immediate benediction and that they produce their effects independently upon man in them that doe not hinder their operation since Infants cannot by any act of their own promote the hope of their own salvation which men of reason and choice may by acts of vertue election it is more agreeable to the goodnesse of God the honour and excellency of the Sacrament and the necessity of its institution that it should in Infants supply the want of humane acts and free obedience Which the very thing it selfe seemes to say it does because its effect is from God and requires nothing on man's part but that its efficary bee not hindered And then in Infants the disposition is equall and the necessity more they cannot ponere obicens and by the same reason cannot doe others acts which without the Sacraments doe advantage us towards our hopes of heaven and therefore have more need to be supplyed by an act and an Institution Divine and supernaturall And this is not only necessary in respect of the condition of Infants in capacity to doe acts of grace but also in obedience Numb 7. to Divine precept For Christ made a Law whose Sanction is with an exclusive negative to them that are not baptized Unlesse a man be born of water and of the Spirit he shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven If then Infants have a capacity of being co-heires with Christ in the Kingdome of his Father as Christ affirms they have by saying for of such is the kingdome of heaven then there is a necessity that they should be brought to Baptism there being an absolute exclusion of all persons unbaptized and all persons not spirituall from the kingdome of heaven But indeed it is a destruction of all the hopes and happinesse of Infants a denying to them an exemption from the finall Numb 8. condition of Beasts and Insectiles or else a designing of them to a worse misery to say that God hath not appointed some externall or internall meanes of bringing them to an eternall happinesse Internall they have none for Grace being an improvement and heigthning the faculties of nature in order to a heigthen'd and supernaturall end Grace hath no influence or efficacy upon their faculties who can do no naturall acts of understanding And if there be no externall meanes then they are destitute of all hopes and possibilities of salvation But thanks be to God he hath provided better and told us Numb 9. accordingly for he hath made a promise of the holy Ghost to Infants as well as to men The Promise is made to you and to your children said S. Peter The Promise of the Father the Promise that he would send the holy Ghost Now if you ask how this Promise shall be convey'd to our children we have an expresse out of the same Sermon of S. Peter Be baptized and ye Act. 2. 38. 39. shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost So that therefore because the holy Ghost is promised and Baptism is the meanes of receiving the Promise therefore Baptism pertaines to them to whom the Promise which is the effect of Baptism does appertaine And that we may not think this Argument is fallible or of humane collection observe that it is the Argument of the same Apostle in expresse termes For in the case of Cornelius and his Family he justified his proceeding by this very medium Shall we deny Baptism to them who have received the gift of the holy Ghost as well as we Which Discourse if it be reduced to form of Argument sayes this They that are capable of the same Grace are receptive of the same sign but then to make the Syllogism up with an assumption proper to our present purpose Infants are capable of the same Grace that is of the holy Ghost for the Promise is made to our Children as well as to us and S. Paul sayes the Children of believing Parents are holy and therefore have the holy Ghost who is the Fountaine of holinesse and sanctification therefore they are to receive the sign and the seale of it that is the Sacrament of Baptism And indeed since God entred a Covenant with the Jewes Numb 10. which did also actually involve their Children and gave them a sign to establish the Covenant and its appendant Promise either God does not so much love the Church as he did the Synagogue and the mercies of the Gospel are more restrain'd then the mercies of the Law God having made a Covenant with the Infants of Israel and none with the Children of Christian Parents or if he hath yet we want the comfort of its Consignation and unlesse our Children are to be baptiz'd and so intitled to the Promises of the new Covenant as the Jewish Babes were by Circumcision this mercy which appertaines
Testament the Jewes pretend that the Christians have corrupted many places on purpose to make symphony between both the Testaments On the other side the Christians have had so much reason to suspect the Jewes that when Aquila had translated the Bible in their Schooles and had been taught by them they rejected the Edition many of them and some of them called it heresy to follow it And Justin Martyr justified it to Tryphon that the Jewes had defalk'd many sayings from the Books of the old Prophets and amongst the rest he instances in that of the Psalm Dicite in nationibus quia Dominus regnavit à ligno The last words they have cut off and prevail'd so farre in it that to this day none of our Bibles have it but if they ought not to have it then Justin Martyrs Bible had more in it then it should have for there it was so that a fault there was either under or over But however there are infinite Readings in the New Testament for in that I will instance some whole Verses in one that are not in another and there was in some Copies of S. Marks Gospel in the last Chapter a whole verse a Chapter it was anciently called that is not found in our Bibles as S. Hierom. ad Hedibiam q. 3. notes The words he repeats Lib. 2. contra Polygamos Et illi satis faciebant dicentes saeculum istud iniquitatis incredulitatis sub stantia est quae non sinit per immundos spiritus veram Dei apprehendi virtutem idcirco jam nunc revela justitiam tuam These words are thought by some to favour of Manichaisme and for ought I can finde were therefore rejected out of many Greek Copies and at last out of the Latine Now suppose that a Manichee in disputation should urge this place having found it in his Bible if a Catholike should answer him by saying it is Apocryphall and not found in divers Greek Copies might not the Manichee ask how it came in if it was not the word of God and if it was how came it out and at last take the same liberty of rejecting any other Authority which shall be alledged against him it he can finde any Copy that may favour him however that favour be procured and did not the Ebionites reject all the Epistles of S. Paul upon pretence he was an enemy to the Law of Moses indeed it was boldly and most unreasonably done but if one title or one Chapter of S. Mark be called Apocryphall for being suspected of Manicheisme it is a plea that will too much justify others in their taking and chusing what they list But I will not urge it so farre but is not there as much reason for the fierce Lutherans to reject the Epistle of S. James for favouring justification by works or the Epistle to the Hebrewes upon pretence that the sixth and tenth Chapters doe favour Novatianisme especially since it was by some famous Churches at first not accepted even by the Church of Rome her selfe The Parable of the woman taken in adultery which is now in Joh. 8. Eusebius sayes was not in any Gospel but the Gospel secundum Hebraeos and S. Hierom makes it doubtfull and so does S. Chrysostome and Euthimius the first not vouchsafing to explicate it in Homilies upon S. John the other affirming it not to be found in the exacter Copies I shall not neede to urge that there are some words so neer in sound that the Scribes might easily mistake There is one famous one of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet some Copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sense is very unlike though the words be neer and there needs some little luxation to straine this latter reading to a good sense That famous precept of S. Paul that the women must pray with a covering on their head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels hath brought into the Church an opinion that Angels are present in Churches and are Spectators of our devotion and deportment Such an opinion if it should meet with peevish opposites on one side and confident Hyperaspists on the other might possibly make a Sect and here were a cleer ground for the affirmative and yet who knowes but that it might have been a mistake of the Transcribers to double the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if it were read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the sense be women in publike Assemblies must weare a vaile by reason of the Companies of the young men there present it would be no ill exchange for the losse of a letter to make so probable so cleare a sense of the place But the instances in this kinde are too many as appears in the variety of readings in severall Copies proceeding from the negligence or ignorance of the Transcribers or the malicious * Graeci corruperunt novum Testamentum ut testantur Tertul. l. 5. adv Marcion Euseb. l. 5. Hist. c. ult Irenae l. 1. c. 29. allu haerel Basil l. 2. contr Eunomium endeavour of Hereticks or the inserting Marginall Notes into the Text or the neerenesse of severall words Indeed there is so much evidence of this particular that it hath encouraged the servants of the Vulgar Translation for so some are now adayes to preferre that Translation before the Originall for although they have attempted that proposition with very ill successe yet that they could think it possible to be prov'd is an Argument there is much variety and alterations in divers Texts for if they were not it were impudence to pretend a Translation and that none of the best should be better then the Originall But so it is that this variety of reading is not of slight consideration for although it be demonstrably true that all things necessary to Faith and good manners are preserv'd from alteration and corruption because they are of things necessary and they could not be necessary unlesse they were delivered to us God in his goodnesse and his justice having oblig'd himself to preserve that which he hath bound us to observe and keep yet in other things which God hath not oblig'd himselfe so punctually to preserve in these things since variety of reading is crept in every reading takes away a degree of certainty from any proposition derivative from those places so read And if some Copies especially if they be publike and notable omit a verse or title every argument from such a title or verse loses much of its strength and reputation and we finde it in a great instance For when in probation of the mystery of the glorious Unity in Trinity we alledge that saying of S. John there are three which bear witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one the Antitrinitarians think they have answered the Argument by saying the Syrian Translation and divers Greek Copies have not that verse in them and therefore being of doubtfull Authority cannot conclude with certainty in a Question of
bibliotheca capit It is impossible for any industry to consider so many particulars in the infinite numbers of questions as are necessary to be consider'd before we can with certainty determine any And after all the considerations which we can have in a whole age we are not sure not to be deceived The obscurity of some questions the nicety of some articles the intricacy of some revelations the variety of humane understandings the windings of Logicke the tricks of adversaries the subtilty of Sophisters the ingagement of educations personall affections the portentous number of writers the infinity of authorities the vastnesse of some arguments as consisting in enumeration of many particulars the uncertainty of others the severall degrees of probability the difficulties of Scripture the invalidity of probation of tradition the opposition of all exteriour arguments to each other and their open contestation the publicke violence done to authors and records the private arts and supplantings the falsifyings the indefatigable industry of some men to abuse all understandings and all perswasions into their owne opinions these and thousands more even all the difficulty of things and all the weaknesses of man all the arts of the Devill have made it impossible for any man in so great variety of matter not to be deceived No man pretends to it but the Pope and no man is more deceived then he is in that very particular 3. From hence proceeds a danger which is consequent to this proceeding for if we who are so apt to be deceived so insecure Numb 4. in our resolution of questions disputable should persecute a dis-agreeing person we are not sure we doe not fight against God for if his proposition be true and persecuted then because all truth derives from God this proceeding is against God and therefore this is not to be done upon Gamaliel's ground lest peradventure we be found to fight against God of which because we can have no security at least in this case we have all the guilt of a doubtfull or an uncertaine Conscience For if there be no security in the thing as I have largely proved the Conscience in such cases is as uncertaine as the question is and if it be not doubtfull where it is uncertaine it is because the man is not wise but as confident as ignorant the first without reason and the second without excuse And it is very disproportionable for a man to persecute another certainly for a proposition that if he were wise he would know is not certaine at least the other person may innocently be uncertaine of it If he be kill'd he is certainly kill'd but if he be call'd hereticke it is not so certaine that he is an hereticke It were good therefore that proceedings were according to evidence and the rivers not swell over the banks nor a certaine definitive sentence of death pass'd upon such perswasions which cannot certainly be defin'd And this argument is of so much the more force because we see that the greatest persecutions that ever have been were against truth even against Christianity it selfe and it was a prediction of our blessed Saviour that persecution should be the lot of true beleevers and if we compute the experience of suffering Christendome and the prediction that truth should suffer with those few instances of suffering hereticks it is odds but persecution is on the wrong side and that it is errour and heresie that is cruell and tyrannicall especially since the truth of Jesus Christ and of his Religion are so meeke so charitable and so mercifull and we may in this case exactly use the words of S. Paul But as then he that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit even so it is now and so it ever will be till Christs second coming Numb 5. 4. Whoever persecutes a disagreeing person armes all the Quo comperto illi in nostram pemiciem licentiore audacia grassabuntur S Aug. epist. ad Dona. Procons Contr. ep Fund ita nunc debeo sustinére tantâ patientiâ vobiscum agere quantâ mecum egerunt proximi mei cum in vestro dogmate rabiosus ac cacus errâ—rem world against himselfe and all pious people of his owne perswasion when the scales of authority return to his adversary and attest his contradictory and then what can he urge for mercy for himselfe or his party that sheweth none to others If he sayes that he is to be spared because he beleeves true but the other was justly persecuted because he was in errour he is ridiculous For he is as confidently beleeved to be a heretick as he beleeves his adversary such and whether he be or no being the thing in question of this he is not to be his owne judge but he that hath authority on his side will be sure to judge against him So that what either side can indifferently make use of it is good that neither would because neither side can with reason sufficient doe it in prejudice of the other If a man will say that every man must take his adventure and if it happens authority to be with him he will persecute his adversaries and if it turnes against him he will bear it as well as he can and hope for a reward of Martyrdome and innocent suffering besides that this is so equall to be said of all sides and besides that this is a way to make an eternall disunion of hearts and charities and that it will make Christendome nothing but a shambles and a perpetuall butchery and as fast as mens wits grow wanton or confident or proud or abused so often there will be new executions and massacres Besides all this it is most unreasonable and unjust as being contrariant to those Lawes of Justice and Charity whereby we are bound with greater zeale to spare and preserve an innocent then to condemne a guilty person and there 's lesse malice and iniquity in sparing the guilty then in condemning the good Because it is in the power of men to remit a guilty person to divine judicature and for divers causes not to use severity but in no case is it lawfull neither hath God at all given to man a power to condemne such persons as cannot be proved other than pious and innocent And therefore it is better if it should so happen that we should spare the innocent person and one that is actually deceiv'd then that upon the turn of the wheele the true believers should be destroyed And this very reason he that had authority sufficient and absolute to make Lawes was pleased to urge as a reasonable inducement Numb 6. for the establishing of that Law which he made for the indemnity of erring persons It was in the parable of the tares mingled with the good seed in Agro dominico the good seed Christ himselfe being the interpreter are the Children of the Kingdome the tares are the children of the wicked one upon this comes
ends at the 118 inclusively And the Scripture mentions it as part of our blessed Saviours devotion and of his Disciples that they sung a Psalme 15. That this afterward became a Precept Evangelicall that we should praise God in Hymnes Psalmes and spirituall Songs which is a form of Liturgy in which we sing with the spirit but yet cannot make our Hymnes ex tempore it would be wild stuffe if we should goe about it 16. And lastly that a set form of worship and addresse to God was recorded by Saint John and sung in heaven and it was Apoc. 15. composed out of the songs of Moses Exod. 15. of David Psal. 145. and of Jeremy Chap. 10. 6 7. which certainly is a very good precedent for us to imitate although but revealed to Saint John by way of vision and extasie All which and many more are to me as so many Arguments of the use excellency and necessity of set forms of Prayer for publick Liturgies and of greatest conveniencie even for private devotions 17. And so the Church of God in all Ages did understand it Numb 39. I shall not multiply Authorities to this purpose for they are too many and various but shall only observe two great instances of their beliefe and practise in this particular 1. The one is the perpetuall use and great Eulogies of the Lords Prayer assisted by the many Commentaries of the Fathers upon it 2. The other is that solemn form of benediction and mysticall prayer as Saint Augustine calls it Lib. 3. de Trinit c. 4. which all Churches and themselves said it was by Ordinance Apostolicall used in the Consecration of the blessed Sacrament But all of them used the Lords Prayer in the Canon and office of Consecration and other prayers taken from Scripture so Justin Martyr testifies that the Consecration is made per preces verbi Dei by the prayers taken from the Word of God and the whole Canon was short determined and mysterious Who desires to be further satisfied in this particular shall Numb 40. find enough in Walafridus Strabo Aymonius Cassander Elacius Illyrious Josephus Vicecomes and the other Ritualists and the other Ritualists and in the old offices themselves So that I need not put you in mind of that famous doxology of Gloria Patria c. nor the Trisagion nor any of those memorable hymnes used in the Ancient Church so knownly and frequently that the beginning of them came to bee their name and they were known more by their own words then the Authors inscription At last when some men that thought themselves better gifted Numb 41. would be venturing at conceived formes of their own there was a timely restraint made in the Councell of Milevis in Africa Placuit ut preces quae probatae fuerint in Concilio ab omnibus celebrentur nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à prudentioribus factae fuerint in Synodo That 's the restraint and prohibition publick prayers must be such as are publickly appointed and prescribed by our Superiours and no private forms of our conceiving must be used in the Church The reason followes Ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Lest through ignorance or want of deliberation any thing be spoken in our prayers against faith and good manners The reason is good and they are eare-witnesses of it that hear the variety of prayers before and after Sermons there where the Directory is practised where to speak most modestly not only their private opinions but also humane interests and their own personall concernments and wild fancies born perhaps not two dayes before are made the objects of the peoples hopes of their desires and their prayers and all in the meane time pretend to the holy Spirit I will not now instance in the vaine-glory that is appendant Numb 42. to these ex tempore formes of prayer where the gift of the man is more then the devotion of the man nor will I consider that then his gift is best when his prayer is longest and if he take a complacency in his gift as who is not apt to doe it he will be sure to extend his Prayer till a suspicious and scrupulous man would be apt to say his prayer pressed hard upon that which our blessed Saviour reprehended in the Pharisees who thought to bee heard for their much babling But these things are accidentall to the nature of the thing And therefore though they are too certainly consequent to the person yet I will not be too severe but preserve my selfe on the surer side of charitable construction which truly I desire to keep nor only to their persons whom I much reverence but also to their actions But yet I durst not doe the same thing even for these last reasons though I had no other But it is objected that in set forms of Prayer we restrain and Numb 43. confine the blessed Spirit and in conceived forms when every man is left to his liberty then the Spirit is free unlimited and unconstrained I answer either their conceived formes I use their own words Numb 44. though indeed the expression is very inartificiall are premeditate and described or they are ex tempore If they be premeditate and described then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceived forms as in the Churches conceived forms For as to this particular it is all one who describes and limits the form whether the Church or a single man does it still the Spirit is in constraint and limit So that in this case they are not angry at set forms of Prayer but that they do not make them And if it be replyed that if a single person composes a set form he may alter it if he please and so his spirit is at liberty I answer so may the Church if she see cause for it and unlesse there be cause the single person will not alter it unlesse he do things unreasonable and without cause So that it will be an unequall and a peevish quarrell to allow of set forms of prayer made by private persons and not of set forms made by the publick spirit of the Church It is evident that the Spirit is limited in both alike But if by Conceived forms in this objection they meane Numb 45. ex tempore prayers for so they most generally practice it and that in the use of these the liberty of the spirit is best preserved To this I answer that the being ex tempore or premeditate will be wholly impertinent to this Question of limiting the spirit For there may be great liberty in set forms even when there is much variety and there may be great restraint in ex tempore prayers even then when it shall be called unlawfull to use set forms That the spirit is restrained or that it is free in either is accidentall to them both for it may be either free
the Primitive Church against the example of all famous Churches in all Christendome in the whole descent of 15. Ages without all command and warrant of Scripture that it is unreasonable in the nature of the thing against prudence and the best wisedome of humanity because it is without deliberation that it is innovation in a high degree without that Authority which is truly and by inherent and ancient right to command and prescribe to us in externall forms of worship that it is much to the disgrace of the first reformers of our Religion that it gives encouragement to the Papists to quarrell with some reason and more pretence against our Reformation as being by the Directory confessed to have been done in much blindnesse and therefore might erre in the excesse as well as in the defect in the throwing out too much as casting off too little which is the more likely because they wanted zeale to carry it farre enough He that considers the universall deformity of publike worship and the no meanes of union no Symbol of publike communion being publikely consigned that all Heresies may with the same Authority bee brought into our prayers and offered to God in behalfe of the people with the same Authority that any truth may all the matter of our prayers being left to the choyce of all men of all perswasions and then observes that actually there are in many places heresie and blasphemy and impertinency and illiterate rudenesses put into the devotions of the most Solemne dayes and the most publike meetings and then lastly that there are divers parts of Lyturgy for which no provisions at all is made in the Directory and the very administration of the Sacraments left so loosely that if there be any thing essentiall in the forms of Sacraments the Sacrament may come ineffectuall by want of due words and due ministration I say he that considers all these things and many more he may consider will finde that particular men are not fit to be intrusted to offer in publike with their private spirit to God for the people in such solemnities in matters of so great concernment where the honour of God the benefit of the people the interest of Kingdomes the being of a Church the unity of minds the conformity of practice the truth of perswasions and the salvation of soules are so very much concerned as they are in the publike prayers of a whole Nationall Church An unlearned man is not to be trusted and a wise man dare not trust himselfe hee that is ignorant cannot he that is knowing will not The End OF THE SACRED ORDER AND OFFICES OF EPISCOPACIE By Divine Jnstitution Apostolicall Tradition and Catholique Practice TOGETHER WITH Their Titles of Honour Secular Employment Manner of Election Delegation of their Power and other appendant questions asserted against the Aerians and Acephali new and old By IER TAYLOR D. D. Chaplaine in Ordinarie to His MAJESTIE Published by His MAJESTIES Command ROM 13. 1. There is no power but of God The Powers that be are ordained of God CONCIL CHALCED 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for RICHARD ROYSTON at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1647. TO THE TRVLY VVORTHY AND MOST ACCOMPLISHT S r CHRISTOPHER HATTON Knight of the Honourable Order of the BATH SIR I AM ingag'd in the defence of a Great Truth and J would willingly finde a shrowd to cover my selfe from danger and calumny and although the cause both is ought to be defended by Kings yet my person must not goe thither to Sanctuary unlesse it be to pay my devotion and I have now no other left for my defence I am robd of that which once did blesse me and indeed still does but in another manner and I hope will doe more but those distillations of coelestiall dewes are conveyed in Channels not pervious to an eye of sense and now adayes we seldome look with other be the object never so beauteous or alluring You may then think Sir I am forc'd upon You may that beg my pardon and excuse but I should do an injury to Your Noblenesse if I should onely make You a refuge for my need pardon this truth you are also of the fairest choice not only for Your love of Learning for although that be eminent in You yet it is not Your eminence but for Your duty to H. Church for Your loyaltie to His sacred Majestie These did prompt me with the greatest confidence to hope for Your faire incouragement and assistance in my pleadings for Episcopacy in which cause Religion and Majesty the King and the Church are interested as parties of mutuall concernment There was an odde observation made long agoe and registred in the Law to make it authentick Laici sunt infensi Clericis Now the Clergy pray but fight not and therefore if not specially protected by the King contra Ecclesiam Malignantium they are made obnoxious to all the contumelies and injuries which an envious multitude will inflict upon them It was observ'd enough in King Edgars time Quamvis decreta In Chartē Edgar Regis A. D. 485. apud Hen. Spelman Pontificum verba Sacerdotum in convulsis ligaminibus velut fundamenta montium fixa sunt tamen plerumque tempestatibus turbinibus saecularium rerum Religio S. Matris Ecclesiae maculis reproborum dissipatur acrumpitur Idcirco Decrevimus Nos c. There was a sad example of it in K. Iohn's time For when he threw the Clergy from his Protection it is incredible what injuries what affronts what robberies yea what murders were committed upon the Bishops and Priests of H. Church whom neither the Sacrednesse of their persons nor the Lawes of God nor the terrors of Conscience nor feares of Hell nor Church-censures nor the Lawes of Hospitality could protect from Scorne from blowes from slaughter Now there being so neer a tye as the necessity of their own preservation in the midst of so apparent danger it will tye the Bishops hearts and hands to the King faster then all the tyes of Lay-Allegiance all the Politicall tyes I mean all that are not precisely religious and obligations in the Court of Conscience 2. But the interest of the Bishops is conjunct with the prosperity of the King besides the interest of their own securitie by the obligation of secular advantages For they who have their livelyhood from the King and are in expectance of their fortune from him are more likely to pay a tribute of exacter duty then others whose fortunes are not in such immediate dependancy on His Majesty Aeneas Sylvius once gave a merry reason why Clerks advanced the Pope above a Councell viz. because the Pope gave spirituall promotions but the Councels gave none It is but the Common expectation of gratitude that a Patron Paramount shall be more assisted by his Beneficiaries in cases of necessity then by those who receive nothing from him but the common influences of Goverment 3. But the Bishops duty to the King derives it selfe
silly women captive it pleased some who had power to command me to wish me to a publicatiō of these my short and sudden meditations that if it were possible even this way I might expresse my duty to God and the King Being thus farre encouraged I resolved to goe something further even to the boldnesse of a dedication to your Grace that since I had no merit of my own to move me to the confidence of a publike view yet I might dare to venture under the protection of your Graces favour But since my boldnesse doth as much neede a defence as my Sermon a Patronage I humbly crave leave to say that though it be boldnesse even to presumption yet my addresse to your Grace is not altogether unreasonable For since all know that your Grace thinks not your life your owne but when it spends it selfe in the service of your King opposing your great endeavours against the zelots of both sides who labour the disturbance of the Church and State I could not think it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to present to your Grace this short discovery of the Kings enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and proper to your Grace who is so true so zealous a lover of your Prince and Country It was likewise appointed to be the publike voice of thanksgiving for your Vniversity though she never spake weaker then by so meane an instrument and therefore is accountable to your Grace to whom under God and the King we owe the Blessing and Prosperity of all our Studies Nor yet can I choose but hope that my Great Obligations to your Grace's Favour may plead my pardon since it is better that my Gratitude should be bold then my diffidence ingratefull but that this is so farre from expressing the least part of them that it layes a greater bond upon me either for a debt of delinquency in presenting it or of thankfulnesse if your Grace may please to pardon it I humbly crave your Grace's Benediction pardon and acceptance of the humblest duty and observance of Your GRACES most observant and obliged CHAPLAINE IER TAYLOR A SERMON PREACHED VPON THE Anniversary of the GUNPOWDER-TREASON LUK. 9. Cap. vers 54. But when Iames and Iohn saw this they said Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come from Heaven and consume them even as Elias did I Shall not need to strain much to bring my Text and the day together Here is fire in the text consuming fire like that whose Antevorta we doe this day commemorate This fire called for by the Disciples of Christ so was ours too by Christs Disciples at least and some of them intitled to our Great Master by the compellation of his holy name of IESUS I would say the paralell holds thus farre but that the persons of my Text however Boanerges sonnes of thunder and of a reproveable spirit yet are no way considerable in the proportion of malice with the persons of the day For if I consider the cause that mov'd Iames and Iohn to so inconsiderate a wrath it beares a fair excuse The men of Samaria Verse 53. turn'd their Lord and Master out of doores denying to give a nights lodging to the Lord of Heaven and Earth It would have disturbed an excellent patience to see him whom but just before they beheld trans figured and in a glorious Epiphany upon the Mount to be so neglected by a company of hated Samaritans as to be fore'd to keep his vigils where nothing but the welkin should have been his roofe not any thing to shelter his precious head from the descending dew of heaven Quis talia fando Temperet It had been the greater wonder if they had not been angry But now if we should levell our progresse by the same line and guesse that in the present affaire there was an equall cause because a greater fire was intended wee shall too much betray the ingenuity of apparent truth and the blessing of this Anniversary They had not halfe such a case for an excuse to a farre greater malice it will prove they had none at all and therefore their malice was somuch the more malicious because causelesse and totally inexcusable However I shall endeavour to joyne their consideration in as neere a paralell as I can which if it be not exact as certainly it cannot where we have already discovered so much difference in degrees of malice yet by laying them together we may better take their estimate though it be only by seeing their disproportion The words as they lay in their own order point out 1. The persons that ask't the question 2. The cause that mov'd them 3. The person to whom they propounded it 4. The Question it selfe 5. And the precedent they urg'd to move a grant drawn from a very fallible Topick a singular Example in a speciall and different case The persons here were Christs Disciples and so they are in our case design'd to us by that glorious Sir-name of Christianity they will be called Catholiques but if our discovery perhaps rise higher and that the See Apostolique prove sometimes guilty of so reproveable a spirit then we are very neer to a paralell of the persons for they were Disciples of Christ Apostles 2. The cause was the denying of toleration of abode upon the grudge of an old schisme Religion was made the instrument That which should have taught the Apostles to be charitable and the Samaritans hospitable was made a pretence to justify the unhospitablenesse of the one and the uncharitablenesse of the other Thus farre we are right for the malice of this present Treason stood upon the same base 3. Although neither Side much doubted of the lawfulnesse of their proceedings yet S. Iames and S. Iohn were so discreet as not to think themselves infallible therefore they ask'd their Lord so did the persons of the day aske the question too but not of Christ for he was not in all their thoughts but yet they ask'd of Christs Delegates who therefore should have given their answer ex eodem tripode from the same spirit They were the Fathers Confessors who were ask'd 4. The question is of both sides concerning a consumptive sacrifice the destruction of a Towne there of a whole Kingdome here but differing in the circumstance of place whence they would fetch their fire The Apostles would have had it from Heaven but these men's conversation was not there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things from beneath from an artificiall hell but breath'd from the naturall and proper were in all their thoughts 5. The example which is the last particular I feare I must leave quite out and when you have considered all perhaps you will look for no example First of the persons they were Disciples of Christ and Apostles But when Iames and Iohn saw this When first I considered they were Apostles I wondered they should be so intemperatly angry but when I perceived they were so angry I wondred not that they sinned Not the