OF REFORMATION Touching CHVRCH-DISCIPLINE IN ENGLAND And the CAVSES that hitherto have hindred it TWO BOOKES Written to a FREIND Printed for Thomas Vnderhill 1641. Faults escap't in the printing are heer corrected Page 1. l. 5. at frequent must be a comma p. 2. l. 27. sensual p. 4. l. 31. exorcism p. 5. l. 9. at adoration a comna p. 6. l. 4. in ignorance there wants an a. l. 29. she taught p. 7. l. 9. adde in Discipline which is the execution p. 19. l. 4. collegues l. 13. known p. 70. l. 6. yea other nattonsp 72. l. 5. each other state l. 7. at common is no period but a comma OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND And the CAVVSES that hitherto have hindred it Sir AMidst those deepe and retired thoughts which with every man Christianly instructed ought to be most frequent of God and of his miraculous ways and works amongst men and of our Religion and Worship to be perform'd to him after the story of our Saviour Christ suffering to the lowest bent of weaknesse in the Flesh and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in the Spirit which drew up his body also till we in both be united to him in the Revelation of his Kingdome I do not know of any thing more worthy to take up the whole passion of pitty on the one side and joy on the other then to consider first the foule and sudden corruption and then after many a tedious age the long-deferr'd but much more wonderfull and happy reâ—…ormation of the Church in these latter dayes Sad it is to thinke how that Doctrine of the Gospel planted by teachers Divinely inspir'd and by them winnow'd and sifted from the chaffe of overdated Ceremonies and refin'd to such a Spirituall height and temper of purity and knowledge of the Creator that the body with all the circumstances of time and place were purifi'd by the affections of the regenerat Soule and nothing left impure but sinne Faith needing not the weak and fallible office of the Senses to be either the Vshers or Interpreters of heavenly Mysteries save where our Lord him-selfe in his Sacraments ordain'd that such a Doctrine should through the grossenesse and blindnesse of her Professors and the fraud of deceivable traditions drag so downwards as to backslide one way into the Jewish beggery of old cast rudiments and stumble forward another way into the new-vomited Paganisme of sensuall Idolatry attributing purity or impurity to things indifferent that they might bring the inward acts of the Spirit to the outward and customary ey-Service of the body as if they could make God earthly and fleshly because they could not make themselves heaâ—…enly and Spirituall they began to draw downe all the Divine intercours betwixt God and the Soule yea the very shape of God himselfe into an exterior and bodily forme urgently pretending a necessity and obligement of joyning the body in a formall reverence and Worship circumscrib'd they hallow'd it they fum'd it they sprincl'd it they be deck't it not in robes of pure innocency but of pure Linnen with other deformed and fantastick dresses in Palls and Miters gold and guegaw's fetcht from Arons old wardrope or the Flamins vestry then was the Priest set to con his motions and his Postures his Liturgies and his Lurries till the Soule by this meanes of over bodying her selfe given up justly to fleshly delights bated her wing apace downeward and finding the ease she had from her visible and sensuous collegue the body in performance of Religious duties her pineons now broken and flagging shifted off from her selfe the labour of high soaring any more forgot her heavenly flight and left the dull and droyling carcas to plod on in the old rode and dâ—…udging Trade of outward conformity And here out of question from her pervers conceiting of God and holy things she had faln to beleeve no God at all had not custome and the worme of conscience nipt her incredulity hence to all the duty 's of evangelicall grace instead of the adoptive and cheerefull boldnesse which our new alliance with God requires came Servile and thrallike feare for in very deed the superstitious man by his good will is an Atheist but being â—…carr'd from thence by the pangs and gripes of a boyling conscience all in a pudder shuffles up to himselfe such a God and such a worship as is most agreeable to remedy his feare which feare of his as also is his hope fixt onely upon the Flesh renders likewise the whole faculty of his apprehension carnall and all the inward acts of worship issuing from the native strength of the SOVLE run out lavishly to the upper skin and there harden into a crust of Formallitie Hence men came to scan the Scriptures by the Letter and in the Covenant ofour Redemption magnifi'd the external signs more then the quickning power of the Spirit and yet looking on them through their own guiltinesse with a Servile feare and finding as little comfort or rather terror from them againe they knew not how to hide their Slavish approach to Gods behests by them not understood nor worthily receav'd but by cloaking their Servile crouching to all Religious Presentments somtimes lawfull sometimes Idolatrous under the name of humility and terming the Py-bald frippery and oftentation of Ceremony's decency Then was Baptisme chang'd into a kind of exorcisme and water Sanctifi'd by Christs institute thought little enough to wash off the originall Spot without the Scratch or crosse impression of a Priests fore-finger and that feast of free grace and adoption to which Christ invited his Disciples to sit as Brethren and coheires of the happy Covenant which at that Table was to be Seal'd to them even that Feast of love and heavenly-admitted fellowship the Seale of filiall grace became the Subject of horror and glouting adoration pageanted about like a dreadfull Idol which sometimes deceve's wel-meaning men and beguiles them of their reward by their voluntary humility which indeed is fleshly pride preferring a foolish Sacrifice and the rudiments of the world as Saint Paul to the Colossians explaineth before a savory obedience to Christs example Such was Peters unseasonable Humilitie as then his Knowledge was small when Christ came to wash his feet who at an impertinent time would needs straine courtesy with his Master and falling troublesomly upon the lowly alwise and unexaminable intention of Christ in what he went with resolution to doe so provok't by his interruption the meeke Lord that he threat'nd to exclude him from his heavenly Portion unlesse he could be content to be lesse arrogant and stiff neckt in his humility But to dwell no longer in characterizing the Depravities of the Church and how they sprung and how they tooke increase when I recall to mind at last after so many darke Ages wherein the huge overshadowing traine of Error had almost swept all the Starres out of the Firmament of the Church how the bright and blissfull Reformation by Divine Power
Jeroboams policy he made Religion conform to his politick interests this was the sin that watcht over theIsraelites till their final captivity If this State principle come from the Prelates as they affect to be counted statists let them look back to Elutherius Bishop of Rome and see what he thought of the policy of England being requir'd by Lucius the first Christian King of this Iland to give his counsel for the founding of Religious Laws little thought he of this sage caution but bids him betake himselfe to the old and new Testament and receive direction from them how to administer both Church and Common-wealth that he was Gods Vicar and therfore to rule by Gods Laws that the Edicts of Caesar we may at all times disallow but the Statutes of God for no reason we may reject Now certaine if Church-goverment be taught in the Gofpel as the Bishops dare not deny we may well conclude of what late standing this Position is newly calculated for the altitude of Bishop elevation and lettice for their lips But by what example can they shew that the form of Church Discipline must be minted and modell'd out to secular pretences The ancient Republick of the Jews is evident to have run through all the changes of civil estate if we survey the Story from the giving of the Law to the Herods yet did one manner of Priestly government serve without inconvenience to all these temporal mutations it serv'd the mild Aristocracy of elective Dukes and heads of Tribes joyn'd with them the dictatorship of the Judges the easie or hard-handed Monarchy's the domestick or forrain tyrannies Lastly the Roman Senat from without the Jewish Senat at home with the Galilean Teâ—…rarch yet the Levites had some right to deal in civil affairs but seeing the Euangelical precept forbids Church-men to intermeddle with worldly imployments what interweavings or interworkings can knit the Minister and the Magistrate in their several functions to the regard of any precise correspondency Seeing that the Churchmans office is only to teach men the Christian Faith to exhort all to incourage the good to admonish the bad privately the lesse offender publickly the scandalous and stubborn to censure and separate from the communion of Christs flock the contagious and incorrigible to receive with joy and fatherly compassion the penitent all this must be don and more then this is beyond any Church autority What is all this either here or there to the temporal regiment of Wealpublick whether it be Popular Princely or Monarchical Where doth it intrench upon the temporal governor where does it come in his walk where does it make inrode upon his jurisdiction Indeed if the Ministers part be rightly discharg'd it renders him the people more conscionable quiet and easie to be govâ—…'d if otherwise his life and doctrine will declare him If therfore the Constitution of the Church be already set down by divine prescript as all sides confesse then can she not be a handmaid to wait on civil commodities and respects and if the nature and limits of Church Discipline be such as are either helpfull to all political estates indifferently or have no particular relation to any then is there no necessity nor indeed possibility of linking the one with the other in a speciall conformation Now for their second 〈◊〉 That no form of Church government is agreeable to Monarchy but that of Bishops although it fall to pieces of it selfe by that which hath 〈◊〉 sayd yet to give them play front and 〈◊〉 it shall be my task to prove that Episcopacy with that Autority which it challenges in England is not only not agreeable but tending to the destruction of Monarchy While the Primitive Pastors of the Church of God labour'd faithfully in their Ministery tending only their Sheep and not seeking but avoiding all worldly matters as clogs and indeed derogations and debasements to their high calling little needed the Princes and potentates of the earth which way soever the Gospel was spread to study ways how to make a coherence between the Churches politic and theirs therfore when Pilate heard once our Saviour Christ professing that his Kingdome was not of this world he thought the man could not stand much in Caesars light nor much indammage the Roman Empire for if the life of Christ be hid to this world much more is his Scepter unoperative but in spirituall things And thus liv'd for 2 or 3 ages the Successors of the Apostles But when through Constantines lavish Superstition they forsook their first love and set themselvs up two Gods instead Mammon and their Belly then taking advantage of the spiritual power which they had on mens consciences they began to cast a longing eye to get the body also and bodily things into their command upon which their carnal desires the Spirit dayly quenching and dying in them they knew no way to keep themselves up from falling to nothing but by bolstering and supporting their inward rottenes by a carnal and outward strength For a while they rather privily sought opportunity then hastily disclos'd their project but when Constantine was dead and 3 or 4 Emperors more their drift became notorious and offensive to the whole world for while Theodosius the younger reign'd thus writes Socrates the Historian in his 7th Book 11. chap. now began an ill name to stick upon the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria who beyond their Priestly bounds now long agoe had stept into principality and this was scarse 80. years since their raising from the meanest worldly condition Of courtesie now let any man tell me if they draw to themselves a temporall strength and power out of Caesars Dominion is not Caesars Empire thereby diminisht but this was a stolne bit hitherto hee was but a Caterpiller secretly gnawing at Monarchy the next time you shall see him a Woolfe a Lyon lifting his paw against his raiser as Petrarch exprest it and finally an open enemy and subverter of the Greeke Empire Philippicus and Leo with divers other Emperours after them not without the advice of their Patriarchs and at length of a whole Easterne Counsell of 3. hundred thirty eight Bishops threw the Images out of Churches as being decreed idolatrous Upon this goodly occasion the Bishop of Rome not only seizes the City and all the Territory about into his owne hands and makes himselfe Lord thereof which till then was govern'd by a Greeke Magistrate but absolves all Italy of their Tribute and obedience due to the Emperour because hee obey'd Gods Commandement in abolishing Idolatry Mark Sir here how the Pope came by S. Peters Patrymony as he feigns it not the donation of Constantine but idolatry and rebellion got it him Yee need but read Sigonius one of his owne Sect to know the Story at large And now to shroud himselfe against a storme from the Greek Continent and provide a Champion to beare him out in these practises hee takes upon him by Papall sentence to unthrone Chilpericus
their deceitfull Pedleries to gaine as many associats of guiltines as they can and to infect the temporall Magistrate with the like lawlesse though not sacrilegious extortion see a while what they doe they ingage themselves to preach and perswade an assertion for truth the most false and to this Monarchy the most pernicious and destructive that could bee chosen What more banefull to Monarchy then a Popular Commotion for the dissolution of Monarchy slides aptest into a Democracy and what stirs the Englishmen as our wisest writers have observ'd sooner to rebellion then violent and heavy hands upon their goods and purses Yet these devout Prelates spight of our great Charter and the soules of our Progenitors that wrested their liberties out of the Norman gripe with their dearest blood and highest prowesse for these many years have not ceas't in their Pulpits wrinching and spraining the text to set at nought and trample under foot all the most sacred and life blood Lawes Statutes and Acts of Parliament that are the holy Cov'nant of Union and Marriage betweene the King and his Realme by proscribing and confiscating from us all the right we have to our owne bodies goods and liberties What is this but to blow a trumpet and proclaime a fire-crosse to a hereditary and perpetuall civill warre Thus much against the Subjects Liberty hath been assaulted by them Now how they have spar'd Supremacie or likely are here-after to submit to it remaines lastly to bee consider'd The emulation that under the old Law was in the King toward the Preist is now so come about in the Gospell that all the danger is to be fear'd from the Preist to the King Whilst the Preists Office in the Law was set out with an exteriour lustre of Pomp and glory Kings were ambitious to be Preists now Priests not perceiving the heavenly brightnesse and inward splendor of their more glorious Evangelick Ministery with as great ambition affect to be Kings as in all their courses is easie to be observ'd Their eyes over imminent upon worldly matters their desires ever thirsting after worldly employments in stead of diligent and fervent studie in the Bible they covet to be expert in Canons and Decretals which may inable them to judge and interpose in temporall Causes however pretended 〈◊〉 Doe they not hord up Plefe seeke to bee porent in secular Strength in State Affaires in Lands Lordships and Demeanes to sway and carry all before them in high Courts and Privie Counsels to bring into their grasp the high and principall Offices of the Kingdom have they not been bold of late to check the Common Law to slight and brave the indiminishable Majestie of our highest Court the Law-giving and Sacred Parliament Doe they not plainly labour to exempt Church-men from the Magistrate Yea so presumptuously as to question and menace Officers that represent the Kings Person for using their Authority against drunken Preists The cause of protecting murderous Clergie-men was the first heart-burning that swel'd up the audacious Becket to the pestilent and odious vexation of Henry the second Nay more have not some of their devoted Schollers begun I need not say to nibble but openly to argue against the Kings Supremacie is not the Châ—…ife of them accus'd out of his owne Booke and his late Canons to affect a certaine unquestionable Patriarchat independent and unsubordinate to the Crowne From whence having first brought us to a servile Estate of Religion and Manhood and having predispos'd his conditions with the Pope that layes claime to this Land or some Pepin of his owne creating it were all as likely for him to aspire to the Monarchy among us as that the Pope could finde meanes so on the sudden both to bereave the Emperour of the Roman Territory with the favour of Italy and by an unexpected friend out of France while he was in danger to lose his new-got Purchase beyond hope to leap in to the faire Exarchat of Ravenna A good while the Pope suttl'y acted the Lamb writing to the Emperour my Lord Tiberius my Lord Mauritius but no sooner did this his Lord pluck at the Images and Idols but hee threw off his Sheepes clothing and started up a Wolfe laying his pawes upon the Emperours right as forfeited to Peter Why may not wee as well having been forewarn'd at home by our renowned Chaucer and from abroad by the great and learned Padre Paolo from the like beginnings as we see they are feare the like events Certainly a wise and provident King ought to suspect a Hierarchy in his Realme being ever attended as it is with two such greedy Purveyers Ambition and 〈◊〉 I say hee ought to suspect a Hierarchy to bee as dangerous and derogatory from his Crown as a Tetrarchy oâ—… a Hepiarchy Yet now that the Prelates had almost attain'd to what their insolent and unbridl'd minds had hurried them to thrust the Laiâ—…â—…der the despoticall rule of the Monarch that they themselves might confine the Monarch to a kind of Pupillagâ—… under their Hierarchy observe but how their own â—…inciples combat one another and supplant each one his fellow Having fitted us only for peace and that a servile peace by lessening our numbers dreining our estates enfeebling our bodies cowing our free spirits by those wayes as you have heard their impotent actions cannot sustaine themselves the least moment unlesse they rouze us up to a Warre fit for Cain to be the Leader of an abhorred a cursed a Fraternall Warre ENGLAND and SCOTLAND dearest Brothers both in Natnre and in CHRIST must be set to wade in one anothers blood and IRELAND our free Denizon upon the back of us both as occasion should serve a piece of Service that the Pope and all his Factors have beene compassing to doe ever since the Reformation But ever-blessed be he and ever glorifi'd that from his high watch-Tower in the Heav'ns discerning the crooked wayes of perverse and cruell men hath hitherto maim'd and insatuated all their damnable inventions and deluded their great Wizzards with a delusion fit for fooles and children had GOD beene so minded hee could have sent a Spirit of Mutiny amongst us as hee did betweene Abimilech and the Sechemites to have made our Funerals and slaine heaps more in number then the miserable surviving remnant but he when wee least deserv'd sent out a gentle gale and message of peace from the wings of those his Cherubins that fanne his Mercy-seat Nor shall the wisdome the moderation the Christian Pietie the Constancy of our Nobility and Commons of England be ever forgotten whose calme and temperat connivence could sit still and smile out the stormy bluster of men more audacious and precipitant then of solid and deep reach till their own fury had run it selfe out of breath assailing by rash and heady approches the impregnable situation of our Liberty and safety that laught such weake enginry to scorne such poore drifts to make a NationallWarre of a Surplice Brabble a Tippet-scuffle and