who thus succeeded one another in these several Churches were no more than Presbyters as some please to say then must we quit the cause and let fall the action And though I cannot think that men of wit and learning whatsoever they say doe or can possibly conceive them to be other than Bishops Bishops distinct from Presbyters both in power and title yet we are told and we shall see how truly that Anicetus Pius Higinus Smectym p. 23. Telesphorus and Sextus whom the Papists call Bishops and the Popes Predecessors are by Eusebius termed Presbyters and therefore for what else must be the inference that Bishops and Presbyters are the same A passage in the which there are almost as many fallacies and mistakes as words which I shall briefly represent and so pass them by For first Eusebius whom they cite doth not call them Presbyters but Irenaeus in Eusebius Euseb eccl hist l. 1. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which so great Criticks should have seen The difference of the Age or time when these Authors lived maketh a great difference in the use and acceptation of the word And I believe it cannot easily be found whatever may be said of Irenaeus that Bishops are called Presbyters by Eusebius or any Writer of his time 2. It is not evident by the Authors words that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there used to denote the Office but the Age or rather Seniority of those holy men which preceded Victor in the Church of Rome Or if it were yet 3ly it is past all question that simply Presbyters they were not though by him so called but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as had had the government of that famous Church and so were Bishops at the least both in name and office 4. The calling of them by the name of Presbyters doth no more conclude that Presbyters and Bishops were the same than if a man discoursing of the state of London should say that my Lord Mayor was a wealthy Citizen and thereupon a stander by should make this conclusion that every Citizen is Lord Mayor of London and hath as much to do in the Government thereof as he 5. The Papists do not call Higinus Pius Sixtus and the rest there mentioned by the name of Bishops or if they do they do not call them so quà Papists or if so too and that none call them so but Papists there is almost no Father in the Church of Christ who may not presently be endited and condemned of Popery because there is almost no Father nor any other ancient Writer who doth not call them by that name 6. And lastly it is no Popery nor the language of a Papist neither to say that Pius Sixtus and the rest there named were the Popes Predecessors for Predecessors of the Popes they were in their See and Government though neither in their Tyranny nor Superstition Nor doth this Argument strike only at the Popes of Rome though they only named but at all the Bishops of the Primitive Church whether of the greater Patriarchal Sees or of any other who if the observation of these men be good and valid were no more but Presbyters The best way to refel which fancy is to behold the latitude and extent of that jurisdiction which the Bishops of these Churches did enjoy at this present time which when we have laid down sincerely according as it stood in the times we speak of it shall be left to be considered of by any sober-minded man whosoever he be whether the men that held such ample jurisdiction were no more than Presbyters or whether such Bishops were the same with Presbyters which comes both to one Now that the latitude of jurisdiction belonging to these four prime Sees especially to those of Antioch Rome and Alexandria was as ancient as the times whereof we speak appeareth plainly by the Canon of the Nicene Council For whereas it was ordered by the aforesaid Council Concil Nicen. Can. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ancient customs should prevail viz. the Churches of Alexandria Rome and Antioch should enjoy those priviledges which before they had those priviledges or customs call them which you will could not of right be counted ancient unless we place them at the latest in this second Century the close thereof being not much above an hundred years before that Synod Now for those priviledges what they were we are in part informed by the self same Cannon Id. ibid. where it is said that the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria did extend over all Egypt Epiphan adv haer 68. Libya and Pentapolis To which though Epiphanius addeth Thebais Maraeotica and Ammoniaca yet he adds nothing in effect the two first being Provinces of Egypt and the last of Libya So that his jurisdiction reached from Gaza in the parts of Syria unto the Western border of Cyrenaica for that was the Pentapolis mentioned in the Canon where it conterminated on that of Africk The Canon having thus laid out the bounds of the command and jurisdiction belonging unto him of Alexandria proceedeth unto that of Rome who had his mos parilis or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an answerable latitude and extent of power But for the certainty of this extent we must refer our selves unto Ignatius directing his Epistle to the Romans Ignat. in epist ad Romanos with this superscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the sanctified and illuminated Church of God presiding in the place of the Religion of the Romans If Bellarmine can out of this extract an Argument for the Popes supremacy Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l. 2. c. 15. as he pretendeth to have done he is a better Chymist than I took him for And therefore I must turn him over to be better tutored by Vedelius who howsoever in his notes upon that Father he lean too much on his own affections and opinions doth in this very well declare the good Fathers meaning agreeably unto the tendries of antiquity And by him we are told Vedel exercit in epi. ad Ro. c. 2. that nothing here is meant by the place or Religion of the Romans nisi quicquid in Italia terrarum Praefecti urbis administrationi suberat but only those parts of Italy which were directly under the civil government of the Provost of Rome that is to say Latium Tuscia and Picenum To which perhaps were added in the following Ages the whole East part of Italy which we now call Napleâ— â—ogether with the Isles of Corsica Sardinia and Sicilia all which made up the proper Patriarchate of the Bishop of Rome In which regard as anciently the Bishop of Rome was called Vrbicus as doth appear plainly by Optatus Optat. de schis-Donatist l. 1. Ruffin hist eccl lib. 1. cap. 6. calling Pope Zephyrinus by the name of Zephyrinus Vrbicus the City-Bishop So the said Provinces or Regions unto him belonging were called by Ruffinus an Italian writer Suburbicariae Regiones or
wakened by a Sermon preach'd at Saint Pauls Cross by Dr. Bancroft then Chaplain unto Chancellor Hatton Feb. 9. 1588. upon that passage in S. John Believe not every spirit c. 1 Joh. 4.1 After which time the Earl of Leicester their great Patron being newly dead so vigilant an eye was carried towards them and such quick execution done upon them that it was high time for them to give over their open and seditious practices Their privity to Hacket's Treasons together with learned and industrious Treatises of Dr. Bilson in defence of Episcopal Government of Dr. Bancroft in discovering their dangerous proceedings and positions his Anatomy or Survey of their pretended holy Discipline Dr. Cousens his Apology for the proceeding in Courts Ecclesiastical all publish'd in the year 1593. the execution of Penry the condemnation of Vdal and the imprisonment of Cartwright happening all together gave such a check unto their fortunes that they durst never venture on the like Disturbances in Queen Elizabeths time But as once Florus said of the Affairs of Rome and Carthage so may we also say in respect of the Bishops and these Men Semper inter eos populos aut bellum Flor. Hist Rom. lib. 4. aut belli praeparatio aut infida pax fuit They either were at open War or preparing for it or at a peace more doubtful and uncertain than the War it self And in this interval while the Brethren had nothing so much as peace in their mouths they made themselves ready for the battel and drew unto their side a party like to Davids Army resorted to by every one that was in distress and every one that was in debt 1 Sam. 22.2 and every one that was discontented or otherwise were desirous of Novelties and hoped to mend their Fortunes by the change of Government Yet had they not courage enough to discover themselves excepting some preparatory Libels about the year 1635. till the Scots having in a Tumult expelled their Bishops and falling not long after into England with a puissant Army gave them the confidence of effecting that without any hazard which with such danger they had tugged for in the former times And in that confidence the Smectymnuans came to act their part on the publick Theater addressing their Discourse against Episcopacy to the Lords and Commons amongst whom they were sure enough to find very good friends and having tired out with their numbers and continual exercise the Patience of the Humble Remonstrant they began to triumph in the Victory before they had it and thought themselves as sure of setting up their beloved Presbyteries in every corner of the Kingdom as if already they were cantoned out and confirmed by Parliament Never so much outwitted as by being ingaged in that employment in which they served the turns of others without speeding their own For though they had the hap to obtain an Ordinance for abolishing all Arch-bishops and Bishops bearing date October 9.1646 and several Ordinances thereupon for setling the Presbyterian Government as they had projected it yet these last Ordinances being but Probationers expired before their time within few months after they had passed the Houses These great contrivers of our Troubles and the Churches Ruine not having the good luck to see their Discipline establish'd in any one Church within the Kingdom The Lay-brethren had other fish to fry and having made use of these hot spirits to effect their purposes laid by all care of gratifying them with that Supremacy which they affected in the Church and presently fell to the division of the Spoil among themselves Which Prey as it had been in chase from the 37 year of K. Henry the VIII who laid his first hand on that part of the Churches Patrimony 37 Harry 8. cap 16. as appears by the Statutes of that year so was it followed more or less from that time forwards except the short parenthesis of Queen Maries reign till the first Parliament of King James who past an Act against the diminution of the possessions and Estates of Bishops repealing in the same some clauses of an unprinted Statute made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth by which their Land both Sede plena and vacante were wrested from them But this Pale being broken down by the Ordinance of Octob. 9 which before we spake of there past another on the 16th of November following for the sale of those Lands which was the Game so closely followed by their Fore-fathers in the Faction and sometimes brought unto the Bay but never could be hunted to the Fall before But I return to the Smectymnuans whom though I left triumphing before the Victory as before was said yet seeing my self engaged by Duty and Provocation which I have spoken of elsewhere I was resolved to undertake them Pref. to the Hist of Episco notwithstanding all advantages which they had against me as the times then were And I resolved to undertake them in a way less capable of Contradiction of Answers and Replies than than that of Polemical Discourses to fashion my Design into the form of an History tracing Episcopacy with all the parts and powers thereof from the first Institution of it by our Lord and Saviour to the reign of Constantine at what time it had attained to its full Establishment One only Argument which I have heard of late from the mouths of many must be answered here and that is that Episcopacy is so fitted to the Kingly or Monarchical Government that it is altogether inconsistent with any other And for this they have no other proof but because King James did use to say No Bishop no King meaning thereby that there could be no King where there was no Bishop therefore it followeth è converso that there can be no Bishop where there is no King An Argument to be answered without further trouble than by looking into the three principal Estates of Italy as they stood at and before the year 1520. that is to say the Kingdom of Naples the Aristocratie of Venice and the Democraty or popular Estate of Florence with each of which Episcopacy did so well comply that it created no disturbance unto any of them but peace and comfort to them all Some of the Scots the greatest Enemies to Episcopacy in the Christian World have now of late confest ingenuoufly enough that they have buried their antient Monarchy in the same grave with it But I could never hear from any that when the Kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed in Italy and distracted into many popular and petit Signories each independent to the other the Government of the Church by Bishops as it had been formerly was ruin'd or determin'd with it And so this Argument being Topical only calculated for the Meridian of the present Times with reference to the temper of a broken and unsetled State can neither serve for any place else nor for this in fine when our Affairs shall be reduced to a setled Government
the governance of the Church was trusted one who was vested with a constant and fixed preheminence as well over the Clergy as the Laity committed to his charge such as both Timothy and Titus are described to be in S. Pauls Epistles V. Chap. 5. De civ Dei l. 19. c. 19. of whom we shall say more hereafter S. Austin rightly understood the word and the original of it when he told us this Graecum est enim atque inde ductum vocabulum quod ille qui praeficitur eis quibus praeficitur superintendit c. The word saith he is Greek originally and from thence derived shewing that he which is preferred or set over others is bound to take the oversight and care of those whom he is set over And so proceeding unto the Etymology or Grammar of the word he concludes it thus ut intelligat se non esse Episcopum qui praeesse dilexerit non prodesse that he deserves not to be called a Bishop which seeketh rather to prefer himself than to profit others Saint Austin being himself a Bishop knew well the meaning of the word according to the Ecclesiastical notion and sense thereof And in that notion the Scriptures generally and all the Fathers universally have used the same out of which word Episcopus whether Greek or Latine the Germans had their Bischop and we thence our Bishop If sometimes in the holy Scripture the word be used to signifie an ordinary Presbyter it is at such times and such places only when as the Presbyters had the chief governance of the Flocks next and immediately under the Apostles and where there was no Bishop properly so called established over them as we shall see hereafter in the Churches of S. Pauls plantation Having thus seen the sudden and miraculous growth of the Church of God in and about the City of Hierusalem and seen the same confirmed and setled in Episcopal government our next enquiry must be made into the Clergy which were to be subordinate to him and to participate of the charge to him entrusted according to his directions And in this search we first encounter with the Presbyters the first as well in time as they are in dignity The Deacon though exceeding ancient yet comes short in both We shewed you in the former Chapter how our Redeemer having chosen the Twelve Apostles appointed other Seventy also and sent them two and two before him 1 Cor. 12. Eph. 4.8 to prepare his way Of these the Lord made choice of some to be Evangelists and others to be Prophets some to be Pastors and Teachers and others to be helps in Government according to the measure and the purpose of his grace bestowed upon them in the effusion of his Spirit And out of these thus fitted and prepared for the work of God I doubt not but there were some chosen to assist S. James in the discharge of the great trust committed to him by the common Counsel and consent of the Apostles Such as were after added unto them according to the exigences of that Church I take it to be all of Saint James ordaining who being a Bishop and Apostle is not to be denied the priviledg of ordaining Presbyters it being a thing which both the Apostle Paul did do in all the Churches which he planted and all succeeding Bishops since have done in their several Dioceses Certain it is that there were Presbyters in the Church of Hierusalem before the election of the Seven Ignat. ep ad Hieron Ignatius telling us that Stephen did minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to James and to the Presbyters which were in Hierusalem And certain also it is that the Apostles first and Bishops afterwards ordained Presbyters to be assistant with them and subservient to them in their several charges and this they did according as the Fathers say in imitation of our Lord and Saviour who having chose his twelve Apostles Hier. ad Fabiolam appointed Seventy others of a lower rank Seciendos Christi Discipulos as S. Hierom calls them Not that the Presbyters of the Church do succeed the Seventy who were not founded in a perpetuity by our Saviour Christ De Rep. Eccles l. 2. c. 2. n. 6. Concil Neo-Caesar Can. 13. as the Arch-Bishop of Spalato hath well observed but only that they had a resemblance to them and were ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Council of Neo-Caesarea affirmed before as secondary and subservient Ministers in the Church of God And this is that which Beda tells us in his Comment on the Gospel of Saint Luke Beda in Luc. 10. that as the Twelve Apostles did premonstrate the Form of Bishops so the Presbyters did bear the figure of the Seventy Another resemblance between the Presbyters and the Seventy may perhaps be this that as our Saviour in the choicing of these Disciples related to the number of the Elders in the state of Jewry so the Apostles thought it fit to give unto the Ministers thus by them ordained though they regarded not the number the name of Elders according to the custom of that State before Presbyters they are called in the Greek originals which being often rendred Seniores in the vulgar Latin occasioned that our first Translators who perhaps looked no farther than the Latin turned it into Elders though I could heartily have wished they had retained the name of Presbyters as the more proper and specifical word of the two by far But for these Presbyters of the Church of Hierusalem from whencesoever they may borrow or derive their name we find thrice mention of them in the Book of the Acts during the time Saint James was Bishop viz. in the 11.15.21 In the first place we read that when the Disciples which dwelt at Antioch Acts 11. ult Cap. 18. in Act. Apostol had made a contribution for the brethren of Judaea they sent it to the Elders there by the hands of Barnabas and Saul Ask Oecumenius who these Elders were and he will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were the Apostles And like enough it is that the Apostles may be comprehended in that general name In Act. 11. they being indeed the elder brethren Ask Calvin why this contribution was sent unto the Presbyters or Elders being there were particular Officers appointed to attend the poor as is set down in the 6. Chapter of the Acts and he will tell you that the Deacons were so appointed over that business that notwithstanding they were still inferiour unto the Presbyters nec quicquam sine eorum auctoritate agerent v. 18.19 c. and were not to do any thing therein without their authority So for that passage in the 21. S. Luke relates how Paul at his last going to Hierusalem went in unto James and that all the Elders were present and adds withal what counsel and advice they gave him for his ingratiating with the Jews Here find we James the Bishop
the great Cardinal Baronius in his Application of the place are fain to falsifie their Author For whereas in the Text we have that he of the Petenders was to have possession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom the Bishops of Italy Euseb hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baron in Annal An. 272. n. 18. and the City of Rome should adjudge the same Christopherson translates it thus Quibus Christiani Italiae Vrbis Romae Episcopi tribuenda praescriberent Baronius with less ambiguity Cui Italiae Christiani Vrbis Romanae Episcopi dandam praescriberent to whom the Christians of Italy and the Bishops of the City of Rome should think fit to give it And for a further testimony of this equality betwixt Rome and Millain we may note also on the by that each Church had its proper and peculiar customs Rome neither giving Law to Millain nor she to Rome Witness that signal difference betwixt them in the Saturdays fast which in those times was kept at Rome but not at Millain according to that memorable saying of Saint Ambrose quando Romae sum jejuno Sabbato quando hic sum non jejuno Sabbato In Aug. Ep. 86. in fine Indeed the Church of Millain might well stand on her own Prerogatives as being little inferiour unto that of Rome either in the condition of her founder or the Antiquity of her foundation S. Barnabas the Apostle being generally reported for the first Bishop here to whom Anathalon succeeded Gaius after him Baron Annet in Martyr Rom. Junii 11. Martyr Rom. Sept. 25.27 and so successively Bishop after Bishop till these very times Thus having prosecuted the affairs of this second Century from the Church of Carthage unto that of Alexandria from thence to Antioch and on occasion of Samosatenus Bishop of this last being forced to take a journey over unto Rome and Italy we will next look on the condition of these Western Churches and the estate wherein Episcopacy stood amongst them for this present Age. CHAP. VI. Of the state wherein Episcopacy stood in the Western Churches during the whole third Century 1. Of Zephyrinus Pope of Rome and the decrees ascribed unto him concerning Bishops 2. Of the condition of that Church when Cornelius was chosen Bishop thereof 3. The Schism raised in Rome by Novatianus with the proceedings of the Church therein 4. Considerable observations on the former story 5. Parishes set forth in Country Villages by Pope Dionysius 6. What the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do fignifie most properly in Ancient Writers 7. The great Authority which did accrue unto the Presbyters by the setting forth of Parishes 8. The rite of Confirmation reserved by Bishops to themselves as their own Prerogative 9. Touching the ancient Chorepiscopi and the authority to them entrusted 10. The rising of the Manichean Heresie with the great care taken by the Bishops for the crushing of it 11. The lapse of Marcellinus Pope of Rome with the proceedings of the Church in his Condemnation 12. The Council of Eliberis in Spain what it decreed in honour of Episcopacy 13. Constantine comes unto the Empire with a brief prospect of the great honours done to Bishops in the following Age. 14. A brief Chronologie of the state of holy Church in these two last Centuries BEing thus returned at last to the Western Churches the first we meet withal is Victor Bishop of the Church of Rome who lived in the conclusion of the second Century and the beginning of the third to whom succeeded Zephyrinus Optat. de Schism Donat. l. 2. Platina in vita Zephyrini who by Optatus is entituled Vrbicus or the City-Bishop the stile of Oecumenicaal or Vniversal being then unknown Of him it is affirmed by Platina Mandasse ne Episcopus vel à Patriarcha vel Primate vel à Metropolitano suo in judicium vocatus sine authoritate Apostolica damnaretur how he decreed that no Bishop being called in question either by Patriarch Primate or Metropolitan should be condemned without the leave and liking of the See Apostolick that is to say the Bishop of Rome as the Author means it A matter fit enough indeed for an Oecumenical but of too high a nature for a City-Bishop to attempt or think of And therefore I desire to be excused of Platina if I believe neither his report nor the Epistles Decretal ascribed unto Zephyrinus on which the said report was founded Sure I am Damasus in the Pontifical tells us no such matter Concil Tom. 1. à Binio edit Apud Binium in Concil Tom. 1. Sozom. Eccl. hist l. 8. c. 6. And no less sure I am that the practice of the Church was contrary for a long time after Saint Chrysostom being then Patriarch of Constantinople deposing thirteen Bishops in one Visitation whom he had found unworthy of so high a calling without consulting with the Church of Rome or fearing that his acts might have been repealed by the Popes thereof Nor can that strange report of Platina consist if looked on with indifferent eyes either with the condition of the times of which he writeth in which the Popes had hardly meditated on their future greatness or with the Constitutions of the Church by which the Primate in each Diocess had the dernier resort as the Lawyers phrase it there being regularly no Appeal from him but only to a general Council Which Constitution of the Church as it was afterwards confirmed by the great Council of Chalcedon Con. Calcedon Can. 9. so was it finally established by the Laws Imperial whereof consult Novel Constitut 123. c. 22. More likely is that other Ordinance or Decree ascribed to Zepherinus by this Author Platina in Zepherino ut astantibus Clericis Laicis fidelibus levita sacerdos ordinaretur that Priests and Deacons should be ordained in the presence of the Clergy and other of Gods faithful people in which as he is backed by Damasus who affirms the same So is the truth or probability thereof at least confirmed by the following practice Where note that in the Ordination of these Priests and Deacons there is not any thing required but the peoples presence adstantibus Laicis as that Author hath it the Church being never so obliged unto the votes and suffrages of the people but that the Bishop might ordain fit Ministers without requiring their consent though on the reasons formerly delivered it was thought fit that Ordinations should be made in publick as well the People as the Clergy being present at them The seventh from Zepherinus was Cornelius by birth a Roman elected to that place and ministery Cypr. Epist 52. Coepiscoporum testimonio by the consent and suffrage of his Com Provincials as also by the voices of the Clergy Plebis quae tunc adfuit suffragio and with the liking of the people or as many of them as did attend at the Election the number of the
the honour of giving Confirmation hath always been reserved to this very day Another thing which followed upon this setting forth of Parishes by Dionysius was the institution of a new Order in the Church betwixt the Bishop and the Presbyter being neither of the two but both Those they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rural Bishops Of which being that there were two sorts according to the times and Ages when they were imployed we must distinguish them accordingly Now of these Chorepiscopi or Countrey Bishops some in the point and power of Order were no more than Presbyters having received no higher Ordination than to that function in the Ministery but were inabled by the Bishop under whom they served to exercise some parts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction as much as was thought fit to commit unto them for the better reiglement of the Church And these I take it were more ancient than the present times appointed as the Bishops Visitors to go abroad into the Countrey to parts more remote to oversee such Presbyters as had been sent forth for the instruction of the people in small Towns and Villages and to perform such further Offices which the ordinary Presbyter for want of the like latitude of Jurisdiction was defective in Con. Neo-Caesaviens Can. 13. These I conceive to be of the same nature with our Rural Deans in some parts of England And these are they which in the Council of Neo-Caesarea are said to be ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of the Seventy and if no more than so then but simply Presbyters in the power of Order though ranked above them in regard of their Jurisdiction To which Pope Damasus agreeth also affirming quod ipsi iidem sunt qui Presbyteri Damas Ep. 5. ap Bin. Concil T. 1. Bellarm. de Clericis l. 1. c. 17. that they are the very same with Presbyters being first ordained ad exemplum Septuaginta after the example of the Seventy Others there were whom we find furnished with a further power qui verè Episcopalem consecrationem acceperant which really and truly had received Episcopal Consecration and yet were called Chorepiscopi because they had no Church nor Diocess of their own sed in aliena Ecclesia ministrabant but executed their authority in anothers charge And these saith Bellarmine are such as we now call Titular or Suffragan Bishops such as those heretofore admitted in the Church of England whereof consult the Act of Parliament 26 H. 8. cap. 14. Now that they had Episcopal consecration appeareth evidently by the Council of Antioch where it is said expresly of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had received the Ordination of Bishops Conc. Anti. cap. 10. and so by vertue of their Ordination might execute all manner of Episcopal Acts which the Bishop of the City might perform And to this Power they were admitted on two special reasons whereof the first was to supply the absence of the Bishop who being intent upon the business of the City where his charge was greatest could not so well attend the business of the Countrey or see how well the Presbyters behaved themselves in their several Parishes to which upon the late division they were sent abroad And this is called in the said Council of Antioch Id. Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the looking to the Administration of the Churches under their authority The other was to content such of the Novatian Bishops who rather would continue in their schism and faction than return unto the Catholick Church with the loss of the honour and calling which they had before whom they thought fit if they were willing to return to the Church again to suffer in the state of a Chorepiscopus And this is that which was so prudently resolved on in the Council of Nice in which fifteen of those which assembled there were of this Order or Estate viz. Conc. Nicen. can 8. That if any of them did return to the Catholick Church either in City or Village wherein there was a Bishop or a Presbyter before provided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should enjoy the place and honour of a Presbyter but if that pleased him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should be fitted with the Office of a Chorepiscopus Which being the true condition of those Chorepiscopi it seems to me a plain and evident mistake that the Chorepiscopus who was but a Presbyter Smectymn pag. 36. should be affirmed to have power to impose hands and to ordain within his Precincts with the Bishops licence For certainly it is apparent by the Council of Antioch that the Chorepiscopi which had power of conferring Orders had to that end received Episcopal consecration and consequently could not but be more than Presbyters though at the first indeed they medled not therewith without the leave and licence of the Bishop whose Suffragans and Substitutes they were But when they had forgot their ancient modesty and did not keep themselves within the bounds and limits appointed to them which was to make two Bishops in one Diocess contrary to the ancient Canons the Church thought fitting to reduce them to their first condition And thereupon it was decreed in the Council of Ancyra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Ancyran can 13. that it should no more be lawful for them to ordain either Presbyters or Deacons that is to say as it was afterwards explained in the Council of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Antio can 10. without the liking of the Bishop under whom he served Howsoever that they might have somewhat of the Bishop in them they were permitted by that Canon to ordain Sub-Deacons Exorcists and Readers with which they were required to rest contented as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to send abroad their Letters unto other Bishops Ibid. can 8. which they called Literas Formatas Communicatorias as before was noted as those that had the full authority and power of Bishops did use of old to do at their Ordinations A point of honour denied unto the ordinary Presbyters in that very Canon Now to proceed The next Successor unto Dionysius in the See of Rome Ibid. Sept. 18. is called Felix but no more happy in some things than his Predecessour the Heresie of Paulus Samosatenus taking beginning in the time or Government in the one that of the Manichees commencing almost with the other Hujus tempore Manes quidam gente Persa vita moribus barbarus c. During his time saith Platina arose one Manes Platina in vita Felicis by birth a Persian in life and manners a Barbarian who took upon him to be Christ gathering unto him Twelve Disciples for the dispersing of his frenzies In this he differed amongst many things from Samosatenus he making Christ to be no better than a man and Manes making a vile sinful man to be the Christ I know Baronius doth place the rising of this Manicbean Heresie
to cry down the Manichees nor on the Thursday as a day of special credit amongst the Gentiles Anno 319. the better to comply with them in those perillous times After arose up one Eutactus for so I rather chuse to call him with the learned Cardinal than yield to Socrates who falsly doth impute these follies unto Eustathius and he would fast the Sunday too Conc. Tom. 1. Can. 18. but on another ground on pretence of abstinence A folly presently condemned in a Provincial Synod held at Gangra of Paphlagonia wherein it was determined thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any fasted on the Lords day on pretence of abstinence he should be Anathema Next sprung up one Aerius no good Sundays man but one that went not on so good a ground as Eutactus did He stood good man upon his Christian liberty and needs must fast upon the Lords day only because the Church had determined otherwise Of him St. De haeres c. 53. Austin tells us in the general that he cryed down all setled and appointed Fasts and taught his followers this that every man might fast as he saw occasion ne videatur sub lege lest else he should be thought to be under the Law More punctually Epiphanius tells us Haeres 75. n. 3. that to express this liberty they used to fast upon the Sunday and feast it as some do if late upon the Wednesday and the Friday ancient fasting days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Author hath it Add that St. Austin tells us of this Aerius that amongst other of his Heresies he taught this for one Presbyterum ab Episcopo nulla differentia discerni debere that there should be no difference between Priests and Bishops A pregnant evidence that those who set themselves against the Hierâ—rchy of the Church are the most likely men of all to overthrow all Orders in the Civil state Now as the Manichees did use to fast the Sunday so we they therein imitated by the Priscillianists Manichaeorum simillimos the very pictures of the Manichees as St. Epl. 86. Austin calls them save that these last did use to fast on the Christmass also and therein went beyond their pattern And this they did as Pope Leo tells us quia Christum dominum in vera hominis natura natum esse non credunt Epl. 93. c. 4. because they would not be persuaded that Christ the Lord had taken upon him our humane Nature To meet with these proud Sectaries for such they were there was a Council called at Saragosa Caesarea Augusta the Latins call it wherein the Fathers censured and anathematized all such as fasted on the Lords day causa temporis aut persuasionis aut superstitionis whether it were in reference unto any time Con. Tom. 1. Can. 2. or mispersuasion or superstition In reference unto any times this seems to make the Sunday fast unlawful in the time of Lent and so it was accounted without all question For this look Epiphanius Expos fid Cathol Num. 22. S. Ambr. de Elia jejunio cap. 10. S. Hierom epl ad Lucinum S. Chrysostom Hom. 11. in Gen. 2. In two of which fourfathers Chrysostom and Ambrose the Saturday is excepted also S. Austin Epl. 86. Concil Agathens Can. 12. Aurelianens 4. Can. 2. Humberti Resp ad libellum Nicetae and last of all Rupertus who lived in the beginning of the 12. De divinis Offic. l. 4. c. 9. Century to descend no lower who withal tells us that from the first Sunday in Lent unto Easter day are 42 days just whereof the Church fasteth only the 36. it being prohibited by the Canon to fast upon the day of the Resurrection Ut igitur nostri solennitas jejunii dominico magis coaptetur exemplo quatuor dies qui hanc dominicam praecedunt superadditi sunt Therefore saith he that the solemnity of our fast might come more near the Lords Example the four days which occur between Shrovetuesday and the first Sunday in Lent were added to make up the number But to come back unto the times where before we left partly in detestation of the Hereticks before remembred but principally in honour of the Resurrection the Council held at Carthage Anno 398. Can. 64. did decree it thus Qui die dominico studiose jejunat non credatur Catholicus that he which of set purpose did fast the Sunday should be held no Catholick For honest Recreations next I find not any thing to persuade me that they were not lawful since those which in themselves were of no good name no otherwise were prohibited in this present Age than as they were an hindrance to the publick service of the Church Can. 88. For so it was adjudged in the Council of Carthage before remembred Qui die solenni praetermisse Ecclesiae solenni conventu ad spectacula vadit exconnnunicetur He that upon a solemn day shall leave the service of the Church to go unto the common shews be he excommunicate where by the way this Canon reacheth unto those also who are offenders in this kind as well on any of the other Festivals and solemn Days as upon the Sunday and therefore both alike considerable in the present business But hereof and the spectacula here prohibited we shall have better opportunity to speak in the following Age. And here it is to be observed that as St. Chrysostom before confessed it to be lawful for a man to look unto his worldly business on the Lords day after the Congregation was dismissed so here the Fathers seem to dispense who went unto the common shews being worldly pleasures though otherwise of no good name as before we said in case they did not pretermit Gods publick service There fore we safely may conclude that they conceived it not unlawful for any man to follow his honest pleasures such as were harmless in themselves and of good report after the breaking up of the Congregation Of this sort questionless were shooting and all manly Exercises walking abroad or riding forth to take the Air civil Discourse good company and ingenuous mirth by any of which the spirits may be quickned and the body strengthened Whether that Dancing was allowed is a thing more questionable and probably as the dancings were in the former times it might not be suffered nay which is more it had been infinite scandal to the Church if they had permitted it For we may please to know that in the dancings used of old throughout the principal Cities of the Roman Empire there was much impurity and immodesty such as was not to be beheld by a Christian eye Sometimes they danced stark naked Orat. in Pis Art 3. in verrem and that not privately alone but in publick Feasts This Cicero objects against Lucius Piso quod in convivie saltaret nudus the same he also casts in the Teeth of Verres and Dejotarus was accused of the like immodesty whereof perhaps he was not guilty As for
c. convenit ut per consilium testimonium ejus omne legis scitum Burgi mensura omne pondus sit secundum dictionem ejus institutum that is to say it belongeth of right unto the Bishop to promote Justifice in matters which concern both the Church and State and unto him it appertaineth that by his counsel and award all Laws and Weights and Measures be ordained throughout the Kingdom 2. Next we will have recourse to the old Record entituled Modus tenendi Parliamentum In which it is affirmed ad Parliamentum summoneri venire debere Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Priores alios majores cleri qui tenent per Comitatum aut Baroniam ratione hujusmodi tenurae Modus tenendi Parliament that all the Archbishops Bishops Abbats Priors and other Prelates of the Church who hold their Lands either by an Earls fee or a Barons fee were to be summoned and to come to Parliament in regard of their Tenure 3. Next look we on the chartularies of King Henry the first recognized in full Parliament at Clarendon under Henry the 2d where they are called avitas consuetudines which declare it thus Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae personae qui de Rege tenent in Capite habeant possessiones suas de Rege sicut Baroniam c. sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse juditiis Curiae Regis cum Baronibus quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Matth. Paris in Hen. 2. The meaning is in brief that Archbishops Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical persons which hold in Capite of the King are to have and hold their Lands in Barony and that they ought as Barons to be present in all Judgments with the other Barons in the Court of Parliament until the very sentence of death or mutilation which was very common in those times was to be pronounced And then they commonly did use to withdraw themselves not out of any incapacity supposed to be in them by the Law of England but out of a restraint imposed upon them by the Canons of the Church of Rome 4. In the great Charter made by King John in the last of his Reign we have the Form of summoning a Parliament and calling those together who have Votes therein thus expressed at large Ad habendum commune consilium Regni de auxilio assidendo c. de scutagiis assidendis faciemus summoneri Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Comites Majores Barones Regni sigillatim per literas nostras Et praeterea summoneri faciemus in generali per Vice Comites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in Capite tenent ad certum diem Id. in Joh. sc ad terminum 40. dierum ad minus ad certum locum c. In which we have not only a most evident proof that the Bishops are of right to be called to Parliament for granting Subsidies and Escuago and treating of the great Affairs which concern the Kingdom but that they are to be summoned by particular Letters as well as the Earls and Barons or either of them A Form or copy of which summons issued in the time of the said King John is extant on Record and put in print of late in the Titles of Honour Pr. 2. c. 5. And we have here I note this only by the way a brief intimation touching the Form of summoning the Commons to attend in Parliament and the time of 40 days expresly specified to intervene between the summons and the beginning of the Parliament Which Commons being such as anciently did hold in Capite and either having a Knights fee or the degree of Knighthood did first promiscuously attend in these publick meetings and after were reduced to four quatuor discretos milites de Comitatu tuo Id. ibid. as the Writ ran unto the Sheriff and at last to two as they continue to this day 5. We have it thus in the Magna Charta of King Henry the 3d. the birth-right of the English Subject according as it stands translated in the book of Statutes First we have granted to God and by this our present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever that the Church of England shall be free Magna Charta ca. 1. and shall enjoy all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable But it was a known Right and Liberty of the Church of England that all the Bishops and many of the greater Clergy and peradventure also the inferiour Clergy whereof more anon had their Votes in Parliament and therefore is to be preserved inviolable by the Kings of England their heirs and Successors for ever Which Charter as it was confirmed by a solemn Curse denounced on all the Infringers of it by Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury Matth. Paris in Henr. 3. and ratified in no fewer than 30 succeeding Parliaments so was it enacted in the reign of Edward the first that it should be sent under the great Seal of England to all the Cathedral Churches of the Kingdom to be read twice a year before the people 25 Edw. 1. c. 2. 28 Edw. 1. c. 1. 25 Edw. 1. c. 3. that they should be read four times every year in a full County-Court and finally that all judgments given against it should be void 6. We have the Protestation of John Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury in the time of King Edward the 3d. who being in disfavour with the King and denied entrance into the House of Peers â—â—llenged his place and suffrage there as the first Peer of the Realm and one that ought to have the first Voice in Parliament in right of his See But hear him speak his own words which are these that follow Amici for he spake to those who took witness of it Rex me ad hoc Parliamentum scripto suo vocavit ego tanquam major Par Regni post Regem primam vocem habere debens in Parliamento jura Ecclesiae meae Cantuariensis vendico Antiqu. Britan. in Joh. Stratford ideo ingressum in Parliamentum peto which is full and plain 7. And lastly there is the Protestation on Record of all the Bishops in the reign of King Richard the 2d at what time William Courtney was Arch-bishop of Canterbury who being to withdraw themselves from the House of Peers at the pronouncing of the sentence of death on some guilty Lords first made their Procurators to supply their rooms and then put up their Protestation to preserve their Rights the sum whereof for as much as doth concern this business in their own words thus De jure consuetudine regni Angliae ad Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem qui pro tempore fuerit necnon caeteros Suffraganeos confratres compatres Abbates Priores aliosque Prelatos quoscunque per Baroniam de domino Rege tenentes pertinet in Parliamentis Regis quibuscunque ut Pares regni praedicti personaliter interesse ibidemque de
Princes and Ecclesiastical Governors yet the Apostle calleth not Princes an humane Creation as though they were not also of Gods Creation for there is no power but of God but that the form of their Creation is in mans appointment All the Genevians generally do so expound it and it concerns them so to do in point of interesse The Bishop of that City was their Sovereign Prince and had jus utriusque gladii as Calvin signified in a Letter to Cardinal Sadolet till he and all his Clergy were expelled the City in a popular Tumult Anno 1528. and a new form of Government established both in Church and State So that having laid the foundation of their Common-wealth in the expulsion of their Prince and the new model of their Discipline in refusing to have any more Bishop they found it best for justifying their proceedings at home and increasing their Partizans abroad to maintain a parity of Ministers in the Church of Christ and to invest the people and their popular Officers with a chief power in the concernments and affairs of State even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of Kingdoms But for this last they find no warrant in the Text which we have before us For first admitting the Translation to be true and genuine as indeed it is not the Roman Emperor and consequently other Kings and Princes may be said to be an humane Ordinance because their power is most visibly conversant circa humanas Actiones about ordering of humane Actions and other civil affairs of men as they were subjects of the Empire and Members of that Body politick whereof that Emperor was head Secondly to make Soveraign Princes by what name and Title soever called to be no other than an humane Ordinance because they are ordained by the people and of their appointment must needs create an irreconcileable difference between St. Peter and St. Paul by which last the Supream Powers whatsoever they be are called the Ordinance of God The Powers saith that Apostle are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God Upon which words Deodate gives this gloss or comment That the Supream Powers are called the Ordinance of God because God is the Author of this Order in the world and all those who attain to these Dignities do so either by his manifest will and approbation when the means are lawful or by his secret Providence by meer permission or toleration when they are unlawful Now it is fitting that man should approve and tolerate that which God approves and tolerates But thirdly I conceive that those words in the Greek Text of St. Peter viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so properly translated as they might have been and as the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred by the same Translators somewhat more near to the Original in another place For in the 8th Chapter to the Romans vers 22. we find them rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the whole Creation and why not rather every Creature as both our old Translation and the Rhemists read it conform to omnis Creatura in the vulgar Latine which had they done and kept themselves more near to the Greek Original in St. Peters Text they either would have rendred it by every humane Creature as the Rhemists do or rather by all Men or by all Man-kind as the words import And then the meaning will be this that the Jews living scattered and disperst in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia and other Provinces of the Empire were to have their conversation so meek and lowly for fear of giving scandal to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived as to submit themselves to all Man-kind or rather to every Man unto every humane Creature as the Rhemists read it that was in Authority above whether it were unto the Emperor himself as their supream Lord or to such Legats Prefects and Procurators as were appointed by him for the govenment of those several Provinces to the end that they may punish the evil-doers and incourage such as did well living conformably to the Laws by which they were governed Small comfort in this Text as in any of the rest before for those popular Officers which Calvin makes the Overseers of the Sovereign Prince and Guardians of the Liberties of the common people If then there be no Text of Scripture no warrant from the Word of God by which the popular Officers which Calvin dreams of are made the Keepers of the Liberties of the common people or vested with the power of opposing Kings and Sovereign Princes as often as they wantonly insult upon the people or willingly infringe their Priviledges I would fain learn how they should come to know that they are vested with such power or trusted with the defence of the Subjects Liberties cujus se Dei oratione Tutores positos esse norunt as Calvin plainly says they do If they pretend to know it by inspiration such inspiration cannot be known to any but themselves alone neither the Prince or People whom it most concerneth can take notice of it Nor can they well assure themselves whether such inspirations come from God of the Devil the Devil many times insnaring proud ambitious and vain-glorious Men by such strange delusions If they pretend to know it by the dictate of their private Spirit the great Diana of Calvin and his followers in expounding Scripture we are but in the same uncertainties as we were before And who can tell whether the private Spirit they pretend unto and do so much brag of 1 Ring 22.22 may not be such a lying Spirit as was put into the mouths of the Prophets when Ahab was to be seduced to his own destruction Adeo Argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus as Lactantius notes it All I have now to add is to shew the difference between Calvin and his followers in the propounding of this Doctrine delivered by Calvin in few words but Magisterially enough and with no other Authority than his ipse dixit enlarged by David Paraeus in his Comment on Rom. 13. into divers branches and many endeavours used by him as by the rest of Calvins followers to find out Arguments and instances out of several Authors to make good the cause For which though Calvin scap'd the fire yet Paraeus could not Ille Crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic Diadema For so it hapned that one Mr. Knight of Brodegates now Pembroke Colledge in Oxford had preach'd up the Authority of these popular Officers in a Sermon before the University about the beginning of the year 1622. for which being presently transmitted to the King and Council he there ingenuously confessed that he had borrowed both his doctrine and his proofs and instances from the Book of Paraeus above mentioned Notice whereof being given to the University the whole Doctrine of Paraeus as to that particular was drawn into several Propositions which in a full and frequent Convocation
be Lords of Parliament concerning which take this from Chief Justice Coke where he affirms that only a Lord of Parliament shall be tryed by his Peers being Lords of Parliament and neither Noblemen of any other Countrey nor others that are called Lords and are no Lords of Parliament are accounted Peers that is to say Peers within this Statute he meaneth the Magna Charta or Great Charter of England the ground of all our Laws and Liberties to this very day by which it seems that he conceived a Peer and a Lord of Parliament to be terms equivalent every Peer of the Realm being a Lord of Parliament and every Lord of Parliament a Peer of the Realm which clearly takes away the pretended difference that is made between them But secondly admit the distinction to be sound and solid yet it will easily be proved that Bishops are not only Lords of Parliament but Peers of the Realm In order whereunto we must take notice of some passages in our former Treatise touching the Bishops place and Vote in Parliament that is to say that from the first planting of the Gospel in the Realms of England parcelled at that time amongst several Kings the Bishops always had the principal place in their Common Councils which the Saxons call by the name of Wittenegemote or the Assembly of wise men and afterwards in the time of the Normans took the name of Parliaments In all which Interval from Ethelbert the first Christian King of Kent in the year of our Lord 605. till the death of Edward the Confessor which happened in the year 1066 no Common Council of the Saxons had been held without them and all this while they held their Courts by no other Tenures than purâ perpetuâ Eleemosynâ franke Almoigne as our Lawyers call it discharged from all Attendances upon secular Services And therefore they could sit there in no other Capacity than ratione officii spiritualis Dignitatis in regard of their Episcopal function which as it raised them to an height of eminence in the eye of the people so it was probably presumed that they were better qualified than the rest of the Subjects as the times then were for Governing the great Affairs of the Common-wealth But when the Norman Conqueror had attained the Crown he thought it an improvident Course to suffer so much of the Lands of the Nation as then belonged unto the Prelates whether Bishops or Abbots in the Right of their Churches to be discharged from doing service to the State And therefore he ordained them to hold their Lands sub militari servitute either in Capite or by Baronage or some such military hold whereby they were compellable to aid the Kings in all times of War with Men Arms and Horses as the Lay-subjects of the same Tenure were required to do Concerning which our Learned Antiquary out of Matthew Paris informs us thus viz. Cambden Brit. fol. 123. Rex enim Gulielmus Episcopatus Abbatias quae Baronias tenebant in purâ perpetuâ Eleemosynâ catenus ab omni servitute militari libertatem habuerunt sub servitute statuit militari Irrotulans singulos Episcopos Abbatias pro voluntate sua quot milites sibi successoribus hostilitatis tempore à singulis voluit exhiberi Which though at first it was conceived to be a great Disfranchisement and an heavy burden to the Prelacy yet Cambden very well observes that it conduced at last to their greater honour in giving them a further Title to their place in Parliament a claim to all the Rights of Peerage and less obnoxious to Disputes if considered rightly than that which formerly they could pretend to so that from this time forwards we must look upon them in all English Parliaments not only as Bishops in the Church but as Peers and Barons of the Realm of the same Tenure and therefore of the same preheminence with the Temporal Lords Which certainly must be the Reason that the Bishops of the Isle of Man are not called to Parliament because they hold not of the King by Barony as the rest of the English Bishops do but hold the whole Estate in Lands from the Earl of Darby Thus also saith a Learned Lawyer Coke Institut part 2. f. 3. Every Arch-bishoprick and Bishoprick in England are of the Kings foundation and holden of the King per Baroniam and many Abbots and Priors of Monasteries were also of the Kings foundation and did hold of him per Baroniam and in this Right the Arch-bishops and Bishops and such of the Abbots and Priors as held per Baroniam and were called by Writ to Parliament were Lords of Parliament And yet not Lords of Parliament only but Peers and Barons of the Realm as he shall call them very shortly on another occasion In the mean time we may observe that by this changing of their Tenure the Bishops frequently were comprehended in the name of Barons and more particularly in that passage of Magna Charta Coke Institut part 2. fol. 23. where it is said Comites Barones non amercientur nisi per pares suos that Earls and Barons are not to be amerced but by their Peers concerning which the said Great Lawyer tells us thus viz. That though this Statute as he calls it be in the negative yet long use hath prevailed against it for now the Amerciament of the Nobility is reduced to a certainty viz. a Duke 10 l. an Earl 5 l. a Bishop that hath a Barony 5 l. where plainly Bishops must be comprehended in the name of Barons and be amerced by their Peers as the Barons were though afterwards their Amerciaments be reduced to a certainty as well as those of Earls and Barons in the times succeeding And then if Bishops be included in the name of Barons and could not be legally amerced but by their Peers as neither could the Earls or Barons by the words of this Charter it must needs follow that the Bishops were accounted Peers as well as any either of the Earls or Barons by whom they were to be Amerced And for the next place we may behold the Constitutions made at Clarendon the tenth year of King Henry the 2d Matth. Paris in Hen. 2d Anno 1164. in which it was declared as followeth viz. Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae personae Regni qui Rege tenent in Capite habeant possessiones suos de Rege sicut Baroniam inde respondeant Justiciariis Ministris Regis sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse Curiae Regis cum Baronibus quousque perventum sit ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Where first I think that those words universae personae are to be understood of none but Ecclesiastical persons according to the notion of the word persona in the Common Law and so to comprehend the Regular Clergy as well as the Arch-bishops and Bishops But secondly if we must understand it of the Laity also it
Courts Coke Institutes part 4 p. 45. out of the Records of Parliament and in his Margent pointing to the 13th of King Edward the third doth instruct us thus viz. Abbates Priores aliosque Praelatos quoscunque per Baroniam de Domino Rege tenentes pertinet in Parliamentis Regni quibuscunq ut pates Regni praedicti personaliter interesse ibique de Regni negotiis ac aliis tractari consuetis cum caeteris dicti Regni Paribus aliis ibidem jus interessendi habentibus consulere tractare ordinare statuere definire ac caetera facere quae Parliamenti tempore imminent facienda Which if it be the same with that which we had before differing only in some words as perhaps it is yet we have gained the Testimony of that Learned Lawyer whose judgment in this Case must be worth the having For hear him speaking in his own words and he tells us this viz. Coke Institut fol. 4. That every Lord of Parliament either Spiritual as Arch-bishops and Bishops or Temporal as Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons Peers of the Realm and Lords of Parliament ought to have several Writs of Summons where plainly these words Peers and Lords of Parliament relate as well to Spiritual as to the Temporal Lords And therefore if the Arch-bishops and the Bishops may be granted to be Lords of Parliament they must be also granted to be Peers of the Realm Now to the Testimony and Authority of particular persons we shall next add the sentence and determination of our Courts of Law in which the Bishops are declared to be Peers of the Realm and to be capable of all the priviledges which belong to the Peerage For first in the aforesaid Case of the Bishop of Winchester when he was brought upon his Trial for departing from the service of the Parliament without leave of the King and pleaded sor himself quod esset unus è Paribus Regni c. The priviledg of Barony It was supposed clearly both by Court and Council that he was a Peer that part of his defence being not gainsayed or so much as questioned So in the Year-Books of the Reign of King Edward the 3d in whose Reign the Bishop of Winchester's Case was agitated as before is said a Writ of Wards was brought by the Bishop of London and by him pleaded to an Issue and the Defendant could not be Essoyned or have day of Grace for it was said that a Bishop was a Peer of the Land haec erat causa saith the Book which reports the Case In the like Case upon an Action of Trespass against the Abbot of Abbingdon who was one of the Lords Spiritual day of Grace was denied against him because he was a Peere de la Terre So also it is said expresly that when question was made about the returning of a Knight to be of a Jury where a Bishop was Defendant in a Quare impedit the Rule of the Court was that it ought to be so because the Bishop was a Peer of the Realm And in the Judgment given against the Bishop of Norwich in the time of Richard the 2d he is in the Roll expresly allowed to be a Peer for he had taken exceptions that some things had passed against him without the Assent or knowledg of his Peers of the Realm To which Exception it was Answered that it behoved him not at all to plead that he was a Prelate for traversing such Errors and misprisions as in the quality of a Souldier who had taken wages of the King were committed by him Thus also in the Assignment of the Errors under Henry the fifth for the Reversal of the Attainder of the Earl of Salisbury one Error is assigned that Judgment was given without the consent of the Prelates which were Peers in Parliament And although that was adjudged to be no Error yet was it clearly allowed both in the Roll and the Petitions that the Bishops were Peers Finally in the Government of the Realm of France the Bishops did not only pass in the Ranks of Peers but six of them were taken into the number of the Douze-pairs or twelve Peers of that Kingdom highly esteemed and celebrated in the times of Charlemayne that is to say the Arch-bishop and Duke of Rhemes the Bishop and Duke of Laon the Bishop and Duke of Langres the Bishop and Earl of Beuvois the Bishop and Earl of Noyon the Bishop and Earl of Chalons And therefore it may be inferred that in the Government established by the Anjovin and Norman Kings the English Bishops might be ranked with the Peers at large considering their place in Parliament and their great Revenues and the strong influence which they had on the Church and State But there is little need for Inferences and book-Cases and the Authorities of particular men to come in for Evidence when we are able to produce an Act of Parliament to make good the point For in the Statute made the 4th year of King Henry the fifth it was repeated and confirmed That no man of the Irish Nation should be chosen by Election to be an Arch-bishop Bishop Abbot or Frior nor in no other manner received or accepted to any dignity and benefice within the said Land c. The Reason of which inhibition is there said to be this viz. because being Peers of the Parliament of the said Land they brought with them to the Parliaments and Councils holden there some Irish servants whereby the privities of the Englishmen within the same Land have been and be daily discovered to the Irish people Rebels to the King to the great peril and mischief of the Kings lawful Liege people in the said Land And if the Bishops and Arch-bishops of Ireland had the name of Peers there is no question to be made but the name of Peers and the right of Peerage may properly be assumed or challenged by them Now as this Statute gives them the name of Peers so in an Act of Parliament in the 25th year of King Henry the 8th they are called the Nobles of your Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal as all your other Subjects now living c. Which Term we find again repeated by the Parliament following the Nobles Spiritual and Temporal and that twice for failing so that we find no Title given to Earls and Barons Nobles and Peers and Lords as the Statutes call them but what is given to the Bishops in our Acts of Parliament and certainly had not been given them in the stile of that Court had any question then been made of their Right of Peerage And that their calling had not raised them to a state of Nobility concerning which take this from the Lord Chief Justice Coke for our more assurance and he will tell us that the general division of persons by the Law of England is either one that is Noble and in respect of his nobility of the Lords House of Parliament or one of the Commons of the
be placed according to ancient custom at the East end of the Chancel and railed about decently to prevent base and profane usages and where the Chancel wanted any thing of repairs or the Church it self both to be amended Having thus shewed his care first for the House of God to set it in good order the next work followed was to make his own dwelling House a fit and convenient Habitation that to the old Building he added a new one which was far more graceful and made thereto a Chappel next to the Dining-room that was beautified and adorned with silk Hangings about the Altar in which Chappel himself or his Curate read Morning and Evening Prayer to the Family calling in his Labourers and Workfolks for he was seldom without them while he liv'd saying that he loved the noise of a Work-mans hammer for he thought it a deed of Charity as well as to please his own fancy by often building repairing to set poor People a work and encourage painful Artificers and Tradesmen in their honest Callings Yet after his death his Eldest Son was sued for Dilapidations in the Court of Arches by Dr. Beamont his Fathers Successor but the ingenious Gentleman pleaded his cause so notably before Sir Giles Swet then Judge of the Court that he was discharged there being no reason or justice he should be troubled for Dilapidations occasioned by the long War when his Father was unjustly turn'd out of his House and Living In July 1630. he took his Degree of Batchelor in Divinity His Latin Sermon was upon these words Mal. 4.19 Facim vos fieri piscatores hominum Upon the Sunday following being the time of the Act he Preach'd in the Afternoon on Matth. 13.25 In Feb. 13. A. D. 1633. He took his Degree of Dr. in Divinity an honour not usually in those days conferr'd upon men of such green years but our young Doctor verified those excellent words of the Son of Syrach That honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of time nor that is measured by number of years but Wisdom is the grey unto men and an unspotted life is an old Age Wisd 4.8 9. He entertain'd some hopes that Dr. Prideaux his animosities in so long a Tract of time as from 1627. to 1633. might have cooled In his first Disputation he had insisted on the Churches Visibility and now he resolved to assert and establish its Authority and to that purpose made choice to answer for his Degree upon these three questions viz. An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem In determinandis fidei controversus An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Interpretandi S. scripturas An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Decernendi Ritus Caeremonias All which he held in the Affirmative according to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the 20th Article But Dr. Prideaux was as little pleased with these questions and the Respondents stating of them as he was with the former And therefore to create unto the Respondent a greater odium he openly declared that the Respondent had falsified the publick Doctrine of the Church and changed the Article with that sentence viz. Habet Ecclesia ritus sive caeremonias c. which was not to be found in the whole body of it and for the proof thereof he read the Article out of a Book which lay before him beginning thus Non licet Ecclesiae quicquam instituere quod verbo Dei scripto adversetur c. To which the Respondent readily answered That he perceived by the bigness of the Book which lay on the Doctors Cushion that he had read that Article out of the harmony of Confessions published at Geneva A. D. 1612. which therein followed the Edition of the Articles in the time of King Edward VI. A.D. 1552. in which that sentence was not found but that it was otherwise in the Articles agreed on in the Convocation A. D. 1562. The Respondent caused the Book of Articles to be sent for out of the Book-sellers shop which being observed by the Doctor he declared himself very willing to decline any further prosecution of that particular But Dr. Heylyn was resolved to proceed on no further Vsquedum liberaverit animam suam ab ista calumnia as his own words were At the coming in of the Book the Respondent read the Article in the English Tongue viz. The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith c. Which done he delivered the Book to one of the Standers by who desired it of him the Book passing from one hand to another till all men were satisfied The Regius Professor had no other subterfuge but this He went to prove that not the Convocation but the High Court of Parliament had power of ordering matters in the Church in making Canons ordaining Ceremonies and determining Controversies in Religion And he could find no other medium to make it good but the Authority of Sir Edward Coke in one of the Books of his Reports An Argument that Dr. Heylyn gratified with no better answer than Non Credendum est cuique extra suam artem For these things and the Professors ill words in the former Disputation Dr. Heylyn caused him to be brought before the Council Table at Woodstock where he was publickly reprehended And upon the coming out of the Kings Declaration concerning lawful sports Dr. Heylyn translated the Regius Professors Lecture upon the Sabbath into English and putting a Preface before it caused it to be Printed a performance which did not only justifie his Majesties proceedings but took off much of that opinion which Dr. Prideaux had amongst the Puritanical Faction in those days A. D. 1634. The grievances which the Collegiate Church of Westminster suffered under the Government of John Lord Bishop of Lincoln then Commendatory Dean thereof became so intolerable that Dr. Heylyn with Dr. Tho. Wilson Dr. Gabriel Moor and Dr. Lud. Wemys with other of the Prebends drew up a Charge of no less than 36 Articles against the Bishop and by way of complaint humbly Petitioned his Majesty for redress of these grievances Whereupon a Commission was issued out to the arch-Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York the Earl of Manchester Earl of Portland the Lord Bishop of London and the two Secretaries of State Authorizing them to hold a Visitation of the Church of Westminster to examine the particular Charges made against John Lord Bishop of Lincoln who afterwards calling the Prebends to meet him in the Jerusalem-Chamber desired to know of them what these things were that were amiss that so he might presently redress them But to that Dr. Heylyn replied that seeing they had put the business into his Majesties hands it would but ill become them to take the matters out of his into their own Amongst other grievances the Bishop had most disgracefully turned out the Prebends of the great Seat or Pew under the Pulpit Dr. Heylyn being chosen Advocate for his Brothren did prove before
came out in some years succeeding for the taking away of Images and Reliques with all the Ornaments of the same and all the Monumens and writings of feigned Miracles and for restraint of offering or setting up Lights in any Churches but only to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar in which he was directed chiefly by Arch-Bishop Cranmer as also those for eating of white meats in the time of Lent the abolishing the Fast on St. Marks day and the ridiculous but superstitious sports accustomably used on the days of St. Clement St. Katherine and St. Nicholas All which and more was done in the said Kings Reign without help of Parliament For which I shall refer you to the Acts and Mon. fol. 1385 1425 1441. The like may also be affirmed of the Injunctions published in the name of K. E. 6. An. 1547. and printed also then for the Use of the Subjects And of the several Letters missive which went forth in his Name prohibiting the bearing of Candles on Candlemas-day of Ashes in Lent and of Palms on Palm-sunday for the taking down of all the Images throughout the Kingdom for administring the Communion in both kinds dated March 13 1548. for abrogating of private Masses June 24 1549. for bringing in all Missals Graduals Processionals Legends and Ordinals about the latter end of December of the same year for taking down of Altars and setting up Tables instead thereof An. 1550. and the like to these All which particulars you have in Foxes Book of Acts and Mon. in King Edwards life which whether they were done of the Kings meer motion or by advice of his Council or by consultation with his Bishops for there is little left upon Record of the Convocations of that time more than the Articles of the year 1552 certain I am that there was nothing done nor yet pretended to be done in all these particulars by the Authority of Parliament Thus also in Q. Elizabeths time before the new Bishops were well settled and the Queen assured of the affections of her Clergy she went that way to work in the Reformation which not only her two Predecessors but all the Godly Kings and Princes in the Jewish State and many of the Christian Emperours in the Primitive times had done before her in the well ordering of the Church and People committed to their care and government by Almighty God and to that end she published her Injunctions An. 1559. A Book of Orders An. 1561. Another of Advertisements An. 1562. All tending unto Reformation unto the building up of the new Jerusalem with the advice and counsel of the Metropolitan and some other Godly Prelates who were then a-about her by whom they were agreed on and subscribed unto before they were presented to her without the least concurrence of her Court of Parliament But when the times were better settled and the first difficulties of her Reign passed over she left Church-work to the disposing of Church-men who by their place and calling were most proper for it and they being met in Convocation and thereto Authorised as the Laws required did make and publish several Books of Canons as viz. 1571. An. 1584. An. 1597. Which being confirmed by the Queen under the broad Seal of England were in force of Laws to all intents and purposes which they were first made but being confirmed without those formal words Her Heirs and Successors are not binding now but expired together with the Queen No Act of Parliament required to confirm them then nor never required ever since on the like occasion A fuller evidence whereof we cannot have than in the Canons of year 1603. being the first year of King James made by the Clergy only in the Convocation and confirmed only by the King for though the old Canons were in force which had been made before the submission of the Clergy as before I shewed you which served in all these wavering and unsettled times for the perpetual standing rule of the Churches Government yet many new emergent cases did require new rules and whilst there is a possibility of Mali mores there will be a necessity of bonae Leges Now in the confirmation of these Canons we shall find it thus That the Clergy being met in their Convocation according to the Tenour and effect of his Majesties Writ his Majesty was pleased by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in causes Ecclesiastical to give and grant unto them by his Letters Patents dated April 12. and June 25. full free and lawful liberty licence power and authority to convene treat debate consider consult and agree upon such Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they should think necessary fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better government thereof from time to time c. to be kept by all persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being members of the Church it may concern them which being agreed on by the Clergy and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his Royal assent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25 of K. H. 8. and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for himself his Heirs and lawful Successors straightly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjects diligently to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they do or may concern all or any of them No running to the Parliament to confirm these Canons nor any question made till this present by temperate and knowing men that there wanted any Act for their confirmation which the law could give them 7. An Answer to the main Objections of either Party BUT against this all which hath been said before it will be objected That being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more Authority and Jurisdiction nisi à Parliamentis derivatum but that which is conferred upon them by the power of Parliaments as both Sanders and Schultingius do expresly say whatsoever they shall do or conclude upon either in Convocation or in more private conferences may be called Parliamentarian also And this last calumny they build on the several Statutes 24 H. 8. c. 12. touching the manner of Electing and Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops that of the 1 E. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what Seals they shall use these of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. 5. 6 E. 6. for Authorizing of the Book of Ordination But chiefly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in Consecrating any Arch Bishop or bishop within this Realm To give a general answer to each several cavil you may please to know that the Bishops as they now stand in the Church of England derive their Calling together with
others with the Bishops of so many distant Nations as were there assembled suffice to make a General Council the Council of Antioch might as well have the name of General as almost any of the rest which are so entituled But laying by these thoughts as too strong of the Paradox and looking on a General Council in the common notion for an Assembly of the Prelates of the East and West to which the four Patriarchs are invited and from which no Bishop is excluded that comes commissionated and instructed to attend the service I cannot think them of such consequence to the Church of God but that it may proceed without them to a Reformation For certainly that saying of S. Augustine in his 4th Book against the two Epistles of the Pelagians cap. 12. is exceeding true Paucas fuisse haereses ad quas superandas necessarium fuerit Concilium plenarium occidentis orientis that very few Heresies have been crushed in such General Councils And so far we may say with the Learned Cardinal that for seven Heresies suppressed in seven General Councils though by his leave the seventh did not so much suppress as advance an Heresie an hundred have been quashed in National and Provincial Synods whether confirmed or not confirmed by the Popes Authority we regard not here Some instances hereof in the Synods of Aquileia Carthage Gaugra Milevis we have seen before and might add many others now did we think it necessary The Church had been in ill condition if it had been otherwise especially under the power of Heathen Emperors when such a confluence of the Prelates from all parts of the world would have been construed a Conspiracy against the State and drawn destruction on the Church and the Persons both Or granting that they might assemble without any such danger yet being great bodies moving slowly and not without long time and many difficulties and disputes to be rightly constituted The Church would suffer more under such delay by the spreading of Heresie than receive benefit by their care to suppress the same Had the same course been taken at Alexandria for suppressing Arius as was before at Antioch for condemning Paulus we never had heard news of the Council of Nice the calling and assembling whereof took up so long time that Arianism was diffused over all the world before the Fathers met together and could not be suppressed though it were condemned in many Ages following after The plague of Heresie and leprosie of sin would quickly over-run the whole face of the Church if capable of no other cure than a General Council The case of Arius and the universal spreading of his Heresie compared with the quick rooting out of so many others makes this clear enough To go a little further yet we will suppose a General Council to be the best and safest Physick that the Church can take on all occasions of Epidemical distemper but then we must suppose it at such times and in such cases only when it may conveniently be had For where it is not to be had or not had conveniently it will either prove to be no Physick or not worth the taking But so it was that at the time of the Reformation a General Council could not conveniently be Assembled and more than so it was impossible that any such Council should Assemble I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted according to the Rules laid down by our Controversors For first they say it must be called by such as have power to do it 2. That it must be intimated to all Christian Churches that so no Church nor people may plead ignorance of it 3. The Pope and the four chief Patriarchs must be present at it either in person or by Proxie And lastly that no Bishop is to be excluded if he be known to be a Bishop and not excommunicated According to which Rules it was impossible I say that any General Council should be assembled at the time of the Reformation of the Church of England It was not then as when the greatest part of the Christian world was under the command of the Roman Emperors whose Edict for a General Council might speedily be posted over all the Provinces The Messengers who should now be sent on such an errand unto the Countreys of the Turk the Persian the Tartarian and the great Mogul in which are many Christian Churches and more perhaps than in all the rest of the world besides would find but sorry entertainment Nor was it then as when the four chief Patriarchs together with their Metropolitans and Suffragan Bishops were under the protection of the Christian Emperors and might without danger to themselves or unto their Churches obey the intimation and attend the service those Patriarchs with their Metropolitans and Suffragans both then and now languishing under the tyranny and power of the Turk to whom so general a confluence of Christian Bishops must needs give matter of suspicion of just fears and jealousies and therefore not to be permitted as far as he can possibly hinder it on good Reason of State For who knows better than themselves how long and dangerous a War was raised against their Predecessors by the Western Christians for recovery of the Holy Land on a resolution taken up at the Council of Clermont and that making War against the Turks is still esteemed a cause sufficient for a General Council And then besides it would be known by whom this General Council was to be assembled If by the Pope as generally the Papists say he and his Court were looked on as the greatest grievance of the Christian Church and 't was not probable that he would call a Council against himself unless he might have leave to pack it to govern it by his own Legats fill it with Titular Bishops of his own creating and send the Holy-Ghost to them in a Cloakbag as he did to Trent If joyntly by all Christian Princes which is the common Tenet of the Protestant Schools what hopes could any man conceive as the time then were that they should lay aside their particular interesses to center all together upon one design Or if they had agreed about it what power had they to call the Prelates of the East to attend the business or to protect them for so doing at their going home So that I look upon the hopes of a General Council I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted as an empty Dream The most that was to be expected was but a meeting of some Bishops of the West of Europe and those but of one party only such as were Excommunicated and that might be as many as the Pope should please being to be excluded by the Cardinals Rule Which how it may be called an Oecumenical or General Council unless it be a Topical-Oecumenical a Particular-general as great an absurdity in Grammar as a Roman Catholick I can hardly see Which being so and so no question but it was either
is somewhat more out of doubt it must Those Canons which are only fathered on the Apostles will else run cross with those which are theirs indeed When Saint Paul lessoned those of Corinth 1 Cor. 6. that rather than they should profane the Gospel with contentious suits they should refer their differences to their Brethren Think you it was his purpose either to exclude the Clergy then or their Bishop after when they had one No saith Saint Ambrose Ambros Com. in 1 ad Cor. c. 6. if the work be his Melius dicit apud dei ministros causam agere no better way than to refer the business to Gods Ministers who being guided by the fear of God will determin rightly in the same Or is the Bishop only to be barred this Office Not so saith he For if Saint Paul adviseth them to submit themselves unto the judgment of their Brethren it was upon this reason principally quia adhuc Rector in eorum Ecclesia non esset ordinatus because as then there was no Bishop in that Church Saint Austin gives it more exactly makes it a charge imposed upon the Bishop by Saint Pauls command For speaking of the pains he took in the determining of such causes as were brought before him August de Opere Monarch c. 29. he tells us that he underwent the same in obedience only to Saint Paul's injunction quibus nos molestiis idem affixit Apostolus as his words there are and that Saint Paul imposed it not by his own authority sed ejus qui in eo loquebatur but by the authority of the Holy Ghost which did dictate to him adding withal that howsoever it was irksome and laborious to him yet he did patiently discharge his duty in it pro spe aeternae vitae only upon the hope of life eternal And it is worth the observation that venerable Beda making a Comment upon Saint Pauls Epistle collected out of several passages of Saint Austins writings he putteth down this place at large as the most full and proper exposition of the Apostles words Secularia judicia si habueritis c. 1 Cor. 6.4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life c. Here then we have the Bishop interessed in the determining of suits and differences a secular imployment surely and yet no violence offered to the sacred Canon May he not go a little further and intermeddle if occasion be in matters of the Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synesius in Ep. 57. I do not blame those Bishops saith Synesius that are so imployed such as are fitted with abilities for the undertaking being by him a strict and rigorous man permitted to employ the same And more than so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it maketh for Gods praise and glory that it should be so that men on whom he hath bestowed abilities to perform both Offices should do accordingly But these I put down here as opinions only the practice of them we shall see in a place more proper If then it be demanded what those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those worldly cares and secular imployments are which the Canon speaks off Zonar Comment in Conc. Chalced. Can. 3. Zonaras will inform us in another place that the Canon aimeth at the mingling of the Roman Magistracies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Episcopal or Priestly function which at that time were questionless incompatible And then the meaning of the Canon will in fine be this that Bishops or inferiour Clergy-men might not be Consuls Praetors Generals or undergoe such publick Offices in the State of Rome as were most sought for and esteemed by the Gentiles there As for their jurisdiction over the inferiour Clergy as far as it is warranted by these Apostolick Canons it doth coâ—â—st especially in these particulars First there is granted and annexed unto them the power of Ordination and to them alone Can. Apost 2. The second Canon tells us so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Presbyter and Deacon and all other Clerks must be ordained by one Bishop And if a Bishop be required though but one in all the Presbyters have no authority at all of conferring Orders But of this before Being ordained they were accomptable in the next place to their Bishop in all things which concerned their Ministration without whose special leave and liking there were not only many things which they might not do but there was nothing in a manner to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 38. Ignat. ad Smyrnens Zonar in Can. Apost let them do nothing saith the Canon without the knowledge of the Bishops neither Baptize nor celebrate the Eucharist as Ignatius hath it of whom more anon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not repel any man from the Communion as it is in Zonaras But here the Canons speaking in another place they will tell you more particularly that if a Presbyter neglecting or contemning his own Bishop Can. 31. shall gather the People into a Conventicle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and erect another Altar for divine worship not being able to convict his Bishop of any impiety or injustice he is to be deposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an ambitious person seeking a preheminence that belonged not to him Finally so obnoxious were the Presbyters to the command and pleasure of their Bishop that they could not be admitted into any other City Can. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without his letters testimonial and this on pain of Excommunication as well unto the Presbyter that should so depart Can. 15. as to the party that received him If any Presbyter or Deacon leaving the charge appointed to him shall go into another Diocess for so I think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be read in this place and time and there abide without the allowance of his Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is to be suspended ab officio especially if he return not presently on the Bishops summons More of this kind there is in those ancient Canons touching the Presbyters dependance on and plain subjection to their Bishop But I have instanced in such only as may be clearly justified by succeeding practice And so much of the Apostles Canons ascribed to Clemens From Clemens on to Evaristus his next successor in the government of the Church of Rome I know the Antiquaries of that Church have interloped an Anacletus between these two Iren. l. 3. cap. 3. and let them take him for their labour But when I find in Irenaeus who lived so near the times we speak of as to converse with those which were then alive when both these Bishops sate in the Church of Rome and when I find it in Eusebius Euseb hist Ec. l. 3. c. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who with such care and diligence collected the successions of the Prelates in the greater Churches that Evaristus did immediately succeed this Clemens I shall desire to be excused if I prefer their testimony
time contracted somewhat of that rust and rubbish wherewith the middle ages of the Church did so much abound Yet if mine own opinion were demanded in it though I agree unto the story both for the number of the Bishops and the Metropolitans I must needs think there was some other reason for it than the relation of the number of the Flamines and Archiflamines which is there pretended And that this was not done at once but in a longer tract of time than the Reign of Lucius as was in part affirmed before That Lucius did convert the Temples of the Idols into Christian Churches setled the revenues of the same upon the Churches by him founded I shall easily grant so far forth as the bounds of his dominions will give way unto it but being there were but 28 Cities in all that part of Britain which we now call England as both from Huntingdon and Beda was before delivered and that King Lucius was but a Tributary Prince of those Regions only which were inhabited by the Trinobantes and Cattieuchlani as I do verily conceive he was I believe rather that the number of the Bishops and Archbishops which our stories speak of related to the form of government as it was afterwards established in the Roman Empire Notitia Provinc in div cap. and not to any other cause whatever Now they which have delivered to us the state of the Roman Empire inform us this That for the easier government and administration of the same it was divided into fourteen Diocesses for so they called those greater portions into the which it was divided every Diocess being subdivided into several Provinces and every Province in the same conteining many several Cities And they which have delivered to us the estate of the Christian Church Notitia Prov. dignitat c. have informed us this that in each City of the Empire wherein the Romans had a Defensor Civitatis as they called that Magistrate the Christians when they gain'd that City to the holy faith did ordain a Bishop that over every Province in which the Romans had their Presidents they did place an Arch-bishop whose seat being commonly in the Metropolis of the Province gave him the name of Metropolitan and finally that in every Diocess in which the Romans had their Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the Christians also had their Primate and seated him in the same City also where the other was This ground thus layed it will appear upon examination that Britain in the time of the Roman Empire was a full Diocese of it self no way depending upon any other portion of that mighty State Ib. in Provinc Occident sup c. 3. as any way subordinate thereunto And being a Diocese in it self it was divided in those times into these three Provinces viz. Britannia prima Cambd. de divisione Britan. containing all the Countrys on the South of the River Thames and those inhabited by the Trinobantes Cattieuchlani and Iceni 2. Britannia secunda comprising all the Nations within the Severn and 3. Maxima Caesariensis which comprehended all the residue to the Northern border In the which Provinces there were no less than 28 Cities as before is said of which York was the chief in Maxima Caesariensis London the principal in Britannia prima Caer-Leon upon Vsk being the Metropolis in Britannia secunda And so we have a plain and apparent reason not only of the 28 Episcopal Sees erected anciently in the British Church but why three of them and three only should be Metropolitans For howsoever after this there were two other Provinces taken out of the former three viz. Valentia and Flavia Caesariensis which added to the former Id. ibid. made up five in all yet this being after the conclusion of the Nicene Council the Metropolitan dignity in the Church remained as before it did without division or abatement according to the Canon of that famous Synod Concil Nicen. Can. 6. And herewithal we have a pregnant and infallible Argument that Britain being in it self a whole and compleat Diocese of the Roman Empire no way subordinate unto the Praefect of the City of Rome but under the command of its own Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the British Church was also absolute and independent owing nor suit nor service as we use to say unto the Patriarch or Primate of the Church of Rome but only to its own peculiar and immediate Primate as it was elsewhere in the Churches of the other Dioceses of the Roman Empire This I conceive to be the true condition of the British Church and the most likely reason for the number of Bishops and Arch-bishops here established according to the truth of Story abstracted from those errours and mistakes which in the middle Ages of the Church have by the Monkish Writers of those times been made up with them But for the substance of the story as by them delivered which is the planting of the Church with Bishops in eminent places that appears evidently true by such remainders of antiquity as have escaped the tyranny and wrack of time For in the Council held at Arles in France Anno 314. Tom. 1. Concilior Gall. Ã Sirmundo edit we find three British Bishops at once subscribing viz. Eborius Bish of York Restitutus B. of London and Adelfus B. of Colchester there called Colonia Londinensium Gennadius also in his Tract de viris illustribus mentioneth one Fastidius by the name of Fastidius Britanniarum Episcopus Gennad in Catal amongst the famous Writers of old time placing him Anno 420 or thereabouts whom B. God win I cannot tell upon what reasons Godwin in Catal. Episc Londinens Cit. ap Armachan de Primor c. 5. Cambden in Brigant reckoneth amongst the Bishops of the See of London Particularly for the Bishops or Archbishops of the British Church we have a Catalogue of the Metropolitans of London collected or made up by Joceline a Monk of Fournest an ancient Monastery in the North being 14 in all which howsoever the validity thereof may perhaps be questioned by more curious Wits yet I shall lay down as I find it taking their names from him that little story which concerns them out of other Writers First then we have Theon or Theonus 2 Eluanus one of the two Ambassadours sent by King Lucius to the Pope 3 Cadar or Cadoeus 4 Obinus or Owinus 5 Conanus 6 Palladius 7 Stephanus 8 Iltutus 9 Theodwinus 10 Theodredus 11 Hilarius Geosr Monmouth hist Brit. Speed in descr Britan. 12 Guitelinus sent as Ambassadour to Aldrocnus King of Armorica or Little-Britain to crave his aid against the Scots and Picts who then plagued the Britains 13 Vodius or Vodinus slain by Hengist but some say by Vortiger at the first entrance of the Sateons into this Isle 14 And last of all Theonus who had been sometimes Bishop of Gloncester but was after translated hither and was the last Bishop of London of this line or Series Of
Tertul. lib. de jejuniis c. 13. That Bishops use to impose Fasts upon the people is not done of purpose for lucre or the Alms then given but out of a regard of the Churches welfare or the sollicitousness which they have thereof Wherein as he removes a cavil which as it seems was cast upon the Church about the calling of those Fasts so plainly he ascribes the calling of them to the Bishop only according unto whose appointment in unum omnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agitabant they met together for the humbling of themselves before God the Lord. So for disposing of the Churches Treasure for Menstrua quaque die modicam quisque stipem vel quam velit Id. in Apol. c. every month the people used to bring their Offerings as we call them now every man as he would and could that also appertained unto the Bishop Which as it was distributed most commonly amongst the Clergy for their present maintenance so was it in the Bishops power to bestow part thereof upon other uses as in relief of Widows and poor Virgins which appears plainly in that place and passage of Tertullian Tertul. de Virg. veland cap. 9. in his book de Virginibus velandis where speaking of a Virgin which contrary to the custom of the Church had been admitted into the rank of Widows he adds cui si quid refrigerii debuerat Episcopus that if the Bishop did intend to allow her any thing towards her relief and maintenance he might have done it without trespassing on the Churches discipline and setting up so strange a Monster as a Virgin-Widow And this is that which after was confirmed in the Council of Antioch Conc. Antioch Can. 25. where it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Bishop ought to have authority in the disposing of the things or goods that appertained unto the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so he might dispose them unto such as stood in need in the fear of God Finally for the reconciling of a Penitent to the Church of God in the remitting of his sins Tertul. de pudicitia cap. 18. and bringing of him back to the fold again that in Tertullians time was a Peculiar of the Bishop also For speaking of Repentance after Faith received de poenitentia post fidem as he calls it he is content to give this efficacy thereunto though otherwise he held being then a Montanist that heinous Sinners after Grace received were not to be admitted to Repentance I say he is content to give this efficacy thereunto that for smaller sins it may obtain pardon or remission from the Bishop for greater and unpardonable from God alone But take his own words with you for the greater surety and his words are these viz. Salva illa poenitentiae specie post fidem quae aut levioribus delictis veniam ab Episcopo consequi potest aut majoribus irremissibilibus à Deo solo Pamel Annot. praedict lib. 159. In which Pamelius seems to wonder at his moderation as being of a better temper in this point than was Montanus into whose Sect he now was fallen who would have no man to make confession of his sins to any other than to God and seek for reconciliation from no hands but from his alone And in another place of the same book also Tertul. lib. de Pudicit cap. 1. although he seem to jeer and deride the usage he granteth that the Bishops of the Christian Church did usually remit even the greatest fins upon the performance of the Penance formerly enjoyned For thus he bringeth in the Bishop whom in the way of scorn he calleth Pontifex Maximus and Episcopus Episcoporum proclaiming as it were a general Pardon to such as had performed their Penance Ego moechiae fornicationis delicta poenitenti functis dimitto that he remitted to all such even the sins of Fornication and Adultery Which words of his declare not more his Errour than the Bishops Power in this particular What interest the Presbyters of the Church did either challenge or enjoy in this weighty business of reconciling Penitents to the Lord their God we shall see hereafter when as the same began to be in practice and was by them put in execution Mean time I take it for a manifest and undoubted Truth that properly originally and in chief it did belong unto the Bishop both to enjoyn Penance and admit the Penitent and not to the inferiour Presbyters but as they had authority by and under him Which lest I may be thought to affirm at random let us behold the manner of this Reconciliation as layed down by Sozomen Sozomen Eccl. hist l. 7. c. 16. not as relating to his own times but to the times whereof we speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They stand saith he in an appointed place sorrowful and lamented and when the Eucharist is ended whereof they are not suffered to be partakers they cast themselves with grief and lamentation flat upon the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop then approaching towards him kneeleth also by him on the ground and all the multitude also do the like with great grief and ejulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This done the Bishop riseth first and gently raiseth up the prostrate Penitent and having prayed for those that are thus in the state of Penance as much as he thinks fit and requisite they are dismissed for the present And being thus dismissed every man privately at home doth afflict himself either by fasting or by abstinence from Meats and Bathes for a certain time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as long as by the Bishop is enjoyned him Which time appointed being come and his Penance in this sort performed he is absolved from his sins sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and joyned again unto the residue of the Congregation And this saith he hath been the custom of the Western Church and especially of the Church of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very first beginning to this present time So that both in the City of Rome in which Tertullian sometimes lived and in the Western Church whereof he was a member being a Presbyter of Carthage and in the times in which he flourished for thus it was from the beginning the Bishop regularly had the power both of enjoyning Penance and reconciling of the Penitent as it still continueth Nor doth that passage in Tertullian any way cross the point delivered where speaking of the several acts of humiliation which were to be performed by the Penitent before he could be reconciled to the Church of God Tertul. lib. de Poenitent c. 9. he reckoneth these amongst the rest Presbyteris advolvi aris or caris Dei adgeniculari for whether of the two it is adbuc sub Judice omnibus fratribus legationes deprecationis suae injungere to cast themselves before the Presbyters to kneel before the Altars or the Saints of God to entreat the Prayers
Bishops there Assembled being sixteen in all Ib. ibid. as by S. Cyprian is recorded Which as it was the manner of Electing not only of the Bishops of Rome but of most Bishops else Leo. Epist 89. in the times we speak of so it continued long in use the voices of the Clergy in the point and substance the presence and approbation of the people for the form and ceremony electio Clericorum and testimonia populorum being joyned together by Pope Leo. Now the condition of the Church of Rome under this Cornelius besides the Schism raised in it by Novatianus of which more anon is to be seen most fully in a Letter of his to Fabius Patriarch of Antiochia Extat ap Ruseb hist l. 6. c. 35. p. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which he certifieth him that besides the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was but one in every Church and could not be more there were forty-six Presbyters seven Deacons and Sub-Deacons seven forty-two Acolythites Exorcists Readers Sextons Ostiarij fifty-two in all Widows and other poor People pressed with want and sickness fifteen hundred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which saith he are maintained at the publick charge by the grace and bounty of the Lord. Out of which place and passage of my Author there are these several points to be considered in reference to our present business First the exceeding large revenue of the Church of Rome in these early days so great as to maintain the numbers before specified according to the rank and quality of each particular the distribution of the which did ordinarily and of common course belong unto the Bishop only or such to whom he pleased to entrust the same And secondly we may observe the singularity of succession wherein the Bishop differed from the other Clergy he being but one they many in their ranks and stations sometimes more sometimes fewer according to the greatness of the Church in which they served and the emergent necessities and occasions of it Here in the Church of Rome to one only Bishop we find a Clergy of inferior Ministers consisting of 154 persons which doubtless was exceedingly increased in the following times Hierom. in epist ad Evagr. Hierom complaining in his time Presbyteros turbam contemptibiles facere that the great number of them made them be the less regarded And last of all we may observe that though Cornelius mentioneth Acolythites Readers Sub-Deacons Exorcists and Sextons these are not to be reckoned as distinct Orders in the Church although now so accounted in the Church of Rome but only several services and imployments which were required in the same Concerning which take here the learned resolution of judicious Hooker Hooker Eccl. Polit. l. 5. n. 78. There is an error saith he which beguileth many who much intangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity whereas none have or can have the third but the Clergy Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature only of their labour and pains be considered may in that respect seem Clergy-men even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up which was to be ordered or ordained when years and experience should make them able Notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of Service which at any time they might give over being thereunto but admitted not tied by irrevocable Ordination we find them always exactly severed from that body whereof those three before rehearsed Orders of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons only are the natural parts So the judicious Divine indeed as one truly calls him I add this further of Cornelius Holy Table having thus fallen upon the Orders in the state Ecclesiastick that he had passed through all inferior Offices per omnia Ecclesiastica officia promotus as Saint Cyprian hath it Cypr. Ep. 52. and exercised each several Ministery in the Church of God before he mounted to this height ad Sacerdotij sublime fastigium are the Fathers words which shewed that the estate of Bishops was as a different office so an higher dignity than any other in the Church Now as the speech of Heaven doth many times put us in mind of Hell so this relation of Cornelius an holy Bishop and a Martyr occasioneth me to speak of Novatianus in whom it is not easie to determine whether the Heretick or the Schismatick had the most predominancy Certain it is he proved in both respects one of the cunningest instruments of Satan for the disturbance of the Church who suffered most extreamly by him both in peace and truth the Schism or Heresie by him raised at this very time being both more suddain in the growth and permanent in the duration of it than ever had been set on foot before in the Church of Christ Now this Novatianus was a Presbyter of the Church of Rome and being much offended as well at the Election of Cornelius as that himself was pretermitted in the choice associates himself with one Novatus an African Bishop as near unto him in conditions as he was in name whom Cyprian omnium sacerdotum voce Cypr. Epist 49. by the consent and suffrages of all his Comprovincial Bishops had before condemned By them it was agreed that Novatianus should take upon himself the name and title of the Bishop of Rome And being there could be no shew nor colour for it did he not first receive Episcopal Consecration from some hands or other they sent unto the obscurest parts of Italy Euseb hist Eccl. lib. 6. c. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Author hath it to find out three poor Countrey Bishops that had not been acquainted with the like affairs Who being come to Rome and circumvented by the Arts of these wicked men and partly also forced by their threats and menaces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they Ordained him Bishop if at the least an Act so void and null from the beginning may be called an Ordination And this being done because they found that people naturally are inclined to imbrace new fancies especially where pretence of piety seems to bear a stroke they took upon them to be very strict in their conversation precise in their opinions and wonderfully devout in all their carriage raising withal this doctrine suitable thereto That such as fell in time of Persecution though they repented never so truly and did what ever was thought necessary to testifie their grief and sorrow for their great offence yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was no hope of their salvation Id. ibid. no mercy to be looked for at the hands of God By means whereof they drew unto their side some Confessors as they called
Counties that under the pretence of taking away abuses there had been a general forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes to ratifie and publish the Declaration of his Majesties Father before remembred adding That all those Feasts with others should be observed and that all neighbourhood and freedom with manlike and lawful exercises be therein used Commanding all the Justices of Assize in their several Circuits to see that no man do trouble or molest any of his loyal and dutiful People in or for their lawful Recreations having first done their duty to God and continuing in obedience unto him and his Laws and further that publication thereof be made by order from the Bishops through all the Parishes of their several Diocesses respectively Thus did it please his excellent and sacred Majesty to publish his most pious and religious purpose of opening to his loyal people that liberty of the day which the day allowed of and which all Christian States and Churches in all times before had never questioned withal of shutting up that door whereat no less than Judaism would in fine have entred and so in time have over-run the fairest and most beautiful Church at this day in Christendom And certainly it was a pious and Princely act nothing inferiour unto that of Constantine or any other Christian King or Emperour before remembred it being no less pious in it self considered to keep the Holy-days free from Superstition than to preserve them from Prophaneness especially considering that permission of lawful Pleasures is no less proper to a Festival than restraint from labour Nay of the two it is more ancient For in his time Tertullian tells us that they did diem solis laetitiae indulgere devote the Sunday partly unto Mirth and Recreation not to Devotion altogether when in an hundred years after Tertullians time there was no Law or Constitution to restrain men from labour on this day in the Christian Church Yet did not his most excellent Majesty find such obedience in some men and such as should have been examples unto their flocks as his most Christian purpose did deserve there being some so setled in the opinion of a Sabbath day a day not heard of in the Church of Christ 40 years agoe that they chose rather to deprive the Church of their pains and ministry than yield unto his Majesties most just commands For whose sakes specially next to my duty unto God my Soveraign and the Church my Mother I have employed my time and studies to compose this History that they may see therein in brief the practice of Gods Church in the times before them and frame themselves to do thereafter casting aside those errours in the which they are and walking in the way which they ought to travel Which way when all is done will be via Regia the Kings high way as that which is most safe and of best assurance because most travelled by Gods people Our private paths do lead us often into errour and sometimes also into danger And therefore I beseech all those who have offended in that kind to lay aside their passions and their private interests if any are that way misguided as also not to shut their eyes against those truths which are presented to them for their information that so the King may have the honour of their due obedience the Church the comfort of their labours and conformable ministry For to what purpose should they hope to be ennobled for their sufferings in so bad a cause that neither hath the doctrine of the Scripture to authorize it or practice of the Church of God the best Expositor of the Scripture to confirm and countenance it or to be counted constant to their first Conclusions having such weak and dangerous premisses to support the same since constancy not rightly grounded is at best but obstinacy and many times doth end in Heresie Once again therefore I exhort them even in Gods name whose Ministers they are and unto whom they are to give up an account of their imployment and in the Kings Name whom as Gods deputy they are bound to obey not for wrath only but for conscience sake and in the Churches name whose peace they are to study above all things else and their own names lastly whom it most concerns that they desist and go not forwards in this disobedience lest a worse business fall upon them For my part I have done my best so far to give them satisfaction in the present point so far forth as the nature of an History would permit as they might think it no disparagement to alter their opinions and desert their errors and change their resolutions since in so doing they shall conform themselves unto the practice of Gods Church in all times and Ages The greatest Victory which a man can get is to subdue himself and triumph over sin and errour De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 30. I end as I began in S. Augustins language Quibus hoc nimium vel quibus parum est mihi ignoscant quibus satis est non mihi sed Domino mecum congratulantes gratias agant Let such as shall conceive this Treatise to be too little or too much excuse my weakness And as for those whom it may satisfie in the smallest measure let them not unto me but to God with me ascribe all the honour to whom belongs all praise and glory even for evermore Pibrac Quadr. 5. Ne va disant ma main a faict cest oeuure Ou ma vertu ce bel oeuure a parfaict Mais dis ainsi Dieu par moy l'oeuuee a faict Dieu est l'Autheur du peu de bien que l'oeuure Say not my hand this Work to end hath brought Nor this my vertue hath attain'd unto Say rather thus this God by me hath wrought God's Author of the little good I do FINIS Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the WESTERN CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND IN The Five Controverted Points Reproached in these Last times by the Name of ARMINIANISM Collected in the way of an Historical Narration Out of the Publick Acts and Monuments and most approved Authors of those several Churches By PETER HEYLYN D. D. Jer. 6.16 State super vias videte interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona ambulate in ea invenietis refrigerium animabus vestris Macrob. in Saturnal Omne meum nihil meum LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. TO THE READER IT is well known to some in London and elsewhere that these Papers were finished for the Press before August last But the first breaking out in Cheshire and the unsetledness of affairs which ensued upon it proved such discouragements to all Engagings of this kind that Michaelmas was past before the undertakers would adventure on it And what distractions have since followed
Proclamation from the States General to banish them from their Native Countrey with their Wives and Children and so compelling them to beg their Bread even in desolate places But yet this was no end of their sorrows neither He must come under a new Cross and be calumniated for maintaining many horrid Blasphemies and gross impieties which they most abhorred For in the continuation of the History of the Netherlands written by one Cross a fellow of no parts or judgment and so more apt to be abused with a false report It is there affirmed whether with greater ignorance or malice it is hard to say That there was a Synod called at Dort to suppress the Arminians and that the said Arminians held amongst other Heresies First That God was the Authorâ—â— sin and Secondly That he created the far greater part of Man-kind only of purpose for to damn them with several others of that kind Which every man of reason knows not only to be the consequence and results of Calvins Doctrine but to be positively maintained and taught by some of his followers By which and such like subtile and malicious practises they endeavoured to expose their Adversaries to the publick hatred and make th em odious with the people till at last these poor men might have said most justly as one the primitive Christians did under the burden of the like Calumnies and Imputations Condemnati sumus quia nominamur non quia convincimur as Tertullian hath it the name of an Arminian carried a Condemnation in it self without any conviction Nor was their fury satisfied in Exauctorating Banishing and destroying those of the adverse party who lived within the compass of the Belgick Provinces the genius of the Sect being active in all parts alike in none more visibly than the neighbouring City of Ledan the principal seat and Signory of the Dukes of Bovillon Out of which Francisous Auratus a most faithful Minister of that Church is said to have been shamefully ejected for no other reason by those of the Calvinian party but because preaching on the Text of St. James 1.13 God tempteth no man c. he largely declared that God was not the Author of sin With what severity they proceeded in England when they had gotten the advantage of Power and Number and with what Calumnies and Reproaches they aspersed all those which were of a contrary persuasion to them the sequestring and ejecting of so many hundreds of learned and religious men from their several Benefices the most odious Pamphet called The first Century of Scandalous and MALIGNANT PRIESTS together with many uncharitable and disgraceful passages against them in the Writings of some Presbyterian Ministers do most clearly evidence CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the Opposite Party 1. The Introduction to the said Objections 2. The first Objection touching their being Enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of St. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard Expressions which were used of them by King James 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Propery began in Holland and pressed more importunatly in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who objected the same 6. The fourth CHarge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious people began in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridly 7. What moved King Jmaes to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesom nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party 9. Nothing in the Arminian doctrine which may incline a man to seditious courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin 10. The Racrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England IT may be thought that some strange mystery of iniquity lay hidden under the Mask or Vail of the Five Articles last mentioned which made the Synodists so furiously to rage against them to use such cruelty for security is too mild a name to express their rigour towards all those who did maintain them For justifying whereof in the eye of the World both before and after the Synod course was taken to impeach their Doctrine in these points of no smaller crimes than to be destructive of Gods Grace introductory of Popery tending unto spiritual pride and to Sedition or Rebellion in the Civil Government Which Objections I shall here present as I have done the Arguments of most importance which were Excogitated and enforced against the Conclusions and Determinations of the Synod in the said five points and that being done I shall return such Answers as are made unto them First then it is objected that this Doctrine is destructive of Gods Free Grace reviving the old Pelagian Heresies â—â—â—man Annot Grotii Putat so long since condemned This is press'd by Boyerman in his Annotations on the Book of Grotius called Pietas Ordinum c. where he brings in Pareus charging them with having proceeded E Schola Caelestii Pelagii from no other School than that of Pelagius and Caelestius those accursed Hereticks Thycius another of the Contra-Remonstrants but somewhat more moderate than the rest in this particular conceives their Doctrine to incline rather to Semi-Pelagianism Et aut eandem esse aut non multo diversam and either to be the very same or not much different Declar. against Vorstius But the authority of King James was of greatest weight who in his heats against Vorstius calls them the Enemies of Gods grace Atheistical Sectaries and more particularly the Enemy of God Arminius as the King once called him To which Objection it is answered that whatsoever Paraeus and the rest might please to call them they had but little reason for it the Remonstrants speaking as honourably of the Grace of God as any other whatsoever And this they prove by comparing the first branch of the Fourth Article with that Golden saying of St. Augustine yiz. Sine gratia Dei praeveniente ut velimus subsequente ne frustra velimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus
Princes of the line of Cecrops now it began to be Elective Tacit. hist l. 1. and to be given to them who best pleased the people Et loco libertatis erat quod eligi coeperunt and it was some degree of liberty and a great one too that they had power to nominate and elect their Princes But long they did not like of this although no doubt a great intrusion on the Regal dignity The Princes were too absolute when they held for life not so observant of the people as it was expected because not liable to accompt nor to be called unto a reckoning till it was too late till death had freed them from their faults and the peoples censure And therefore having tried the Government of thirteen of these perpetual Archontes of which Medon the son of Codrus was the first and the last Alemaeon In decem annos Magistratuum consuetudo conversa est they introduced another custom Euseb in Chr. Asrican apud Euseb Chronâ— and every tenth year changed their Governors These they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Decennial Archontes of which they had but seven in all and then gave them over and from that time were governed by nine Officers or Magistrates chosen every year who for that cause were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Annual Magistrates And yet it is to be observed that in both these changes the Archon whosoever he was and whether he was for term of life or for ten years only had all the power which formerly was belonging to the Kings save the very name in which regard Eusebius doth not stick to call them by the name of Kings where speaking of the institution of these Annual Magistrates he doth thus express is Euseb Chron. Athenis Annui principes constituti sunt cessantibus Regibus as S. Hierom renders it Now for these Annual Magistrates they were these that follow that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jul. P. 〈◊〉 in Onomast l. 8. c. 9. which we may call the Provost who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was called the Archon the Bishop or High Priest the Marshal and the six Chief Justices Of these the Provost was the chief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom they did denominate the ensuing year and by whose name they dated all their private Contracts and Acts of State Id ibid. Sect. 2. To him it appertained to have a care of celebrating the Orgies of Bacchus and the great Festival which they termed Thargelia consecrated to Apollo and Diana as also to take cognizance of misdemeanors and in particular to punish those who were common Drunkards and to determine in all cases which concerned matter of inheritance and furthermore to nominate Arbitrators for the ending of Suits and private differences to appoint Guardians unto Orphans and Overseers unto Women left with child by their Husbands The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom we call the Bishop or High Priest had the charge of all the sacred mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. Sect. 3. and the administration of the usual and accustomed Sacrifices together with the cognizance of sacriledg prophaneness and all other actions which concerned Religion as also power to interdict litigious persons or Common Barretters as we call them from being present at the celebration of the holy Mysteries And he retained the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that anciently their Kings as in all places else had the chief hand in matters which related to the publick service of the Gods and the solemn Sacrifices On the which reason and no other the Romans had their Regem Sacrificulum whom Plutarch calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in imitation of the Latine but Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Problemat Dionys Halicarnas hist l. 5. Livie hist Roman lib. 2. in the true Greek phrase of which Livie thus Rerum deinde divinarum habita cura quia quaedam publica sacra per ipsos Reges factitata erant necubi Regum desiderium esset Regem Sacrificulum creant But to proceed the Polemarchus whom we English by the name of Marshal sat Judg in cases of sedition and such whereby the grandeur of the State might suffer detriment as also in all actions which concerned either Denizens or Merchant-strangers and unto him it appertained to sacrifice to Diana and to Mars the two military Deities Jul. Pollux in Onomast l. 8. c. 93. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to prescribe the funeral pomp for such as lost their lives in their Countreys service Each of these had their two Assessors Id. ibid. Sect. of their own Election but so that they were bound to chuse them out of the Senate of five hundred from no lower rank Finally for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who we call Chief Justices they were six in number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in Lex and had authority to give Judgment absolutely in all Civil pleas to judg of strangers which abused the priviledges which they had in the City of Bribery Conspiracies false inscriptions in cases of Adultery and publick crimes in points of Trade Jul. Pollux in Onomast ll 4. c. 9. sect 1. and actions which concerned the Stannaries as also to review the sentence of the Provost and the decrees of the Senate if occasion were and to give notice to the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Julius Pollux if any man preferred a Law which was not profitable and expedient for the Common-wealth Such were the Officers and such the duty of those Officers ordained at Athens upon the last alteration of the Government which before we spake of and amongst these we find not any popular Magistrate who was to have a care of the common people and to preserve them in their rights and liberties from the oppression of the greater and more powerful Citizens much less set up of purpose to oppose the Senate And to say truth we must not look for any such amongst the Nine nor in these times in which this alteration of the Government was first established They could not fall immediately from a Regal State to a Democratical but they must take the Aristocratie in the way unto it They had been under Kings at first or such as had the power of Kings although not the name And when they chose these Annual Officers they chose them ex nobilibus urbis out of the Nobles only Euseb Chron. Scaliger in Aâ—imadveâ—s as Eusebius hath it which Scaliger is forced to grant to be so at first though out of a desire to confute his Author he would very fain have had it otherwise Whether or no they had such Officers as Calvin dreams of when they had setled their Democratie we shall see anon having first shewn by whom and by what degrees the Government of the State was cast on the peoples shoulders and the form thereof made meerly popular or Democratical For certainly it is most true that never
at Toledo by Ferdinand the Catholick 1479. for swearing to the succession of his Son Don John in which the Prelates the Nobility and almost all the Towns and Cities which sent Commissioners to the Assembly are expresly named Id. lib. Thus finally do we find a meeting of the Deputies of the three Estates of Navarre at the Town of Tasalla Anno 1481. for preserving the Kingdom in obedience to King Francis Phoebus being then a Minor under Age and that the Deputies of the Clergy Id. lib. 22. Nobility Provinces and good Towns and Portugal assembled at Tomara Anno 1581. to acknowledg Philip the second for their King and to settle the Government of that Kingdom for the times to come Id. lib. 30. Now let us take a view of the Northern Kingdoms and still we find the people ranked in the self-same manner and their great Councils to consist of the Clergy the Nobility and certain Deputies sent from the Provinces and Cities as in those before In Hungary before that Realm received the Gospel we read of none but Nobiles Plebeii Bonfinius in hist Hungar. Dec. l. 1. Id. ibid. Dec. 2. l. 2. Id. Decad. 2. l. 3. the Nobility and common people who did concur to the Election of their Kings but no sooner was the Faith of Christ admitted and a Clergy instituted but instantly we find a third Estate Episcopos Sacerdotum Collegia Bishops and others of the Clergy superadded to them for the Election of the Kings and the dispatch of other businesses which concerned the publick as it continueth to this day In Danemark we shall find the same if we mark it well For though Poutanus seem to count upon five Estates making the Regal Family to be the first and subdividing the Commons into two whereof the Yeomanry makes one and the Tradesman or Citizen the other Pontan in Doriae descript Id. in histor Rerum Danic l. 7. yet in the body of the History we find only three which are the Bishops the Nobility and Civitatum delegati the Deputies or Commissioners of Towns and Cities Take which of these Accounts you will and reckon either upon Five or on three Estates yet still the Ecclesiastick State or Ordo Ecclesiasticus as himself entituleth it is declared for one and hath been so declared as their stories tell us ever since the first admittance of the Faith amongst them the Bishops together with the Peers and Deputies making up the Comitia or Conventus Ordinum In Poland the chief sway and power of Government next to the King is in the Council of Estate Secundum Regem maxima Augustissima Senatus autoritas Thuan. hist sui temp l. 56. as Thuanus hath it And that consisteth of nine Bishops whereof the Archbishops of Guisna and Leopolis make always two of fifteen Palatines for by that name they call the greater sort of the Nobility and of sixty five Chastellans which are the better sort of the Polish Gentry who with the nine great Officers of the Kingdom or which the Clergy are as capable as any other sort or degree of Subjects do compleat that Council The Common people there are in no Authority à procuratione Reipub. omnino summota not having any Vote or suffrage in the great Comitia Thuan. hist sui temp l. 56. or general Assemblies of the Kingdom as in other places For Sweden it comes near the Government and Forms of Danemark and hath the same Estates and degrees of people as amongst the Danes that is to say Proceres Nobiles the greater and the less Nobility Episcopi Ecclesiastici the Bishops and inferiour Clergy Civitates universitates the Cities and Towns corporate for so I think he means by universitates as Thuanus mustereth them Id. lib. 131. And in this Realm the Bishops and Clergy enjoy the place and priviledges of the third Estate notwithstanding the alteration of Religion to this very day the Bishops in their own persons and a certain number of the Clergy out of every Sochen a division like our Rural Deanries in the name of the rest have a necessary Vote in all their Parliaments And as for Scotland their Parliament consisted anciently of three Estates as learned Cambden doth inform us that is to say the Lords spiritual as Bishops Abbots Priors the temporal Lords as Dukes Marquesses Earls Vicounts Barons Cambden in descript Scotiae and the Commissioners of the Cities and Burroughs To which were added by King James two Delegates or Commissioners out of every County to make it more conform to the English Parliaments And in some Acts the Prelates are by name declared to be the third Estate as in the Parliament Anno 1597. Anno 1606 c. for which I do refer you to the Book at large And now at last we are come to England where we shall find that from the first reception of the Christian Faith amongst the Saxons the Ecclesiasticks have been called to all publick Councils and their advice required in the weightiest matters touching the safety of the Kingdom No sooner had King Ethelbert received the Gospel but presently we read that as well the Clergy as the Laity were called unto the Common Council which the Saxons sometimes called Mysel Synoth the Great Assembly and sometimes Wittenagemots the Council or Assembly of the Wise men of the Realm Anno 605. Coke on Lit. l. 1.2 sect H. Spelman in Concil p. 126. Ethelbertus Rex in fide roboratus Catholica c. Cantuariae convocavit eommune concilium tam Cleri quam populi c King Ethelbert as my Author hath it being confirmed in the Faith in the year 605. which was but nine years after his conversion together with Bertha his Queen their son Eadbald the most Reverend Archbishop Augustine and all the rest of the Nobility did solemnize the Feast of Christs Nativity in the City of Canterbury and did there cause to be assembled on the ninth of January the Common-council of his Kingdom as well the Clergy as the Lay Subject by whose consent and approbation he caused the Monastery by him built to be dedicated to the honour of Almighty God by the hand of Augustine And though no question other Examples of this kind may be found amongst the Saxon Heptarchs yet being the West Saxon Kingdom did in fine prevail and united all the rest into one Monarchy we shall apply our selves unto that more punctually Where we shall find besides two Charters issued out by Athelston Consilio Wlfelmi Archiepiscopi mei aliorum Episcoporum meorum Ap. eund p. 402 403. by the advice of Wlfelm his Archbishop and his other Bishops that Ina in the year 702. caused the Great Council of his Realm to be assembled consisting ex Episcopis Principibus proceribus c. of Bishops Princes Nobles Earls and of all the Wise men Elders and people of the whole Kingdom and there enacted divers Laws for the weal of his
Realm Apud eund p. 219. Thus do we read that Egbert who first united the seven Kingdoms of the Saxons under the name of England did cause to be convened at London his Bishops and the Peers of the highest rank pro consilio capiendo adversus Danicos Piratas Charta Whitlafii Merciorum Regis ap Ingulf to advise upon some course against the Danish Pirates who infested the Sea coasts of England Another Parliament or Council call it which you will called at Kingsbury Anno 855. in the time of Ethelwolph the Son of Egbert pro negotiis regni to treat of the affairs of the Kingdom Chart. Bertulfi Merc. Regis ap Ingulf Ingulfi Croyland hist the Acts whereof are ratified and subscribed by the Bishops Abbots and other great men of the Realm The same King Ethelwolph in a Parliament or Assembly of his States at Winchester Anno 855. Cum consilio Episcoporum principum by the advice and counsel of the Bishops and Nobility confirmed unto the Clergy the tenth part of all mens goods and ordered that the Tithe so confirmed unto them should be free ab omnibus secularibus servitutibus from all secular services and impositions In the Reign of Edred we find this Anno 948. In Festo igitur nativitatis B. Mariae cum universi Magnates regni per Regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi Episcopi ac Abbates quam caeteri totius Regni proceres optimates Londoniis convenissent ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni Id ibid. p. 49. edit Lond. viz. That in the Feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin the great men of the Realm that is to say Archbishops Bishops Abbots Nobles Peers were summoned by the Kings Writ to appear at London to handle and conclude about the publick affairs of the Kingdom Mention of this Assembly is made again at the foundation and endowment of the Abbie of Crowland Id. p. 500. and afterwards a confirmation of the same by Edgar Anno 966. praesentibus Archiepiscopis Espiscopi Abbatibus Optimatibus Regni in the presence of the Archbishops Bishops Id. pag. 501. 502. Abbots and Peers of the Kingdom Like convention of Estates we find to have been called by Canutus after the death of Edmund Ironside for the setling of the Crown on his own head of which thus the Author Rog. Hoveden Annal. pars prior p. 250. Cujus post mortem Rex Canutus omnes Episcopos Duces necnon principes cunctosque optimates gentis Angliae Londoniae congregari jussit Where still we find the Bishops to be called to Parliament as well as the Dukes Princes and the rest of the Nobility and to be ranked and marshalled first which clearly shews that they were always reckoned for the first Estate before the greatest and most eminent of the secular Peers And so we find it also in a Charter of King Edward the Confessor the last King of the Saxon race by which he granted certain Lands and priviledges to the Church of Westminster Anno 1066. Cum consilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque Optimatum Ap. H. Spelman in Concil p. 630. with the Council and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earls and others of his Nobles And all this while the Bishops and other Prelates of the Church did hold their Lands by no other Tenure than in pura perpetua eleemosyna or Frank almoigne Cambden in Brit. as our Lawyers call it and therefore sat in Parliament in no other capacity than as spiritual persons meerly who by their extraordinary knowledg in the Word of God and in such other parts of Learning as the World then knew were thought best able to direct and advise their Princes in points of judgment In which capacity and no other the Priors of the Cathedral Churches of Canterbury Ely Winchester Coventry Bath Worcester Norwich and Durham the Deans of Exeter York Wells Salisbury and Lincoln the Official of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of the Arches the Guardian of the Spiritualties of any Bishoprick when the See was vacant Selden Titles of hon part 2. c. 5. and the Vicars general of such Bishops as were absent beyond the Seas had sometimes place and suffrage in the house of Lords in the Ages following But when the Norman Conqueror had possest the State then the case was altered the Prelates of the Church were no longer suffered to hold their Lands in Frankalmoigne as before they did or to be free from secular services and commands as before they were Although they kept their Lands yet they changed their Tenure and by the Conqueror Mat. Paris in Will 1. Auno 1.70 were ordained to hold their Lands sub militari servitute either in Capite or by Baronage or some such military hold and thereby were compâ—â—lable to aid the Kings in all times of War with Men Arms and Horses as the Lay subjects of the same Tenures were required to do Which though it were conceived to be a great Disfranchisement at the first and an heavy burden to the Prelacy yet it conduced at last to their greater honour in giving them a further Title to their place in Parliament than that which formerly they could pretend to Before they claimed a place therein ratione Officii only by reason of their Offices or spiritual Dignities but after this by reason also of those ancient Baronies which were annexed unto their Dignities Stamfords Pleas l. 3. c. 1. en respect de lour possessions l'antient Baronies annexes a lour dignities as our Lawyers have it From this time forwards we must look upon them in the House of Parliament not as Bishops only but as Peers and Barons of the Realm also and so themselves affirmed to the Temporal Lords in the Parliament holden at Northamptâ—n under Henry 2. Non sedimus hic Episcopi sed Barones nos Barones vos Barones Ap. Selden Titles of hon p. 2. c. 5. Pares hic sumus We fit not here say they as Bishops only but as Barons We are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Which last is also verified in terminis by the words of a Statute or Act of Parliament wherein the Bishops are acknowledged to be Peers of the Land Stat. 25 Edw. 3. c. 5. Now that the Bishops are a fundamental and essential part of the Parliament of England I shall endeavour to make good by two manner of proofs whereof the one shall be de jure and the other de facto And first we shall begin with the proofs de jure and therein first with that which doth occur in the Laws of King Athelstan amongst the which there is a Chapter it is Cap. 11. entituled De officio Episcopi quid pertinet ad officium ejus and therein it is thus declared Spelm. concil p. 402. Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei scilicet seculi
did absent themselves of their own accord so many things have been transacted in the Parliament excluso Clero when the Clergy have been excluded or put out of the House by some Act or Ordinance A precedent for this hath been found and published by such as envied that poor remnant of the Churches honour though possibly they will find themselves deceived in their greatest hope and that the evidence will not serve to evince the cause The Author of the Pamphlet entituled The Prerogative and practice of Parliaments first laying down his Tenet that many good Acts of Parliament may be made though the Arch-bishops and Bishops should not consent unto them which is a point no man doubts of Printed at London 16.8 p. 37. consideriong how easily their Negative may be over-ruled by the far greater number in the House of Peers adds that at a Parliament holden at St. Edmundsbury 1196. in th reign of Edw. 1. a Statute was made by the King the Barons and the Commons Excluso Clero and for the proof hereof refers us unto Bishop Jewel Now Bishop Jewel saith indeed that in a Parliament solemnly holden at St. Edmundsbury by King Edward 1. An 1296. the Arch-bishops and Bishops were quite shut forth and yet the Parliament held on and good and wholesome Laws were there enacted the departing or absence of the Lords Spiritual notwithstanding In the Records whereof it is written thus Defence of the Apolog. pt 5. c. 2. §. 1. Habito Rex cum Baronibus suis Parliamento Clergo excluso statutum est c. the King keeping the Parliament with his Barons the Clergy that is to say the Arch-bishops and Bishops being shut forth it was enacted c. Wherein who doth not see if he hath any eyes that by this reason if the proof be good many good Acts of Parliament may be made though the Commons either out of absence or opposition should not consent unto them of whose consent unto that Statute whatsoever it was there is as little to be found in that Record as the concurrence of the Bishops But for Answer unto so much of this Record so often spoken of and applauded as concerns the Bishops we say that this if truly senced as I think it be not was the particular Act of an angry and offended King against his Clergy not to be drawn into Example as a proof or Argument against a most clear known and undoubted right The case stood thus A Constitution had been made by Boniface the 8th Ne aliqua collecta ex Ecclesiasticis proventibus Regi aut cuivis alii Principi concedatur Matth. Westm in Edw. 1. that Clergy-men should not pay any Tax or Tallage unto Kings or Princes our of their Spiritual preferments without the leave of the Pope under pretence whereof the Clergy at this Parliament at St. Edmundsbury refused to be contributory to the Kings occasions when the Lay-Members of the House had been forwards in it The King being herewith much offended gives them a further day to consider of it adjourning the Parliament to London there to begin on the morrow after St. Hilaries day and in the mean time commanded all their Barns to be fast sealed up The day being come and the Clergy still persisting in their former obstinacy excluso è Parlamento Clero Concilium Rex cum solis Baronibus c populo habuit totumq Antiq. Brit. in R. Winchelsey statim Clerum protectione sua privavit the King saith the Historian excluding the Clergy out of the Parliament advised with his Barons and his people only what was best to be done by whose advice he put the Clergy out of his protection and thereby forced them to conform to his will and pleasure This is the summa totalis of the business and comes unto no more but this that a particular course was advised in Parliament on a particular displeasure taken by the King against the body of his Clergy then convened together for their particular refusal to contribute to his wants and Wars the better to reduce them to their natural duty Which makes not any thing at all against the right of Bishops in the House of Peers or for excluding them that House or for the validity of such Acts as are made in Parliament during the time of such exclusion especially considering that the King shortly after called his States together Wlsingh in Edw. 1. Anno 1297. and did excuse himself for many extravagant Acts whch he had committed against the liberties of the Subject whereof this was one laying the blame thereof on his great occasions and the necessities which the Wars which he had abroad did impose upon him And so much as in answer unto that Record supposing that the words thereof be rightly senced as I think they are not and that by Clerus there we are to understand Arch-bishops and Bishops as I think we be not there being no Record I dare boldly say it either of History of Law in which the word Clerus serve to signifie the Arch-bishops and Bishops exclusive of the other Clergy or any writing whatsoever wherein it doth not either signifie the whole Clergy generally or ther inferiour Clergy only exclusive of the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Prelates Therefore in answer unto that so much applauded Cavil of Excluso Clero from what Record soever it either hath been hitherto or shall hereafter be produced I shall propose it to the consideration of the sober Reader whether by Clerus in that place or in any other of that kind and time we must not understand the inferiour Clergy as they stand distinguished in the Laws from my Lords the Bishops For howsoever it be true that Clerus in the Ecclesiastical notion of the word doth signifie the whole Clergy generally Arch-bishops Bishops Priests and Deacons yet in the legal notion of it it stands distinguished from the Prelates and signifieth only the inferiour Clergy Thus do we find the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm divided into Prelates men of Religion and other Clerks 3. Edw. 1. c. 1. the Seculars either into Prelates and Clerks 9 Edw. 2. c. 3. 1 Rich. 2. c. 3. or Prelates and Clerks Beneficed 18 Edw. 3. c. 2. or generally into the Prelates and the Clergy 9 Edw. 2. c. 15. 14 Edw. 3. c. 1. 3. 18 Edw. 3. 2.7 25 Edw. 3.2.4 8 Hen. 6. c. 1. and in all acts and grants of Subsidies made by the Clergy to the Kings or Queens of England since the 32 of Henry 8. when the Clergy Subsidies first began to be confirmed by Act of Parliament So also in the Latin ideom Regist Warham Regist Cranmer Statut. ◠Eliz c. 17. ever since Stat. 1. Phil. Mar. c. 8. which comes nearest home Nos Praelati Clerus in the submission of the Clergy to King Henry VIII and in the sentence of divorce against Anne of Cleve and in the instrument of the grant of the grant of the
together Ex hisce simul sanè ex primo secundo libro hoc satis puto constabit per Annos amplius M. M. M. M. tam sacrorum regimen qua forense esset atque à functione facrâ ritè distinctum quam profanorum five res spectes five personas juxta jus etiam divinum ex Ecclesiae Judaicae populorumque Dei anteriorum disciplinâ perpetuâ ad eosdem attinuisse judices seu Magistratus ejusdem Religionis atque ad synedria eadem neutiquam omnino ex juris istius instituto aliquo sacrorum prosanorum instar Ecclesiarum seu Spiritualium laicorum seu teorporalium Nominibus nullatenus discriminata Seld. de syn praefat libr. secundi And so it did till Pope Nicolas made the one independent upon the other So that their disunion is a Popish Innovation for till his time the Judges of Church and State ever sate together affairs Sacred and Religious were scan'd and determined in the morning and those that were Secular and Civil in the afternoon There was not till that time any clashing between Moses and Aaron no prohibitions out of one Court to stop or evacuate the proceedings of another and then it was that Justice run down like a stream and Righteousness like a mighty River If it be said that there are many corruptions among Church-men and especially in Ecclesiastical Courts The answer is That Callings must be distinguish'd from persons or else those two noble professions of Law and Physick will fall under the same condemnation with Divinity No man of any sobriety will condemn either of those professions because there are some Empericks in the World who kill mens Bodies and some Petifoggers that intangle and ruine their Estates And I hope Divines may have some grains of allowance granted them as well as the Inns of Court and Chancery and the College of Physicians if they cannot let that Calling which is most innocent cast the first stone It cannot be hoped that there will in this Age be a Revival of the primitive usage of these two Jurisdictions But yet this ought to be seriously regarded by all who have any belief of a Deity and regard for their native Country I mean that either our English Monarchs might be totally excused from their Coronation-Oath or not be put upon a necessity of violating thereof Their Oath in favour of the Clergy is that they will grant and keep the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward their Predecessor according to the Laws of God Rushw Hist Collect. part 1◠pag. 204. the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the Ancient customs of the Realm But how this Oath is observed when the Bishops are infringed in their ancient and indisputable priviledges let it be considered by all persons of sober mind and principles And let it be declared what order of men in the whole Nation the King can rely upon with so much safety and confidence as upon the Bishops and that not only upon the account of their Learning Wisdom Sanctity and Integrity qualifications not every day to be met withal in State-Politicians but upon the score of Gratitude and Interest For 't is from their Prince that they derive their Honours Dignities Titles Revenues Priviledges Power Jurisdictions with all other secular advantages and upon this account there is greater probability that they will be faithful to his Concerns and Interests than those who receive nothing from him but the common advantages of Government But this argument is known too well by our Anti-Episcopal Democraticks And perhaps 't is the chief if not the only reason of their enmity against an Order of men of so sacred and venerable an Institution As for this little Treatise the Author of it is too well known unto this Nation to invite any Scholar to peruse it It was written when the Bishops were Voted by the House of Lords not to be of the Committee in the Examination of the Earl of Strafford For then it was that Dr. Heylyn considered the case and put these few Sheets as a MSS. into the hands of several of the Bishops that they might be the better enabled to assert and vindicate their own Rights It was only intended for private use and therefore the Reader is not to expect so punctual an accuracy as he may find in other Treatises of this Learned Author It has been perused by some persons of good Eminency for judgment and station in the Church of England and by them approved and commended All that is wished by the Publisher is that it may produce the effects which he proposes to himself in exposing it to publick view and that those Lords who are now Prisoners in the Tower and from whose tryal some have laboured to exclude the Bishops were able to give unto the World as convincing Evidence of their Innocency as that great and generous States man did who fell a Sacrifice to a prevailing Faction and whose Innocent Blood was so far from being a lustration to the Court as some thought it would have proved as it drew after it such a deluge of Gore as for many preceding years had never been spilt in this Kingdom But 't is not my design or desire to revive any of the Injustice or Inhumanities of the last Age. Suffice it to say that it was for this Apostolical Government of Bishops that King Charles the First lost his Kingdoms his Crown his Life And the exclusion of Bishops from Voting in causes of blood was the prologue to all those Tragical mischiefs that happened to that Religion and Renowned Prince And those who have the least veneration for his present Majesty cannot certainly conceive him a King of such slender and weak abilities as to permit Himself and Family to be ruined by those very methods with which his Father was before him De jure Paritatis Episcoporum OR The Right of Peerage vindicated to the BISHOPS OF ENGLAND SINCE the restoring of the Bishops to their place and Vote in the House of Peers I find a difference to be raised between a Peer of the Realm and a Lord of the Parliament and then this Inference or Insinuation to be built upon it that though the Bishops are admitted to be Lords of Parliament yet they are not to be reckoned amongst the Peers of the Realm the contrary whereof I shall endeavour to make good in this following Essay and that not only from the Testimony of approved Writers but from unquestioned Records Book-Cases Acts of Parliament and such further Arguments as may be able to evince the point which we have in hand But first perhaps it may be said that there is no such difference in truth and verity betwixt a Lord of Parliament and a Peer of the Realm but that we may conclude the the Bishops to be Peers of the Realm if they be once admitted to
Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves Page 518 2. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge ibid. 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus parallell'd by that of Bishop Overal Page 519 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors Page 520 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer Page 521 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it Page 522 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1610. ibid. 8. The Doctrine of the Synodists in the said Points Page 523 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God ibid. 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin Page 524 CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the story of them until their final Condemnation in the Synod of Dort 1. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter than Calvinism in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius Page 525 2. The first undertakings of Arminius his preferment to the Divinity-Chair at Leiden his Commendations and death Page 526 3. The occasion of the Name Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to five Points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference ibid. 4 The said five Points according to their several Heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod at Dort Page 527 5. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtained a collection of their Doctrine Barnevelt seised and put to death by the Prince of Orange Page 528 6. The Calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Council at Trent both in the conduct of the business against their Adversaries and the differences amongst themselves Page 529 7. The breaking out of the differences in the Synod in open Quarrels between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions ibid. 8. A Copy of the Letter from Dr. Belconqual to S. Dudly Carleton his Majesties Resident at the Hague working the violent prosecutions of those Quarrels by the Dutch Divines Page 530 9. A further prosecution of the parallel between the Council and the Synod in reference to the Articles used in the draught upon the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtful meaning of them both Page 531 10. The quarrelling Parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying them any place in the Synod and finally dismist them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing Page 532 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and unmerciful in the banishment or extermnation of the poor Remonstrants ibid. 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their persuasions in other places Ejected Persecuted and Disgraced Page 533 CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the opposite Party 1. An Introduction to the said Objections Page 534 2. The first Objection touching their being enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of S. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther ibid. 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard expressions which were used of them by King James Page 535 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Popery begun in Holland and pressed more importunately in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it ibid. 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who object the same Page 536 6. The fourth Charge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious People begun in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridley ibid. 7. What moved King James to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them Page 537 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesome nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party ibid. 9. Nothing in the Arminian Doctrine which may incline a man to sediti us courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin Page 538 10. The Recrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop ibid. 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant Page 539 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England ibid. CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the points disputed with the Removal of some rubs which are laid in the way 1. The Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the Endowments of man at his first Creation Page 541 2. His miserable fall Page 542 3. And the promised hopes of his Restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus ibid. 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy ibid. 5. The contrary judgment of Wicklif objected answered and applied to all modern Heresies Page 543 6. A general answer to the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the Writings of Frith Tyndal and Barns But more particularly Page 444 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present point and the grounds on which he builded the same ibid. 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndal in favour of the Calvinian Doctrines Page 545 9. The falsifyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndal Page 546 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to fight in the eighth of Saint Mark. ibid. CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. The danger of ascribing